Carisma '76 Ford F-150 body on TRX-4 lwb?

[OThatsRich]

Hey all, first time post-er here. Seems to be a common story, but I'm an former rc (hobby) racer who hasn't touched it for a couple decades and find myself drawn to the world of trailing and crawling these days. Did a little research and landed on the TRX-4, loved all the techy tidbits that, to me, add a lot of fun scale realism.

Anyway, I managed to find one over the holidays (were sold out everywhere!). Traxxas.com actually had Defenders, so while I've read all of the info about it being top heavy and long wheelbase maybe not being optimal, I like the look of it all the same, and I couldn't lay hands on a Bronco anyway and wanted to get going while I had time off for the holidays, so jumped in!

That being said, I always planned to have a lighter weight body option anyway and love the old Fords. I've found the Carisma 1976 Ford F-150 available as an unpainted body, and it seems to have great scale looks. It has the bonus of being long wheelbase, but obviously was created for another brand's chassis. My question (finally) is if anyone has tried to fit up this body to the TRX-4? Any deal breakers there? I did a search thru the forum and didn't immediately find anything. Thanks in advance, looking forward to the journey!

[Greatscott]

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!!

Haven't fiddled with this particular body, but there lessons learned that can be applied.

The WB looks light, but it look a bit narrow. There might be clearance issues with the floor pans (where the ESC and RX are mounted). The Defender is a bit of a unique animal compared to the rest of the TRX4 line in that it has the wheel wells built into the body, so no issues there. But, the wheel wells that are on the other TRX4s likely will not work without trimming.

[Phildirt]

There is a TRX4 with that body in either the "what did you do to your TRX4 today" thread or the "TRX4 gallery - no talking" thread, can't remember which one. It looks great too. Was fairly recently, in the last 3 months or so, you might only have to dig a few pages back. Or search Carisma Ford in the forum search. I have better luck with Google though, seems to direct you back to RCCrawler with more specific content than just a bazillion threads.

[high plains drifter]

Yeah... my buddy and I made the same switch... trx4 LWB chassis with the Carisma Ford. Man... It was a lot of work. Wheelbase isn't exact but pretty close. Like stated above, the Carisma body is a bit narrow but if going for a heavily modified, beat-upon 70's Ford pickup.. this one is very doable. Just would be difficult if you were going to try to replicate a stock-ish look.

Main issues that we ran into was fender clearance... much more so in the front than the back obviously. And in order for his to not have issues with approach/ departure clearance, he wound up having to raise the body which meant raising the floor pans and sliders. This brought a host of other challenges along with it. We also cut the fenders more than I think was ultimately necessary but still... something else to keep in mind is that they will indeed need to be trimmed for full tire clearance. All of this is obviously subjective depending on what diameter hubs/ wheels/ tires/ back-spacing/ off-set you're planning on running.

But yes... it is doable and with the right wheels/ tires/ paint... looks absolutely killer imo. There was way too much that we had to do for me to go into all of it here although I did start a thread about the project ( Truck is done but I never did update the thread). BTW... Getting rid of the top-heavy D110 body ( plus he had a LOT of stuff up on the cargo rack) made his performance really go through the roof. My Defender used to out-perform his but now with him getting rid of all that top-heavy weight ( and adding some weight to the front of the rig) he's now able to outdo me on almost every obstacle. I can still do pretty much the same lines but he has more control and his rig stays better planted whereas mine has to bounce around a bit more to get up the same ascents.

If you have more specific questions I'm happy to help. Just post up.

Here's the very incomplete thread that I started on the build-

From D110 to TRXFord

Here's a couple pics-

[Phildirt]

Probably my favorite truck in this forum. So cool.

[high plains drifter]

Originally Posted by Phildirt

Probably my favorite truck in this forum. So cool.

Same here and thank you although my buddy did most of the work. Not even comparable to some of the detailed scale hard-body/ interior builds but for a bare-bones lexan shell, it's one of my favorites too. Wish it was mine but as of a couple months ago I couldn't find the Carisma body anywhere. Maybe eventually I'll get to do my own but I'll have to find one first lol.

[OThatsRich]

That definitely looks awesome! Can't tell if he's running wheels spacers for a wider track, but if not, you really do get a sense of how narrow that body is. Just to clarify, I don't actually have the body in hand, just "found" it on the internet as an option. I don't mind modding, but I would prefer the look to lean more toward scale correct than monster truck. The rusty body looks amazing, curious how he did that...I grew up in Utah in the 80s and definitely saw my share of F series trucks that looked just like that, right down to the rust! I may live with the Defender for a while, haven't even had a chance to roll it side-hillin' yet, haha. I guess no matter what the replacement body is, you likely can't readily swap back and forth due to the body post height changes/etc.

I noticed that the latest incarnation of the Carisma body has the cab and bed as 2 pieces, which won't affect the look/width of course. I believe i read that the bodies were breaking a lot at the cab/bed area, so now they're separate. Plus gives folks the choice of doing a cage back i suppose. Would be a bed for me however...

The other "old Ford" I considered was a first gen Bronco, but none that i found (ProLine etc) implemented the injection molded grille/lights/etc that really take a Lexan shell to the next level. Was kinda surprised not to find a better version of the Bronco, they've become unreasonably popular in 1:1 scale, lol.

