I'm going to have a go at the Cruiser Richard Hammond drove in the Top Gear Special where they travelled from Bolivia to Chile. I'm going to go for the pimped version as featured in the later half of the episode as I've already done a more traditonal Cruiser.
In fact I'll be using the chassis from the aforementioned Cruiser for this build. I did originally do a custom conversion to leaf springs but whilst it looked very scale it never really performed the way it should. I have therefore used the RC4WD conversion kit for the Gelande II.
Having fitted it I was immediately unhappy with the front springs, far too short and too far away from the front of the chassis rails. Fortunately I had some longer leafs in the parts box and managed to incorporate those instead.
For wheels and tyres I'm probably going to use these 8 hole Axial beadlocks along with some of these Gearhead beadlock rings. I know, ghastly plarstic but I can't find anything in metal that matches the original wheels.
Frustratingly I already have these 1.7 wheels from RC4WD which would be perfect except they're exactly the wrong way around, I need silver whees with black beadlocks. Using my existing body here as an example I think the ride height is about right.
Bits I've ordered that are on the way are the CCHand rear bumper and a tough armour roll bar to match those seen here:-
I already have a new in box Cruiser body kit that I bought some months ago. Tyres were going to be 1.9 Dick Cepek Extreme Country at 106mm. They're the closest I could find in terms of size and tread pattern but I'm wondering now if they're a little small.
On the right, the Extreme Country tyres, on the left 1.7 Goodyear Wranglers.
Both doors are out, just need to clean up the cuts, went ok, phew. I also added in a fuel filler cap which was actually one I bought from DJ Designs for a Defender but it fits well.
There are suprisingly few dents on Hammond's Cruiser considering the abuse he put it though but I tried to add the obvious ones that I could see.
There's a pretty subtle one on the front wing that just causes it to drop a little from the horizontal.
I noticed the rear tailgate is featureless on the original and wider than the one on the RC4WD body so I'm planning to cut out the latter and replace it with a piece of styrene.
Also added another small dent near the bottom.
Then I chopped up the interior, I wanted to get rid of the ugly bits exposed by removing the doors.
I cut out some styrene to fit.
I now need to make a decision on lowering the bed which is far too high. I'd like to lower it so it matches up with the bottom of the rear doors which I have now removed.
I also noticed there's another dent on the original and added it on the rear corner.
In fact I'll be using the chassis from the aforementioned Cruiser for this build. I did originally do a custom conversion to leaf springs but whilst it looked very scale it never really performed the way it should. I have therefore used the RC4WD conversion kit for the Gelande II.
Having fitted it I was immediately unhappy with the front springs, far too short and too far away from the front of the chassis rails. Fortunately I had some longer leafs in the parts box and managed to incorporate those instead.
For wheels and tyres I'm probably going to use these 8 hole Axial beadlocks along with some of these Gearhead beadlock rings. I know, ghastly plarstic but I can't find anything in metal that matches the original wheels.
Frustratingly I already have these 1.7 wheels from RC4WD which would be perfect except they're exactly the wrong way around, I need silver whees with black beadlocks. Using my existing body here as an example I think the ride height is about right.
Bits I've ordered that are on the way are the CCHand rear bumper and a tough armour roll bar to match those seen here:-
I already have a new in box Cruiser body kit that I bought some months ago. Tyres were going to be 1.9 Dick Cepek Extreme Country at 106mm. They're the closest I could find in terms of size and tread pattern but I'm wondering now if they're a little small.
On the right, the Extreme Country tyres, on the left 1.7 Goodyear Wranglers.
Both doors are out, just need to clean up the cuts, went ok, phew. I also added in a fuel filler cap which was actually one I bought from DJ Designs for a Defender but it fits well.
There are suprisingly few dents on Hammond's Cruiser considering the abuse he put it though but I tried to add the obvious ones that I could see.
There's a pretty subtle one on the front wing that just causes it to drop a little from the horizontal.
I noticed the rear tailgate is featureless on the original and wider than the one on the RC4WD body so I'm planning to cut out the latter and replace it with a piece of styrene.
Also added another small dent near the bottom.
Then I chopped up the interior, I wanted to get rid of the ugly bits exposed by removing the doors.
I cut out some styrene to fit.
I now need to make a decision on lowering the bed which is far too high. I'd like to lower it so it matches up with the bottom of the rear doors which I have now removed.
I also noticed there's another dent on the original and added it on the rear corner.
ray
