GCM Bronco Scale Interior kit step-by-step

[new2rocks]

GCM has created an ingenious new interior kit for the Ascender Bronco, so I was naturally very excited to get ahold of one. GCM has done an amazing job of designing this kit to take advantage of every cubic inch of space inside the Vaterra Bronco body with an incredibly strong and versatile package. to our friends in Canada for this one!

Before installing the interior kit, you'll need to do a forward motor conversion and eliminate the rear shock hoops through a rear leaf conversion or a rear shock relocation kit. Check out our Bronco anniversary celebration build thread for details on those mods:
New2rocks & Roo celebrate the Bronco

If you haven’t worked with styrene before, I highly recommend having the following tools and supplies handy:
- a good hobby knife
- Plastruct Bondene, Plastruct Plastic Weld or similar plastic adhesive
- CA glue
- Shoe Goo or E6000
- sandpaper of varying grits (I usually go from 320 up to 1000)
- a set of hobby files
- clothespins and/or appropriately sized clamps

The interior kit does not come with a steering wheel, steering column, shifters, door handles, window cranks and seats. But no worries, as everything but the seats is conveniently available on Axial parts tree AX80037. There are also numerous options for seats to suit your tastes.

So let’s get started. The package looks innocent enough:


And then you see this:


Holy pile of parts, Batman! I’m getting flashbacks to the Beast build. But fear not…this actually goes together quite easily, as you’ll see. If you want to lay out all of the parts and sort them before you start, you can. But there’s no need. Just follow me…

1. Let’s start with the main floor pan. It’s easy to spot in the pile of styrene pieces, because it’s the biggest part. Then find the long, skinny riser pictured next to the floor pan (also easy, as it’s the only piece that has anything close to that shape):


2. Take a careful look at both sides of the tabs and slots on these pieces. You’ll see that the cutting process produces some lips that tend to be more pronounced on one side than the other. At each step along the way, test fit the pieces and trim/sand tabs and slots before trying to glue them. Some pieces may need a bit more trimming than others, so test first and them trim/sand a little bit at a time until you get a nice snug fit.




3. Glue the riser to the floor pan at a 90-degree angle






4. Locate the two floor sections that form the base of the front seat foot wells. I recommend starting with the left (driver’s) side, which has a slot in the middle. Locate the small riser for the driver’s side foot well, also pictured below, and glue them at a 90-degree angle. Note that the angled side of the riser will go on the side of the floor pan that has the cutout and tab.






5. Locate the two sides of the center driveshaft tunnel. These two parts are identical, so pick either one. Glue it in place against the angled side of the driver side foot well riser and along the side of the driver side floor pan.




6. Glue driver side footwell assembly to the main floor pan and riser as shown.




7. Glue passenger side footwell floor pan to the main floor pan assembly.


8. Take the other side of the driveshaft tunnel and locate the top of the driveshaft tunnel. I recommend using a hobby knife, sandpaper or file to bevel the sides of the top piece for a tighter fit against the top edges of the center tunnel sides. Glue the right (passenger side) of the tunnel and top of the tunnel at the same time, using the top of the tunnel to help set the proper angle of the right side of the tunnel.








And with that, your floor pan is nearly complete. It should look like this from above:


And from below:


9. With the floor pan nearly complete, this is a good time to reinforce the undersides of all the joints by adding a bead of Shoe Goo or E6000. If you're using Shoe Goo, try using a plastic syringe to apply so that you can get a nice thin bead. The tip on the E6000 tube is just the right size as is.


10. To prepare for mounting the floor pan and installing the wheel wells, trim off the floating battery tray mounts at the front of the slider brackets.



You will also need to remove the ESC and receiver box from the stock location to make room for the floor pan. Don’t worry, there will be plenty of room for the electronics in other places when you’re done.

Next up will be mounting the floor pan to the chassis, installing the wheel wells and sides of the tub, adding styrene bar reinforcements, and then finishing it off with the details.

[new2rocks]

It’s time to mount the floor pan and install the wheel wells. Here goes:

11. Locate the inner rear wheel well faces. Attach them to the sub frame extensions using the white spacers and screws that come with the interior kit, but leave the screws loose so that wheel well sections can wiggle. Note that the screw holes in the styrene are purposely a bit small to accept the included 3mm hardware. You will need to drill the holes out or carefully start the screws in the holes to open them up before mounting.


