T4 Rally Raid Truck

[whit5ham_wannabe]

I actually have some progress to report today! Little steps, but nonetheless, progress.

First off, I sorted out the mounting for the bed. Using my new found love of brazing, I made up a cross member over the electronics, which bolts to the edge flanges on the chassis. Made a little catch that slides under the bar for up down and forward location at the front. At the rear, I made two L shaped pieces that locate off the shock bosses, for cross car and rear location. Couple of magnets to hold the back down. Really the only thing I might need is cross car location at the front mount, but I may leave that for now.



Naturally I couldn't resist a quick spin around the block ...



I may have to build another bed for it, in the trials truck style. Give me an excuse for more tube work, if nothing else.



The mail man brought me a little package from Ebay. Some fine looking scale spot lights ...



... unfortunately not my scale. They're just too damn big on the front of the Man. Anyone know of some more low profile lights I could use? No one gives dimensions on the 'bay.



I also took a deep breath and cut a couple of holes in the bodysides. Air intakes ...



Finally, I doubled up the rear floor, recessed the 1/2 spare into it, and tied down the spares. Doesn't look like much in the plan view, but visually I think it'll make a difference when viewed through the rear hatch.



Currently I am trying to find excuses not to frame up the rear body, because I know that is the step where it all could go wrong, and because I want as much detail done as possible before I close that area up. Running out of excuses, though ...!

Cheers!

[derb]

You've made some great progress mate. I'm in love with that flat tray look, reminds me of your average builders truck and just looks really clean and nice.

[SFC K]

That is coming along nicely! I like how you mounted the bed and the tubing work looks awesome! This is going to be epic when you are done!

[whit5ham_wannabe]

As mentioned previously, I have been trying to figure out how to mount light. The original CC01 kit came with a set of front and rear LEDs, but the Bruder's light buckets were too shallow, and not going to work.

So I stopped on the way home from work, bought a baking pan, and made up some aluminium ones.



LEDs are very blue in the front, guess I will have to pretend they are HIDs.



After all my head scratching about rear lights, I realised the obvious solution was staring me in the face, and I made up some buckets for the rear too.



I finally plucked up courage and started framing up the rear body. Overall, I am very happy with it. I screwed up by not accounting for material thicknesses in a few places, but nothing that isn't fixable.



I was also getting really mixed results with bonding, some places the plastic would liquify and make a fantastic bond, other places it seemed to glaze over and just form a 'stick' bond. After every joint was made I went round and inspected as best I could, hit with more glue as needed and shimmed with shavings, so I am fairly confident it'll stay together - certainly feels nicely robust right now, but I guess time will tell!



I have a lot of sanding to do!



It's very cool to see it all together without being held together by tape.

[lonleycreeper]

Epic man, looking good. What are you using for glue? I have had the same problem in working with styrene.

[SFC K]

This keeps getting better!

[scorpion ax-10]

Really like the emblums, genius with the baking pan

[whit5ham_wannabe]

Been a while since I posted updates, but rest assured i haven't forgotten my little truck. I've been doing a lot of little, time consuming stuff that doesn't seem to make a big difference, and then suddenly ... it looks like a complete truck!

So here it is ...



Repositioned the cab a couple of mm, and added a third mounting point. Painted the inside of the rear body, put the roof on and started the seemingly unending task of sanding. Got some Axial lights, added a mount bar under my cage, an extra cross beam on top , made some seats and mounted it up. Made up an extra support for the front grill, so it doesn't fall off every time I look at it.



It's coming together ... time to start thinking about paint ...

[volcanus]

Great job, very original. Thanks for the link on brazing, it's something I want to try and do.

[whit5ham_wannabe]

Thanks ... the brazing really was a lot easier than I thought, though I'm still amazed by some of the stuff that comes out of the guys on this site.

Forgot a rear shot yesterday ...

[derb]

That's the best angle I reckon, I can't wait to see some paint on it.

[whit5ham_wannabe]

I took it for it's first trail ride yesterday ... looks good with some mud on it!

Overall I was very happy, didn't do anything too technical, just bashed along some footpaths, but it worked very well. Going to need to do something a little more robust to hold down the spare tyres ... and maybe something else to hold down the rear body. Over jumps you could hear it jumping around on the magnets.



And here is proof that it actually goes under it's own power. Crappy video, will do better next time ...



And proof that I can't drive and point a camera at the same time ...

[scorpion ax-10]

Those trails are perfect man, sweet video, truck is coming along nicely.

[whit5ham_wannabe]

Just a couple more shots, before everything gets torn down for paint ... I think I figured out what was wrong with the settings on the GoPro. Definitely looks better.

Wheelie!



A couple more short videos ...

[derb]

Nice vids, that trail looks great. It goes fast too! Are you using the stock motor? I've only ever run very low turn motors in mine.

[whit5ham_wannabe]

I have a 45t motor in it, fast enough but not out of scale fast. I did get motor stall on one climb yesterday, but I think the battery had gone off the boil a bit.

This is my inspiration for paint, by the way ... Kawasaki France Racing from back in the day. This is me doing my best Terry Rymer impression about 20 years ago! I'm trying to figure out a scheme that doesn't look too fussy or too bland, but that I stand a chance of pulling off with my meager skills and zero experience.

[whit5ham_wannabe]

Here is my first idea for a paint job, courtesy of Gimp (poor mans Photoshop). Opinions gratefully received ...!

[derb]

Looks pretty cool, are you going to actually paint the white areas with a gloss finish paint? Will look much better than just two colours over bare styrene. I've always been a fan of the blue trucks like Red Bull, Gaulioses or KAMAZ.

[ashman]

I like it, needs a wicked skid in the front. After all this is Dakar were talking about.

[Debonair]

I like the paint scheme. I think some black in there somewhere would add to it. Maybe a stripe separating the Green and White the same way the red stripe does/did on the nose of your bike.