So I got fed up with the original lighting setup I had made for my K10 and decided to mount actual headlights in the body.
The lights were quite poor with my first setup, I had mounted them low on my bumper and the spread was terrible like it was a rock light. I did that because I was trying to avoid having extra wires to plug in.
This was the only picture of the first setup I could find quickly
EDIT heres what they looked like originally
So I picked up a new body and a set of Axial's assorted light buckets part #AX80045. The larger round bucket is a pretty perfect match,
the lights are a set of Baja Designs Squadron LEDs from RC4WD
FIRST make sure to align the grill with the body before cutting off the mounting tabs behind the headlights, mark and hog out the hole that's in the center of the bow tie badge before painting the body. This hole in the body is what I used to keep the grill aligned so dont go too big, you want it tight.
These pictures are of my other already painted body and you can see how I marked the spot for the hole and then scraped off the paint so I could get exact.
I found a larger screw (maybe an M4) that fit the hole and made a plastic spacer like the original grill mounts with, only flat. I just took a razor knife and cut the original plastic spacer to be flat on the end.
when finished
without that step I don't know how the grill would be aligned nicely.
Back to the lights.
NOTE: you will be removing the mounting tabs that the original grill uses during this next step.
The Vaterra grill has squished the lights to be slightly oval unlike the real truck, but the original grills lights can be used as a guide when dremeling out the hole just keep in mind it needs to be rounded out a little bit. Go slow and keep checking as you remove material so you don't go to far. the size is pretty spot on for the axial light buckets but just a hair bigger. I used a bit of silver Tamiya paint to touch up around the hole and on the light bucket rim itself.
Next I had to relieve the back side of the grill to get the light buckets pushed in flush and aimed right, I didn't have to remove a lot of material.
EDIT: the second body I did this to I releaved it a lot more so the buckets stuck out just a hair, with a snug fit the light buckets lip held them light in place nicely.
Cutting the body for the headlights is easy, no precision is required as the grill gives plenty of overlap. I cut the holes slightly larger than the buckets so the buckets can sit tight up against the grill, my hole reamer was too small for the job.
Next I tore down the Squadron lights removing the mount and housing. Unpin the plug on the end of the light (or cut if you've got a plan for that) so you can feed the wires though the bucket from the inside.
I chose to use the light bezel which need a bit of trimming to clear the light bucket lense mount (the 2 posts).
EDIT: the new Squadron lights are different and I stopped using the bezel.
I had to unsolder the lights so that the wire could be repositioned as it was keeping me from being able to aim the lights properly when inside the buckets
They started out pointing out like so
I repositioned them into the center
I used shoe goo to glue the LEDs and bezel into the bucket being careful to keep them square with the bucket, I then used a tiny bit to glue on the lense so it doesn't end up lost.
Body got paint
Then I attached the grill using the one mount point along with a few small dabs of shoe to go between the grill and body around the headlight area.
Then I shoe goo-ed the whole light assembly to the body from the back giving it a good smear.
The wiring runs straight off of a 3S battery, I just tied the lights together and used a JST connector to tap the battery. I'm quite pleased with the brightness.
WOOD BED
I decided if i was going to do another body to change up the rear cage area, I decided to go with a wood flatbed and some painted lexan side panels.
I wanted to use Oak originally but I didn't want the extra weight back there so I went with Pine.
I started by cutting little scale 2x6 boards but thinner, gluing and clamping them. Let sit overnight.
I used an assembled cage with the aluminium panels on it to measure the exact length and width.
Cut the glued up wood to the exact size (just a rectangle), then using the aluminium panels trace the curves and mark the mounting holes.
Cut out the curves an drill the holes (3/32" bit)
I used a dremel to relieve the areas that the cage came in contact with the bed, a bit too much on some.
The bottom need to be thinned out as well for the kink in the cage and the shock tower, I also added a round recess so I can add a thin magnet to hold my body clips. I Used a forstner bit missing its tip and a chisel.
I also trimmed the rear body post mounts at an angle to get them out of the way of the bed
Also to get clearance I had to trim some of the plastic cage around the spare tire holder and other areas that stuck above the bed level. I only thinned out the kink (that goes over the shock tower brace) a little to minimize how much I had to thin out the wood above it. I used a razor for the small stuff, just scraping not slicing and on the spare tire area I used my bench grinder (cage disassembled).
I Finished up by sanding the residual glue out of the wood, then distressing it with some random sharp tools.
Followed by a coat of dark Walnut Danish Oil followed by a few coats of shellac to seal it, then a satin polyurethane top coat.
I did have to source longer fasteners for to make up for the extra thickness of the wood, I found Protek had the some screws I needed (8 x of 2.5 mm x 10 mm # PTK-H-3104) and Vaterra had the others (2 x of M2.5 x 20mm # VTR235102)
I originally though this would need to get cut in half to fit into the cage but when its taken apart there's all the flex you need to get this to fit in one piece.
The wood bed only added 1 gram or so which surprised me, that's what I wanted, lightweight.
SIDE PANELS
This is pretty straight forward, I took the aluminium side panels and traced them out on lexan with an exacto, marked the holes and painted them to match the body color. I found the Lexan on Amazon its .030.
