Little Suzuki Jimny 4x4 LJ80/81

[T_Tank]

Its been a long time coming but here is my 3D printed LJ80/81

Firstly the picture that got me started down this rabbit hole and no its not mine but it looked least to me rather tough. What I didn't know was how tiny these trucks are!

Now why is it a lj80/81 well part of that was a my bad as I didn't realize the LJ81 was the lwb (2200mm) frame an I ended up making the swb (1930mm) frame but I stuck to the swb frame.

Specs are as below
Motor: Castle Creation 1900kv 540
ESC: Castles Creation mamba micro X
Transmission: Custom printed design with near 4:1 ratio (had a hard time making sure my center drives cleared the transmission and fit under the floorboard)
Axles: LosiMRC or ecx temper/barrage shortened till at the knuckle face is aprox 111mm wide! With custom designed axle housings
Servo: Savox 1257tg
Shocks: RC4WD 40mm micro scale shocks
Battery 2x 1cell turnigy graphene 950mah 65c (running in series)
Front suspension: 3 link with panhard (8 degree caster 8 degree kpi)
Rear suspension: 4 link
Wheelbase: 193mm
Track width: 121mm aprox
Top speed: 20mph

So with all that out of the way here are a mess of pictures!

Yes that is in tinkercad an yes It takes forever to load XD

Chassis, transmission an axles shown ready to be mounted to eachother the old tamiya silver can is there to make sure I left enough room between the servo an motor for the panhard

My RC4WD 1.55 an baja MTZ mounted up on the chassis

The center section of the cab being printed on my Cetus 3D printer (really consistent machine this print was 33hours!)

Here is the cab mount on the chassis (chassis has almost exact same body mounts as the real thing body has little donut/plate style mounts to screw to the frame)

Printed out front fenders and grill section an glued to the cabin (each fender has the inner an outer parts as one piece)

And hood just resting

Finally got my proper engine in!

Got the rear flat bed printed
I ended up printing a second cab trying different print settings but I ended up back at the blue cab after figuring out I could flip my shock mounts on the axles to get the needed wheel clearance for the fenders.

Hinges!

Rear boxes for the batteries and esc to hide under the truck bed

Back to blue with a seat and testing some custom light lenses and buckets for fitmet

I wonder what this is for....

Gotta hide the receiver somewhere!

Dash temp glue'd in

Open shot

Bumper installed

And I really think traxxas needs to work on their scale.... I know this truck is smaller then a chevy love but come on!

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Awesome work!

 

[nedmo]

thats amazing!! I cant even comprehend designing axles!

any chance you will share the files??

 

[T_Tank]

hard part with axles is figuring out the ring an pinion gear relation luckily I've made some mrc custom housings in the past for a 1/18 monster truck the hard part was cutting the axles down an then figuring how to make sure they still work in the lockers!

I do plan to have a few things up on thingiverse eventually when I can figure how much stuff can be properly FDM printed without being to weak or easy to round out (chubs/knuckles) I will have a few things up on shapeways which will be WSF which is way more forgiving then fdm parts.

Like the doors I tried printing mulitple times but the angle of the A an B pillars in relation to the printer kept cracking to easily regaurdless of print settings or orientation

 

[nedmo]

Yeah, working out just what will print and what wont is half the fun of FDM.

In fact, I am just printing a chassis and skid plate now for a MRC based build. using a midnight pumpkin body f100 body.

 

[T_Tank]

Long time coming but finally between some spare time with work and getting a suzuki samurai I've had some time to work on my jimny again making a more hopefully appropriate rear box for the truck end.

some pictures are photo'd with my phone as where done during lunch on my workstation

Made a tailgate aswell though will have to make the hinges from brass this scale is just to small to print those kind of things.. maybe I'll use some tiny chain or something to keep the bed from flopping open below the bumper

Printed the main box part and the support frame under it last night I may have made the flares a bit bigger then I thought... oops lol well if I ever make a version of the frame with way more flex an travel I'll definitely not hit the rear fenders!

 

[Derek Larsen]

Made a tailgate aswell though will have to make the hinges from brass this scale is just to small to print those kind of things.. maybe I'll use some tiny chain or something to keep the bed from flopping open below the bumper

Hit up a Joann's or Michael's. They usually have a doll house section with hinges, and you can get jewelry chain as well that is fairly scale looking. Or you can just use music wire as a hinge pin.


Your build is probably the nicest totally 3d printed rig I've seen. I hope you find it in your heart to make the body available.

 

[T_Tank]

I'll check those places out an see what I can find. Now my only mild gripe is the springs on the 40mm scale shocks are... a bit soft with the weight but its not bad on the rear but the front it pretty much sits at full droop till ya give it gas then the rear squats an the front lifts XD

 

[T_Tank]

bit of a update as I've got most of the box printed and fitted and well some matte black sprayed on the bed waiting for the rear bumper to dry and be sanded more

 

[Derek Larsen]

I know it's probably not intentional but the mismatched colors really work well for a truck like this.

 

[JatoTheRipper]

I know it's probably not intentional but the mismatched colors really work well for a truck like this.

I agree! It gives it a Captain America theme!

Very cool truck. Nice work!

 

[soze]

Nice project!

 

[T_Tank]

lol yeah its a bit of a hoge poge of colors due to what I had on hand for printing the redish orange stuff is actually rather a pita for me after a few prints it clogs up regaurdless of temperature. the blue and grey stuff is hatchbox pla which has never let me down an the white is white strong flexible from shapeways.

 

[T_Tank]

Little update I printed out the tailgate just need to mount it up properly

God I'm going to hate my life when I attempt to smooth out and primer this

 

[JatoTheRipper]

It looks so freaking cool! The red, white and blue looks like it's a 'Merica edition! "thumbsup"

 

[T_Tank]

Well I dusted off the cad files and printing the body in separate pieces so I can get this made in abs.
Actually gets hot enough here in the summer that this little guy would melt on the trails.

Won't need to reprint the doors cause those are shapeways nylon!

 

[durok]

I freakin' love this build, my Dad's last vehicle was a Samurai, I have plans of my own to make something down the road with a modified Lexan Proline shell - don't have the skills or 3D printer, gonna go a totally different route, won't be as accurate (or tiny!) as this sweet rig...

I eagerly await more of your posts!

"thumbsup"

 

[T_Tank]

Oh I have a 1/10 samurai I'm working on to thats a bit more detail heavy (as I daily drive a 88 samurai so I have a very good reference!)

But the LJ has been little treat to work on I do plan on making the axles more solid like on my samurai build as I don't think I NEED to have removable C-hubs or overly complicated rear lockouts. Hopefully the abs printed body with how its shaped an infilled will be lighter then the larger solid chunk PLA body was but I may need to fiddle with springs on this as they are a little to soft.

And good luck with your lexan build I'm guessing proline sumo? there is a TON of stuff for that body on shapeways!

 

[T_Tank]

ABS print going smoothly do have the pla hood and pla hinges mounted at this time while I get more an more of the body printed out in abs.

And a family photo though the 3rd one is waiting on tax return to get the parts to start building the running gear...

 

[T_Tank]

Got the front clip printed out next is the trucks rear box and then work on the interior some more in tinkercad as well as the axles.
Pick of it next to its not as little brother