BadWagon | C2 Hilux Truggy

[SoCalCrawler21]

such an awesome build! huge props for your patience and skills, looking forward to seeing pics on the rocks.

[BadWagon]

Originally Posted by SoCalCrawler21

such an awesome build! huge props for your patience and skills, looking forward to seeing pics on the rocks.

Thanks man! It's nothing but time. Lol.

I'm getting close. Kinda. Mostly.

Originally Posted by mr.rick

I think they are perfect for this build personally. I always see truggies out in the 1:1 world that get hammered out but have $5k worth of wheels and tires on them. Beadlocks in the 1:1 world are usually pretty shnazzy and always look better than the truck they are on. $1500 beadlocks on a hammered out old Toyota look perfect in the 1:1 world.



On a side note, you could always hit the beadlock ring with a little wire wheel love and take them down to a silver finish... the silver on black wheels would look pretty choice considering that beadlock isn't going to stay black after a couple runs

Yep I agree. I do have plans for the wheels. So this one might just have two sets.

Update time:

Sooo... I figured out the rust...







It's still drying... and yeah I touched a spot a little too soon. But it doesn't matter, as that's the underpainting anyway.









The Krait wheels fit really well. These are the only other decent 1.9 tire I have and they're kinda short. Still look killer.



Cheers!

[BadWagon]

Soooo.... a few days ago, stuff happened.







Then wet sanding and more stuff (primer)



More coming... I promise.

[BadWagon]

So... I was here last night.



Detail shot:



So today, i washed the salt off, sanded and detailed the body a bit to get it ready for masking and the final color layer.

You didn't think it was gonna stay white did ya?











I could almost run it like this... almost





Washed it off and went to vote while it dried.



Woot!

Now it's time to mask this bad boy off.









So I'm going for a somewhat 80s style, race-inspired look. I want it to look like a nice paint job that's seen better days. The goal is for the paint to look weathered, and weather well over its life. I think this is gonna accomplish that when it's all said and done.

The salt is drying, so we're gonna find out shortly.

[Bananaclip]

Killing it brother! Takes time to put together a killing it rig. I also run the og PL's on all my little yota's. Best size and performance for the body IMO.

[BadWagon]

Originally Posted by Bananaclip

Killing it brother! Takes time to put together a killing it rig. I also run the og PL's on all my little yota's. Best size and performance for the body IMO.

Thanks man! It definitely takes time, a lot of time. But it's so worth it. I keep flip flopping on tires/wheels. I want to test them both before I make a decision.

Sorry for the delay in updating the thread... so yeah I ruined the paint on the cab... like big time.

The next color layer was supposed to be a kinda powdery blue with a cool little metallic finish to it. I did do a test spray, looked fine. Not exactly what I had in mind but thought it would work.

What came out was an electric teal. No joke it was the most vibrant teal-blue I've seen outside of an NFL stadium. It literally looked almost exactly like the Carolina Panther's blue... when it goes wrong. I live in charlotte and see it all of the time. Don't know how else to explain it.

I tried to take pictures of it but couldn't capture the color.



This just looks like a crappy powder blue. I wish you guys could see how horrible it was. Just see that cab and think teal. Then try not to vomit.

Ok so I had a backup plan. . I had picked up a dark gray, silver metallic paint and figured this would easily cover the teal-blue.

No problem. The masks looked pretty good, Air brush is still out, beers are flowing, so go for it right? Ok

F A I L

I mean epic fail from almost the get go. The paint is almost see through like a pearl coat. It needs quite a bit of reducer to flow evenly so it's covering slowly. Not a problem. I have time, friends over and a fridge full of beer.

So I'm laying down light layers, but we are all seeing the same thing... it just looks horrible. I mean it looks like Barbie took Ken's jeep to get a custom paint job from the Willy Wonka. Horrible teal blue covered by a metallic silvery candy coat...


We are joking about how bad it is, and I notice a run. I mean a big run, right on the driver's side door. I call it. I'm done, forget this. This paint job is officially dead to me.

Oh well, we sit there discussing how horrible it looks, and decide that I should take it down, yank the masks off, put it together and post it up as if it's the best paint job ever. So we started goofing off and snapping pics....

Really? Yes. Mustache.



Still can't capture how bad it looked.





So I start brushing off the salt and pulling off the masks for the graphics. Man the graphics look pretty good. Very minor bleeds which could have been dealt with if I'd chosen the correct color.

At this point I'm feeling pretty good. I mean, everything would have been fine if I'd only chosen the right color. No biggie, yank off the rest of the masks and I hold it up.

Do you believe in miracles?

You should, because this is what we saw.



Excuse me what?



Oh my lawd... somehow, it's glorious.



And the details? Well I'll let them speak for themselves.







I am blown away. It's pretty much exactly what I wanted it to look like. I mean this is what I saw in my head, and out of a complete disaster, well yeah. I'm chuffed.



