Brisket - Early 50's Chevy

[DrewHammer]

I've been contemplating building a new chassis for a while and now it's time to get going with it. It seems as though everyone right now is either building U4 rigs or low riding belly draggers. Obviously this will fit into the latter so I chose a name for it being a "low and slow" build.

I recently moved up to Portland, Oregon and after realizing how many local builds are extremely nice I decided it was time to move on. I've loved my F250 "wroncho" since I built it 6 months ago but it left a lot to be desired. The body is too big and left me with some situations where it got stuck under a rock ledge due to the height and it's a f***ing pig. I usually overkill my electronics but tried a few different brushless setups and never really was pleased, power wasn't the problem. This was only my 3rd chassis so I figured I didn't do to bad and learned a lot in the process

After much consideration I wound up with a PL Early 50's Chevy body I'll wind up using the cab, hood and part of the fenders from. I started a build like this a while back for a former friend (caught him stealing from me) and really wanted one for myself. I looked around a bit and there weren't too many of these on here, perfect it'll be at least a little original. With my current wheels/tires I think it'll just barely squeeze past SORCCA rules. If not I'll hit up DCW for some new wheels to narrow it up a bit. I kinda want to do this anyways to help squeeze through the gates.

As of right now the build is planned as;

PL Body - truggied
Wraith skid
SS trans
MIP driveshafts
VP Curries with Axial HD gears, HR lockers and Axial axles (haven't had a problem out of one yet)
MMP
Novak Ballistic 550 with 2400kv windings (also been failure free so far)
BMRC Wraith length trailing arms
Hitec 7950
CC BEC
Proline slash shocks
PB RBII's and CI foams
Pile o' CFM Fab Tabs


Sorry for the crappy pics, my garage is lit like a prehistoric cave, my phone sucks and I've had a few adult beverages (hence why I'm not starting tonight). I'll take more as I start making progress with it over the next few days.

The chassis getting replaced just for reference



A couple "mock-ups"



*edit* And a half-drunk "rendering"

 

[meatmonkey]

I'm interesting in seeing a full-drunk rendering.

The old rig doesn't look like a slouch..

Is that a stampede sized body, or maxx sized?

 

[EeePee]

Full drunk and some brisket sounds really good right now.

 

[DrewHammer]

I'm interesting in seeing a full-drunk rendering.

The old rig doesn't look like a slouch..

Is that a stampede sized body, or maxx sized?

It's the stampede sized. I think I'll just squeek by on the width of the body and it'll have to sit up a bit on the skid to be legal height for SORCCA. It wasn't too bad just too tall and I got tired of the body/chassis always getting hung up on stuff. Some of the builds up here in the North West are really over the top and I feel like this probably isn't good enough for some local comps. I'll probably throw some SCX10 axles under it someday and really frustrate myself.

Full drunk and some brisket sounds really good right now.

Doesn't it always?

So I took the F250 out for it's last real outing at a place in the PDX area called the Crawlers Pub, had a blast for the few hours I was there and definitely need to make it a regular thing. I would have snapped more pics but my phone was dead and I wasn't smart enough to charge it before I left. Tomorrow the build starts, I had to drop off my rental car this morning and waited all day for my 1:1 to be delivered so I couldn't pick up the last few supplies until late this evening. Unfortunately I don't really know anyone else out here yet so this will be my Easter.

#SippinBeersBreakingGears

 

[DrewHammer]

Lunch break then it's time to start on some tubes.

Got the old chassis torn down, new trailing arms installed and hacked the body close but still have enough room to fix my lines (couldn't find my x-acto handle and all the stores are closed).

Final mockup at what will be full suspension compression. The skid will get dropped at least another 3/16 just to make sure I'm 100% good on the rules, I don't want to be too close to minimum dimensions where it becomes questionable.

