The Little Green Yota | BadWagon

[BadWagon]

Once there was a BadWagon, and a few years ago, for Christmas he got a TF2.

He built the chassis and had dreams of a body so cool, so scale it made him smile at night before he went to bed. His first comp came sooner than expected, he threw the body together, painted it silver and rushed to the comp.

He beat that truck like it owes him money. It rolled, and tumbled, and went crunch... over and over again.

The BadWagon was sad. He had such high hopes, but the body was cracked, busted and junk.

So, He bought a hilux body which was already bobbed, added my his flare and drove that little green yota everywhere.

The Beach






And comps




It was a great little truck, but it never felt like it was my own. So when I started the truggy, it was this cab which was to go under the knife, but my buddy Todd rejected. So I sold it to him that night.

Bought a new body and built a truck that was truly my own.



But sometimes at night, when working alone, I’d think about that little green yota, and wish it’d come home.

Low and behold, one day Todd stopped by, said he was cleaning out his shop, and asked if I wanted to buy it back.

I did, and I did.

Then I did what we all do when we get a body back we’ve wanted... I hung it up and did nothing with it for a while.

Kinda forgot about it honestly.

Then this past fall we had a BowHouse/Helios/RC4WD event at Uwarrie Nat. Forest and I wanted to bring something besides the truggy.

I decide that all bets were off, and I could rob parts from any build which wasn’t complete, which left me with lots of choices.

I knew I wanted to run leafs, so I grabbed the TF2 frame, and a handful of leafs, including some super soft reds.

Then I snatched the SSD trans from the pile of junk truggy build.

I wanted the rig to have some decent steering so I grabbed the yota2 axles from the YJ build. I Remembered i had xvd’s which I hadn’t even installed so I grabbed those up as well.

A MMP and Tekin Pro4 for power, hitech 7795 servo and reviver/bec.





Of course the little green yota would be the body.



Sweet.

Me likey. Stance is better now. Removing the springs and chino mod the leafs improved the suspension dramatically.

I tossed on some bumpers, charged the Helios packs, then packed up.

Wyatt and I left first thing in the morning.



What an amazing event!

Team FU-Nominal had a strong showing. Wyatt hit only 1 or 2 gates all day and the Little Green Yota performed so much better than I expected.

Father & Son








Todd’s “Topo Yota”



I took home the “best weathered paint” award for the truggy (my first gallery award), Wyatt’s RAM took a bath (from the blind driving challenge) and the Little Green Yota just kick booty.



Not bad for a thrown together truck...

[BadWagon]

So the next week Todd, Terry and I hit Davos Dam.



Terry had just received his Marlin Crawler, so you know a full on leaf sprung assault was in order.





While the leg is up...

Leaf sprung flex shots?





I’m just here for the lulz...

Anyway we decided to give Hell’s Gate a go. Hells Gate is a pretty challenging line and has two levels.

Honestly I don’t know if anyone els has ever tried it with a hardbody, leaf spring truck before...

How about a stock Marlin Crawler?

Todd and Terry made it up.



Yes, I made it up.
(Terry is very trusting)


How about the Little Green Yota?



Yes sir.

This truck is starting to impress me. In fact it may be my favorite to drive.



But don’t tell the truggy that...



On the way home I realized that all of those parts which I’d scavenged from all those other builds were gonna need to be replaced.

The Little Green Yota just became build priority #1.

[BadWagon]

We’ve just begun.

First let’s see what we’re working with.

Body is pretty beat up, with plenty of battle scars.





Love these TRD decals, and the Toyota 4wd emblems on the side (not hilux). Those have to stay.

I’m thinking I’ll just weather and layer the paint, keeping the soul intact.

Wiring is obviously legit, so yeah.


The tinted windshield and windows has to go.



Bye.

We’re gonna need an interior and clear glass.



Hello.

So hard to see through that glass with the protective plastic on it... just take it out for now.



What the...



Yes sir. The RC4WD 4 door Mojave interior.

It’s gotta be the best $40 you can spend on tiny trucking. Chop off the back half and you’ve almost got enough for 2 interiors.

