Cut 'n' Shut Landcruiser 45

[shannwah]

Got a decent amount of work done over the weekend with the help of my dad and his shed full of tools!! I now have the frame of the flatbed mounted to the chassis. This was a bit more involved than expected as we had to make sure that all the holes drilled in the upright mounts lined up so the frame would sit straight and level. I've used a system of pushing rods through the mounts and the bottom of the frame to hold it on. On one side they'll have a washer and screw in the end of the rod and on the other end of the rod there is a body clip holding it on. This way I can easily take the frame off without tools.

I also got the rear axle in the mail too - Ultimate Scale Yota axle from RC4WD. Man those things are a work of art!!! As I suspected I will have to narrow the chassis so that is the next step. It has to be narrowed by somewhere between 5 and 10mm. I'm going to replace the cross braces and skid plate to do this. I've seen an aluminium skid plate for the SCX10/AX10 from STRC that looks like it can be cut down and I've also seen Delrin blocks on Ebay. Does anyone have any other ideas?

 

[that.minitrucker]

This is a nice looking project i really like this pic reminds me of a Mail Jeep hmm maybe my first build :lmao:
http://i808.photobucket.com/albums/zz10/Shannwah/FJ45 Project/P6110043.jpg

 

[shannwah]

Quick update.

Couple of coats of paint on the bed frame.

Started work on making new chassis cross braces with more Axia 6mm pipe. Yes I know I have the rear axle mounted on the front, it's just to get the width of the chassis correct!!

 

[shannwah]

Managed to get a bucket load of work done over the last couple of nights.

Now that the frame has been narrowed, I had to adjust the mounts for the flatbed by adding spacers between the mounts and the frame.

Thought it was time to tackle the skid plate. I ordered a piece of delrin to make one from scratch, but after taking a closer look at the stock SCX10 one, realised that the holes for the lower links line up exactly below the holes that mount the plate to the frame. So i thought why not just cut it down and use those bottom holes? Wouldn't you know it, it worked like a charm and was less involved than I thought! I just had to cut a couple of notches in the frame to allow access to the transmission mounting screws on that side as you'll see in the pic but hey presto, it's done!

Stock:

Modified:

And the screws go into the centre of the skid plate where the links normally are so surely this has to add a bit of strength.

Next came body mounting. I wanted to have the front cab connected to the flatbed frame so it can all come off in one piece and I can keep all the lights wired just to that and not shared between the body and the chassis. The Honcho rear bed and cage inspired me for this. I found a couple of bolts that fit into the frame nicely and cut the heads off, packed it all with glue and ended up with this:

I then used magnets on the ends of the bolts to position the cab and a piece of styrene backing plate in the right spot, marked the holes and cut them out. I used a couple of small screws to keep it all in place and glued the styrene to the body. OMG, this worked also!! Aspects of this build that I anticipate to be difficult seem to just fall into place, whereas other jobs that I expect to be straight forward are turning out to be a real pain!!!

It all lined up pretty well. The next thing will be to use the stock front mounting posts on the shock hoops to secure the front of the body with magnets, but that will be later. I've had success with magnets on my SCX10 Land Rover, so thought it was the simplest way to go.

The other good thing about the body mounted this way is that it can hinge up from the very back mount just by removing one rod under the bed, so it will be easy to quickly load a battery.

Next jobs will be to finish making more cross braces for the chassis once the materials arrive, purchase my front axle in the next couple of weeks and get the servo mounted on the chassis.

 

[Pointman]

I'm likin' the tool-less frame mounts. I've been trying to figure out a similar solution for my build.
Nice work all the way around bro.

 

[shannwah]

Have got a decent amount of work done on the flatbed in the last week or so.

The mesh is from a mail rack I found at Kmart for $7! It's the perfect size to look realistic for this scale. Added some angle section around the sides to cover the rough edges to finish it off nicely. Got the wooden bed all glued on also. It's been weathered with an earth toned pastel to mimic dirt and sealed with a clear sealer. Styrene edging also.

 

[ninetwofiveRC]

i like it! bed looks good

 

[jeffho830]

The rig looks great.

Jeff

 

[uglysami]

its different i like it

 

[shannwah]

Thanks for the comments.