 

[DrewHammer]

Weekend update. Had to make an unexpected trip to Las Vegas to take care of something for work so I missed out on the past 5 days. I spent the better part of the afternoon working on the cage and am pretty pleased so far. Hopefully I'll be done by the end of the week, I have high hopes for this so far. Measurements right now are 5.5" from the bottom of the skid to the top of the cab and 5/8" per side narrower than the inside of the tires. #CuttingItClose

I skipped the ladder style frame for the front, I thought it'd probably be too heavy. Trying to keep this fairly light since I was out last weekend with some wraiths and they were just flying over the rocks being almost all plastic. Yep, the lower frame tubes are bent up pretty high, I don't want to be limited by them in getting the skid as low as I want at full compression.

Body isn't sitting perfect on the chassis in these pics,the whiskey caught up to me.

 

[DrewHammer]

Wednesday night update. Starting to materialize a bit. I decided I wasn't happy with where the main roll hoop landed after a quick mockup on the actual skid. So, I moved it forward about 1/4" and tweaked some of the fitment with the body and now I'm infinitely happier. Also got started on the rear tubes.

I was initially planning on running some of my 2100mah 3s lipos in this but I think it'll be better suited for what I'm looking for with two 2000mah 2s lipos in parallel. I should still have more than enough wheel speed with a bit more throttle control and more than enough run time. I found a local waterjet company that'll cut my battery tray for me and hopefully I'll have the parts sometime next week. I was hoping to run the truck this weekend but that's not realistic. I wanted the battery tray to be a "stressed" member and replace a crossmember I was planning on using. Why not, right? It'll be more than strong and stiff enough to fulfill this role and make it dual purpose. Other than the tray I should be ready for testing this weekend.

Anyways, enough typing, some pics of it mocked up on the skid at full compression and full extension of the suspension with where my intended shock location lands. I'll probably have to limit the travel but I'd rather have too much right now than not enough.






Intended upper mount locations highlighted with red dots

 

[War Pig]

Looks good man! It will be nice to have another Class 3 rig at our local scale comps. Hope to see you at one soon, or maybe I'll see you out at Crawlers Pub on a Tuesday night for a scale comp.

 

[DrewHammer]

Looks good man! It will be nice to have another Class 3 rig at our local scale comps. Hope to see you at one soon, or maybe I'll see you out at Crawlers Pub on a Tuesday night for a scale comp.

Thanks man, your builds and a few other locals definitely motivated me to build something new. I'll see you out at the Pub and the comps when I get this build finished up. Your builds and a few other locals prompted me to step up my game a bit. I've been amazed at what is around here.

I really enjoy c3 stuff since it's a much more "open" class. I've also got a c1 in the works currently but waiting on manufacturer parts to become available.

Have fun and keep the shiny side up, updates to the build tomorrow 8)

 

[DrewHammer]

Had a few hours this weekend to mess with it. Waiting on some different tabs to get here and still working on the battery tray layout so I'm not in a huge rush with this. A few more tubes tubes and some sheet metal to go.

 

[DrewHammer]

Another week another update. I didn't work on it as much but still made progress, reworked the driver side fender tube and built a passenger side. Got shock mounts done and some more bracing. It's got more ultra-4 in it than I was planning but I dig it. Maybe I'll be testing next week.

She's standing on her own now though! I need some softer springs... probably just need new shocks since these are the softest from proline





Sway bar on



Sway bar off

 

[DrewHammer]

Long overdue update, nothing too big but progress none the less.

Been working crazy hours for the past several months but finally had a weekend off and got to work on this a bit.

I decided I hated damping, so i picked up some RC4wd King shocks and had Duuuuuuuude make me some wheels. I'm digging the new look with the solid wheels and Locked up beadlocks. Also rebuilt the axles with GripFab lockers and new Axial UD gear sets. I got around to installing my Super Shafty trans with extended output and picked up a Pro4 300kv.

It's turning out much more u4 than originally intended but I'm really excited to drive it. I need to tear back down to add a few more tubes and mounts then I think I can wire it up and test before details. It's the rainy season here and work is finally starting to slow down a bit, this should be "finished" soon.

 

[JokersWild]

Looks good...... cg looks low...... where's the rear steer eh?