Jose? He's happy as well.



Hula Girl even came out to take a look.



So that's where I am. I'm trying to replicate the finish on the other trim pieces and then I'll start the final sanding and weathering to tie it all together.

Where there is a little bleed, I'll sand it a bit, and also soften some of the edges on the graphics. Besides that and a couple of details, it's pretty good. Then I should be able to wire the lights and spray the matte clear coat and call the cab done.

Halloween parties for the next couple of days, but I'll be working on this as much as possible.

Cheers!

[Constant Threat]

Great job. love the dent on the roof, and the paint job is looking way better than the panthers season. Keep it up!

[oldpunk]

Awesome build man! You've inspired me to try and mess up my own Hilux.

[chino63]

Very nice, I think it came out really good.

[joe122]

Just a bad ass build! Perfect weathering process.....awesome!.

[fr8cture]

Looks great man! Love the paint.

[BadWagon]

Originally Posted by Constant Threat

Great job. love the dent on the roof, and the paint job is looking way better than the panthers season. Keep it up!

Oh man you're not kidding. We (the panthers) suck this season. No fair weather fans allowed. I've been to most of the home games, etc... but it's a tough one after last year.

Originally Posted by oldpunk

Awesome build man! You've inspired me to try and mess up my own Hilux.

Go for it. It's a blast. I mean with paint you can always strip it off and start again if ya mess up. This has proven to be that Bob Ross was right, no accidents just happy little mistakes.

Originally Posted by chino63

Very nice, I think it came out really good.

Thanks Dean! So glad you dig it.

Originally Posted by joe122

Just a bad ass build! Perfect weathering process.....awesome!.

Thanks Joe, I'm so stoked on the paint. I can't believe it turned out so good.

Originally Posted by fr8cture

Looks great man! Love the paint.

Thanks fr8cture, it's been a long road but I'm closing in on the homestretch.

[allanon1965]

wish I had skills like this! that is an awesome paint job bud...

[BadWagon]

Originally Posted by allanon1965

wish I had skills like this! that is an awesome paint job bud...

Thanks so much! This is my first real crack at any custom building. I'm pretty happy with the results so far. I've learned a ton, and I'm gonna take a crack at brazing next.

Update time!

Ok, well I said I was pretty much done with the cab right? I'm not. Lol.

I took things apart, made other things, painted some stuff, dirtied up other parts, and sprayed clear matte over most of it.



Easy as:

1



2



3



Bam. Ok that's actually done, minus the lights. I'm gonna go a little wacky here. I ordered a ton of grain of wheat bulbs from china. 4 and 3mm white, 3mm yellow, and 3mm red... 100 of each.

Oops. ;)

Shield of wind with blades of wiping.



Then I chopped some stuff up.



It goes here



Covered by this



Even though it's cleared over by matte... it's a little sensitive... it really likes my finger.



Then this part with a hole for the magnet.



Hey that looks janky!

Agreed. Cover it.



Did the other side, and it all looks ok.



Do more stuff which I didn't take enough picture of.

Sorry





Ummmmmm.... ok so I did all of that because...

Safety 3rd!





I'll get better pics in a little bit. I didn't realize these were so bad. But it actually looks pretty darn good. I do need to finish the detail on the shoulder hanger part. I needed to make sure the magnet was gonna hold and it was gonna work ok.

Then I just played around while I waited to get the boys off of the bus.





Gotta rep the SBG





Booty shot



This little truggy is a blast to drive. I still need to tear it down and go through it a final time. There are a few items I need to address as well. Like when I glued the windshield in the driver's side A pillar area could be a lot better, just some little details.

But I'm gonna go through it this evening so it's ready for our trip this weekend. I do need to get the lightbar and interior lights wired up, and a few little things.

I will get better pics of the seatbelts and other details tonight.

Cheers!

[BadWagon]

-- Update --

Ok, so here's what I did, what happened and what I learned.

I got the lightbar wired up. Woot.



Nice and tidy.



I cut electrical tape about 1/4" wide so that I could wrap the cord and it would look more scale...



I got the interior lights wired up as well. These are 12v grain of wheat bulbs, so I tied these in straight off of the battery. That turned out to be a bad idea.



I swapped the BoomRacing Krait wheels and Swampers back on. I had to see them on the truck now that it's painted.



Me likey. I'm thinking this will be my trail setup and the others will be my cwarling setup since I can't decide between the two.



So I took it around the yard for a quick spin and realized the lightbar is bright, but useless without the headlights and some sort of bright lights down low. There is a huge shadow in front of the truck. I was afraid of that, and I was right.

I have an idea to solve that. I'll be placing an order for it shortly. Plus I do have bulbs on the way for the headlights, sidemarkers, etc.

Ok so back to the bench for some pics of the seatbelts.