Ok it’s midnight, last couple pictures. where we at?

Oh yeah spill beer all over the work bench, then clean it off.

Huh, better.

We can work with this.








More to come

[BadWagon]

Soooo interior....

Ummmmm

I need foot room.



aaaahhhhhhh



Not a bad start.

This guy is working his butt off.



Flock it.



Stack it.



Paint it.



Detail it.



‘Stache it.




Bring it together.



Yes sir, he fits.





I really dig the detail of this interior. Again, best $40 EVER.





So the interior is pretty much done until I go for final instal and weathering.


Now I gotta move on to the drivetrain.

I’ll post it up tomorrow.

[neilus]

Really enjoyed reading that. Subscribed 👍

[JatoTheRipper]

The handlebar mustache cracks me up!

Nice job!

Is the 4 door interior that much more detailed? Is that why people are using it?

And are those door panels part of the 4 door interior?

[BadWagon]

Originally Posted by neilus

Really enjoyed reading that. Subscribed

Thanks my man. I’ll post up more tonight. We are about to get to the fun stuff.

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

The handlebar mustache cracks me up!

Nice job!

Is the 4 door interior that much more detailed? Is that why people are using it?

And are those door panels part of the 4 door interior?

The 4 door interior is complete with door panels. It comes with decals, the metal overlay details, window cranks and door pulls.

For the money, it’s hard to beat.

While the rear door panels are a little shorter than the front, you could make them work for another build with little effort and parts I’m sure most have laying around.

The last interior I made took forever and was mostly done from scratch, based off of a bruiser seat/dash.



Love that interior, but it took me months to complete. Worth it? Sure. But I’d have rather started from this 4 door interior.

The one for the Little Green Yota took me a week or so, working slowly and having a few beers.

Took me longer to get the driver to fit properly than any other part of it.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by BadWagon

The 4 door interior is complete with door panels. It comes with decals, the metal overlay details, window cranks and door pulls.

For the money, it’s hard to beat.

While the rear door panels are a little shorter than the front, you could make them work for another build with little effort and parts I’m sure most have laying around.

The last interior I made took forever and was mostly done from scratch, based off of a bruiser seat/dash.

Love that interior, but it took me months to complete. Worth it? Sure. But I’d have rather started from this 4 door interior.

The one for the Little Green Yota took me a week or so, working slowly and having a few beers.

Took me longer to get the driver to fit properly than any other part of it.

The only thing I hate about the 4-door interior is that it's right hand drive.

Both of your interiors are awesome!

[BadWagon]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

The only thing I hate about the 4-door interior is that it's right hand drive.



Both of your interiors are awesome!

Thanks big dog. It crazy what we spend time on, that almost no one will see.



Little update: Driveline

The combo is working well, so I’m not gonna change much. I’ll mock up the driveline, then once it’s good, break it down.

Next I’ll waterproof all the electronics, paint and assemble.

But first...



It’s not a Hemi, but it’ll do.

I’m pretty excited actually.

After making some dust, I was able to stuff the Tekin brushless can in the cast V8.





Tasty.





I ran the wires out the back of the oil pan. I think I can keep them pretty much out of view.



I still need to test fit the sensor wire, but I have plenty of space.

Speaking of test fit...

[JatoTheRipper]

Did you make that motor or did you buy it?

[BadWagon]

I bought it. Kinda rare, they pop up on eBay from time to time.

[Natedog]

Great read of a thread, love all the pics too! RC4WD interior turned out great and $40 seems like good deal. Proline 1.9 TSL on the beadlocks really match the truck too.

[BadWagon]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Great read of a thread, love all the pics too! RC4WD interior turned out great and $40 seems like good deal. Proline 1.9 TSL on the beadlocks really match the truck too.

Thanks my man! The interior is amazing, especially for the price.

......

Sooooooooo it’s been a hot minute since I updated this thread. I apologize for the delay, however, I’ve been busy. ;)

When I last posted I had a pile of parts...


I needed to start mocking things up.





It’s not gonna leave much room for the motor, or any scale goodness.... also the motor is sitting pretty far back. hmmm....



