Ordered new custom Truggy Chassis

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by hillbillyrc

Did Dirty Steve give your driver a pep talk?

Hell No! The last thing I need is Dirty Steve giving driving advice! He’s an a-h0le with a heavy foot and not a lot of finesse!

[mewalsh100]

Got the SR-5 square body in last night and did a little trimming today. I had to get in to the window area of the extended cab a bit to get the front fenders centered over the tires. It's really not bothering me as it sits unpainted. My plan is to just go ahead and spray that whole area in with the body color. I'm actually digging the square body on this rig. Seems a bit more "muscular". I've still got to do some detail trimming to get everything to sit right, but I think it's going to turn out pretty cool.

I also double checked the weight on the hard body versus the lexan. Wow. As I thought, just about a pound in weight savings.

[hillbillyrc]

Looking good and the weight savings up top should be a noticeable difference.

[mewalsh100]

Finished up trimming and painting the SR-5 cab. The white I chose to go with is a little plain jane, but it looks clean. Fitment is great after some additional trimming, especially the front bumper area around the stinger. I completed the finish by shooting bed liner on the fender flares and rockers, added some decals. I was originally going to flat black the hood as I usually do, but decided not to. Wanted to see how it would look all white. I can always shoot it flat black later if I decide to. Going to try and get out this afternoon and see how she performs with all the top-side weight savings!

[mewalsh100]

Hard body with lights going back on tonight for some night trailing. Led Zeppelin II on, and some Sierra Nevada TORPEDO. (Gotta be careful with this 8% plus stuff!)

[mewalsh100]

Threw some new love (shocks) on the Truggy. Put the Ultras that came off of it on to the Wraith Based Rock Bouncer. The Ultras functioned great on the Truggy, but they just didn't have any scale factor for it.

So, I went ahead and scored some new Incision 90mm Scaler shocks.

First impressions - these are a quality product. Hard anodizing and finish are great. Scale factor is great. I also really like the clamping shock retainer idea. Pretty slick.

I first filled these up with 35w and did a quick shake down on my back yard course. The action is super smooth and small bump compliance over chatter and such is great. The spring rate that they shipped with is also about spot on for my rig. (8lb-ish with pack) For ride height, I did add about 1/8" of pre-load up front, and nothing out back. I was pretty impressed, but they still needed some dialing in. The rebound with 35w was too quick for my tastes and I also wanted to play with some chassis positioning of the shocks.

Brought it back to the bench and cleaned them out. Added some 60w and moved the rear shocks back one hole, and the front shocks forward one hole, and down one hole. Back to the course and I was super impressed now. Rebound feels spot on for me, sag/ride height is great, and they are still extremely supple.

At roughly $45 a pair, they are certainly not the budget solution. But, I already feel like these were a good purchase and the scale factor they've added to this rig over the Ultras I was running is sweet.

[mewalsh100]

Welp, it finally cooled off enough to where it's pleasant to be outside. Brewed up a big ol cup o coffee and took the Trug out back to eat some rocks!

Just love this rig. So much fun to drive and beat on!

I'm also absolutely loving the new Incision Scaler shocks I threw on a few weeks ago. I think I've got them perfectly dialed in now. Super supple an smooth.

Lastly, I made a little exit / drop in off to the right of my log climb pile. It akes you about half way up and then a technical drop in to the right and take the path behind the log pile to the rest of my course down in back.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and gets out for some trailing / crawling!

[mewalsh100]

Thanks @ Surfish!

[mewalsh100]

The Little Zuk body getting a new lease on life. I painted this body up for a little custom MRC project I was working on. It didn't work out because the little MRC had so much flex it just absolutely stuffed the wheels up in to the body to the point of jamming them up. Oh well, the MRC will keep it's Losi body.

Not gonna lie, it pained me a bit to chop this one up because the paint turned out so clean with nice, crisp lines. But, I think it'll look pretty sweet on the Trugster. I still have a bit of chopping and fitting to do, but it's coming along nicely. I saved the back half and need to work out a way to cleanly trim it and graft it back on to the main cab to fill in the rear area. It's got those weird little angled support pillars though, so I may have to start something from scratch.

[HumboldtEF]

Nice work!

I've been wondering about that Sumo body and whether it can be turned into a cab only so I'll be watching patiently. I have a few bodies in mind for an upcoming project but they all seem to have those angled supports at the bed/cab, I'm in the same camp as I cant think of a simple way to chop them out without just starting from scratch as you said.

[mewalsh100]

Thanks Humboldt. I’ll definitely post what I come up with.

[mewalsh100]

So, as I suspected, I had to start from scratch to fill in the back of the cab. There was just no clean way to slice n dice the back half of the body and graft it back on with those little angled pillars. Used a sheet of ABS and cut it to fit, leaving room for some stand-offs / tabs to bend so it could be secured to the cab.

I wasn't confident in the E6000/Shoe-Goo to be able to hold it on alone, especially in roll overs and falls. So, I ran some hardware as well. Not particularly my cleanest work, but it doesn't really bother me too much. This was always going to be a runner when I determined I'd put it on this rig, so she's gonna get thrashed on and have battle damage. Once I had it secured, I masked the body off and re-shot the roof and the new back with bed-liner to blend it in. On the plus side, the ABS has stiffened up the cab all the way around. Makes it feel like I could practically stand on the roof, so she should hold up well to tumbles.

[elirgraves13]

That looks amazing, great build.

[smog]

It looks great to my eye. The bolts give it a good industrial look. If you didn't do such a nice job on it I would suggest doing a rustjob around the bolts

[mewalsh100]

It's growing on me. The seam at the top of the roof where I mated the abs up to the body looks really pronounced in these pictures though. It's actually a good bit cleaner in person. But, like I said, I cut her up to be a hard runner so she's sorta got that look.

[smog]

Originally Posted by mewalsh100

It's growing on me. The seam at the top of the roof where I mated the abs up to the body looks really pronounced in these pictures though. It's actually a good bit cleaner in person. But, like I said, I cut her up to be a hard runner so she's sorta got that look.

The seam doesn’t look that obvious to me for some reason. I know I am in need of reading glasses, however


Joking aside, it may also have to do with my view of truggies. I have always viewed them as being somewhat rough around the edges. Practical but not pretty.

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by smog

The seam doesn’t look that obvious to me for some reason. I know I am in need of reading glasses, however


Joking aside, it may also have to do with my view of truggies. I have always viewed them as being somewhat rough around the edges. Practical but not pretty.

That's kinda my thought with Truggy's as well smog. Most of the 1:1's I seen are way more function than form/looks.

[smog]

Originally Posted by mewalsh100

That's kinda my thought with Truggy's as well smog. Most of the 1:1's I seen are way more function than form/looks.

...of course I went ahead and built mine clean ...likely explains my uncertainty about t

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by smog

...of course I went ahead and built mine clean ...likely explains my uncertainty about t

I'm sure she'll start looking the part once you get her out and run her hard. I know mine did. I don't think there's any paint left on the side cage / sliders!

[muffhuntin]

Very cool sir