Ford Raptor weekend warrior and dune slayer

[venomous98]

Front bumper time. I stayed after work again to finish these up. I really need to get a Tig welder for home, it would make building things much faster. Right now i bend a tube or two, take them to work, weld them, and repeat. Very slow. Anyways here are some pics.

Bye bye stock plastic bumper




Same set-up as the rear. I used a bracket that bolts to the chassis. I prefer to bolt on parts like bumpers and sliders. It makes it easier to touch up paint or if something bends fix it.


Bolted on the chassis


Light bar added



Body on



First bar bent and mocked up




The finished product will be done later today. One more soon to be off the check list!!!

[DukeMinnix]

thoroughly impressed with your fab work. I'm insanely jealous

[hillbillyrc]

What size tube are you working with?

Looking great so far. Keep it up.

[venomous98]

Thanks. Alot of practice and a couple of scrapped parts and you will start to get the hang of it. Just have to try. A good set of hand tools and some measuring devices makes things a bit easier also.

I like to use is 3/16 solid round bar. I know its alot heavier than tube but its less likely to bend on hard hits. Plus its easier to weld and not blow through.

[venomous98]

Front bumper is all done!














This one looks like the bumper angles are off, its just the camera

[4X4 Freak]

Man bud you have some great fabrication skills.

[hillbillyrc]

Originally Posted by venomous98

Thanks. Alot of practice and a couple of scrapped parts and you will start to get the hang of it. Just have to try. A good set of hand tools and some measuring devices makes things a bit easier also.

I like to use is 3/16 solid round bar. I know its alot heavier than tube but its less likely to bend on hard hits. Plus its easier to weld and not blow through.

Thanks for some reason I was thinking 1/8th rod probably because of the solid rod.

[CM9000]

How i missed this.. Unsure.

I like that front bumper. What tig machine are you using?

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[venomous98]

I think it's a Miller synchrowave 250. I'll have to take another look to be sure.

[venomous98]

More updates. The tube work is done and here are some pics of it all mocked up.






Body on shots





I'm still playing around with different shocks to get the suspension travel and ride height i want without cutting too much of the wheel wells. This is alot of trial and error with springs, spacers, and oils.

Some little brackets i made to hold the electronics.


I stole them from my Traxxas slash.

Guess whats coming next!!!






A simple plate with some holes drilled and tapped to hold everything when i weld it up. This will also be the mounting points how the cage will bolt to the bed. Four bolts, just in case i want to run the truck without the bed cage.


More to come. I think it should be pretty bad a$$

[venomous98]

I saved the best for last! Sorry no step by step on this one, but it came out pretty nice i think.

Here it is bolted to the welding fixture.







Next i took a m4 bolt and some 1/8 rod and made this.








This one is to show the cage matches the angle of the bed, which is not 90 apparently.


And what it looks like in the bed. Almost what i had in mind. I wanted to add another bar or two just for alittle extra cool factor but it would make mounting the truck to the chassis a pain. Since the body mounts with four screws in the bed.










Well all the tube work is finally done!!! Now time to take everything apart and get it ready for paint. What do you guys think?

[hillbillyrc]

Wow, super clean.

[nwnewbie]

That is some amazing tube work! Well done!

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[angrchair]

dude this is so good!

[venomous98]

So i noticed the body was sitting alittle funky on the chassis. It seemed a bit crooked for some reason. I did some measuring and after a bit of head scratching i figured out why. One side of the body pulls in more than the other. Maybe how it came out of the mold. I made some spacer bars to put a little pressure on the body and push them out evenly. Some pics to show what i'm talking about.





Now it's perfect!!!

After that it was time to tear everything down for paint and final assembly. I didn't want to paint all the tube work just flat black, i feel like it would just disappear. Also i'm kinda proud of how it all turned out. So this is what i went with.




It turned out really cool. Pics don't do it justice.

And the chassis just flat black. It needed some paint because i added some holes and enlarged some.


Just need to give it some time to dry and cure and put it all back together for the last time!

[hillbillyrc]

That color choice for the tube work looks great and think it compliments your skillful work.

[DukeMinnix]

still banking on the day you want to redo some of it so I can snatch this run off you

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by venomous98

That's some sweet wheel porn! Are those plastic beadlocks or aluminum?

This project is so, so awesome! Amazing fab skills!

[venomous98]

Thanks guys. Some day duke, or if I ever decide to sell it you will be first to know. The wheels are the plastic Axial beadlocks with older Locked-up rings and Pro-line tires.

[venomous98]

Just a couple small updates. I took off the stock/fake roof light bar and added a new Gear Head one that was the perfect size. I cut off the plastic mounting tabs from the fake one and sanded them down and drilled small holes for m2 screws. Then bolted the tabs to the Gear Head led bar and now i have a real working light bar!!! Can't forget to mention the Gear Head led bar in the front bumper also.

Fake one.

Real one.

Perfect size.

Chop!

Sanded and drilled.

On the truck.




Its kinda nice when things work out easy. I didn't really have to do much for this to work.

Next on the small details was this. Some grips for the tire mount.

Before without grips.

With grips.



Found those at the hobby shop and thought they might work. They did!

Final assembly has started and its about 90% complete. When it's done i will get some good outside pics and maybe make a trip to the beach where this truck belongs. For now the body will stay the candy apple red, which in person is really nice. Next year after some wear and tear I'm thinking of painting it a Desert sand color. I saw a 2014 Raptor in that color and thought it looked amazing. I am also playing around with having a locked rear axle and an open front since this isn't really set up for crawling but more a go-fast truck. More to come very soon.