Making do, or !@#!# and make it work already

[Jaynen]

So for those of you who followed my Range Rover Sport build I was really excited about putting it on the X-trail chassis. But after messing with trying to shorten the wheelbase I just got frustrated since its my first rig and I really just wanted something I could drive number 1. So last week I went shopping and this time I took a tape measure with me.

Most all the stuff I found at Toys R Us and Target was real short wheelbase like 9.5 inches even harder to deal with than the 10.3ish on the range rover sport.

So I wandered into my local hobby shop to get the rod ends I needed to fix my rear links with some all thread (since I chopped the old ones to bits) so while measuring bodies I came across a bolink body, the only one in there and one I had not seen before. It was a ford explorer sport trac. I picked it up and decided to make it work with what I had to try to get a running rig.

My painting skills are completely sub par, in fact quite crap to be honest. I got the body mounted, and managed to mount the roof rack from the range rover LR3 that I had stolen for the Range rover sport to the sport trac by cutting it down from 8 inches to 5.

I also cut out the grill and put some mesh inside its not final but I thought it might look better.

It needs headlights and I really feel the need for a bumper/skidplate but am not sure what to try and make one out of since I have no idea about brazing etc. Some simple solutions would be much obliged ;)

I put the foams that came with the AX-10 inside the super soft trail Dr. tires because the tires would flex almost all the way before the suspension would react without them. But I did have traction problems on my test run which I contribute to a lack of weight possibly and also the muddy sand that got stuck in the lugs.

I went into an auto parts store to look for stick weights but couldnt find any, I feel like I do need to run some foams or the tires are too soft but the weight might help with my roll over issue and getting better traction. Where do you guys source your stick weights from since bb's etc won't work if you are using foams?

I need to fix one of the rear links, the axle is slightly off I think due to some crooked threading or a slight length difference causing a twist.

Inspiration

First Run

[pantablo]

Looks pretty good. Glad you got it running. See you tomorrow, and wednesday!

paint grille black though!

I had the same problem yesterday with the muddy sand but was still pretty impressed with the grip on the shoulder treadblocks.

You should make a skid plate from 1/16 or thicker bent plate alum bolted to the frame as you suggested yesterday.

[Jaynen]

the grill is black ;p what you see is the sticky side of the masking tape that's holding it on right now since the CA would not seem to grab on the aluminum screen mesh

[pantablo]

video
http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/showt...88#post1030888

[Jaynen]

Yay video.