LSXGMC's Axial SCX10-II K10 Pickup w/ GCM LRT2

[LSXGMC]

Chassis is to the point now where I can start body work!





Picked up a razor saw and laid some tape down to mark my cut


Oops


Didn't bleed out so I continued


The longer Jato rod ends in the rear definitely put the wheelbase right where I wanted it.


Now the fun begins...

[rs10man]

cool build up, ive recently done the LRT2 in my ascender, very sweet piece. looking forward to your body work

[doubler]

Amazing build sir. I'm happy to see you documenting your body work techniques . Very helpful information.

[LSXGMC]

I cut an extension out of a second Blazer body for the front of the bed, approximately one inch. When combined with the front of the bed, the rear of the cab, and the gap between the bed and he cab, my wheelbase will be right around 12.5". The Blazer body wheelbase is 11.3".

I use MEK to bond the plastic together and it does a great job. I started with the flat joint and let that sit clamped overnight.


And now I am bonding the sides of the bed and will leave clamped for the rest of the day, maybe even overnight.

[LSXGMC]

Quick test fit of the bed looks like it's going to be perfect. I can easily adjust the wheelbase by cutting down some Jato rod ends on the other halves of the rear links if need be.

[LSXGMC]

As I stated earlier I really didn't like the shock towers sticking thru the bed on the original build, and just so happens that Dinky RC had a Facebook post today that they have more of their often-out-of-stock canteliver kits on the way and he was taking pre-orders, so I ordered one. I hesitated a bit because it's not scale to me, but I'd rather have the bed look clean than have the shock towers sticking through it again. I have quite a bit of bodywork to do while I wait anyways.


Photo credit: Google search

[Jeepy84]

If you decide you can't take the cantilever appearance and want to make the jump to leafs, this is an option.

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[LSXGMC]

Had a bit of a setback today. I’ve been working over the last few nights to get some styrene work done, but ended up finding that the box wasn’t square, it was a little crooked. I thought I could fix it but it just wasn’t working, so I pulled it all apart and am going to start over. I like to do things as best as I can, and I know I can get this right. I have no problem re-doing something if it means it’s going to be a better end product.

[Ironhide13]

Originally Posted by LSXGMC

Had a bit of a setback today. I’ve been working over the last few nights to get some styrene work done, but ended up finding that the box wasn’t square, it was a little crooked. I thought I could fix it but it just wasn’t working, so I pulled it all apart and am going to start over. I like to do things as best as I can, and I know I can get this right. I have no problem re-doing something if it means it’s going to be a better end product.

Hate to see you having trouble with this. What are you using to make the back of the cab? Is it going to be layered, since you have the indentions as cutouts in that one piece there? Are you using the window from the shell as the back window for the cab, or leaving it open?

[LSXGMC]

Originally Posted by Ironhide13

Hate to see you having trouble with this. What are you using to make the back of the cab? Is it going to be layered, since you have the indentions as cutouts in that one piece there? Are you using the window from the shell as the back window for the cab, or leaving it open?

I wouldn’t say trouble as much as I just want to make sure it’s right. My first truck turned out (at least I think) pretty good so I knew I could do better. I’ve read quite a few build threads and you don’t often see posts where guys admit they’ve redone something, so my hope is that if someone who’s looking at trying something new reads it, they understand that it’s OK to make a mistake and try again to get it right.

The back of the cab will be layered styrene. The section behind the stamping will be the lower half of the cab only and go between the sides of the body to provide side to side support and the piece with the stamping holes will attach to the backside of the cab. The last truck I did had both pieces attach to the back and while it held up, there wasn’t anything to support compression on the sides of the cab, ie a rollover or something. Something I’ve learned from my first go-round.

For the rear window, it definitely won’t be left open. What I did on my last one was used the windows from the topper and cut them to make one rear window, glued the pieces together, while making sure the joints were placed where the slider supports were so you never saw them.

[Ironhide13]

Originally Posted by LSXGMC

I wouldn’t say trouble as much as I just want to make sure it’s right. My first truck turned out (at least I think) pretty good so I knew I could do better. I’ve read quite a few build threads and you don’t often see posts where guys admit they’ve redone something, so my hope is that if someone who’s looking at trying something new reads it, they understand that it’s OK to make a mistake and try again to get it right.

The back of the cab will be layered styrene. The section behind the stamping will be the lower half of the cab only and go between the sides of the body to provide side to side support and the piece with the stamping holes will attach to the backside of the cab. The last truck I did had both pieces attach to the back and while it held up, there wasn’t anything to support compression on the sides of the cab, ie a rollover or something. Something I’ve learned from my first go-round.

For the rear window, it definitely won’t be left open. What I did on my last one was used the windows from the topper and cut them to make one rear window, glued the pieces together, while making sure the joints were placed where the slider supports were so you never saw them.

Yes, when you know you can do a better job, you're always your own harshest critic! I got so disgusted with the way the paint job was coming out when I was trying to paint my kit XJ, if I had a spare body I was going to just burn it and start over!

