How to get your Toyota hardbody

[tcanin00]

It should be pretty self-explanatory, but none the less, I am willing to teach you by the numbers.
Step 1: Get yourself a soft lexan body in your favorite flavor.
Step 2: Mix up some Alumalite resin. Their recommendation is to use the resin within a few months of purchasing it, not leave it your basement a couple of years to age to perfection. You will wind up with brown flakes in your mixture. Not detrimental, just makes it a little difficult to mix.
Step 3: Use clay, or Playdoh to block off where don't want resin and hope for the best.
Step 4: Realize the error of your ways in mixing up to much resin at a time, then remember that you want to make a truck out of a 4Runner.
Step 5: Rearrange your Playdoh into a truck shape and follow the instructions from Alumalite regarding mix amounts versus working time.
Step 6: Weigh the whole confounded mess. 2.8 lbs, not as bad as I thought.
Step 7: De-mold your new, hard resin body and weigh it again. Surprisingly, lexan and Playdoh accounted for 1.2 lbs.
Next up butchery, or debauchery, whatever.

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I'm tired of the step count already, and I think you guys can follow along.
Next thing to do is pick an appropriate frame and a TF 2 should work. The Proline 4Runner is proportioned a little bigger since its intended for a 1.9 SCX 10/Ascender/whatever. This works in my favor, since it's a little wider than the original TF 2 truck body.
This stuff is like working with fiberglass as far as the dust goes, but without the fiber shrapnel.
It's starting to look truck shaped with the roof and back half Zuessed off. Plastic surgery has begun by making the back of the cab.

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It should be mentioned that using the lexan body as mold doesn't damage it. Alumalite suggests using baby powder as a release agent, and it worked great.
Here are some poser shots at Backhills RC Club in Dover, PA.

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Back on track. And by the way, I started this project back in February. I've been saving these pichaz so long that Google sent them to the cloud, or space, or something.
Made some progress in the sand, fill, sand process and the cab is starting to look decent. My wife suggested I leave the surface kind of rough, to make look crunchy and beat up like the condition of the 1:1 inspiration 1994 Toyota pick up. In all honesty, the real truck should been used for parts because it had mostly dissolved thanks to PENNDOT's annual salting of the roads. Instead I choose to spend 8 months and exchange rust for MIG wire. Preservation, degradation, same difference.
A friend from Backhills RC gave me these strong square magnets, so I made some simple brackets to make the cab easily removable.

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Now to transform the the back half from 4Runner to pick up. I started by sectioning the bed side down to close the wheel openings a bit.
Then I made the outward area of the rear window. Having the real truck is both a blessing and a curse, because I will not-pick the sh!t out of this thing if the details aren't right.
It wouldn't be a pick up without a drop bed, so here we go. Individually cutting the ridges for the bed floor was mind numbing, I mean awesome! Almost as much fun as making the layered pieces to simulate the stamped process that created the real thing.

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[nosser]

I just found that’s stuff at micheals and have a 50% coupon so I’m gonna try as well. How hard is the mold? Would it shatter into pieces from a hard fall?


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[sgtbham]

This is interesting, how heavy is the alumalite?

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[tcanin00]

I just found that’s stuff at micheals and have a 50% coupon so I’m gonna try as well. How hard is the mold? Would it shatter into pieces from a hard fall?


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Nice! Hobby Lobby carries Alumalite too. I go with my wife into the craft stores and find gems for toy turck use.
The resin holds up pretty well to roll overs, scratches, and general abuse. I've driven this truck throughout the build, and poured a Datsun 620 body on an ECX Barrage. The resin is hard, but flexible. The Datsun doesn't have a drop bed or any bracing inside the body, so it has started to sag around the body posts.
Since I was in ungodly hurry to finish this truck, I didn't give myself enough time to pour the resin properly and it left air pockets between the resin and lexan body as it cured. I just left them, weathered it a bit, and sent it.

