Pilot_MM's Build: A noob endeavor

[Jeepy84]

That's not a bad solution to the rear bumper!
Your real world tire size estimates are slightly off though, haha. Casey Currie's XJ has 35"s on it. The PBXs are probably around 31"s. With stock fenders they would certainly look right at home as I run that size tire on my DD with a 2" OME lift.

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[Pilot_MM]

Originally Posted by Jeepy84

That's not a bad solution to the rear bumper!
Your real world tire size estimates are slightly off though, haha. Casey Currie's XJ has 35"s on it. The PBXs are probably around 31"s. With stock fenders they would certainly look right at home as I run that size tire on my DD with a 2" OME lift.

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Learned something new. I was just multiplying the inches by 10. Guess its not all apples to apples. I am curious to see how it looks when I finally get a hard body on it. My goal is to maximize my scale points because my driving SUCKS!

-M

[Jeepy84]

Yeah, the Axial isn't 1/10 scale, closer to ~/8.5 - /9.

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[fortyeightjake]

Looking good. I drive mine like a maniac so I was worried about my rear bumper rotating up under a hard hit. If you end up needing a pair of these aluminum struts, let me know.

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[Pilot_MM]

Originally Posted by fortyeightjake

Looking good. I drive mine like a maniac so I was worried about my rear bumper rotating up under a hard hit. If you end up needing a pair of these aluminum struts, let me know.

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I will send you a PM. I had no problem with the rear rotating but the front was another story. I ended up removing the cross member and drilling out the hole to accept a 3M screw with a nut to secure the bumper. I used two nylon locking nuts and two regular nuts with a little blue loctight and now the front is locked down.

The Pit bull tires were great once they warmed up. With some water and a little sand they were a bit bothersome but as I headed up the hills they dried out and performed great. I am sure once that once they are broken in they will be fine. I noticed that some of the lines I had not problems with the BFG's took a little more thought or a few more tries to get. I did like the increased stiffness in the rear but was most happy with the improved approach and departure angles. That was really nice.

Now for some eye candy.

-M

[Pilot_MM]

-M


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[fortyeightjake]

Nice pics!

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[Pilot_MM]

Long time no update.
Work has been kicking my butt and I am in the process of changing jobs so I haven't been doing much crawling. I have been collecting parts and getting stuff together. First up I got to meet Werty and we did some trade so he made me some custom sliders. I also picked up a CBE RC Titan Servo Winch.



For my birthday my wife picked me up some scale goodies. I am pretty excited to get these installed.


SSD components!

I also ordered and put together my hard body. I am working on paint still but its coming along. I wanna get it painted and then figure out how to mount it up on the frame.


This is just sitting on the body posts. I plan on making a bracket. Thats why it looks so high.


Look how awesome the Wertymade bumper looks on there! I will probably mount the body to the bracket here.


Got my base color laid down. I went with to the automotive store and picked up some dupla-color Chrysler Metallic Forest Green. I plan on doing some black trim (ran out of Outlaw black paint) and then covering it in a few coats of clear coat.

Lastly I picked up some Styrene to make inner fenders. My goal is to have it together enough to run it next week. Maybe Sunday but I don't want to rush this.

-M

[toka100]

Originally Posted by Jeepy84

Yeah, the Axial isn't 1/10 scale, closer to ~/8.5 - /9.

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1:8.24 actually. (101.4 actual WB/12.3 scale WB) I've been making the mistake also in figuring it as 1/10 scale. So 1.9s are actually scale 16" wheels. Guess that is why they look good with body

[Jeepy84]

Originally Posted by toka100

1:8.24 actually. (101.4 actual WB/12.3 scale WB) I've been making the mistake also in figuring it as 1/10 scale. So 1.9s are actually scale 16" wheels. Guess that is why they look good with body

Yep, and those BFGs are close to 37s, which I believe is the correct size on the 1:1.

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[Pilot_MM]

"Update, Update, read all about it" (pic heavy)

I am finally able to drive my SCX again. I purchased the Team Raffee Co XJ hard body and wanted to get it installed. I didn't realize how much work it is/was. When I got into this hobby I saw stuff from iamthatguy and Pardonmynoob and thought "That's exactly what I want my rig to look like!" please note my stuff doesn't look ANYTHING like theirs but they were the reason behind me wanted to get a hardbody. Plus I think if I comp next season Class 1 with an Axial based rig is probably going to be easier for me than an RC4WD based rig.

Anyways my noob endeavor continued with the purchase of the XJ hardbody at the end of February. I also received some cool hop-ups from my wife for my birthday around the same time. I spent the better part of 4 days getting the paint on the body. I started with sanding everything down with 100 grit followed up with 400 grit. After that I went with Tamiya Primer. I learned a valuable lesson here... Tamiya is Acrylic based and the automotive paint I used is Poly based. This caused my paint to not be 100% smooth. It looks almost like it has a textured finish. If your gonna paint with primer, base, and clear make sure they are all the same kind of paint.

