Jato The Trail Finder 2 - Leaf Spring Mafia Edition

[LSXGMC]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Thanks! Was it yours that I borrowed the color from?

Don’t think so. My Blazer was a shade darker

[JatoTheRipper]

I did some of the detail painting tonight. This is the stuff that really tests my lack of patience.

I was shaking like a crackhead going through withdrawal while painting the taillight lenses. Still a little cleaning up to do, but they don't look bad. I don't have translucent white. So the center will stay clear and that might look funky.



I painted the taillight backing silver so it would reflect. It started clumping like this while drying. What in the world? I guess it's time for new silver.

Oh and the bed sides hang out. Do you guys glue them to the rear of the bed or do you let them dangle out there?

[JatoTheRipper]

Night two of detail painting.

Here's the dash. I wanted some details, but I wasn't going to go crazy. RC4WD included some nice decals, but it's a dumb idea to put a decal on molded details. The decal doesn't sit flat and it doesn't stick well. In the end it looks awful. So I only used the gauge decals and they didn't fit the best, but in the end I think it turned out OK. I'm still not happy the interior turned out baby poop brown. I might try to "weather it" at some point.



The Lexan cab windows don't fit right. The front is too long and the three mounting holes sit way off of the hood. This is pushing the dash downwards and it's not sitting flush against the cab. Most people might not notice, but it's driving me nuts. Any tips how to fix this?

[JatoTheRipper]

I went back to touch up the taillights. I tried to get the black lines as clean as possible. For me and my shaky hands this is a miracle. I'm pretty happy with these.

[JatoTheRipper]

I'm honestly really happy with the way this truck looks. I'm not going to glue on the bed cargo hooks. It won't take much to knock those off on the trail which will leave behind a glue mess so I'm just going to avoid that mess altogether.

If Mother Nature cooperates, and she really hasn't all year, this truck will get its first trail run on Sunday.

[calcagno45]

Man that blue looks good. Some inner fenders and I think your set.

Give up on the Blazer body fitment?

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by calcagno45

Man that blue looks good. Some inner fenders and I think your set.

Give up on the Blazer body fitment?

Thanks!

I have painted inner fenders at home. Hopefully they'll go on tonight.

The Blazer will be my cruiser/don't scratch anything body. But I'm a performance guy. I like trucks that can tackle obstacles so this will be my performance body...if I find the heart to scratch it.

[Clingman]

That blue is fantastic. Nice work on the whole build.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Clingman

That blue is fantastic. Nice work on the whole build.

Thanks a lot!

[afrofroggy]

Hey Jato i shaved about 1mm of the bed hooks reshaped them and glued them in shorter seem to be better
also what colour is the blue please ?

[neilus]

That looks great, very similar color to mine. Very nicely detailed. How did you get the panel lines so neat? Did you mask them? And, how did you get the silver grille details so neat??

[scalemadness]

Love the color choice Jato very close to the one i used to have

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by afrofroggy

Hey Jato i shaved about 1mm of the bed hooks reshaped them and glued them in shorter seem to be better
also what colour is the blue please ?

Good idea, but I'm just not going to bother. I'm sure I'd still rip them off.

The color is Rust-Oleum Oasis Blue Satin.

Originally Posted by neilus

That looks great, very similar color to mine. Very nicely detailed. How did you get the panel lines so neat? Did you mask them? And, how did you get the silver grille details so neat??

Thanks. My friend painted the body and the lines on the body. He also painted the grille. He's a very skilled painter. The chrome on the grille is actually one of those chrome paint markers.

[JatoTheRipper]

Well Mother Nature was a bitch and, despite Saturday being like summer, Sunday was very cold and rainy so the trail run was cancelled.

Good thing I got it running Saturday and I got a chance to do a test in my rock/weed garden at home.

First, I tidied up the wiring and installed the inner fender wells. Some of the wiring runs under the battery tray and it concerns me that that could potentially get snagged out on the trail. And the shift servo wire goes between the servo and the battery to get under the battery tray. This could be an area where the wire could potentially rub through. I guess we'll see what happens.



This is the amount of travel I'm starting out with. All components at this point are stock and in the stock locations (meaning I haven't switched the shocks around). Not much flex there! Good thing flex is overrated!



Anyway, onto the rockweed garden test run. The bright sun really throws off my phone's camera in picking up this color. It's not this bright.





The first scratch hurts the worst! You can see said scratch on the back right of the truck. During my initial run I didn't run a rear bumper because I hate tube bumpers on street trucks. I wish RC4WD would have included, or even offer, a stock looking rear bumper to match the stock, chrome bumper they included.

Overall, it was a fun run in the rockweed garden. I got more scratches on the left side when the truck slid into the rocks of my house and I didn't realize it. I moved forward and heard the scratching. This will be my first, and probably only, really scale truck. Now let's see if I can learn to drive this way without wanting to tackle every obstacle.

The rear tube bumper didn't fit correctly. I know very shocking for an RC4WD part not to fit properly Just another problem in a long line of quality issues on this truck. The side tubes kept tugging on the marker lights and I was afraid they were going to rip them off. So I unscrewed the side portions of the bumper. I also cut off the stupid part that protruded out the rear and would surely get hungup during climbs. It's not pretty, but it serves it's purpose until I can, hopefully, find a better rear bumper.




This is how the bottom of the truck looks after one 10 minute run! The paint they are using has to be weak. They should have used durable powder coating. I mean my Boom Racing black axles don't look this bad after one run.

[sgtlt]

to run wires under the battery put a narrow thin foam stick on spacer on the ends of the battery tray to give the wires some room, this has worked great on my 2 trucks

[sgtlt]

If you don't like the body posts sticking up in the bed cut them off at the 3rd hole from bottom and swap them with the alloy battery stops. then you can use a m3 screw with a washer to hold the back of the body

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by sgtlt

to run wires under the battery put a narrow thin foam stick on spacer on the ends of the battery tray to give the wires some room, this has worked great on my 2 trucks

That's a great idea!

Originally Posted by sgtlt

If you don't like the body posts sticking up in the bed cut them off at the 3rd hole from bottom and swap them with the alloy battery stops. then you can use a m3 screw with a washer to hold the back of the body

That's a good idea as well. You're right. I forgot to trim the body posts.

I have a couple of questions for you TF2 experts.

1. What size o-ring is used for the o-ring mod? I can't find it after a Google search.

2. What drivers are you using? Every figure I've tried is too tall in the torso and their head hits the roof.

[LSXGMC]

That blue looks amazing, and those outdoor pics - WOW. Looks fantastic Jato, great job on this build you should be very proud of it!!

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by LSXGMC

That blue looks amazing, and those outdoor pics - WOW. Looks fantastic Jato, great job on this build you should be very proud of it!!

Thank you for the very kind words! I greatly appreciate it!

[sgtlt]

A number 60 o-ring from the plumbing parts section of Lowes or home depot. about $4 for 10. I have read that a 7" figure is the right size.