So, I've got a crapload of work into Guido at this point. Pretty much every spare moment I have had for the last two months have been spent on him. I even skipped a few of my relatives b-day parties.
First off I had to do something about the steering, with the new tires steering was horrible. The radius arms were mounted on the outside of the frame rails and directly to the side of the frame. In order to get more steering I made some radius arm mounting brackets to drop the mount down and allow me to put the mount under the frame rail rather than on the side. This also makes thinks look more scale as well as leveling out the arm for less axle steer under articulation.
Dropping the radius arm mounts caused interference with the belly pan and skid, so I had to cut the whole belly pan off and build a new one. While I was at it I made it removable. This way I can work on the motor or transmission without having to remove the whole interior. I can just drop the skid. The boatsides bolt to tabs welded to the tube.
I had to clearance the pan so that the suspension could droop. I'll need to fill in the bottom of the skidplate with something.
I added a rear tow point to the frame for pulling out the unfortunate ones. :lol:
I added braces to the top of the cage to mount the roof rack and for the aluminum roof panels. I still need to add one more. :roll:
The roof panels are made from 0.020" thick aluminum and the roof rack is from Montana Scale Designs. The same rack that was on it before.
I smoothed out the joints from where I had to add material to the cage.
I got most of the front bumper done. I still need to add a plate for the fairlead though. Maybe I'll add so light tabs. I also made new headlight mounting tabs so that they fit better.
The R2 tranny and Holmes Hobbies 10T Cobalt Puller fit just perfect in there. "thumbsup"