My first built: The Fall Guy

[fxman]

"Guten Tag y'all"

I am a German now living in Texas. So please be gentle with my english.
I have been with RCs since Tamiya's Frog and Wild Willy, later added speed boats, motorcycles, even surfers and yachts.

Inspired by watching tons of videos about scale crawling and reading hundreds of pages on this forum beforehand, I wanted to build a scaler as well!
So first of all: Thanks to all you talents out there - I have seen so much great work here, that I was too embarassed to post something at all. But in the beginning I guess everyone was a newbie ;-) And thank you Mäsi for the encouraging words!

So, I love the building process, therefore I got me a Dingo kit, went with a Tekin FXR / 45T motor and took the rest of the electronics from one of my RC models. And since I wanted to test the motor and balance (I got me saddle pack Lipos, which sit left and right of the motor), I built the stock version first, including a 4 link set up and a "Defender face" and gave it a run - "awesome" to make it short!










I still have a good collection of my toys from my childhood. One of them being Evel Knievel (someone remember?). He reminded me of my childhood hero: Colt Seavers and his famous pick up truck! So the idea was born.... I learned, that a Clod Buster body would fit nicely onto a Dingo chassis (thanks freedom83!). And it does:



Unfortunately the RC4WD wheels I really liked and look like the "real thing" are 1.9s ... they are too big in comparison to the Clod body and would rub on the wheel arches. What do you all think?
Also at this stage the body was sitting way too high, the space inside the wheel arches is way too big. To get a better idea, where this is heading:




So, here is a "scale" comparison - Evel was so kind to help as a ruler. First, with 1.9s. I managed to lower the body a lot, but the shocks seem to be too long (stock Axial 90mm)?



This is, where I want it to be:



As you can see, Evels head is where it is supposed to be - now it is sitting on 1.55s. Now the tires are too small I think - I sleep in front of the mailbox every night since I am waiting on 1.55 Desert Kings to come in - they should have the proper size of 94mm, which fills out the wheel arches perfectly.

In order to lower the body that much, I also had to turn the motor and transmission 180 degrees, otherwise the rim of the bed in the back sat right on top of the housing:




This is where I really need some tips and advice: Since I don't want to build a "shelf queen", I want it to be sturdy. I figured out a good way to mount the body, but besides the stock roll bar in the back, which is made from plastic - just like the bumpers - I want to build a scale front guard. As you can see, the original from the 80s is quite skinny:



I gave it a try and altered a Tamiya guard by using threaded rod, which I inserted into aluminum tube and bent it until it fit. Problem: The aluminum cracks at some point and the stock posts of this guard are way too big in my eyes.



Does anybody have an idea, how to recreate that front guard? Cut it out of sheet metal? I have never worked with heavy duty stuff and have no idea how to bend it on one hand and make it sturdy on the other... Thought about using U bolts left and right - but coming from european metric size I have a hard time figuring out their sizes online - the ast one I could have used to hold the entire axle of my real car - lol. The local hardware store wasn't much help either. Their "hobby" drawer is pretty much empty...

Thank you, if you read all the way down here ;-) There should be progress soon - scale progress!

 

[lonleycreeper]

Do you have a welder? Do you have access to one? 16 ga steel would probably be a touch thicker than the one on Colt's truck then some 3/16" solid rod, you can bend it ina bench vise, getting really tight bends. That would be my recomendation. 3/16 =1/10 scale 1 5/8" roughly iirc.
You will probably go through several cut of wheels with a dremel, or the more economical choice is a side grinder with thin cut off wheels.
Typically grill guards run under the front bumper and attach to the frame rails with a couple bolts.

 

[scorpiondave]

You already have a start on the guard. Why not just ditch the plastic pieces and just use the metal brackets you already have?

 

[fxman]

Thanks for feedback!
@scorpiondave: That was my initial plan too - maybe shape the posts to fit the bumper better as well. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of ground clearance with it since it sticks out almost an inch under the bumper...
@lonleycreeper: Thanks for the size recommendations! I guess I could use the same size to build a roll bar too. Actually my neighbour is a farmer and has one in the garage. Wonder if he ever worked on something that small ;-) Maybe he can help me with it. By the way: Liked your idea, how you strengthened your bumper.
@LoneRanger: I am honoured to receive a like from you - admire your work. Especially your detailed Bronco!

