The Crawl Space Southern Whiskey Runner

[The Crawl Space]

Finally getting around to posting up a build thread. Thanks everyone for "liking" the pics in the archive.

So this one all started out with my wife cruzing “pinterest” a website of pictures people post up and she found this guy


It got us thinking on how to make this rig come to life. We wanted it to look as close to the picture as possible but still be ready for the trail and the dually was for sure going to happen, more on that later.

I started with finding some bead lock wheels that looked right and I found the G-made VR01 plastic wheels thru RC4WD, also got 3 pairs of the 1.9 flashpoint tires.


I know there’s a bunch of different ways to do a dually wheel set up but this way worked for what materials I had access to and time to put it all together. The biggest issue was how to space the tire apart but still have enough strength to hold up to all the torque. The simple solution I found was some long m3 screws and a copper pipe coupler for a spacer.

I ran the long m3 bolts thru the inner wheel first and locked them with some flat machine nuts.


Cut down the coupler for the right wheel spacing. You get those at most hardware stores for cheap.


Spacer installed with all the bolts in the inner wheel. These internal bead locks made it easy to get the spacer to seat in between both wheels.


Bolted up the outside wheel and drilled the center out so I could get a wheel wrench thru to screw the wheel nut on. The copper spacer compresses against the outer wheel half to hold the wheel together with the nuts on the outside.


Back side of the dually set up.


On to the body. The truck in the first picture was a '32 ford and the closest one I could find was the Parma '34 ford truck body, they look close enough to match and save me time from completely fabbing a body from scratch. Here's a quick mock up with just body and tires.


After talking to the Almighty Malach we opted to stretch the wheel base since we had plans for a flat bed for the rig and we wanted a nice departure angle as ell.


You've all seen how axles go together so no need to post pics of all that, I did “toob” both axles with 7/16” aluminum rod just for the added strength and installed over drive ring and pinion gears in the front.


I went with a different set up for the suspension in the rear end, mainly to to have clear space for the purposed flatbed. Set up with stock SCX10 shocks wrapped with Losi mini-t rear springs.


Set up the links and we have a roller


I kept the front end simple since Tiff would be running this rig mostly and I didn't want her to have to deal with the bump steer of a chassis mount servo since a panhard wouldn't work with how the truck would sit, slow n low.


Project box installed and filled with the usual running gear goodies. Mamba Micro Pro since the BR-xls are on back order at this time. Spektrum RX decased to save space, Axial simple light controller and Castle BEC.


Did a quick test run on the rocks and the truck handled well for coming right off the bench so I moved onto cutting the body. Chop saki!


I can't remember the thickness of the styrene I used but it did bend nicely when heated with a heat gun.
Cut a notch for the drive shaft and the motor.


I used some thicker styrene strips to reinforce the back of the cab.


The body will be velcro'd at the hood and I build some quick delrin rock rock to double as body mounts for the running boards of the body.


Now its starting to look like something.

[17dean]

Ultra banging build ! Its a must to subscribe to see whats next! Keep it up !

[Mr.Joshua]

Looking sweet! Great idea on how to pull of the dually mod.
Did you have to"widdle" much to tube your axle with that aluminum tubing?

[Fink]

'Scribed.

Fink

[The Crawl Space]

Originally Posted by 17dean

Ultra banging build ! Its a must to subscribe to see whats next! Keep it up !

Thanks man, with my hectic schedule I post up my build threads after most of it is done, so the rest of it is comin' right up

Originally Posted by Mr.Joshua

Looking sweet! Great idea on how to pull of the dually mod.
Did you have to"widdle" much to tube your axle with that aluminum tubing?

Thank you. I use what I can get my hands on ya know, plus anybody can do it I used the 3/8" barrel sander attachment on a dremel to widdle out the axle.