Originally Posted by high plains drifter

Yeah... my buddy and I made the same switch... trx4 LWB chassis with the Carisma Ford. Man... It was a lot of work. Wheelbase isn't exact but pretty close. Like stated above, the Carisma body is a bit narrow but if going for a heavily modified, beat-upon 70's Ford pickup.. this one is very doable. Just would be difficult if you were going to try to replicate a stock-ish look.

Main issues that we ran into was fender clearance... much more so in the front than the back obviously. And in order for his to not have issues with approach/ departure clearance, he wound up having to raise the body which meant raising the floor pans and sliders. This brought a host of other challenges along with it. We also cut the fenders more than I think was ultimately necessary but still... something else to keep in mind is that they will indeed need to be trimmed for full tire clearance. All of this is obviously subjective depending on what diameter hubs/ wheels/ tires/ back-spacing/ off-set you're planning on running.

But yes... it is doable and with the right wheels/ tires/ paint... looks absolutely killer imo. There was way too much that we had to do for me to go into all of it here although I did start a thread about the project ( Truck is done but I never did update the thread). BTW... Getting rid of the top-heavy D110 body ( plus he had a LOT of stuff up on the cargo rack) made his performance really go through the roof. My Defender used to out-perform his but now with him getting rid of all that top-heavy weight ( and adding some weight to the front of the rig) he's now able to outdo me on almost every obstacle. I can still do pretty much the same lines but he has more control and his rig stays better planted whereas mine has to bounce around a bit more to get up the same ascents.

If you have more specific questions I'm happy to help. Just post up.

Here's the very incomplete thread that I started on the build-

From D110 to TRXFord

Here's a couple pics-

[OThatsRich]

Thanks for the welcomes and thread build link btw! Yes, the forum search is jenky at best but Google does seem to do a reasonable job at directing to rccrawler.com!

[Inspector86]

Welcome to RCC, in case you hadn't noticed, we love pics so post some shots of your new tiny truck. Another option would be to buy the Traxxas Long to Short wheelbase kit and change the WB to a more common 12.3" which really opens up the body options.

[OThatsRich]

Thank you! I do love all the photos on this forum! I'll post something perhaps when I do some sorta mod..right now, I'm box stock (color: grey). Probably couldn't be more boring, heh.

I'm not opposed at all to converting to 12.3, but are there a great 60s Bronco or 70s F-150/250 body to be had in 12.3? I didn't think I saw a remarkable difference with respect to the 60/70s Fords (tho I do realize that there are a *ton* more options in the short wb).

Rich

Originally Posted by Inspector86

Welcome to RCC, in case you hadn't noticed, we love pics so post some shots of your new tiny truck. Another option would be to buy the Traxxas Long to Short wheelbase kit and change the WB to a more common 12.3" which really opens up the body options.

[Fiveflat]

high plains drifter:
You did a fantastic job with that! Can you post pics of how you mounted the body? Did you ream holes or glue magnets?

[high plains drifter]

Originally Posted by Fiveflat

high plains drifter:
You did a fantastic job with that! Can you post pics of how you mounted the body? Did you ream holes or glue magnets?

Thank you! For the mounting we went with magnets. First set that he ordered were way too strong @ 12lb. They actually broke in half when they made contact lol. The ones that we ultimately went with are a 7.4lb magnet. Found the set on ebay fwiw. They are just about perfect for keeping the body on... only breaking free in severe tumbles ( which is a good thing to save the body in that instance). The rear body mounts are standard Traxxas mounts but we had to modify them ( cut off the angled corners in order to drop them all the way down into the mount). Then the magnets were attached to the mounting posts with E6000 and attached to the body with JB Weld's Super Glue to the body. We tried to use the JB Weld super glue on the posts but it wouldn't hold... Yet it holds really well on the lexan.. go figure.

But I say this knowing that each individual project may be different than what we did... in the fact that we raised the floor pans, bumpers, sliders, etc. This was all done to clear the massive tires and still be able to retain fender clearance as well as a good approach/ departure angle. Your project may not require as much work if you're not planning to raise the body up.

This is the only pic I can find at the moment. I may be able to dig up some more pics later.

[Fiveflat]

Originally Posted by high plains drifter

This is the only pic I can find at the moment. I may be able to dig up some more pics later.

Thanks, yea I had that same idea for the rear post mount if I go that route. Any issues with using those magnets on all four corners?

OThatsRich: Sorry if this is hijacking your thread. I think it's good info for you too though...

[high plains drifter]

Originally Posted by Fiveflat

Thanks, yea I had that same idea for the rear post mount if I go that route. Any issues with using those magnets on all four corners?

OThatsRich: Sorry if this is hijacking your thread. I think it's good info for you too though...

No problem at all front and rear. Body holds tight but with a slight twist and tug in the right place, it comes right off. Crazy how much quicker he can access the chassis without body clips.

[OThatsRich]

Originally Posted by Fiveflat

Thanks, yea I had that same idea for the rear post mount if I go that route. Any issues with using those magnets on all four corners?

OThatsRich: Sorry if this is hijacking your thread. I think it's good info for you too though...

All good, any info is good info!


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