Ruining a perfectly good Cross Demon SG4

[TooOldForThis]

Welcome to the thread in which I make a Cross Demon look about 50 years old in far less actual time than that... probably. I've become very interested in weathering, so the purpose of this build is to try out a bunch of different weathering techniques I've never tried before. Buckle up, its gonna be a real art project. Follow along while I struggle to make a thing worse than I found it.

I picked the Demon because it has some nice detail and I was curious about the brand. The body design has grown on me since I first saw it, like an angry mutated version of a Toyota hilux. I'm not one to get excited over packaging but the little demon head on the box is neat.



I went with the SG4B model, which is one level below the flagship SG4C model. The main difference here is plastic axle housings, which will work fine for what we're trying to accomplish. I would feel bad about covering the aluminum axles in fake grime and rust.

Others have done unboxings so I won't bother, but after sorting through all the parts, this is my favorite detail:



You see that? Metal knuckle bushings! They didn't have to do that, they could have went cheap and put plastic there like some other brands (*cough* Axial *cough cough*). It makes it seem like they actually care and I appreciate that, especially considering this isn't the most expensive version.

Next up are the wheels. They are nice... too nice for the worn-out junk this truck will be. ..



...THESE are much more like it. Uncoated steel, so hopefully I can grow some real rust here the old-fashioned way instead of painting it on like a chump. This will be one of the first steps of the build.



Updates every sometimes.

[Brake Weight]

Hurry up and rust!!

[TooOldForThis]

Getting down to business. Thinking back to the lessons I've learned by growing up in the Northeast, I know that salt + moisture = rust (whether you want it or not). So after doing approximately zero further research I gave the wheels a light sanding, covered them in salt, put in some wet paper towels and set the container out in the sun. (Only the faces of these wheels are steel, the rest is cast aluminum.)



After an hour we see some small progress, but I'm an impatient man. Youtube says try vinegar, so I try vinegar.



There we go! The vinegar did the trick. Feeling good about this result, I get cocky and decide to do the same to the bottom of the rock sliders. I prep them exactly the same way and...



...FAIL! This metal won't rust. I didn't think they were aluminum but maybe they are. Or stainless? I don't know. Will have to use fake rust instead later on. Me and my bruised ego continue on with the build.

[Brake Weight]

That vinegar worked fast.

[smog]

I am coming along for the ride. I sense I am gonna learn a few things of interest.

[ussprinceton2004]

reverse of a restore job I see

[the Jeffro]

TooOldForThis, will you seal the wheels with anything now or just leave them raw? Nice ride!

[UncleJohn]

This is an interesting idea. I'll be following this "build".

[TooOldForThis]

Originally Posted by the Jeffro

TooOldForThis, will you seal the wheels with anything now or just leave them raw? Nice ride!

I was going to leave them raw, but they seemed a little too "orange" so I brushed a coat of watered down brown acrylic over them. I also painted the aluminum backsides of the wheels because they were looking WAY too nice by comparison. Here's the finished product. The backside is darker because brake dust.



Moving on, you know what's embarrassing? Having a shiny new chassis poking out from under your ratty old body. To make sure that doesn't happen, I bought a whole bunch of these 50 cent acrylic paints from Walmart to make different dirt colors. Starting on the chassis now while there's still easy access.



The method I use is to mix the paint in a shot glass with water to thin it out, then brush it on thick, then wipe it off before it dries. It gets left behind in cracks and corners. The effect is similar to driving through muddy water, except you replace the fun of driving through muddy water with tedious paint work.

[TooOldForThis]

Taking a break from junkifying things, lets talk suspension. The stock 90mm shocks are nice to look at but I was never a fan of them on this truck. Something about the red springs, they just call too much attention to themselves.



I replaced them with a set of 90mm Gmade G-transition shocks (GM20604). These are my first set of internal spring oil dampers, not to mention the first shocks with a specific "droop" configuration, so this was all new territory for me. Assembled for droop, they are 90mm from eyelet to eyelet (shown below), and you can see how much room for downtravel there is.



The shock body is a larger diameter than RC4WD-style pogo sticks, so we're turning down some more scale-appearing options in favor of articulation and smoothness. Speaking of articulation, here we are at ride height:



And here it is all the way down. The rear shocks drop out like this easily because I didn't install rebound springs in them. I think this could work well considering these trucks have a significant front weight bias... or maybe I'm wrong and it will flop around like a drunk cow.

[Jim85IROC]

Wow, this truck is really starting to look shitty. Great job!

[TooOldForThis]

Engine fire! Oh no!

Lets make the hood look like there was an engine fire.

First we heat the hood up with a candle to make a depression above the engine, then paint the whole thing silver. I've had mixed results with this brand of paint in the past but was very happy with this metallic aluminum color. Dries fast and seems to stick well.



Next apply two-step rust and let sit overnight. This rust kit uses steel dust to create actual rust.



Now salt. Use a little water to get the salt to stick to the surface. Put a lot in the depression in the hood because that's where the "fire" burned off the most paint.



Paint black over everything, let dry, and brush off salt. Tada! Flat black paint probably would've been better than the satin black I had on hand, but we'll be able to reduce some of the gloss later on.

[number9]

Very nice! Gonna follow this build for sure.

I’ve had poor results from that brand / type of paint (blisters), I’ve swore it off. Hope you have better results.

[mewalsh100]

Very cool - following!

[TooOldForThis]

Lets ruin the cab!

3 paint colors + sandpaper + love. First was brown around the bottom...



...followed by silver all over and a red top-coat. Similar to the hood in the last post, I sprinkled some salt before the top coat.



After the paint dries you get busy wet-sanding with 320 grit and rub off everything that's not a shitty old truck cab. This was a fun process. I did the same thing to the front bumper and grill, except with black over silver.

[1fox2go]

Nice! Are you going to drill and file some holes in those fender flares and cab corners?

[Teng]

Great job all. I like the gmade shocks look more nicer than the stock shocks. The upside down placement looks amazing real one. Just wonder how this shock performance. Update us how the articulation compare to the stock.

[struhall]

Originally Posted by 1fox2go

Nice! Are you going to drill and file some holes in those fender flares and cab corners?

I'm not OP but when you do holes through the paint and bad rust spots and holes you need to do it before you do any paint. If you drill the holes after paint you see the color of the plastic. I did basically the same thing on my Hilux body.

[1fox2go]

Originally Posted by struhall

I'm not OP but when you do holes through the paint and bad rust spots and holes you need to do it before you do any paint. If you drill the holes after paint you see the color of the plastic. I did basically the same thing on my Hilux body.

I was thinking if you painted, then drill holes and touched up with a brush it would add even more texture any excess on the edges would add to the effect. But I see what you are saying if you don't want to follow up with a brush.

[TooOldForThis]

Originally Posted by Teng

Great job all. I like the gmade shocks look more nicer than the stock shocks. The upside down placement looks amazing real one. Just wonder how this shock performance. Update us how the articulation compare to the stock.

Thanks. Its gonna be awhile before I can really test it but the main difference is the gmade shocks give you a lot more downtravel (but less uptravel) than the stock shocks. I guess that could be good or bad depending on how you wanted to set it up.