Heres the specs for the materials to help ya out.
K&S Engineering part #3034 7/16" .035" round aluminum tube.
Cut to 51mm. Grind out the stock outer bearing seat and the aluminum tube will act as the new seat

[Armistice]

I saw the final result on FB. Very cool looking. Makes me want to get an old school body like that for fun

[Mr.Joshua]

I used the 3/8" barrel sander attachment on a dremel to widdle

Heres the specs for the materials to help ya out.
K&S Engineering part #3034 7/16" .035" round aluminum tube.
Cut to 51mm. Grind out the stock outer bearing seat and the aluminum tube will act as the new seat

Thanks for the info...very helpful and appreciated

[The Crawl Space]

This is a fairly quick build thread and thanks everyone for checking it out. Hopefully it helps anyone thats been thinking about a dually set up

On to putting together the flatbed. I've said it before, but I can't braze with a dam so I decided on using brass stock instead. Its simple and easy to work with. I did use metal working paste flux and solder and a regular 40 watt iron.
Got the basic flatbed shape done.


Cross braces next.


I was up in the air on how I was going to attach the bed to the frame, but I got the bright idea to attach it to the project box lid and go from there to fab up the rest of the bed.
A quick mock up to the body, looking good so far.


With the bed mounted to the project box I could get the angles for the trusses and the rest of the bed framework.


More braces and stake pockets and brackets to attach the bed to the frame on the bottom rail.


Filed all the solder joints and a couple shots of rattle can flat black.


Being a work worker for some time in my former life I just plowed thru cutting and assembling all the wood pieces without taking a lot of pictures. Basically I used a bunch of popsicle sticks for the bed and hot glued sticks for the stake fence and rails.


I found some old water color paint to dye the sticks to look weathered and used some dinky screws to attach the bed slats to the frame.




It got real busy at the shop for the past couple weeks so I didn't think about taking pictures of how the body was painted, but we've all seen that before anyway. Simple black on the outside with an under coat of silver to show thru from rock rash. Next time I use a lexan body I'll take alittle more time to do up the paint right with bunch of undercoats for the "worn in" look.

I used a bent piece of 3/16” delrin drilled and tapped for the headlight hoop and stand axial light buckets. Routed all the wires and sheathed all the wires with black snake skin and viola!


And there she is
Did well on the rocks with the body and flatbed installed, I did add 3 oz. of weight to the front battery tray to compensate for the flatbed and she handles fine, actually pretty decent turning radius even with the dually set up. I'm working on a sticker for the door and a license plate to finish the look

[Fink]

Holy shit. That is just plain awesome.

Fink

[maley607]

glad to see it finished, came out sick bro.

[muddywaters]

X2 what Fink said, just plain F#$%^& Awesome.....

[94smasher]

Awesome build....it almost begs for a little rock rash just to give it that aged look....but that will come with time...

[ilg]

I love it! Really good job in pulling this all together. Can't wait to see it "complete".

[Devil Inc]

Nice Job, I like where this is going. I'm keeping an eye on this.

[Hittman]

Damn!!! Awsome awsome job on this!! Killer work

[The Crawl Space]

Originally Posted by Fink

Holy shit. That is just plain awesome.

Fink

Originally Posted by maley607

glad to see it finished, came out sick bro.

Originally Posted by muddywaters

X2 what Fink said, just plain F#$%^& Awesome.....

Originally Posted by 94smasher

Awesome build....it almost begs for a little rock rash just to give it that aged look....but that will come with time...

Originally Posted by ilg

I love it! Really good job in pulling this all together. Can't wait to see it "complete".

Originally Posted by Devil Inc

Nice Job, I like where this is going. I'm keeping an eye on this.

Originally Posted by Hittman

Damn!!! Awsome awsome job on this!! Killer work

Thanks for the kind words guys, much appreciated

Tiff will be working on the rock rash this weekend at our next scale fun run and I'm still working on a decal/sign for the doors, just got slammed with other design work.

I still need to find some whiskey barrels, jugs, boxes, whatever to fill up the bed, right now the truck is on promo flyer duty for the shop

[Lobonyc]

I love this truck!!!!

[Armistice]

Not sure if you have a craft store in your area, but maybe something like that would have a wood section that you could find something for barrels?

[renatortb]

Hello, great car!! How did you do the front light bar?

[The Crawl Space]

Originally Posted by Armistice

Not sure if you have a craft store in your area, but maybe something like that would have a wood section that you could find something for barrels?

Word. I need to check the craft store down the way to see if they have them. I did find some miniture wood barrels online with actual metal rings, pretty cool.

Originally Posted by renatortb

Hello, great car!! How did you do the front light bar?

Thanks man. I used a 3/16" of delrin rod, just heated with a heta gun and bent into the shape. Carefully drilled holes to attach the light buckets