Little Toyota Trail truck

[tozrovr]

My son Liam, who will be 9 in September has been showing a TON of interest in building a kit. He said he didn't care what kit, he just wants to build

We warmed up by tearing down a Vintage Tamiya Grasshopper, just so he could get the feel of working with small parts and tools together. He's a Lego fanatic so the parts alone weren't a problem. The body work will be all me, but the wrenches will be mostly Liam.

This leads me to the general outline of our build.

We've been busting our butts down at the shop on the new Seacoast Scale Expedition Society scaler course. Since I'm in charge of the whole thing I get to steer it towards true scale stuff but it's been interesting trying to make it appeal to all walks of crawlers. We've done well so far I think. I've incorporated a few sections of trail that I'd run throughout New England into the course. One is the first obstacle on Old Florida Road, on the Mohawk Trail in Charlmont MA. It's called the Skewer and has humbled many a cocky rock jock It's been doing the same for me on a 1:10 scale

Anyhow, there are some obstacles on the course that have serious lines as well and this Toyota needs to be able to tackle them...in a scale fashion ;)

The other night at work I took some time to pull the motor, tranny, t-case and axles apart and fill them with White lithium grease. Huge tip of the hat to Chris@Generis for changing my method here. I always used Park Tools Synthetic bearing grease (it's what we used at the bike shop for bottom bracket and wheel bearings etc) It's always been great, but I like how white lithium resists going plastic in the cold weather.

While doing that I mounted up some TSL SX's on Axial 8 hole wheels with some MTHead rings. Hopefully my McMaster Carr order arrives soon with the button head hardware for the rings and the dummy holes. I'm really stoked to be running these tires again. It's been a long while and I love the performance and the scale look. The other key mod is the Chino63 Military wrap Leaf packs. I'd run these on my first TF2 and Loved them. Unfortunately they've been out of stock since last Oct and no one seams to know when he'll be building more . I lucked out and paypaled a fella here on RCC to pull them off of a roller he was selling.

Since the truck will be wheeling hard it won't have my standard retro paint/stripe thing going. Thinking of this as more of a purpose built wheeler that would be street legal, but likely be trailered to the runs.






I finally broke out the airbrush. I've had it a few months but just haven't had the vas deferens to lay down some paint. Figured I'd start with the primer. Tamiya Flat Base. What a great tool! I monkeyed around with Paint/Thinner ratios and found what worked and shot the lil truck.


Then I Martin Shorted my bed.




More to come as we wrench away!

[kakachille]

what do u use to keep the bed together after u cut it thanks

[tozrovr]

I use Oatey Pvc/ABS plumbing cement.

[Bulldog]

Originally Posted by tozrovr

I use Oatey Pvc/ABS plumbing cement.

Best trick out there! Test it...try it. Thin coats. It sands nicely.

[tozrovr]

Few pics from the shakedown run from when we were on vacation last week!

[tozrovr]

We're back from Vacation and got the Chino Leaf packs mounted up. Stole down to the crawling course and gave a few lines a shot. Did Very well. Most of my TF2's ran the 1.55 Rock Stompers. A great looking tire but one that lacks the grip of the new stuff out there. Tbe TSL SX's really make this truck a beast!

[bird8oy85]

Father son bonding time? or an excuse to build another rig? HAHA! Yota looks freakin great! Really diggin that dismount from the suspension bridge!

[4RunnerKid]

that is exactly the kind of Toyota you would see out on the trail... nice work man

[tozrovr]

Had a great day Saturday with the Lil' Truck!