FodigoDave
Quarry Creeper
Hi ALL - long time viewer - first time builder!
Just got into building this Tamiya F350 High Lift and thought I'd share it's progress. It only lived for 2 days (without any electronics but built) and then was disassembled for the redo. A bit nerve racking dropping a lot of $$$'age only to cut it up but I'm hopeful the end result will look cool and unique.
This is the roof rack but more will follow. It's not 100% done - will still put in the screens but I can do that later once more other things get built up more. This will at least offer me an opp to do other stuff that's on my mind.
Hope the pics are OK.
BUILDING THE F350 ROOF RACK
I continued doing this while tracing the roof line one bend at a time until I reached the half way mark.
Doing it this way I was able to get the right bends and gave it a custom look by adding a little extra bend to accent the roof line.
With 50% done - it was a matter of duplicating it on the other side. I just outlined the already made bend tube and matched it to the other side by flipping the metal around.
Sometimes you get lucky and without measurments - things turn out just about right. A little snip of the end to reduce the overlap and braze and one tube construction was finished. Although never brazed before - it was a bit messy...
Now to duplicate it onto another piece using the first one as a template. By wireing the new to the old, I was able to replicate the second level of the roof rack very easily and it was done in no time at all.
A sloppy brazing job for the first attempt but after a $19.95 dremmel tool with a grinding wheel from Harbor Freight Tools, it looked pretty seemless. Now to measure the height - but who needs a ruler - lets just size it up by looks.
Sorry for the out of focus pics but you get the idea. I used another stock piece of brass from the hobby store and nipped a section out. It seemed like the right size so I duplicated it for a total of 4 pieces. This was to support the RT and LFT sides and back. The front - I decided to just double the size of one piece so it was a bit consistant in size.
With a few sides brazed on, I was able to slip the top rail on and the supports held it in place without needing to be held so the second level of the roof rack was a bit easier to weld.
Now I added the back piece and the basic construction was finished. Pretty easy but I think it needs more.
How about some lights?
4 lights looks pretty cool - maybe just 2 - not sure... the only way was to cut the lights from the roll bar and pray ! After several bleeding seconds of cutting, I seperated the lights and placed a few here and there to try and figure out the best configuration. The idea of placing a hard top crossed my mind but after searching and searching for a hard top for the bed - the idea was to fabricate a soft top and go ahead and use the cargo roof rack to support the off raod lighting.
I decided to go with 4 lights but after placing the lights to the rack - the lights needed a bit of protection from low lining trees and such.
lastly a couple supporting brackets for the top light protection bar and slap on some flat black paint. At least the idea is cool.
By adding a thin brass cross member, this will ultimately support the lights.
To add the lights that came with the truck - I purchased the MFC-02 unit so that I can turn them on remotely from the transmitter. I liked the entire package of the multifuction control unit (not just the lighting) so I went the whole 9 yards. After cutting down the lights from the roll bar (a bit scary at first) I filed down the remaining bottom part from the light. I left two of the light supprt with just a little portion of the rool bar attachment left and filed the other two to the nub. This was to make sure the center lights fit a bit higher than the outer lights as the top portion of the roof rack bar tilts down ever so slightly towards the lateral sides. The small "T" support under the light was trimmed using an exacto knife and then I found the "smallest" drill bit I could find at the hardware store and started to "hand turn" the bit until it pierced the light. I didn't want to use a power drill and take the chance of pushing the bit throught the top.
careful measuring up the lights (eyeballing
) and then I drilled [with the same bit] the thin brass crossmember to land the new spot for light #1 of 4. The cross member looked wide without the lights attached but I knew it would later hide the wires and the lights will ultimately cover it.
and then... I was basically done. I still have to attach the bottom screen, drill the bottom screen hole for the wires to thread into (which just so happens to line up with the pre existing antenna hole in the roof (I planned to fill but now don't have to) and paint the bottom screen with a caot of flat black. I'm thinking I might shrink tube the light wires just to give it that clean built look.
Using the red (extra) rubber bushings from the shocks (those I'm replacing) I placed them on the "outer" lights only to give them just a little support seeing I cut the original light supports off to the nub - it really didn't add any extra height as they scrunched down pretty good with the screw (Oh yea forgot to mention the screw) from below. BTW - those screws I used are the "extra" ones the kit includes (those for attaching the diff cover plates).
Cool huh???
