Project Micro Clampy

[Jethrobodean]

Anyone who's ever had an off road yota knows of Clampy. Fred Wiliams' of 4 wheel Off road magazines clapped out, resurrected from a scrap yard, 80's model Toyota that has now been on numerous Ultimate Adventure trips, & is a legend of the Toyota corner of offroading.

Personally, I've loved this truck for a very long time. I think I even still have the original magazine from when this thing was tossed together for it's first UA. Convinced me to get a yota, & undoubtedly was a major influence on my offroading future.

Inspirational pictures:









I originally wanted to go with an early version of this truck (BFG Krawler days), but Really dig it on the treps, & dirt modeler has beadlock rings that are a near perfect match for this era as well.

[Jethrobodean]

Using one of the Lindburg 1/20 kits for this. Not the perfect year, but by the time I hack it all up, it'll be close enough. I just hope I can do this justice, first micro build for me. Will be a styrene build, a little more forgiving when I screw something up.

Started with some good rear axle lockouts. (Made from some 3/8 Delrin, not sure if I'm going to like them so much when time to get shocks mounted. For those that don't know, nothing sticks to delrin, so glueing something on is out of the question)




Dirt modeler rings, wrapped in MT's (close enough to the treps)




First cuts always the hardest right? (I can verify, the next hundred or so still were not any easier)




Some more hacking, got an acceptable interior set up.




Tube doors




Started in on some rear frame work





Belly skid




Some more reat frame work, & one of the odd things I'm doing for this thing (I'll get all of the downfalls of both MOA & a shafty, but by god I'll have a dig & proportional drive)

[Jethrobodean]

Probably won't be a real quick build, still have a mess of issues to work out.

Been 20 years since I've done a model. Even my 1/10 build stuff has been steel. Takes your mind back in time a bit. My hands assured me that I've got a few extra years of poor decisions & caffeine addiction since then though.

[MikeChino]

Looking forward to seeing this come together, Good start

[R.Billy Rob]

This should be good! Your off to a good start. As a Toyota lover, I'm very familiar with Clampy, nice to see her done as a micro. You could hide the fact that it's not the right year easily by squaring up the front turn signal openings.

[Jethrobodean]

That's not a bad idea. Just stripped the chrome from grill last night, I'll have to look into this a little more.



Pretty certain I'm going to just go with a link suspension on it for now. Part of me wants leaves to stay true scale, but the idea of micro leaves kinda scares me off a bit.

[Jethrobodean]

Just a tossed-together teaser

[nigelpheron]

Watch'n this one.

[R.Billy Rob]

I really love the way those "doors" look, they turned out nice! I personally think you should not give up on the leaf spring idea. Just get an old nitro pull spring, and cut it up. You've obviously got the skill to make some leaf hangers and shackles. This thing is going to well to not at least try it.

[Jethrobodean]

I've got the feelers out to the local track guys for a junk recoil spring. part of me really want leaves, part of me doesn't want to hurt performance. (AKA, fight building & mounting leaves )

So... Some newb leaf questions (never run them on an RC)

Do they seem to bend alot? Seems like they'd bend at the first good jarring.

Any noticeable performance difference compared to links? This obviously ain't comp level crawler, just wondering about hop, etc.

Anybody know of a good part number for a spring in case the local guys don't have anything? Something ~3-4mm wide? Did some looking, but hard to shop them by size.

In other news, huge kudos to you. Marker lights will be getting a change, along with the angle of the grill. Either the later ones are racked back a little bit more, or the kit just is, going to try & take some of that back out while I'm hacking around up there.

[Jethrobodean]

Well, I jumped in head first & blind. Had an idea that rooted into my head & just wouldn't get out..... spring under, because.... well because Clampy is spring under in the rear, & this IS supposed to be Clampy after all.

Also, I am evidently just a glutton for punishment.














Only the one side is mocked up. Wanted to make sure it worked liked it did in my head. Shock hoops re going to require some re-work, & I'm going to have to notch out under them for shock clearance, which I was hoping to avoid, but I'm thinking I can hide it well enough.

So, verdict from the pro's.... Will it hold up to mild abuse? Single screw through bottom, & shock ball stud actually threads into both spring pad & axle tube a bit. Thinking maybe my lower "spring plate" may need to get replaced with something steel, just for good spring support.

[BLOODBANE]

I didnt realize that was you Jethro (had my head in the dark place again, but there has been a lot happening). This is going really nice. We still need to find a Sami body that would work though.

[MGCrawler]

Looking really good man! Love the doors and the leaf setup is very nice.

[Jethrobodean]

Originally Posted by BLOODBANE

I didnt realize that was you Jethro (had my head in the dark place again, but there has been a lot happening). This is going really nice. We still need to find a Sami body that would work though.

there's a model kit out of overseas that would work good. I think Dan has one.

Originally Posted by MGCrawler

Looking really good man! Love the doors and the leaf setup is very nice.

Thank ya sir. Not up to par on alot of your builds just yet, but I'm doing my best at learning

[Jethrobodean]

Kind of a bittersweet victory






Spring under came out decent. 3 leaf pack might be a bit stiff, but easier to pull a leaf out later than have to make another. Rework list is getting long, but I shot from the hip early on, so to be expected. (at least styrene is easy enough to cut out & redo). Not happy at all with shock hoop placement, plus height isn't going to work with shocks. Also going to have to rehash the motor mounts. I was hoping that with extra wheelbase that I could mount them side by side that way, but looks like I'm going to have to stagger them if I want to get driveshafts in there.

[Exitaph]

This is looking awesome, man! Dem styrene skills! I'm working on a datsun truck build with a trail trekker. It'll be my first time working with styrene.

[spoo76]

Awesome yota! Clampy is indeed well known! Have you seen MGcrawlers hilux builds? Great inspiration.
http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/losi-...le-creepy.html

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/micro...2-hilux-3.html

http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/sho...t=71683&page=4

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/losi-...mr-crabby.html

Also Check out the 1/20 - 1/18 scale gallery. It hasn't been update in a long while but there are some other cool 1/20 - 1/18 builds on there. Many of them built by people with many great micro builds.

1/20 scale picture gallery ( and some 1/18 )

http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=57892



Sent from my Note3

[spoo76]

Oops

[Jethrobodean]

Thanks. I've looked through several of MgCrawlers builds, top shelf stuff for sure.

No real updates. Life & some 1:1 work has been taking all of my time lately. I have been tinkering on it in spare minutes, but have mostly just been mocking & wasting time on ideas that didn't pan out.

Spent most of it on front suspension / steering. Tried my hand at a CMS, but the front suspension is just too soft & it was causing quite a bit of flex just sitting on the bench. So I moved the servo back to axle mounted, & had to settle on how the drag link was run, just not enough room to fit everything passed the leaves with it so low. Then I realized I'm going to have to do some firewall / inner fender work to clear tires also.

I'd also hoped to get a servo winch under the hood, but once the steering servo is tucked up under there, it's looking like that may not work either. It's a good thing I'm committed to this little project, because it's seeming like 2 steps forward, 3 steps back.

It is at a point of sitting on all 4 tires though, a nice little personal motivator to get to see it come together with the look.

[spoo76]

Did you use a panhard bar with the CMS? Its definitely a tight squeeze for a CMS but its been done with a panhard on here a few times. Maybe a bell crank setup with a longer rod on the servo end would help free space where you need it. As far as a winch those little key/badge holders were popular for a while. They seem to work OK for a micro,if anything you can always mount the servo winch farther back and run the cable up front. Good luck! Look forward to seeing this one done

Sent from my Note3