1989 Nissan Hardbody: stock appearing scale truck

[4Runner house]

I've always wanted to make a scale truck that looks like a stock truck or close to a stock truck. Most "scale" trucks have the proportion of a monster truck which is great for crawling/climbing but I thought it'd be fun to do something different yet still as capable as possible. I've spent a load of time building up this losi mini pro chassis to bullet proof it and make it a hill climb monster. It's retained all of its setup except for now it's got a lot smaller tires. The wheels are rc4wd Mickey Thompson classic 1.55s and the tires are the dirt grabbers which are a scale BFG all terrain. The body is about as low as its gonna get but I'm still gonna try to lower it a little more

While the tires have shrunk and most capabilities have been lost it actually gained one good thing. With lowering the height from the tires and lowering the body the center of gravity is now lower than ever and on couch and concrete climbs its gone near vertical without trying to flip back. I spent a week painting this body a few years ago and the whole thing is painted except the nissan decal. The windows are tinted and I hand painted the window trim instead of using decals. Just gotta be super careful not to roll it. Next ill be running the Tyco bandit and box art painted King cab body which will also Velcro on

[daver18qc]

very nice !
how long is your wheelbase ?? (rear wheel center to front wheel center distance)

[4Runner house]

Current wheelbase is 10.2"

[daver18qc]

sweet!
where did you get that body, is it still available ?
is it really a hardbody though ?
looks lexan to me, or else you did a damn great job on the paint/clear coat if not!

[4Runner house]

Thanks! The body is a Nissan Hardbody made from lexan by Tamiya and called the King Cab. This body is a reproduction made by teambluegroove and can be bought on eBay.

[90Finder]

This looks awesome, I'm a sucker for Nissan's!

My 1:1 crawler is a Nissan.

[daver18qc]

So it's a Lexan reproduction from a Hardbody Tamiya original ? Cool, i shall look into that !!
('cause you can't call a Lexan a hardbody, hardbody means it's made of hard non-transparent plastics and you paint them from the outside! (Not busting your balls here, just sayin'...))

[GLHS592]

No. It is a Nissan Hardbody. Nissan made trucks in the 80's and 90's that they called Hardbody. Hardbody in this reference has NOTHING to do with what this scale body is made of.

BTW, that truck looks great. A few of my friends had Nissan Hardbody pickups. I have good memories of riding around in those trucks. They were tough trucks for sure.

[4Runner house]

Just when I thought all my off road capabilities went down hill from the tires I went out and did some thorough testing on my usual climbs. I couldn't believe how well it did on these tires and I ran it up against my buddies modded mini on stock tires. I went everywhere he did and even up some climbs he couldn't make. Also an scx10 on 1.9 ripsaws and 12.3" WB couldn't make one that I barely got up. Gotta say, I am very impressed by these tires. They seem to grab the best the lower the wheel speed.

Check out the VIDEOS:

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/...ps44a7a305.mp4

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/...ps619c2da2.mp4

[T_Tank]

Nice looking shell ya got on that little truck! Also watching the vids gotta laugh with the bigger rig spinning an kicking up dirt with not so much distance covered an then yours just driving on through it without a hitch made me laugh.

I noticed least with my 6.5" rig with 1.55 mickey mtz it does climb really well seeing those dirt grabbers work make me want to get a set of those to

[motoj550]

looks great man, really appreciate the old hardbodies. i'm slowly building 1 right now with the same body u got. making it to look like my real 1.1

here's my ongoing build thread: Motoj550's 1.1 replica

been awhile since worked on it because been to busy comping but ready to dive back into it again.

[4Runner house]

Omg that hardbody is incredible!

[4Runner house]

Originally Posted by T_Tank

Nice looking shell ya got on that little truck! Also watching the vids gotta laugh with the bigger rig spinning an kicking up dirt with not so much distance covered an then yours just driving on through it without a hitch made me laugh.

I noticed least with my 6.5" rig with 1.55 mickey mtz it does climb really well seeing those dirt grabbers work make me want to get a set of those to

We were laughing our heads off watching this truck with itty bitty tires walk up places some of the bigger trucks have trouble with. I'm still stumped by this one lol. Gotta be the ultra low center of gravity

[fla_cracker]

Great looking truck..... Love seeing something different

[daver18qc]

I was trying to figure out what 1.55 tires i was gonna go with, but re-watching your video just made the choice obvious, Dirt Grabbers it's gonna be

[4Runner house]

You won't regret them, I was highly surprised how well they do on rocks and packed dirt. On very loose deep dirt they of course won't grab like most crawler tires but as seen in the video they just bite on any somewhat solid surface. Just because how cool they look when running alone, i love these tires

[daver18qc]

Again just to be sure, this is the body you got ?
TBG Nissan King CAB Body Hilux HI LUX Monster | eBay
(Don't worry i wont copy your design i wanna do mine black/rusty )

[4Runner house]

Yes thats its! Do whatever you'd like, i've got a couple more nissan hardbodies ive done that I will post up for other ideas

[daver18qc]

Sweet! Thanks alot!
I've got so many scx/wraiths friends that my F250 body doesnt look very scale compared to their jeeps and such. (looks like a mini-f250)
Since the real life Nissan is very small pickup truck i think it will make my smaller RC look more scale at their side

[4Runner house]

Yeah for a lexan it looks scale up next to anything and pictures really don't do it justice. It's a blast on 1.55s but I've also got another I'm building with cutout fenders to run 2.2s