12. Insert the floor pan onto the truck, line up the tabs in the floor pan with the slots on the rear wheel well faces, and glue the floor pan to the wheel well faces. Once glued, it will look like this (disregard the tub sides already installed in this picture).


13. Remove the floor pan by unscrewing the inner wheel well faces. Attach the sides of the interior tub to the main floorpan. You may find it helpful to use clamps to hold everything together while the glue sets.


14. Reinstall the floor pan by screwing in the rear wheel well faces. Install the front wheel well faces using the front bumper bracket screw locations.


15. Locate the two front wheel well arches. These are easy to identify by the half-round cutouts for the shocks. You will need to roll these pieces to create the necessary curve along the back half (the squared-off edge goes in the back). The easiest way to roll these pieces is to push the back edge down against a hard surface (work bench, table, floor, etc.) with just enough of an angle or pinch to get the styrene to start to bend. Once it starts, keep pressing the piece straight down until you have reached the opening for the shocks. At this point, the curve of the back portion of the wheel arch should follow the curve on the side of the tub reasonably closely. The portion of the wheel arch forward of the front shock tower will stay straight (though angled up toward the top forward corner of the wheel well face). The pictures tell the story here:






16. Once you’ve rolled the front wheel well arches, it’s time to attach them. I used a combination of masking tape and clamps around the arc to create contact and pressure between the wheel well arch and the curve at the front of the interior tub sides (clamp placed at the halfway point around the arc). Then clamps to hold the front of the wheel arch to the inner wheel well face. More pix:






17. Install the taillight brackets as shown.






18. Install the back panel of the tub, aligning rear face of back panel with upper section of taillight brackets as shown.




19. Locate the support beams. Start with the four short beams and install vertically in the cutouts between the wheel wells. Forward beams should be flush with the edges of the cutouts for the dash beam. Use clamps or clothespins to hold in place while drying.






When properly installed, the vertical beams will extend slightly below the floor pan and rest on the GCM sliders.


20. Install the medium beams on either side between the back corner and the middle vertical support beam. Use clamps or clothespins to hold in place while drying.


21. Install the long beam across the front of the tub in the cutouts ahead of the front vertical beams. Use clamps or clothespins to hold in place while drying.


22. Roll the rear wheel well arches using the same technique as the front arches. Use clamps at 10:30 and 1:30 and tape around on each arch to create contact and pressure between the arch and the side wall.






At this point, your interior should look like this:


23. Install the two remaining pieces that form the top of the center tunnel. To allow for servicing the transfer case, it’s best to mount these pieces using Velcro or magnets. To make things even easier, you can glue them together to form a single piece with a scrap of styrene for reinforcement (thanks, GCM, for including the styrene scraps), and then hold them in place with rare earth magnets.








That completes the heavy lifting on the assembly. There are still a few pieces to add (door panel inserts, door handles, window cranks, steering wheel and steering column), but those are best left out until everything has been painted and detailed. So next up will be the detailing…

[new2rocks]

Reserved 2

[new2rocks]

Reserved 3

[Generis]

Great stuff!

[rag6]

Very cool. You can make this yourself. About 30% of the price... But its not gonna go tohether like legos lol... ProbBly wont look as good either.

[Jeepiac]

Great thread! I've been eyeballing this interior kit for a while, and I think the new Bronco will probably get it along with front motor mount and leaf springs. I scratch built the interior in my Pro-Line bodied Ascender and it turned out great, but the way this fits is great, and the fender wells are a big plus.

[Just Bob]

Thanks for taking the guess work out of the Bronco interior. How do I get to see steps 3 and 4?

[b17fan]

Very nice, thanks for sharing this here... I've taking a long brake from the scale RC hobby and now getting back into it.. Just picked up a Bronco last night...

[S@ppy]

Do you know if they make a kit for the Ascender Suburban model? I tried emailing GCM but the email got rejected.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by S@ppy

Do you know if they make a kit for the Ascender Suburban model? I tried emailing GCM but the email got rejected.

Dunno, but here's the international (non- Canada) webstore just in case.

GCM USA Webstore - About Us

email, tinytrucks-usa@gcmracing.ca