It was right here where I noticed the phone was melting! Oh no...



Should've bought an iPhone...



Yep it's trashed. I felt the gauges and they were very warm. Too warm.

Which is strange, I wouldn't have thought that those bulbs would get that hot. They are rated for 12v. I have some testing to do when I get back home.

Hopefully I can run them off of the RX which is powered by the BEC at 6v. I'll test the bulbs on brightness, heat, lifespan, etc at 6 and 9v. I really need these bulbs to work at a lower voltage, because I just ordered 400 of them.

On the bright side, the truck is a blast to drive. The suspension is predictable, with enough flex, but not too much. It will need to be dialed in of course, but that will happen on the rocks.



We are headed to Florida for a short family vacation. The truggy is with me, more pics to follow.

[BadWagon]

-- Update --

So I took the truggy with me to Orlando for vacation. It was a family trip, with the inlaws and my sister inlaw's family. We spent the days at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. It was a blast.

Everyone was pretty tired and hit the sack by 10:00. But I'm a night owl so off to play with the truggy I would go.







Found a new thing that I like which I'm calling "scalerbombs"... which is trying to get scale photos in unlikely locations. As I was only able to play at night, my photos kinda suck, but it's a concept I think I'll mess with more.

Scalerbomb



Location



Scalerbomb


Location


This one looks like a Jose just rolled up to an Amazon temple


So those were from my first night there.

I went out back the next night and found some cool, random spots.

These are from the parking lot. Just up the curb and plants in front of the fences.






The truggy had no issues climbing up tall curbs, even with the smaller Swampers and stock foams. That really surprised me. There isn't even any weight in the front wheels.

I came across a pair of rock piles. One was small and just river rocks, the other was smallish rocks, not quite pebbles. So at first I'm just blasting up the loose rock pile, but it was difficult. When I decided to climb it and not just use speed to get up, I was surprised how well the truggy would do it. I mean almost every time just moderate throttle and up it would go.







So that's my summary of the trip with the truggy. Only casualties where the which hook and stopper, a window crank fell off and the cooler isn't staying in place after a few tumbles. All can be fixed. I already have a new, better hook and stuff on the way.

And yes, it took tumbles, down the rocks onto pavement. It's fine, a few more scratches, but no biggie. I jumped it off of curbs, up curbs, down steps, through sand, dirt, water puddles and even drove it in the rain.

It was glorious.

#noshelfqueens

[Reflektr]

The truggy turned out AMAZING! I love how every layer of paint kind of has a story to go along with it. Beer and paint never ends well for me though. Right after I added the coat of Blehhh Green to the Bug, I landed a massive thumb-print right on the front fender. It's like the universe's way of saying "Should've stuck with the copper, sicko!". I'm glad yours came together! Lots of work man!

[BadWagon]

Originally Posted by Reflektr

The truggy turned out AMAZING! I love how every layer of paint kind of has a story to go along with it. Beer and paint never ends well for me though. Right after I added the coat of Blehhh Green to the Bug, I landed a massive thumb-print right on the front fender. It's like the universe's way of saying "Should've stuck with the copper, sicko!". I'm glad yours came together! Lots of work man!

Thanks for the props! Beer and paint either turns out great or a total disaster. I got lucky this time and it all worked out. The green looks good on the bug, though that copper was tough. Can't wait to see that rig on the rocks.

-- update --

So, um I've been working on something for much longer than I'd care to admit.

The rear cage trim and accessory mounts. I might have over thought it, but at least it's done. Here's the line:

Remember this?


This is what it is...



Yeah that's the base for the rabbit hole I've been down. It's the frame and mounts for the team3six power tank, proline fuel cell, Rogue Element hi lift jack, sand ramps and other goodies.





So this was the easy part.

I wanted it to have some style a lot of function, and cool details.

So next was to refine the design...

I did things...





A hole for the jack...



It's tight, but not too tight... like baby bear's portage... just right.

Next is the sand ramps.

Magneto...



Stack 'em



And then make something strange...



So, that's styrene, a earth magnet glued on to it, wrapped in a ballon...

Yeah...

It does this:



And mounts to the fuel cell:





Sweet. Easy breezy.

Next add flavor...



Hang the fuel regulators/pumps and rough mock the fill tube.



And the power tank as well



Refine the shape and add a mount for the full tube



Pics of stuff





BoomRacing KRAIT wheels back on with the REC hubs. Tasty.





Paint next....

[BadWagon]

So now it's time to paint it. Should be easy...

Modern Masters Rust again, then add salt and Tamiya chrome paint.



Add some more salt and some matte black paint.



Assemble





Install...









Yeah. Super duper right??

Oh yeah, dude that is so sweet... pass me the eye bleach...

I hate it.

Sucks.

Super sucks.

I decide to eat turkey and drive the Turk with my boys.

