Project: My Wife Cannot Know

[Alpha Male]

I installed the u-bolts for the leaf springs, a set of front shock hoops on the rear, the Ultimate Scale steel driveshafts and the pretty, red anodized receiver box/fuel cell. That makes it go faster.

[Alpha Male]

I added Rancho decals to the shock bodies and even though I plan to paint the red body a dark blue, I went ahead and installed my roll bar- just because it's so cool.

[Alpha Male]

Bruce Lee is in the driver's seat for a test fit:

[Alpha Male]

I'm still waiting for helical gears to arrive and the body lift kit. Once I have everything ready I plan to add as many details as I can.

Lots more to come!

[Alpha Male]

The gears are here but I think I'm going to order scale bolts for the diff covers and for the transfer case, so I am waiting until they arrive to work on replacing the gears. In the meantime, I'm starting body work.

The bed and cab will be separate with the proper space in between and I don't want any holes, so I'm filling them with bits cut from the cab sprue.

[Alpha Male]

I've never done this before, but I'm going to try using Plastruct Bondene to soften the filler. The plugs are also glued from the inside with CA.





I'm trying to get the solvent into the seams and really soak the plugs. Hopefully this will work!

[Alpha Male]

Seems to work just fine, but this is not as fun as it looks.

[Alpha Male]

I'm thinking about removing the doors to one of my Mojave bodies so that I can add moving parts to the interior. The idea that I came up with will use three hidden micro servos. One servo, behind the steering wheel, will connect to channel one (using a Y splitter) with the steering servo, making the driver appear to be steering. The other two will connect to channel 3 and will move the gear shifter and the accelerator/clutch.

Please forgive the crude drawing.

[raceeng18]

What are you planning to do with the body lift kit you just ordered now that you have filled the holes in the body. Also, how will you mount the body, Velcro?

[Alpha Male]

Originally Posted by raceeng18

What are you planning to do with the body lift kit you just ordered now that you have filled the holes in the body. Also, how will you mount the body, Velcro?

Well, I always intended to fill in the holes in the cab, even those for mounting the body. When I ordered the body lift kit my plan was to use slightly longer flathead screws through the mounting holes with a nut on the inside to keep them tightly seated. Then I could fill the holes over the screw heads and use the screws as pegs. The body lift kit posts could then be mounted and drilled out slightly larger to hold the screw pegs in place by pressure. The idea was that the body could be pulled out slightly to get them into the mounting posts and back out again.

However, I started to rethink the whole idea. I'm afraid that any significant roll over would likely crack the body where the screws go through. Now I'm not sure how I want to mount the darn thing. I may just use Velcro or these super strong rare earth magnets I have.

All I know for sure is that I don't want to see the holes when I'm finished. Any insights, ideas or opinions are welcome.

[Alpha Male]

Oh! The most important reason for ditching my original idea was that my Styrene interior is going to be solidly mounted inside the cab. That would make it very difficult to pull the body out enough to get the screws into the holes without wrecking my interior. All the servos and the driver will have to stay in place when the body is taken off.

[stevem50]

I'm in the same boat and waiting to see what other people are doing... What magnets are you thinking of? I've always been leary of using them because it seems like one strong enough to use as a body mount would also have a field strong enough to mess with the electrics. You ever see what a magnet even close to a tv will do...?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Alpha Male]

Originally Posted by stevem50

I'm in the same boat and waiting to see what other people are doing... What magnets are you thinking of? I've always been leary of using them because it seems like one strong enough to use as a body mount would also have a field strong enough to mess with the electrics. You ever see what a magnet even close to a tv will do...?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's a good point that I had not considered. Why did you have to open that can of worms? Now I won't sleep tonight!

[Alpha Male]

Well, my receiver and ESC will be located aft, so hopefully magnetic fields won't interfere. The micro servos are another story since they will be within a couple of inches of the magnets.

"Help me, Velcro. You're my only hope."

[stevem50]

Tell me about it... I've been at this stage for 3 weeks!!! Either do a body lift, (exposed chassis, so no) or, lock it into 1st gear ( 2 speed, so no..)

How am I stuffing this interior in the cab, it's been suggested to move the shift servo, but I've got too much shit mounted on the frame rails and don't have room left even for a micro servo.

I'm very interested in what you come up with ...



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Postclanker]

Really liking the build, lots of nice scale stuff

And we really like all the pics, keep them coming

[Alpha Male]

I'm so glad that some of you guys are interested in this stuff, too. None of my local people are into scale trucks at all and my wife thinks I'm nuts, so my inspiration comes from the Internet.

I really wish I could take credit for the things I've done so far, but I stood on the shoulders of others before me. Hopefully, what I do next will be somewhat original and may even help other people figure out how to get past their own road blocks.

Holes will be plugged and smoothed out tonight. The interior starts tomorrow. I'll keep posting progress pics.

[new2rocks]

Originally Posted by Alpha Male

Well, my receiver and ESC will be located aft, so hopefully magnetic fields won't interfere. The micro servos are another story since they will be within a couple of inches of the magnets. "Help me, Velcro. You're my only hope."

I used these magnets on my CR01 FJ40: http://www.michaels.com/pro-mag-neod...agnet&start=21 I glued one magnet into each post and one where each hole would have been on the body (for a total of 8 magnets). It's strong enough that I can lift the entire truck up by the body only (and CR01s are porkers), but pulling apart body and frame simultaneously releases them very easily. I alternated poles on the magnets so that the magnets would guide and hold the body in the exact same position each time. I haven't had the slightest hint of electrical interference yet. It's worked so well that it is going to be my preferred mounting solution on all rigs going forward.

[Alpha Male]

That sounds promising! I will certainly try it. I have some small ones with a hole through the center, which I can mount with a screw. The ones I had intended to use are about an inch across and very strong. Maybe they will mount to the body with glue.

[new2rocks]

Originally Posted by Alpha Male

That sounds promising! I will certainly try it. I have some small ones with a hole through the center, which I can mount with a screw. The ones I had intended to use are about an inch across and very strong. Maybe they will mount to the body with glue.

I started by threading tee nuts onto each post: http://www.lowes.com/pd_437202-37672...7C1&facetInfo= (I used pliers to bend the prongs up and out of the way first.). Once those were on, I used not-too-fast drying CA to glue a magnet to each tree nut. I used the accelerator once these lower post magnets were in place so that I knew the glue would hold. I then put a magnet on top of each post magnet without glue. Finally, I put CA on top of these upper magnets, lowered the body onto them, and pressed down at all four posts simultaneously for about a minute to allow the glue to set. Before that final step, I practiced lowering the body into position on top of the magnets a few times without glue until I knew I could get the right alignment when it counted with wet CA. After the magnets were in place on both sides, I separated body from chassis and placed a bead of CA around the edge of each magnet to make sure they would stay in place. So far, it's worked like a charm. :thumbsup: