Project "farmboy"

[93yjpiece]

Alright, I can guarentee like 99.5% of yall have never seen my name posted up, as its been years since I have documented something that I have built. But recently I got a fire lit inside me to build some more r/cs and finish my real buggy, and have been collecting parts for a couple months now and recently started on the first of 4 new projects yall will get to enjoy as I build (hopefully I get around to finishing them and wheeling them this time).

This build is from the same chassis builder that I did in the past, named Jim's Garage (check it if you want a pimp buggy/pimp work done). He built a fj40 hooded tube buggy for a guy named "farmboy", hence the project name. I will be copying the rig, trying to make it as scale as possible to the real vehicle. Including the firewall/sheet metal work, fuel cell, expanded steel (where can I get small scale expanded steel???) and trying to copy it tube for tube, except where its neccessary to move stuff to fit the r/c drivetrain.

Specs:
tlt axles
rc4wd tranny and tires
black plastic wheels
highlift shocks for now till i have some airshox machined
3/16 brakeline brazed or tack welded
old skool fj40 hood. cut a completely new and good fj40 body up for the hood grill. and I kinda butchered that, so kind of a waste haha)

I will be building the seats out of foam, thought of using the cell phone holder seats but they are the wrong brand and probably the wrong size. if you can give me any advice I appreciate it, and when it comes to actually making it work I might have to get some help with that too (all this new stuff out there I dont know whats what or how to work half of it haha).

Ill start the pics off (dont have many now) with the wheels. On the real rig (will post some pics of it up soon too) the wheels have some fairly decent backspacing, and the only wheels in stock I found had 0 backspacing, so I cut the wheels up, and welded them back together with a modified tip on a cheap soldering iron. I have done this on several sets of wheels including a 2.2 comp tlt and havent had a failure yet out of of the wheels, while I have broken other parts that shouldnt have). You will see there is not an inner bead on the wheels anymore, but I am glueing the tires to the wheels and if it wont hold the tire then I'll build a safety bead on there for more glue area.

Here is a picture of the rig I am using for inspiration, as my buggy is not nearly this cool (although I will be doing a copy of my yj buggy using and old skool body too) (I think if i can cut up the body)

 

[4u2nv]

I really like the wheels. The soldering iron welding is a great idea. It adds to the look as well.

 

[93yjpiece]

Now half the pictures from the first couple tubes and chassis jig I built are not on this computer so I cant post them now, but if I find them I will update the thread with them, but trust me the pictures down the road are going to get better.

Here is the earliest picture I have saved, you can see the build process was already kind of underway, but not too much completed. I wasn't planning on doing thread at first so I was slacking on the first pictures. But I know how much I like watching others, so I figured I would return the favor/atleast give yall something to point and laugh at haha.

Then in these pictures you can see I painted the hood black, because in the build thread of the real buggy (http://www.nc4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25145) the hood was black during the build stage. It is just sharpie marker, and i had to cut more of the hood out than he did because the high lift shocks are so big but when I build my custom shocks I'll fill the hood back in and add fenders to look just like his.

Then I started to work on the interior because I just had throat surgery and can't be in the garage yet adding more tubing. I only have a few pieces cut out of steel but wont weld them in until the tube is done to make sure it all fits well. (or atleast most of the tube is in then the interior will find its way in.) I have never done any kind of scale build this indepth and lots of these processes will be new to me, but Im doing it to pass the time while I cant work on the real buggy from the surgery....perfect time to go overboard on scale stuff.

And thats all I have for now with pictures, I will add some more in the next couple of days once I can get some work done on it. Thoughts?

 

[93yjpiece]

I really like the wheels. The soldering iron welding is a great idea. It adds to the look as well.

thanks, it took awhile to modify the tip to really help dig into the plastic but also get some good control over the molten plastic, but once I got it figured out its worked great. I modify plastic bodys with the same technique and they dont break either. It is how I narrowed and modded the fj40 hood for this project also, the cowl was melted back onto the hood using the same technique and I tried to break it off with no luck with decent pressure.

 

[Jamus]

Would you mind posting a pic of the soldering iron tip? Those wheels look the part, nice.

 

[Mad4Rnr]

build looks good, you can find he expanded steel here:

http://gardentrucking.com/

Go to the "Aluminum Stock and Metal" section, second from the top.

 

[gearmonkey23]

looks great man, nuthin to point and laugh at. i have welded, steel, alum, alloys, and other stuff, but never plastic, haha. that is cool.
oh, and that Kodiak chaw will kill ya.
cope wont "thumbsup"

 

[93yjpiece]

looks great man, nuthin to point and laugh at. i have welded, steel, alum, alloys, and other stuff, but never plastic, haha. that is cool.
oh, and that Kodiak chaw will kill ya.
cope wont "thumbsup"

The bear is the shizznit, but a little cope never hurt anyone every now and again, especially with all thier new flavors out. And I make sure to keep the beam black label and the brews flowing, two wrongs make a right, right?

Mad4rnr, thanks I will be placing an order tonight.

I'll get some pics of the tip of the soldering iron and maybe some more pictures of how i do it. It works great on everything, body panels (like I said the hood was narrowed that way) and wheels, done the 1.9s, 2.2s, 40 series, etc. Rather fast and surprisingly strong.

 

[xjwalt666]

I like how your doing the interior its looking good. Are you gonna use a sharpie or something to make dots all over like where rivets or screws would be? That would really add to the scale look of it.

 

[chivas72]

when are you starting the yj build ?

nice fj

 

[Unimoger]

how did I miss this build?:shock: that is dome amazing fab work, wow, nice job man"thumbsup"

 

[93yjpiece]

xj, not sure yet how I'll do it. once i get it all cut out of metal I'll see how much i can do and then I'll ask the scale gods here how to accomplish it.

chivas, not sure when it'll start, but you'll def know

Unimogger, thanks man. hopefully it will get better too and turn into something cool in the end.

 

[adam]

can u post up some pics of the soldering iron tip

 

[93yjpiece]

yes. I am right now in Charlotte NC, had surgery so I am recovering down here. the soldering iron is in VA at my house so as soon as I get back up there I will be more than happy to show the tip and how I do the plastic welding/pretty melting/whatever, along with a little demonstration. Updates on the chassis should happen in the next couple days as I gain mobility. Thank you for the interest though.

 

[foodstamp]

ive done some plastic work with my soldering iron as well, it works prety well, but i was using some cheap traxxas plastic, so wasent as good as it probly would have, but your rims look sweet! how did you add filler in that? i have a idea how you did, but i cant describe it hah

 

[93yjpiece]

no filler was added.

got some more brakeline so gonna try to get some updates pics tomorrow afternoon.

 

[Going Up!]

SWEET SWEET RIG!!!"thumbsup" Subscribed!!

 

[run2jeepn]

Great job with the hood and grill. Look good.

 

[93yjpiece]

run2jeepn, thanks, its still in the rough stages right now. And I havent tried to do real clean body work before so this will be a learning experince like none other with many areas of the build. Including some updates for today.

I started on the seats, as I said before the cell phone ones out just are not what is used in farmboy's buggy, so they wont be going in this thing. But I took the templates I made in 5min out of manila folder and skotch tape then sprayed a healthy amount of great stuff covering all of the seat. I should have waiting a little longer before I start shaping the first but I think it came out ok for the first step (playing with some second stage coatings to give the seats some rigidity so I can put them onto the seat mount tabs once i get them made. To cut the foam all I used was a razor blade and it was surprisingly easy/fun to do. In the pic you will see all the steps pretty much to how they came out, think this method will help on future projects for builing small molds for body panels/fiberglass stuff/etc. Maybe later tonight Ill put a second coat on them if I like how that material comes out on the second piece, which I will put updates up, but will more than likely be a thin layer of bondo on top of the foam, unless someone can suggest something different (like just fiberglass resin or something.) I just want a semi harder layer to help with attaching to the tubes (will build tube mounts like on 1/1 buggys for the seats to mount on).

I added some tubes today, you might be able to see the b pillars in place in the pics I posted, but the tranny mounts while fine and will would work are cutting cut the fawk outta there, dont like how the tranny is placed in the cab (didnt pay attention to which marks I welded the tubes in it/its off 1/4 inch. no bueno. The rear shaft will be a two piece too, but that project is long way down the road. Enough blabbing right, onto pics. Check back tomorrow for more tube work. And dont mind some bad joints you might see, I tack the chassis together with a 110v/220v mig, whichever is closer until I get the basic shape of the chassis done, then clean and braze those joints. And with a good solid chassis I can make some nice fitting joints and braze them in for super clean work. I promise Im not a super hack haha.

 

[93yjpiece]

More pics. Last pic is how I would like to mount the motor, and build an engine block out of the battery pack, but for clearance on chassis width to look scale Im running it like the second pics from the bottom.