 

[DrewHammer]

Looks good...... cg looks low...... where's the rear steer eh?

Thanks! and it should perform much better than the F250.

4WS is off in overlycomplicatedland with the rest of a bunch of ideas I passed on. Truthfully, I think trying to drive a course quickly it'll just add something else I'll screw up. Maybe on my next chassis but not this one. I just wanted something simple that worked well and looked cool.

 

[TrailSnail]

I hate to see the F250 go, miss running with her at Murrell Park. The new ride look swet so far. Hope Portland is treating you well. Doug

 

[DrewHammer]

I hate to see the F250 go, miss running with her at Murrell Park. The new ride look swet so far. Hope Portland is treating you well. Doug

Thanks Doug. I hope you, your family and the rest of the DFW crew had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year.



Minor update to major changes.

So I tore the chassis down to braze in the last few tubes and had it sitting next to my scx10 project. The more I looked at it the more I wanted to see what this chassis would look like on a 12.3" wheelbase with 1.9's. So I set the chassis down on the flipped over SCX10 chassis and sat back with a beer and looked. The more I looked at it the more I liked it. It just looks so much more scale. Looks like I need to build a new truck for my wraith curries




I gathered up a few gift cards I got from RPP for Christmas and put together an order. Considering I wanted SCX10 width I had a few options;

New VP Currie F9's - Very scale looking and cool, but aluminum axles are heavy
SSD housings - Probably a solid product but I want to drive the piss out of this and would like to see more testing
SCX10 housings - Have a set that will work well for this but needed a few more parts to feel comfortable with Pro-4 power

So I ordered up from RPP;
A set of brass and steel beef tubes
Grip fab lockers
Axial HD gears
Gear Head 2" KOH light bar (rear is pretty narrow...)
CI Deuces Wild 4.5" foams

And while feeling this was a pretty good start, I know it's not quite "there". I'm going to rework a little bit of the front end of this when I braze in link mounts and trans mount so I also ordered up a ToyZuki motor mount and a GCM t-case. I'm not sure which of the two I'm going to wind up using, but this will give me a few layout options with the new direction so I can keep this fairly well balanced with just a bit of forward bias.

Hopefully everything gets here by Thursday so I can fab on New Years weekend. More updates when major progress happens.


Mods, please move to the 1.9 section if you see this.

 

[k goodrich]

I like the old school body look

 

[War Pig]

Scale comp on the 10th at Highrocks....get it running and join us!

 

[DrewHammer]

I like the old school body look

Thanks!

Scale comp on the 10th at Highrocks....get it running and join us!

Not sure it fits into C2 rules and won't be competitive with 4.5" tires on SCX10 axles for C3. But... I'll be at the comp. I need to get out and meet some locals, even if this winds up being classified as a C3 it'll still be fun to run.

Specifically why I think it doesn't fit in the rules:
• A front bumper is required and must be mounted to the vehicle's rail chassis and must be wider than the outside
of the chassis rails (chassis cross rails do not count as bumpers).
• You must run a full rail chassis, and the chassis (including bumpers) must be 3" longer than the wheelbase (this includes a chassis with a truggy rear frame).
• 2 of the 3 following modifications are allowed:
oDovetailing the rear *a truggy/tube bed that is narrower than the cab counts as a dovetail*
(1/2 the width of the widest part of the cab).
oBoat sides (no more than 1.25" measured vertically from the bottom of the skid).
o Pinching the front (2/3 the width of the widest part of the cab).

Parts are arriving, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a ToyZuki transfer case also. ToyZuki motor mount will be here tomorrow along with link materials if I need to make new ones and some chromoly sheet to make new link mounts.

Still debating the deuces wild foams. I'll leave my double deuces in for now and see how it really reacts at the comp...

Not pictured - Steel beef tubes, other axial gear set and other GripFab locker, these are already installed in one axle.

 

[War Pig]

I'll let you run in Class 2 on the 10th as long as you run the 1.9 Rock Beasts "thumbsup"