Dingo transformation

[warpig602]

Picked this up used a couple weeks back with the intention of rebuilding into a Cherokee and making it more snow friendly along the way.

Here is what I started with:






I quickly realized there was a lot of flex in the frame fromt he CMS, so I knew I would be changing that back to stock. I also wanted to get the abtter back to the rear and get some of the electronics water resistant at the same time.

[warpig602]

The tear down, the whole truck was coverd in some nice Arizona red dirt so I figured Id break it down and clean it out since I was removing all the old home made mounting plates:


Pulled everything including the 55T Novak and 14t and repalced it with a 20T Axial motor. I also found out the spur gear cover I ordered will not work with the MIP drivelines, probbaly need to break out the dremel:



Decided on some water balloons for water resisting in the snowy conditions and enclosed them in palstic boxes for added insurance:

[warpig602]

Paint and accessories all finally arrived for the next phase, I'll update as it progresses:

[warpig602]

Got the body trimmed up as much I could with scissors, still 1/16 to 1/8 of material left all the way around. was thinking I would use my dremel and a sanding drum to knock the rest of it down, or do i need to get closer before using the dremel?



2.2s will be traded out for 1.9s once complete. For now the beater Dingo body and 2.2s are good for snow excursions.

[Tinrabbit]

Looking good Warpig especially after giving it a good bath. On the body I usually have 400 grit paper ready to go when I trim em close, takes that edge off & will round out the sharp cuts so a crack doesn't develop later. I have used my dremel but the occasional whoops sure makes a spot everyone asks about :(
Really diggin those electric boxes you put on!

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by warpig602

Got the body trimmed up as much I could with scissors, still 1/16 to 1/8 of material left all the way around. was thinking I would use my dremel and a sanding drum to knock the rest of it down, or do i need to get closer before using the dremel?


2.2s will be traded out for 1.9s once complete...

Put on long sleeve shirt, take the body out to the garage, and use a Dremel with large grit sanding drum, low to medium speed, a steady hand and a good dust mask.

[Salojac]

The Cherokee body I believe is made for a 12.5 wheel base. Your dingo set up is less. You would need 106mm lower links in the back to get there.

IMHO; In order to improve break over I would leave the wheelbase shorter if you plan on going with 1.9 wheels as you say. If you decide to stay with 2.2's then consider going longer to make Cherokee body fit better.

I switch over to the dingo wheel base on my honcho 1.9 and it crawls much better due to improved break over.

[warpig602]

Originally Posted by Tinrabbit

Looking good Warpig especially after giving it a good bath. On the body I usually have 400 grit paper ready to go when I trim em close, takes that edge off & will round out the sharp cuts so a crack doesn't develop later. I have used my dremel but the occasional whoops sure makes a spot everyone asks about :(
Really diggin those electric boxes you put on!

Sounds good, I have some on hand. I'll try that first and see how long it takes, I may end up going to the dremel for more speed.

Originally Posted by Natedog

Put on long sleeve shirt, take the body out to the garage, and use a Dremel with large grit sanding drum, low to medium speed, a steady hand and a good dust mask.

Damn, -21 here today, maybe I can sneak in the basement later and do it.

Originally Posted by Salojac

The Cherokee body I believe is made for a 12.5 wheel base. Your dingo set up is less. You would need 106mm lower links in the back to get there.

IMHO; In order to improve break over I would leave the wheelbase shorter if you plan on going with 1.9 wheels as you say. If you decide to stay with 2.2's then consider going longer to make Cherokee body fit better.

I switch over to the dingo wheel base on my honcho 1.9 and it crawls much better due to improved break over.

I think the Dingo wheelbase is 11.4 and Cherokee body is 11.8, should be clsoe enough I think. I'll have look at it after getting it mounted up.

On another note, Im going to be mounting a roof rack on this, should the holes for that be done before or after painting?

[warpig602]

The Cherokee conversion took sidestep today. I never meant to build the Cherokee for anything but looks but realized at that point it would just be destined to drive around the living room. After discovering the Exo Terra I quickly decided that a 3rd SCX was not an option. Last week I decided I would try and track down some fender flares and the rest of the the roll cage to convert my Dingo back to stockish form for when i want to bash it around. I ran across a complete body for less than the I could get the other parts so I ended up with whole other setup.

I knew when the Cherokee was done it would be sitting n 1.9s so I took off the 2.2's today in preparation for the new Dingo body and the Cherokee body which I finished the final trimming on today at work.

Here is the body o got in the mail today:



After some quick work with a razor to clean it up. Dont really care for the flaming Axial logo but I dont know what color this is exactly to remove it and paint over it:



Ripsaws back where they belong:



Lowered the back end again after the pics, looked like a stink bug

Lastly, starting the moc up of the Cherokee:

[MCW24]

I rock the cherokee body as well love it just put some white steelies on her last night.

[warpig602]

Got into gear after clearing snow and ice from my driveway for 3 hours today.

I learned that I hate masking for paint. I also learned that Pro line window protectors dont protect the entire window. In hindsight I wish I wouldve taken some advice and went witha darker silver, the bright silver does wash out a bit with the pearl white.

Tire clearance is really close, if I was going to make the is a driver I would need to downsize or trim some more.

Prepaint:

After:

with roof rack:


Decals come later

[warpig602]

Decided to put the decals on today since we got 6in of snow again today. I only had to mess up the headlight and trun signal before I decided to low down and find new method for aligning the decals.




Then there was this:


Thats better.....

[CodesEmpire]

Wow, very cool bro. I like how you did this up. Just got my wife the dingo kit for valentines day with the jeep cherokee body. Can't wait to share what we will be doing on it. Keep up the awesome work on this and thanks so much for sharing this. I was wondering on the links with the different sizes and was going to try a few out to see which one lined up the best.

[warpig602]

Thanks, the goal was to try and replicate one of my old Jeeps, still got a few more thing to do:


Post up some pics of yours when you get it done. Its definitely been a learning experience on this one.

[CodesEmpire]

Originally Posted by warpig602

Thanks, the goal was to try and replicate one of my old Jeeps, still got a few more thing to do:


Post up some pics of yours when you get it done. Its definitely been a learning experience on this one.

Well it's coming along pretty nice then. I will for sure share that build when I start in on it here shortly.