Ma and Pa go to market

[stopmojim]

I've had this model for over 4 years. Just sitting around gathering dust. I saw Jim Frye's Trekker conversion using this kit and his custom chassis. It looked very cool so I decided to build one myself.

All the guts are Trail Trekker with the usual upgrades. A Hytec servo, P90 motor, and Venom 250mA LiPo. The chassis is from Jim Frye and the Rec/ESC has been moved to the rear. The battery is squeezed under the hood.

This is my first attempt at doing a rust paint job using the salt technique. It turned out OK.

I'm using micro LEDs in the headlights and taillights. The tires are RC4WD Rok Lox on stock painted wheels with special painted beadlock rings from Jim Frye.

The battery box for the LEDs is a scratch built crate full of oranges. The sign is scratch built but the tools strewn around are from a 1/24 accessory kit.

The oranges are really a disguised lid to the box that is held in place by a tiny magnet. Two button cells are all that is needed to run the lights.

The driver side mirror shaft has been replaced with a flexible material so it won't break off.

The pics are at the end of he thread. Photobucket screwed everyone, so I found another way.

[JatoTheRipper]

That's ridiculously awesome! Nice job!!!

[cleanandserenesteve]

Looks great. The only thing I would change is perhaps cutting the springs as it sits too high and therefore doesn't have the best center of gravity for climbing. I eventually did that to my Hummer and it climbs and looks MUCH better now. Just my .02 cent

[stopmojim]

Originally Posted by cleanandserenesteve

Looks great. The only thing I would change is perhaps cutting the springs as it sits too high and therefore doesn't have the best center of gravity for climbing. I eventually did that to my Hummer and it climbs and looks MUCH better now. Just my .02 cent

Thanks for the compliment and advice! I did cut the springs a bit, and it could drop down a bit further. I get no tire rub at this height even at max flex so I left it there.

But really, once you start putting a heavy plastic body on these things, you're going more for aesthetics rather than performance anyway.

[stopmojim]

cleanandserenesteve,
I took your advice and lowered the truck quite a bit. I had to remove a plate I installed under the chassis at the front to make a bottom to the LiPo battery box. The plate wouldn't allow the servo to go up between the chassis rails far enough. I found I didn't even need it after removing it as everything stays in place anyway.

[cleanandserenesteve]

Yeah, I know what you mean about the heavy hard plastic bodies as they truly do take away from performance. I guess I just tried to go with the best of both worlds. That looks AMAZING! Very cool. Makes me want to do a classic look on my other Trekker, which is all decked out with no body yet...

[stopmojim]

Originally Posted by cleanandserenesteve

Yeah, I know what you mean about the heavy hard plastic bodies as they truly do take away from performance. I guess I just tried to go with the best of both worlds. That looks AMAZING! Very cool. Makes me want to do a classic look on my other Trekker, which is all decked out with no body yet...

My old man owned a early seventies Ford pickup with a bed so rusty it had holes through the sides. He always joked that it was rusty enough to "throw a cat through it".

I thought of building that old truck as I have enough spare Trekker parts to build another.

Oh, btw, I moved the pics in the original post to a different folder in Photobucket so they stopped showing up here. I re-edited the pics in the original post with the new ones, but they still won't show up in your quote of that post now, sorry about that.

Testing.


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Took a few shots up in the mountains.




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