Crusher cars

[Metal Masher]

While i was at the East Coast Scale Challenge I got to talking to a very nice gentleman by the name of Mike (budhatrain). He is really into monster trucks and helps organize races in Ohio. He heard that i made metal bodies and wanted to know if i would be willing to make some cars to crush for some exhibition events they hold during the regular racing weekends.

Now i have been thinking about making some crusher cars for years and after talking with him i realized we had the same idea. The car not only needed to appear realistic but also had to act like a real car as well. Crushing but with some resistance. Without hesitation i accepted the challenge and now i finally had the time to build some prototypes to test.

To get the realistic look, I started with a 1/10 scale charger "general Lee" Cheap RC car.



Then i tore it apart



I didn't have the materials on hand to make proper molds and it didn't need to be perfect, just recognizable and quick, so i formed the metal right on the body

I kept the sides one piece



Then formed the roof,



Hood, cowl



trunk lid, package trey and tail light pan



Then i taped them together to see how they would look





Looks like a Charger right?

Metal bodied drifter!?



HMMMMM.......Ok that's another project

Anyways, Next came the "chassis". it's just some roof flashing.



Now in an attempt to give it some realism, I made rear inner fenders



Fit is good



So I glued them in place



Next i glued the body sides in place and taped the trunk lid on to keep them spaced properly



Then, to add more rigidity and keep the fenders spaced properly, i made a package trey



and glued the trunk lid and tail light pan in place. I even left it open to add to the realism



Next it was time for a firewall



And this is where the 2 cars differ. I want to see how adding inner panels acts. On one hand it will make the body structure more rigid but on the other hand it will make it more difficult to reshape the bodies after they have been crushed

Here are the panels



Then glued in place on the one car



Then added the dash



the other car simply gets a dash



next i made the front inner fenders and radiator support



in place the fit is good



next i glued some "hinges" from the hood to the cowl



and glued the assembly it fast



Lastly it was time for the roof. I did it 2 different ways. one was by trimming the roof,



the other was by trimming the quarters.



After the fact i think i will trim the roof as it seemed to work better

home it went



and they were done and ready for paint.













Another thing i did different between the cars was some creases to stiffen the floor pan. I haven't decided which one i will stick with but both did the job.



and here they are all painted nice and crappy!



And a hint of what is to come tomorrow!



Don't worry, i'll post aftermath pics and vids.

[THX_138]

Your work always amazes me

Actual "hands on" time, how long did it take you to build these?

Looking forward to the action and aftermath pictures


.

[budhatrain]

That is RIDONKULOUS! I cannot wait to see what happens. Very cool Blake, thank you for taking it to the next level...

[Metal Masher]

Wait no longer!

They worked out real well. I might be able to make the roof a bit stronger but that will be up to you. I like it the way they are if you ask me

Crusher car test vid

[budhatrain]

WOW, that is what I am talking about! I am limited with Internet access so I can't watch the vid. But these look the part so well... You are a man among men

[Metal Masher]

Originally Posted by budhatrain

WOW, that is what I am talking about! I am limited with Internet access so I can't watch the vid. But these look the part so well... You are a man among men

Thanks! go ahead and send the link to the video to anyone that is involved with the events so they can see it. I'll ship the bodies out this week.

[crawlerpat]

Awesome !!!!!!!!!

[budhatrain]

showed them to the boss and he is very excited... can't wait to see them in person and take them to the NRCTPA World championships

[Metal Masher]

That's good to hear! you've inspired me to build a monster truck now!

[Gravebane525]

maybe some kind quick bench seats type supports to help keep the roofs from collapsing all the way down? been a long time since I was at a show but I don;t think the roofs go down to the floor. no idea if the interiors are still in them though.

edit:

nevermind... just watched a vid... the reason I thought the roofs didn't get that flat is cause by the end the whole car is that flat lol. need to run em over for a few more hours!

[Metal Masher]

Well i just realized that i never did a follow up on this.

After Mike ran the cars at the Ohio nats he sent them back to me for evaluation. I was really impressed at how wel they held up. some of the MT's were in excess of 40 Lbs!





Here is how the cars looked when i git them back





























Then i took a few minutes and re-shaped the bodies the best i could. they didn't come out to bad.

[Metal Masher]

Now that i had them back i was trying to decide what to do with them. I didn't feel like running them over any more (mainly because my MT sucks) and i wanted to get some more use out of them.

Then i thought, "I wonder if i could make one RC?" So i gave it a shot.

Trying to keep it as simple as possible, I decided to use the running gear from the original chassis.

So i took the chassis,



Then pulled the electronics cover off to see how the front end was put together and was amazed to find the whole front suspension set up as a preassembled module.



This would work perfectly.

Next pulled the front suspension off.



The electronics I'm not using as I'm going with hobby grade stuff.

The rear assembly was just as easy. all i had to do was drive the hinge pin out.



Then to fit them to the chassis, I cut a hole in the floor the shape of the axle assembly.









That looks about right



Now to attach the front suspension i made up a simple skid



then i grabbed a micro servo i had for steering



next i made a servo horn



After that i decided to check the servo to see if it worked and of course it was dead. so i had to go with a full size servo.



To get it to fit i had to make up some more plates.





to mount the suspension pod to the plate i cut the post off the original chassis.





in front i used a simple piece of tubing for a post



Then i cut a space for the servo in the firewall



bolted up the plate assembly





then installed the servo



the rear was much easier with some simple angles.



Finally i cut the B pillar so i could fit the electronics starting with a pair of slots for the battery



then mounted the ESC and receiver to the package trey



There you go! a simple metal RC car, and if you are wondering why i didn't just use the whole chassis? not only did i want to use Hobby grade electronics but i wanted to see how the body would hold up as it was, pretty close to the 1:1 unibody construction.





I did some test runs and it seems to work good. i'll get the vids posted up as soon as i get them edited.

[Lukescb7]

Very cool, id like to have a few of those on my scaler course.

[tomford]

What size metal did you use? What about glue?

[2JSC]

I remember when I was a kid, I had a battery powered Bigfoot monster truck, and it came with a mold and a number of aluminum sheets that had cars printed on them so that you could form a car and crush them, and mold them back. This just brought back soo many memories. Awesome project and execution!