monkeyracer
I wanna be Dave
My Trail Monster project was becoming way too much work, and wasn't turning out how I imagined when I started it, so I decided to get a different body for it.
I was going to use two of the New Bright 1:8 Silverados and make a crew cab, but I couldn't find two bodies at a decent price, so I found a couple Dodge Ram bodies at radio shack and started cutting right away. (I had to order then from their RSU system, and wait for them in the mail.)
These come with a plastic roll bar/cage in the bed and a race style interior with one seat, as well as headlights. Stock wheelbase is about 10.5", stock width is a little under 8".
Here's the first mockup of the crew cab mods:
Those crappy stickers have got to go, and goo gone took care of them nicely.
To glue the cab pieces together, I just used Oatey ABS Cement. This is made for ABS plumbing pipes, and is found at Home Depot. Since the body is made from ABS, it will actually chemically bond the pieces together rather than a mechanical bond.
I took some scrap ABS, and made some simple braces on the inside of the body so that the pieces line up right, and they have a little more to the seam than just the ABS cement.
Here's a pic of the body after the cement has cured, and was sanded down:
This adds about 2.25" to the length and wheelbase.
You can see on the roof that there's a section of black plastic, this is a piece of ABS sheet, glued in place with the abs cement. This is before any sanding on the side of the roof. When you combine bodies like this, the roof pieces rarely line up right, so you either have to skin the roof (like I did) or fill it and sand it smooth (which would take way too long.)
I also sanded off the top shiny layer of the body so that paint will adhere better.
Next I made my mock-up front bumper out of more angle aluminum:
This will likely be made from thin steel so I can braze on the brush guard. The winch will just have a fairlead mounted to the bumper.
Also made a metal mesh grill:
The running gear was pulled from the Trail Monster build, but I needed a new chassis. I just used some angle aluminum and measured and drilled the holes.
Here's the specs on the build:
Chassis - Homemade Angle Aluminum/Lexan
Axles - Wheely King front and rear, with custom rear lockouts
Transmission - Axial AX10 with Slipper (set pretty tight) and 87/19 spur/pinion
Motor - Traxxas 550 Titan 21t E-Maxx motor (haven't even taken it out of the package yet, this thing should be a monster in this truck)
Driveshafts - 3Racing Aluminum shafts with steel yokes, deanodized
Links - Custom 4 link rear, 3 link/panhard front, Black Delrin tube with Traxxas rod ends
Wheels - Black on black Proline Eight Shooter 2.2 beadlocks (May look for something with a narrower offset to bring the width in some)
Tires - Hot Bodies Rovers (White compound, stock foams)
ESC - Castle Creations Sidewinder
Steering Servo - Hitec HS-645MG mounted on chassis
Receiver - Traxxas 2 channel AM receiver (for now, getting a 4 or 6 channel 2.4ghz radio soon)
Winch - Tamiya Planetary transmission with stock RE-260 motor (This thing has a lot of torque, by my estimates around 350 oz-in or so, more than enough to pull the truck out of almost anything.) Not mounted yet, still waiting on the multi-channel receiver.
Winch controller - Losi Mini LST ESC
Winch line - 65# Test Spiderwire Super Braid (more than enough break strength, and I can fit probably 100ft or more of line on the winch spool)
Battery - 3x 15C 1500mAh 2S lipo batteries in parallel (soon to be one high capacity battery)
LEDS - currently just 2x 5mm white in the headlights, soon to be a lot more.
There's still plenty to be done with this build. I need to finish the body work and paint it. I'm thinking satin or low-gloss black with flat black hood and accents and spray-in bedliner. I need to finish mounting the electronics, install the interior, scale accessories, etc. Updates coming soon!
Comments, questions and suggestions welcome!
I was going to use two of the New Bright 1:8 Silverados and make a crew cab, but I couldn't find two bodies at a decent price, so I found a couple Dodge Ram bodies at radio shack and started cutting right away. (I had to order then from their RSU system, and wait for them in the mail.)
These come with a plastic roll bar/cage in the bed and a race style interior with one seat, as well as headlights. Stock wheelbase is about 10.5", stock width is a little under 8".
Here's the first mockup of the crew cab mods:
Those crappy stickers have got to go, and goo gone took care of them nicely.
To glue the cab pieces together, I just used Oatey ABS Cement. This is made for ABS plumbing pipes, and is found at Home Depot. Since the body is made from ABS, it will actually chemically bond the pieces together rather than a mechanical bond.
I took some scrap ABS, and made some simple braces on the inside of the body so that the pieces line up right, and they have a little more to the seam than just the ABS cement.
Here's a pic of the body after the cement has cured, and was sanded down:
This adds about 2.25" to the length and wheelbase.
You can see on the roof that there's a section of black plastic, this is a piece of ABS sheet, glued in place with the abs cement. This is before any sanding on the side of the roof. When you combine bodies like this, the roof pieces rarely line up right, so you either have to skin the roof (like I did) or fill it and sand it smooth (which would take way too long.)
I also sanded off the top shiny layer of the body so that paint will adhere better.
Next I made my mock-up front bumper out of more angle aluminum:
This will likely be made from thin steel so I can braze on the brush guard. The winch will just have a fairlead mounted to the bumper.
Also made a metal mesh grill:
The running gear was pulled from the Trail Monster build, but I needed a new chassis. I just used some angle aluminum and measured and drilled the holes.
Here's the specs on the build:
Chassis - Homemade Angle Aluminum/Lexan
Axles - Wheely King front and rear, with custom rear lockouts
Transmission - Axial AX10 with Slipper (set pretty tight) and 87/19 spur/pinion
Motor - Traxxas 550 Titan 21t E-Maxx motor (haven't even taken it out of the package yet, this thing should be a monster in this truck)
Driveshafts - 3Racing Aluminum shafts with steel yokes, deanodized
Links - Custom 4 link rear, 3 link/panhard front, Black Delrin tube with Traxxas rod ends
Wheels - Black on black Proline Eight Shooter 2.2 beadlocks (May look for something with a narrower offset to bring the width in some)
Tires - Hot Bodies Rovers (White compound, stock foams)
ESC - Castle Creations Sidewinder
Steering Servo - Hitec HS-645MG mounted on chassis
Receiver - Traxxas 2 channel AM receiver (for now, getting a 4 or 6 channel 2.4ghz radio soon)
Winch - Tamiya Planetary transmission with stock RE-260 motor (This thing has a lot of torque, by my estimates around 350 oz-in or so, more than enough to pull the truck out of almost anything.) Not mounted yet, still waiting on the multi-channel receiver.
Winch controller - Losi Mini LST ESC
Winch line - 65# Test Spiderwire Super Braid (more than enough break strength, and I can fit probably 100ft or more of line on the winch spool)
Battery - 3x 15C 1500mAh 2S lipo batteries in parallel (soon to be one high capacity battery)
LEDS - currently just 2x 5mm white in the headlights, soon to be a lot more.
There's still plenty to be done with this build. I need to finish the body work and paint it. I'm thinking satin or low-gloss black with flat black hood and accents and spray-in bedliner. I need to finish mounting the electronics, install the interior, scale accessories, etc. Updates coming soon!
Comments, questions and suggestions welcome!