[LSXGMC]

I spent some time last night re-doing the rear of the cab. I was a little more patient this time and I think it ended up as a better piece. I also reglued the box extension in multiple stages to ensure it was straight and square, it looks much better now and I’m happy with it! I’ll post some more photos tonight.

[LSXGMC]

Tonight I got the rear of the cab sorted out to a point that I’m happy with. I definitely rushed it the first go-round, this stuff simply takes time and care, and success is dependent on your patience.

Here’s a photo that I used for reference



I started out by tracing the cab outline from my actual cab to ensure it’s a direct fit, and then measuring / marking out the rear window and stamp markings. I used a rod end to mark the small radii on each stamp marking corner for consistency.



I cut it all out with an Xacto knife. Repeated cuts over each line over and over again, took seemingly forever. Once the cuts were made I sanded the stamp markings with a nail file board and used a sanding bit on my dremel to do the corners. The stamp markings are completely unnecessary as you’ll never see them, but I prefer to do it because I know it’s there, it’s scale, and it’s a good test of my skill and patience. I’m happy with how it turned out!



This piece will attach to the rear of the cab. I’ve already got the piece of styrene glued in that goes between the sides of the body and is flush with the back. Between the two, this should have good support in each direction for strength.



Then out came the MEK and every clamp I could fit. I’ll have to do a second bond, and clamp the areas that aren’t held now tomorrow night. Mostly the bottoms, I need to make sure those are good and bonded. Overnight clamp works really well.

[Rickleo]

Great work. The redo is coming along nicely

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[LSXGMC]

Progress has been slow, but I managed to get a few minutes in tonight so I conformal coated my Futaba receiver. This is extremely easy to do, cheap, and quick! I don’t do any water, but it’s cheap insurance!



I usually do 2-3 coats.

[LSXGMC]

I received my Dinky RC Canteliver Kit today. Not a bad little setup, nice that it’s all assembled so you don’t have to guess how it goes together.



I used loctite wherever a screw thread into metal, filled the shocks with 40wt oil, and customized the length of the arms to fit my truck. Wasn’t overly difficult to install. I wanted to set t up so that it was similar to their site photos between the frame rails, but the geometry just wasn’t working with my extended wheelbase and Rock Jock axles. Luckily these were fairly flexible in terms of placement and I found a setup that works. Now there’s zero conflict with my bed floor, so I don’t have to cut out holes for the shock towers. Even though this setup is unfamiliar and unscale to me, it’s worth it.



So far it feels like the spring rates will be OK, but that’ll come down to how it all looks once the body is mounted.

[LSXGMC]

I’m very glad I chose to re-do the cab back and take a little more time on it - I’m very happy with the end product! I have a couple small areas to fix with body filler yet, but for the most part the hard work is done. I’ve stared sanding the moulding lines (there’s a few on this body), filled in the badge locator holes, and can start thinking about how i want to mount it. I’ll probably do it very similarly to my last truck as it mounted incredibly sturdy. I do want to get rid of the side mount holes though, I’ll likely use pins for those as locators.







The box is next. I’ve got most of the body filler applied, it’s just a matter of sanding now and then I’ll be able to start mocking up the mounts before paint!

[Rickleo]

Thanks for showing the cab redo. It looks great. It also makes me realize there are parts of my Chevy build that I need to go back over cause I rushed just to results. I need to slow down so I can get the level of results I really want and I know I can do. Thanks again.

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[LSXGMC]

Tonight I spent some time working on the box. This is a little more difficult than the cab, it’s harder to get straight.

I started by applying body filler to the main joints. I also filled in the gas door, as it isn’t in that location on a K10. I never did this first time around, so these are some of the little things I want to do this time.



Using a second body was a good idea in terms of joint strength and shaping, however, on the front of the bed where the floor ridges are, there’s a raised horizontal area as well which is a real PITA to deal with. Most guys leave it, but I just couldn’t, so I thought about how to deal with it for a while. I wanted to try and find a chisel that was the right size, but couldn’t. The plastic is hard, so using a knife is difficult. I got out the dremel and removed the majority of the material.



Then I threw some body filler on the areas after I cleaned up the excess material.



A lot of minutes and swear words later, the sanding was done.



And voila.



I still need to make a few fixes after throwing a layer of primer down to check for bad spots. Once that’s done, I’ll bond the front of the bed to it, and fill/sand those gaps. I chose to do this floor area first simply because not having the front of the bed on gives me a lot more room to work.

[LSXGMC]

Even though I have a belly full of turkey and stuffing (thanksgiving in Canada this weekend), I was able to spend an hour or so on the truck. One of my biggest gripes with the Blazer body is the “lip” around the side windows, and the drip tray running too far on each end.



For reference, here’s a photo I found on Google search for comparison:



So I whipped out the dremel and attached a sanding drum and went to work. Once I had them roughly removed, I applied body filler all around and then sanded it down to fill in the imperfections, then threw on a coat of primer. Voila, much more scale accurate!