So on 3/1 the body showed up and I started putting it together. There are a ton of screws and many of you probably already know. There was a ridge on the top where the two halls go together so I tried my hand at bondo. Yeah... I suck at it so its not pretty but lets call it a learning experience. Another thing I found was that the instructions are not step-by-step so I put the grill together before I installed it onto the body, yeah, that doesn't work, you need to put it onto the body before you GLUE in the lights. Because of this I have one turn marker that is busted out. I plan on putting some colored packing tape on it and calling it a trail mark .

As for painting I laid down the Tamiya primer and let it dry about an hour. I then laid down about 4-6 coats of Dupla-Color Chrysler Metallic Forrest Green. The color is beautiful. I let the paint dry about 20-30 minutes between coats. In retrospect I didn't lay down enough but I will get to that. I had masked off some areas and laid down some Dupla-Color metallic black to do the trim down low and on the hood. The next day I laid down the Dupla-color Clear coat. I noticed it didn't come out super smooth and glossy like a new car, I can only attribute that to laying Poly based paint over the Acrylic first. It doesn't look bad but was not the finish I wanted. When the paint was finished I used a sharpie to fill in the rubber gaskets around the windows and on the hinge for the lift gate. To glue in the windows I used some canopy glue. It takes a while to set so make sure you tape it in good or use magnets to secure the parts while they dry. The glue does dry clear though which is nice.

Mounting the body proved to be tricky. I wasn't sure how exactly to use the included mounting hardware so I just figured something out. It is installed but I will change the rear mounting in the near future. First I thought I would use some of my aerospace grade velcro on the hood and build a bracket using styrene and the stock body post mounts. I got it all set the right height I wanted and velcroed it down. The velcro was so strong that it busted my styrene bracket... I opted for some 1/8th thick rare earth magnets. They can hold 18LBS each so you can literally pick up the front of the truck with the magnets. For the back I used a piece of hobby ply and some of that velcro (very little velcro this time). Using the existing hardware on my Wertymade The Stout rear bumper I was able to get the back to mate up perfectly with the wood. What I want to do is glue a hinge to the body and mount the hinge to the hobby ply in the end. The one thing I found out was that this body is more narrow than the stock body so I had to tuck my sliders in all the way to get them to look right.

The SSD aluminum diff cover was painted black so when I hit rocks it will scratch up. I wanted it to look worn down the road and I think this will make them scratch up pretty quick.

Anyways enough of the chat here are some photos:


I want to put in inner fenders next. If anyone has a templet on how to make them with styrene please let me know. I planned on eye-balling it. (see my busted turn marker)


I need to get paint for the tail lights. I am hoping one of the local guys has some extra thats why they are not glued in yet.

I need to come up with a rack. I might use the stock one but am thinking about getting one custom made. My mind isn't made up yet.


Out of the box


Sitting on the body posts to see how it looks.


First layers of base coat on.


Base coat was finished here, added paint to fender flares and grill


mock up with the grill. You can see the turn markers were glued in here... damn it


Close up of the final paint with clear coat. You can see the finish I am talking about. The paint scratches easily. I wonder if I would have laid down more paint, and did more clear if it would be a little more durable. I misted about 6-8 coats of clear over two days.

-M

[Col_Sanders]

Where have you been???

[Rock Dodger]

Thanks to Pilot_MM for presenting this build thread. I'm sure it will save me some frustration. My wife surprised me with an SCX10 II, Axial 55T motor and ESC. That's a good start. I'm really looking forward to the assembly process.

Good to know there are a few like-minded Las Vegas locals for support and maybe a group run when I get my act together. I'm re-entering the RC car hobby after a long hiatus, like back when the Traxxas Stampede was new. Much to learn.

Cheers

[Col_Sanders]

Originally Posted by Rock Dodger

Thanks to Pilot_MM for presenting this build thread. I'm sure it will save me some frustration. My wife surprised me with an SCX10 II, Axial 55T motor and ESC. That's a good start. I'm really looking forward to the assembly process.

Good to know there are a few like-minded Las Vegas locals for support and maybe a group run when I get my act together. I'm re-entering the RC car hobby after a long hiatus, like back when the Traxxas Stampede was new. Much to learn.

Cheers

Pretty much every Saturday and/or Sunday morning there is a group that goes out to Calico Basin. Our comp series started a couple months ago and the next one is over in Henderson off College St on Jan 21. Even if you don't want to compete, its a good time to watch and we are all more than willing to help.