I made some new mounts for the leaf shackles because I wasn't happy with the pinion angle. With the new mounts the driveshaft points more upwards now and the shackles are at a better angle as well.

Next it's time for a bullbar. This is something that I've not been able to decide on for quite some time. I'm aiming for a real old school look to suit the era of this truck, but nothing on the market that is ready made really suits it all that much. The closest I could find is the RC4WD Gelande bumper for the Land Rover D90 body. It's the right kind of style, but the wrong size.

So I thought I'd have a go at making my own. Out came some more Axial threaded pipe for the bars and the uprights are styrene. The uprights consist of two layers of 2mm styrene glued together. This has made them very strong as the Plastruct solvent cement basicly welds the pieces together.

Here's what I started with:

I discovered an easy way to take the coloured coating off the rods. I stuck it in the drill and used sandpaper! These rods seemed to take forever to do as I had to cut and then tap a thread into one end of all 11. This build has been my first exposure to tapping so that's been a learning experience! I'm not ashamed to say I started off by snapping a tap!!

The whole thing is bolted together with srews, set screws in the centre section where the rods join each other. Here's the result:

I'm absolutely stoked at how this has turned out, it's exactly the look I was after. I'm in the process of painting it now and I can't wait till it's done!! When it's mounted to the chassis it's really strong and rigid and I think it will hold up fine. This truck's not going to have the crap beat out of it anyway!! I've now had a thought that I probably should have used black styrene so that once it gets scratched you'll see black instead of white styrene, but I can always redo this later if it annoys me too much!! Maybe even use alluminium or steel or something instead if I'm going to go to that effort. I just had plenty of styrene on hand and thought I'd see how it goes.

 

[fordtoys88]

the truck is starting to come along nicely! keep up the great work.

 

[shannwah]

the truck is starting to come along nicely! keep up the great work.

Hey hey thanks mate. I was wondering when I'd see you on here sooner or later!!!

 

[Benzbuildr]

Nice build can't wait to see it finished.

 

[fordtoys88]

Hey hey thanks mate. I was wondering when I'd see you on here sooner or later!!!

yeah Ive been on here for a bit now. i mostly chat with the guys from the Illinois section the scrc guys.

 

[shannwah]

Well, she's all painted up and I rusted up the frame a little too. On with the pics!..........

 

[fordtoys88]

wow! that turned out awesome. great job on it."thumbsup"

 

[shannwah]

Front body mounts done. I cut the tops off the Axial body posts and glued some magnets on. Then added another magnet with glue on the top side that will come into contact with the body. I rested the body on top of these magnets with glue and got the position right and then used magnets on the outside of the body to hold them in place until the glue set and the magnets were stuck to the body. Simple!!!

 

[shannwah]

Happy New Year everyone. Hope everyone had a great chrissy and new year.

Have done a bit of work since the last update.

She now has four wheels and two axles! I ended up switching to 1.5's: RC4WD Mud Thrashers and steel wheels. Time to get this thread moved!!

Also got some tie-down rails added to the bed. Started filling in some of the empty space under the bed to close up all the gaps of daylight with black styrene. Got a servo mount on the frame done with an STRC servo plate (sorry no pic yet).

So this is pretty much what it's going to look like.......with a few more minor details added.......

Things still left to do:
driveshafts.
shocks.
Install servo, receiver, battery mount and ESC.
side rails.
Fill in more empty space under the cab to close in the wheel wells.
Somewhat of an interior. The Axial tranny won't allow a full interior, but I'm going to add some detail so that through the windows you'll see a dash, steering wheel and seats.
Finish the rear of the tray with tailights.
Headlights.
Other small scale type details on the body and tray.

 

[grob23]

Truck's lookin great!

I've seen FJ bodies hacked up before, but not lately. And yours is done quite nicely

 

[Castrol]

That sanding is one way to get rid of color on those aluminium parts. But much faster "cleaning" method is household item what is in allmost every houshold in Finland.

Its called sewer cleaner it contains little mount of Sodium hydroxide about 10%and it corrosive to aluminium. I´ts eating colors of aluminium just in minutes and leaves nice and clean surface.

I think that it´s available most shops in U.S also.