General Lee & Rosco's police car

[high plains drifter]

Jim, I hope that the Monaco hasn't been too much of an inspirational setback for this project. I know the frustration. Was really disappointed to see those paint/ finishing issues here. I know this project comes from the heart. Anyway... Sincerely enjoying watching this one and I hope that you'll continue to make progress on both vehicles.

[Zukiiholic]

The grill is looking really good.
Maybe a printed bumper with brush guard?

[Jim85IROC]

Originally Posted by high plains drifter

Jim, I hope that the Monaco hasn't been too much of an inspirational setback for this project. I know the frustration. Was really disappointed to see those paint/ finishing issues here. I know this project comes from the heart. Anyway... Sincerely enjoying watching this one and I hope that you'll continue to make progress on both vehicles.

The monaco issue pissed me off for sure, but it didn't deter me. I shifted my focus on the Generals for now, but in the background I got a new larger 3d printer that I've been dialing in. I'm trying to use some of the different software tools at my disposal to make the next assembly process go smoother, and I already bought different paints to use this time. I'll be getting back to this soon.

Originally Posted by Zukiiholic

The grill is looking really good.
Maybe a printed bumper with brush guard?

The push bar I'm currently working on. I already have the mount on the car, and I've printed a bar that looks exactly how I want. Now I'm building a template from that printed bar that I can use to make it out of more sturdy materials. I'll have pics of that soon. As for the bumper, to be honest, even though it's not perfect, I really like how the original chrome piece looks. A printed one just isn't going to look the same, even if it's more correct. That said, I'm building 4 of these, and the next one doesn't have the luxury of a chrome piece to start with, so I'll be printing a bumper for that one.

[Jim85IROC]

Been a little while since I posted an update. I bent up a kydex plate that attaches to the underside of the chassis and serves as a push bar mount.



I designed the pushbar in Fusion 360 and printed it, with a couple revisions until I was happy with the fitment and appearance.





Since a printed push bar won't be super strong, once I was happy with the part, I printed a template and transferred it to Kydex for the uprights. For the tubes I used some carbon fiber tubing, with a 3d printed insert to screw into. I ended up liking how the carbon fiber looked so much that I decided not to paint it.



I'm real happy with how the front end came out. I also printed another grill in higher quality, sanded it smooth and painted it, but I haven't put it in yet.

[Zukiiholic]

Final version looks great.
Grill is looking good too.
Makes what to buy a few kyosho Chargers.

[durok]

That's a very creative solution for making a functional and durable pushbar!

[Jim85IROC]

Got the rear of the car done today. I painted the rear black, and also painted the inside of the chrome trim red on the bottom and black on the other 3 sides to better match real 69 tail lights.

[Jim85IROC]

Progress over the last couple days includes replacing the draft grill with the final one, followed by laying out the decal positions in preparation for application.

[Jim85IROC]

The first of the General Lees that I'm building is done!* After I get the rest to this point I want to do some additional work to them, but this is good until then.

[darkfader]

That looks amazing. Fantastic work!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jim85IROC]

Originally Posted by darkfader

That looks amazing. Fantastic work!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks!

[ScaleLifeNewbie]

Looks great! I really like your 69 grill also, really finishes it off.

[OSRC]

Looks fantastic! Agreed that the grill up front makes a ton of difference.

[high plains drifter]

Man, that front end couldn't have come out any better. Great work.

[Jim85IROC]

Originally Posted by ScaleLifeNewbie

Looks great! I really like your 69 grill also, really finishes it off.

Originally Posted by OSRC

Looks fantastic! Agreed that the grill up front makes a ton of difference.

Originally Posted by high plains drifter

Man, that front end couldn't have come out any better. Great work.

Thanks all! I'm really pleased with how it came out.

[Jim85IROC]

Got the video posted! It took me quite a while to get this video fully edited, and the the video ended up being pretty long, but I think it was worth it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L17vEDxZ6zU

Edit: God I hate trying to make youtube links work on this site. Always a crap shoot.

[Panther6834]

DAMN, that looks friggin' outstanding.


~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place

[high plains drifter]

Great video and man I'm dumb... seen your videos before never realizing this was you! Love the intro to this one, obviously.

[Jim85IROC]

Originally Posted by Panther6834

DAMN, that looks friggin' outstanding.


~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place

Originally Posted by high plains drifter

Great video and man I'm dumb... seen your videos before never realizing this was you! Love the intro to this one, obviously.

thanks guys!

[Jim85IROC]

Car number 2 is on the bench. This is going to be my "stunt" car, so it needs to handle jumps. This uses the RJ Speed body, which is oddly proportioned, which works to my benefit here because I can butcher a buggy with more suspension travel instead of using another touring car chassis. What I ended up with is the WLToys 124017 V2.*

You can see that the track width is close


The track width is almost perfect, but the 228mm wheelbase is a far cry from the 274mm wheelbase that I want. So, to get the wheelbase I want, a custom chassis is in order.

I started by adding tape to the bare chassis in order to trace it out and mark all of the necessary holes.


I added a couple parallel lines to help me align the halves when I transfer them to cardboard.*


I added wings because I want the chassis to extend all the way out to the body. I can attach the body to it, plus it will look better jumping with the bottom closed up. I may decide to narrow this and replace the wings with something lighter later.

Here's the cardboard all cut out.


Cardboard was transferred to 1/8" aluminum and cut out.


Next, I clamped the original chassis to the aluminum and transferred all of the holes that I'm using, then countersunk them. *Lastly, I bent the ends of the chassis to line up with the front and rear diff housings.



With the front and rear axle assemblies bolted up, it's starting to look like an RC car again.


And it's really starting to look like something with the body set into place


Now that the chassis is done, I need to focus on the center driveshaft. *I disassembled it and decided that making a new one would be difficult. Getting the flat spots accurate and concentric would be difficult. It would also require getting the length perfect or packing in a bunch of shims to get front and rear gear mesh correct. I think an easier solution is to cut the center shaft and sleeve it. I can add the sleeve with the two halves installed in order to maintain correct gear mesh, and as long as the sleeve fits properly, the driveshaft should atay true.