They arrived in Canada now ... ZoomRoom had mine!

[Thorvald]

Well they are in Canada now, had mine reserved at ZoomRoom and they came this morning!








NewBright JK body should be in this Wednesday (last one was damaged in shipping, thanks sears.ca lol).

Time to start building! And mod this damn DX6i for throttle return.

Cheers
Tim

[Yammer]

I see you shop at the same store as me, I picked up my SCX10 as well today

[4wdmt]

Guys. I am saving finds to buy one. ZR is a long drive from where I live. Just want to check how much did you get it from them. It might be worth the drive if the price is reasonable.

Thank you.

[Thorvald]

Ok, finally got around to getting things done over the past week or two.

Some build shots (Beer was already drank... hence not in the photo lol):










Then I measured out the JK body to get the proper wheelbase:





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The existing SCX10 Wheelbase is 290mm and the NewBright JK Body is approx 13" or 330.2mm, say 330mm. This results in a difference of 40mm we need to make up (2 cm front, 2 cm back). Did some quick checks and the stock driveshafts would still fit (barely I think lol).

I would need to make the following links:

4 of 6x111 mm for the links
4 of 6x80 mm Posts for the triangulation

So I next picked up some 1/4 (6mm) Aluminum solid core rod from good ol' Canadian Tire and then proceeded to cut them down into links and drill 3/32 holes in the center of each end. Then tap with M3 tap and voila! Instant links. The holes don't have to be perfectly centered, you can't tell once they are mounted.











It actually took a fair amount of work. I had to remove the front cross-member as it interfered with the steering servo, so now I've lost one of the mounts for the front battery tray but I'll work around that (definitely moving the battery to the front... too tippy with it at the back).


To fit the body, I considered going to fancy hidden mount method but for gods sakes, it's a crawler that is going to take alot of abuse and I want to get to the batteries quickly without fuss and mess.

So I simply measured out where the body posts from the SCX10 would come out and drilled holes. Turned out quite nicely actually and is very functional.

One note, you do have to add holes to the rear stock mount. It won't go high enough otherwise. Thankfully Axial left lots of plastic there to add extra holes.

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Next step was to paint the JK Body. I'm planning on buying a real Rubicon JK in the new Deep Water Blue Pearl so I hit Canadian Tire looking for a Dupli-Color Match Aerosol. I found "CT0359 Intense Blue Pearl" Truck, Van & SUV Paint which was close enough and it came in the big 312g Aerosol can as well.

Alot of masking and touch up's later... voila, not bad but not perfect. I didn't go for the full gloss treatment since I know the first time this thing hits rocks it's going to scratch the **** out of this paint.

Note: Yes I only painted on side of the rock rings on the wheels, I wanted to see how it looked. I'm in the process of painting the otherside now lol.












It also looks ALOT better once you under-coat the inside with black:



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I already modified my DX6i to have a return spring on the throttle so that was solved.

Next step is to fabricate a proper Mopar Off-Road bumper from a block of aluminum and install the 3Racing Winch etc.

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On a side note, overall it's a nice basic kit but to be honest, kinda boring. Been in RC too long now and I like "gadgets". If we could have remote locking diffs, selectable 2/4 Wheel Drive, selectable lo/hi range, then this thing would be fun!

I don't find the articulation to be very good however, the stock shocks are very stiff. Might have to drill some holes in oil piston to make them a little softer.

However those tires are DAMN sticky... this thing will climb walls!

Cheers
Tim

[Joe Mauma]

Nice work! I wish that blue was available when I purchased mine.

[rambo282]

Awsome rig.

[MR. MAX]

how are the drive shafts holding up?

[MaxxPain]

That looks sweet, great job.