Seems we’re gonna have some clearance issues. LOL

However, I also received some goodies from NC Local Yocals BowHouse RC. The parts for their Mohave hood kit.



I got busy, and decided to mill a groove into the upper radiator support like the 1:1.



Little mock up:





The fit is nice, especially for non-production parts. I of course cleaned these up further, just because it’s what I do.

I also removed some of the supports for the hood frame.





Time to make it permanent:





I’ll post up another update tomorrow. I have a lot to share.

[c0bra]

Do you know if the Mojave hood hinge kit is available yet? AS I checked the bowhouse rc shapeways store and did not see it listed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BadWagon]

Originally Posted by c0bra

Do you know if the Mojave hood hinge kit is available yet? AS I checked the bowhouse rc shapeways store and did not see it listed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m not sure. I know they are continually tweaking it. Reach out to New2Rocks on here. He can give you the details.

— UPDATE —

Ok here’s a bit more on the engine placement... originally, the motor was just sitting way to far back because of the servo’s position:



No pulleys, the motor is in the firewall. It just wasn’t gonna work.



I needed the servo moved up, as well as the motor, like this:



So I made a sheet metal servo mount which moved the servo as far forward as it could go while still being behind the radiator support.







Mounting the servo on the underside, along with a little shaping of the top of the servo allowed me to fit the pulley kit on as well as get the small block into the correct position.



A little radiator and trans cooler to hide the servo....



The radiator mounts on airbrush cleaning brushes, which fit snugly inside of styrene tubing on the sides of the radiator.







Much more to come, I promise I’ll keep plugging away until I’ve caught y’all up.

[c0bra]

Thanks! I didn’t even think of asking them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BadWagon]

— UPDATE —

Ok here’s a rundown of the radiator support. The Bowhouse hood hinge kit is designed for use with the Mojave grille and is a perfect fit for it.

However as this truck has almost nothing on it which is in the stock location, and will be using a chopped down version of the Tamiya grille. So some modifications were necessary.

I’m a big fan of the look of N00b’s radiator support, especially under a cut down grille. So I’m decided to combine the two.

The Bowhouse part is nice and beefy. Plenty strong so I chopped off the top of the N00b support and grafted the bottom to the Bowhouse part. (I used MEK Substitute). I then began to fill in the rest with MEK goop (styrene and MEK goo)





It’s a start.



Next was to fix it into place permanently.







No it’s not pretty, but it’s strong and looks pretty good from the front. (Yes I see the hanger on the side. I’ll get there.)

I threw a little color on it and dropped it in for fitment. Not bad.





Here is how the radiator support ended up. Photo cropped to keep a little mystery....

[BadWagon]

Alrighty before I sneak off to the shop, I should post another update. Let’s take a closer look at the hood and the bowhouse kit.

When we last left off I had the radiator support in place, as well as the side pieces for the hood hinge kit. I decided to go ahead and mock up the hood.




This version of the kit uses the RC4WD blazer hinges.



Everything would have gone together perfectly, but I have things shoved around, so I moved the hinges forward a bit. Easy enough.





Oh that’s so nice. Show me your V8....



OOOO-LA-LA

Now show me with your grille... does it fit?



Yes. Yes it still fits.

Ok. Ok. Now you’re a shy little Yota... hide your V8, close your hood



No no no

Close it all the way.



What do you mean you can’t?

Oh that nasty small block is too tall for your hood to shut!

Huh, let me see...



Yes, that will do it. <\french photographer voice>

Lol

So as usual, I’ve made the motor too big for the hood to fit. The Bowhouse kit is great, this is all my fault.

So for now, until I figure out exactly how I want to modify the hood, I’ll go without it. I think I’m gonna take this truck on a journey as if it’s a barn find which is undergoing a resto, in stages.

So for now, I’m up to no hood.

[BadWagon]

Sorry it’s been awhile...

Some pics of the progress....

















Might as well update the power while we’re at it...


More updates soon.

[80Yota]

Looks great man! any idea what the olive drab green color is? That is the exact color I am looking to find for my truck. Also, what did you use for spark plug wires/keepers?

Thanks!