Oh and I'll let the truggy live. I have a plan...

Disassemble. Wash. Salt, and paint.



Let's fix this at the same time.



More turkey, lots of left overs... Mmmmmmmmmmm...

Knock off the salt...



Better...



Re-salt...



Smurf tribute...



Remove salt and tape...




Great, how's your masking?



Full of win...

How's your crusty?



Probably over the top, but too late to turn back.

Start on the filter and hard lines.

Step back.

Let's see it.





Decent, but needs to be tightened up...

We'll start with the return line.



Yes sir. Sexy.



Rawr...



Bring it all together, time to land the plane.









Lines down and under the back of the cab.





Fittings at the tank.



Filler detail...



Ok so all of that hard work and killer detail amounts to this when all said and done...





Yep, nothing. Ya can't see it.

OMG, it's so poetic. I've spent so much time on this, the mounting of the ramps, jack and fuel cell with the filter and hard lines...

invisible. Can't see any of it.

Ok, that's all for tonight.

Soon I'll tell you the story of the lights. You'll laugh, I'll laugh (and die a little on the inside) but in the end, we all learn a lesson.

Cheers!

[BadWagon]

-- UPDATE --

Ok so I had ordered a pallet of 12v grain of wheat bulbs from China and I'm a moron. I should've ordered 6v. After the flaming phone incident (which was after I'd already ordered the large quantity bulbs) I knew I had to turn down the voltage.

Which was fine for the orange signal bulbs, but not for the white bulbs. They just burn in this weak orange color... sigh...

So I pulled the headlights out, but as I don't have any 3mm white LEDs at the moment, I left the ones in the corner lights as the weak grain of wheat bulbs for now.

Here's a close up of the headlights with LEDs and the rest grain of wheat. (More pics from this shoot in a bit)



You can see how weak the white bulbs is in that corner lens. These would look great if you wanted to have a jankey bulb hanging out of a beater truck, but for this truggy, they'll be replaced later.

Having driven the truck a bit, I knew I needed to install the SSD dif cover as the stock one was hanging up on stuff. So I ordered one with from RPP on Black Friday.

The truck was very noisy when I drove it the other day, and I found out why.... check out the inside of the front differential.



Just a wee bit of sand in there. As best as I can tell sand entered via the hold for the panhard mount in the axle casing. So to anyone running the D60 axles, put a bolt in that hole!

Ok so a simple 5 minute diff cover swap turned into a process of breaking down both axles, cleaning them, checking gear mesh, re-shimming and assembly. Everything is ok, but the front gears have some wear from the sand.

Oh well, like i said in the beginning, this isn't a shelf queen.

The week after we got back from Florida my new winch hook and straps came in, but I don't think I'd posted up any pics. I went with the RC4WD Warn scale hook, and man it's a beauty. Definitely a hardcore look, but I think it fits the build.



I've been super slammed with work and family which is why I've been absent, but Wednesday I had a break in my work schedule and decided it was high time I took the truggy out and explored the walking trail behind the elementary school my boys attend.

I charged up my camera and grabbed the 25-108mm lens my oldest son had given me, hoping to find a few spots for pics. He said the lens would be prefect for scale shots and I think he was right.

Check out these macro shots:



It's great for getting interior shots as well



You can really define the subject as the depth of field can be super tight.



Ok so those are raw shots, and I was so excited with them I decided to give them some flavor...

That said here are some of the finished shots from the truggy's first photoshoot.























I had to pop some logos on and have a bit of fun. I didn't do any crazy editing just colors, contrasts, cropping and tone. I did have to adjust the highlights/shadows on some as the clouds burned off and the light was just too hot and whiting out.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how these shots turned out. I know that I can do better, as I get more comfortable with this lens.

So after these shots I found a nice little section with some rocks and played around. The tires on the BoomRacing wheels have stock foams and no weights. While the truggy was climbing 90% of what I pointed it at, there were a couple lines I wanted to try with my Axial BFGs which are weighted and have good foams.

I swapped tires one side and grabbed the slider to flip the rig over and this happened.



Argh. It just came right off. This is one of the sections I had to cut off and weld back on with the crappy Harbor Freight welder. No real surprise that it didn't hold up, but I wasn't pleased.

I finished swapping tires, and carefully climbed the two lines I wanted to get up. The truck is a champ, performance and looks. Winning.

So I headed back trying to avoid damaging the cab on my way out of the woods. I've got some silver solider and brake line here so it looks like I'm gonna try and figure out brazing in the next day or so. I'll go ahead and cut off the other side as well, fix it properly as I don't think it will hold up under real abuse.

That's where I am, still have a few details to bang out, but for the most part this rig is finished and ready for some time on the rocks. As soon as the sliders are repaired I'll be taking it out with my buddy TODBLDZ and the ScalerWife to a super dope spot.

Thanks for following along!