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This is the final installment of pichaz to bring this current.
The bed floor came pretty good, albeit I got the maths wrong. The inner fenders were the hardest part so far. They were .60" styrene strips bent to shape, filed, filled, sanded, dropped, then repeat. I'll admit, making more than 1 of something is a challenge for me. In order to make the rounded transition, I introduced 1/4" square styrene to a Dremel with an oval shaped carbide bit.
You can see how much sectioning/butchery it took to get the contours of the bed sides right. It matches the real truck in that it's wavy and made of Bondo.

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This is interesting, how heavy is the alumalite?

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Before adding styrene it was 1.6 lbs, but I cut off the roof I started to pour and ground quite a bit away since it's a 1/4" thick in some places.
I'll weigh it soon and get you a more accurate number.

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[smog]

Great idea!

I gather the resin sticks well enough to the lexan to not run down the sides and pool on the ceiling of the cab?

 

[zohn]

interesting thread may have to give that a try in the future. I bet if you precut narrow thin carbon fiber strips or fiberglass and imbedded them in the window post and corner areas while the resin is still runny that the cab will hold up better.

 

[ussprinceton2004]

I wish that 4Runner body was wider

 

[tcanin00]

Great idea!

I gather the resin sticks well enough to the lexan to not run down the sides and pool on the ceiling of the cab?

No, it's pretty runny as it's pouring. The trick is to tilt the body where you want the resin to pool. It helps to built up Playdoh barriers to keep the resin where it's supposed to be.

interesting thread may have to give that a try in the future. I bet if you precut narrow thin carbon fiber strips or fiberglass and imbedded them in the window post and corner areas while the resin is still runny that the cab will hold up better.

That is a great idea zohn! I'll have to try that. Since I had no experience with resin before, I figured I could just pour structural areas thicker and all would be well

I wish that 4Runner body was wider

Yeah it's in between the width of a TF2 Toyota truck body and full size body, like the Ascender Chevy Blazer.



Here is the estimated current weight, per sgtbham's request. Coming in at 1.4 pounders with all the pieces of styrene I'll ruin, I mean use to make the other side.

Also made some progress on the left side inner bed side. Not looking forward to doing the other side. I never would have thought making a drop bed would be so involved. Oh well, I have at 3 more to make.
I had to tape on the bed side, you know for friggs sakes.
Also you can see how the hood and roof are sagging a bit. I know I can warm them up with a heat gun and straighten them out. I'm planning on bracing those areas up once they're straightened out.

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[Shinchu]

This is a great idea! Its like the lexan version of what I was going to do with my 3d printed 79 ferd!

The bracing inside is another great idea I never would have thought of.

Its really looking awesome and you are doing a fantastic job on the bed! Really inspiring me to reconsider recasting my 3d printed truck...

 

[tcanin00]

This is a great idea! Its like the lexan version of what I was going to do with my 3d printed 79 ferd!
Alumalite also a silicone mold making kit you could use to make a "negative" of your Ferd. I plan on doing that with the 3D printed mirrors I got from RC Nerds, so I can cast them out rubber.

The bracing inside is another great idea I never would have thought of.
If I would have posted the problem before I got to far. I could re-pour the cab with bracing, too. Never too late to re-do what took months to do.

Its really looking awesome and you are doing a fantastic job on the bed! Really inspiring me to reconsider recasting my 3d printed truck...

You should do it! Consider this your tip over point!


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[CM9000]

you should start a thread in the bodywork/ paint section. "how to turn any lexan body into a hardbody"

awesome work my man. i would have never thought about that. i hope some drifters pick up on this mod. lexan isn't easy to make look as real as a hardbody can be made.

 

[tcanin00]

you should start a thread in the bodywork/ paint section. "how to turn any lexan body into a hardbody"

awesome work my man. i would have never thought about that. i hope some drifters pick up on this mod. lexan isn't easy to make look as real as a hardbody can be made.

I didn't think to put this in paint and body, good idea CM9000.
That's why I wanted to get this process out on the interwebs, so others can use it and add to it.

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