I had though headlights weren't possible or easy at least but I'm happy to find its doable with off the shelf parts.
The lights were quite poor with my first setup, I had mounted them low on my bumper and the spread was terrible like it was a rock light. I did that because I was trying to avoid having extra wires to plug in.
This was the only picture of the first setup I could find quickly
EDIT heres what they looked like originally
So I picked up a new body and a set of Axial's assorted light buckets part #AX80045. The larger round bucket is a pretty perfect match,
the lights are a set of Baja Designs Squadron LEDs from RC4WD
FIRST make sure to align the grill with the body before cutting off the mounting tabs behind the headlights, mark and hog out the hole that's in the center of the bow tie badge before painting the body. This hole in the body is what I used to keep the grill aligned so dont go too big, you want it tight.
These pictures are of my other already painted body and you can see how I marked the spot for the hole and then scraped off the paint so I could get exact.
I found a larger screw (maybe an M4) that fit the hole and made a plastic spacer like the original grill mounts with, only flat. I just took a razor knife and cut the original plastic spacer to be flat on the end.
when finished
without that step I don't know how the grill would be aligned nicely.
Back to the lights.
NOTE: you will be removing the mounting tabs that the original grill uses during this next step.
The Vaterra grill has squished the lights to be slightly oval unlike the real truck, but the original grills lights can be used as a guide when dremeling out the hole just keep in mind it needs to be rounded out a little bit. Go slow and keep checking as you remove material so you don't go to far. the size is pretty spot on for the axial light buckets but just a hair bigger. I used a bit of silver Tamiya paint to touch up around the hole and on the light bucket rim itself.
Next I had to relieve the back side of the grill to get the light buckets pushed in flush and aimed right, I didn't have to remove a lot of material.
EDIT: the second body I did this to I releaved it a lot more so the buckets stuck out just a hair, with a snug fit the light buckets lip held them light in place nicely.
Cutting the body for the headlights is easy, no precision is required as the grill gives plenty of overlap. I cut the holes slightly larger than the buckets so the buckets can sit tight up against the grill, my hole reamer was too small for the job.
Next I tore down the Squadron lights removing the mount and housing. Unpin the plug on the end of the light (or cut if you've got a plan for that) so you can feed the wires though the bucket from the inside.
I chose to use the light bezel which need a bit of trimming to clear the light bucket lense mount (the 2 posts).
EDIT: the new Squadron lights are different and I stopped using the bezel.
I had to unsolder the lights so that the wire could be repositioned as it was keeping me from being able to aim the lights properly when inside the buckets
They started out pointing out like so
I repositioned them into the center
I used shoe goo to glue the LEDs and bezel into the bucket being careful to keep them square with the bucket, I then used a tiny bit to glue on the lense so it doesn't end up lost.
Body got paint
Then I attached the grill using the one mount point along with a few small dabs of shoe to go between the grill and body around the headlight area.
Then I shoe goo-ed the whole light assembly to the body from the back giving it a good smear.
The wiring runs straight off of a 3S battery, I just tied the lights together and used a JST connector to tap the battery. I'm quite pleased with the brightness.
WOOD BED
I decided if i was going to do another body to change up the rear cage area, I decided to go with a wood flatbed and some painted lexan side panels.
I wanted to use Oak originally but I didn't want the extra weight back there so I went with Pine.
I started by cutting little scale 2x6 boards but thinner, gluing and clamping them. Let sit overnight.
I used an assembled cage with the aluminium panels on it to measure the exact length and width.
Cut the glued up wood to the exact size (just a rectangle), then using the aluminium panels trace the curves and mark the mounting holes.
Cut out the curves an drill the holes (3/32" bit)
I used a dremel to relieve the areas that the cage came in contact with the bed, a bit too much on some.
The bottom need to be thinned out as well for the kink in the cage and the shock tower, I also added a round recess so I can add a thin magnet to hold my body clips. I Used a forstner bit missing its tip and a chisel.
I also trimmed the rear body post mounts at an angle to get them out of the way of the bed
Also to get clearance I had to trim some of the plastic cage around the spare tire holder and other areas that stuck above the bed level. I only thinned out the kink (that goes over the shock tower brace) a little to minimize how much I had to thin out the wood above it. I used a razor for the small stuff, just scraping not slicing and on the spare tire area I used my bench grinder (cage disassembled).
I Finished up by sanding the residual glue out of the wood, then distressing it with some random sharp tools.
Followed by a coat of dark Walnut Danish Oil followed by a few coats of shellac to seal it, then a satin polyurethane top coat.
I did have to source longer fasteners for to make up for the extra thickness of the wood, I found Protek had the some screws I needed (8 x of 2.5 mm x 10 mm # PTK-H-3104) and Vaterra had the others (2 x of M2.5 x 20mm # VTR235102)
I originally though this would need to get cut in half to fit into the cage but when its taken apart there's all the flex you need to get this to fit in one piece.
The wood bed only added 1 gram or so which surprised me, that's what I wanted, lightweight.
SIDE PANELS
This is pretty straight forward, I took the aluminium side panels and traced them out on lexan with an exacto, marked the holes and painted them to match the body color. I found the Lexan on Amazon its .030.
I had though headlights weren't possible or easy at least but I'm happy to find its doable with off the shelf parts.
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