Sawback makeover

[PatrickE]

After seeing so many cool projects on this forum, and then looking at my plain sawback... I decided that something had to be done. I don't have any exact plan for how the finished result will look like. We'll see where I end up.

So this is how it looked like a couple of days ago.



The first thing I did was built a roll cage and put on some seat covers. No money was spent since the roll cage was made from two plastic coat hangers and the seat covers a pair of nylons that I stole from my wife (she doesn't know). I thought I had a picture of just the cage but I guess not. I'll add one later. Next up is some wood work.

[PatrickE]

Here I made some wood boards and railing. I stained the wood. All materials were free. The boards were cut from paint mixing sticks and the railing from chopsticks.



Threw in a rubber mat as well (old mousepad).



This is how it looks so far. As you can see I have some plans for the gas cap

[PatrickE]

I am not a big fan of stickers, and the gas cap sticker was pretty awful. I made a recessed cap out of a paint container and a plastic nut.





Made a handle for the rear.

[thead]

i'm a big fan of the sawback,i have two.i like your creativity.i need to tighten up and do some on mine.great job!!!!

[PatrickE]

Replaced the sticker lights and also added some rust.

[JatoTheRipper]

Clever mods. Just great ideas! Nice work.

[chopfather]

I've been wanting to do something about the terrible gas cap sticker on my sawback and now that I've seen your solution I think I can come up with something. I'm also digging the mouse pad mat in the rear, I work on garage doors so I have been planning to use some black weather seal.

[Natedog]

Yes, great solutions to sprucing it up! Maybe shave the ends of plastic hanger down a little where it meets the two thinner horizontal bars, other than that looks great.

[PatrickE]

Had to take a break yesterday as it snowed and I had to attach the snow blade for some action. See some video footage here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QCFUdOzwQE

I made new front and rear bumpers. I was going to paint them black but ended up liking them better plain.





Then proceeded with some weathering work





Added a shovel



More weathering

[PatrickE]

Shots of the entire vehicle. Still some detailing work left on the body. I am also thinking about making a small roof.

[PatrickE]

Time to do some work on the chassis for a change. I had experimented with some axle wrap bars earlier this summer, which worked very well, but wanted to try something more compact.

This is the original design: two brass tubes attached to the rear axle and the skid plate with a small shackle (still to be painted). This prevents axle wrap entirely and allows for articulation with no binding.



For the front I decided to try something else. Roughly cut pieces of brass tubing.



Measuring everything up.



Pieces have been soldered together.



Painted and installed. Works really well, and I like it much better than the version in the rear.



Painted the covers.

[PatrickE]

Rear anti-wrap bars painted.



Went ahead and painted the shackles as well since the chrome did not fit in with the look.

[Zukiiholic]

Jeep is looking good.
I like the looks of the front axle wrap bar..
Good looking weathering and Cas cap. The decal look pretty bad.
Nice seat covers too.
Nice work.

[PatrickE]

Templates for battery compartment.



Receiver box cut and flipped over.

[PatrickE]

[PatrickE]

Painted. ESC and receiver goes on top.

[PatrickE]

Battery fits nice and snug.



ESC and receiver in place.





Body goes on without trouble.

[Natedog]

Very nice scale details, just when I was going to say inner fenders, you made them and they are multi-purpose.