Just got into building this Tamiya F350 High Lift and thought I'd share it's progress. It only lived for 2 days (without any electronics but built) and then was disassembled for the redo. A bit nerve racking dropping a lot of $$$'age only to cut it up but I'm hopeful the end result will look cool and unique.
This is the roof rack but more will follow. It's not 100% done - will still put in the screens but I can do that later once more other things get built up more. This will at least offer me an opp to do other stuff that's on my mind.
Hope the pics are OK.
BUILDING THE F350 ROOF RACK
I continued doing this while tracing the roof line one bend at a time until I reached the half way mark.
Doing it this way I was able to get the right bends and gave it a custom look by adding a little extra bend to accent the roof line.
With 50% done - it was a matter of duplicating it on the other side. I just outlined the already made bend tube and matched it to the other side by flipping the metal around.
Sometimes you get lucky and without measurments - things turn out just about right. A little snip of the end to reduce the overlap and braze and one tube construction was finished. Although never brazed before - it was a bit messy...
Now to duplicate it onto another piece using the first one as a template. By wireing the new to the old, I was able to replicate the second level of the roof rack very easily and it was done in no time at all.
A sloppy brazing job for the first attempt but after a $19.95 dremmel tool with a grinding wheel from Harbor Freight Tools, it looked pretty seemless. Now to measure the height - but who needs a ruler - lets just size it up by looks.
Sorry for the out of focus pics but you get the idea. I used another stock piece of brass from the hobby store and nipped a section out. It seemed like the right size so I duplicated it for a total of 4 pieces. This was to support the RT and LFT sides and back. The front - I decided to just double the size of one piece so it was a bit consistant in size.
With a few sides brazed on, I was able to slip the top rail on and the supports held it in place without needing to be held so the second level of the roof rack was a bit easier to weld.
Now I added the back piece and the basic construction was finished. Pretty easy but I think it needs more.
How about some lights?
4 lights looks pretty cool - maybe just 2 - not sure... the only way was to cut the lights from the roll bar and pray ! After several bleeding seconds of cutting, I seperated the lights and placed a few here and there to try and figure out the best configuration. The idea of placing a hard top crossed my mind but after searching and searching for a hard top for the bed - the idea was to fabricate a soft top and go ahead and use the cargo roof rack to support the off raod lighting.
I decided to go with 4 lights but after placing the lights to the rack - the lights needed a bit of protection from low lining trees and such.
lastly a couple supporting brackets for the top light protection bar and slap on some flat black paint. At least the idea is cool.
By adding a thin brass cross member, this will ultimately support the lights.
To add the lights that came with the truck - I purchased the MFC-02 unit so that I can turn them on remotely from the transmitter. I liked the entire package of the multifuction control unit (not just the lighting) so I went the whole 9 yards. After cutting down the lights from the roll bar (a bit scary at first) I filed down the remaining bottom part from the light. I left two of the light supprt with just a little portion of the rool bar attachment left and filed the other two to the nub. This was to make sure the center lights fit a bit higher than the outer lights as the top portion of the roof rack bar tilts down ever so slightly towards the lateral sides. The small "T" support under the light was trimmed using an exacto knife and then I found the "smallest" drill bit I could find at the hardware store and started to "hand turn" the bit until it pierced the light. I didn't want to use a power drill and take the chance of pushing the bit throught the top.
careful measuring up the lights (eyeballing
) and then I drilled [with the same bit] the thin brass crossmember to land the new spot for light #1 of 4. The cross member looked wide without the lights attached but I knew it would later hide the wires and the lights will ultimately cover it.
and then... I was basically done. I still have to attach the bottom screen, drill the bottom screen hole for the wires to thread into (which just so happens to line up with the pre existing antenna hole in the roof (I planned to fill but now don't have to) and paint the bottom screen with a caot of flat black. I'm thinking I might shrink tube the light wires just to give it that clean built look.
Using the red (extra) rubber bushings from the shocks (those I'm replacing) I placed them on the "outer" lights only to give them just a little support seeing I cut the original light supports off to the nub - it really didn't add any extra height as they scrunched down pretty good with the screw (Oh yea forgot to mention the screw) from below. BTW - those screws I used are the "extra" ones the kit includes (those for attaching the diff cover plates).
Cool huh???
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I used the truck bed mounts as the brackets for the track bars and will do the same for the center bracket. It was a relief to see those bolt right up without having to do anything else to the die cut or the axle.