 

[lonleycreeper]

Just to keep you going..
The Fall Guy Intro - YouTube

 

[fxman]

I am actually watching these episodes on YouTube whenever I find time to work on it ;-) sooo cheesy!
But this is what I found yesterday at an "antique store":

I bet that's what you guys were really waiting for? Her face comes pretty close to Heather Thomas' - have to get her on a diet though, arms are way too big ;-) But.... Where the hell is Howie Munson? Probably somewhere getting another college credit!?

 

[badhoopty]

i absolutely loved that truck when i was a kid.

 

[Hoosierdady]

Looks like a good start sir. I use to love that truck growing up.

 

[65BAJA]

I thought that show was awesome when I was a kid. I'll have to watch this thread.

There is a thread on pirate about a high school auto shop building that truck from the ground up. It was a couple or three years ago. They did the storage box in the side of the bed and everything.

 

[viper6171]

loved watching the fall guy , great build so far "thumbsup". will have to keep an eye on this one

 

[Honger]

Man, I loved that show when I was a kid. Great theme for a build!

 

[JeremyH]

Awesome!! I recently got to meet the Fall Guy! One of my childhood idols!

Oh, and welcome to Texas! Plenty of Germans in this state...but most are in central Texas.

 

[fxman]

Hey Jeremy - thanks for the friendly welcome I toured that part of Texas - Fredericksburg, New Braunfels, Gruene, you name it ;-)

You met him!!?? I was 12 years old when Colt Seavers and his friends aired on German TV - funny that I still think he talks German, since the episodes were voiced over. I watched it every week back then and never realized, how many trucks they must have wrecked... there is a video on U-tube that shows every jump the pick up did on the German episodes - I think in total it is more than five minutes long!

 

[JeremyH]

Yep, he lives in Houston now. "thumbsup"

That central part of Texas is where I grew up. My great grandmother spoke nothing but German.....

 

[fxman]

I actually have been productive - unfortunately it doesn't show that much yet. So what happened so far:
I had a nice and great running Dingo, that I completely took apart again. Turned the motor and tranny 180 degrees so the Clodbuster body would fit better.

Next I changed the axle width, which was far more complicated than I thought. The Axial axles were just too wide. So I threw in some used Tamiya TLT axles. I read they were the narrowest - but honestly, they are still not narrow enough for my taste:





I had to renew all the links and shock mounts, which took forever to get the wheelbase right and to have a proper articulation. Especially because the TLTs didn't come with upper 4 link mounts. And since I was working on it anyways, I mounted the servo to the chassis, since that looked really ugly on the front axle:




I had my first attempt at cutting metal - from an old grill I found in the trash - and had to do two exact pieces for my custom front guard. Still working on the outer frame - thought already, U bolts would do it but cannot find the right size...







Then I cut out the pick up bed, since I want to lower it as well. The bed will get Colt's hidden box behind the cabin (to store my RX). And also I need to build me a mount for the roll bar. Together with the front guard this thing is actually very sturdy and should survive an accidential roll.



I will be in Germany next month - so unfortunately I have to give this built a break. Hope to get more done on the weekend though (filling all holes, build the bed), since I want to get to painting it. And I have already a good idea for the trunk: In one episode the truck had a rocket engine bolted to the bed ;-) Now, that will not be considered a scale rock crawler then anymore I am afraid ;-)

 

[fxman]

Here is another shot:



Wheelbase much better, exspecially with 1.55s and the small Micke Thompson Baja's. Still would like to narrow it by about an inch in total. Heard of Losi MRC axles. But they have a 4mm driveshaft instead of 5 mm and then the whole fitting process starts over again... Anyone done it? Are those small axles capable/strong enough for a big and heavy rig?

 

[fxman]

Yep, he lives in Houston now. "thumbsup"

That central part of Texas is where I grew up. My great grandmother spoke nothing but German.....

I love that area! We want to move closer to Austin some day in the future.

And dude, if you ever see him again, tell him that every kid in Germany - and now people in their 40s love him! The show would actually make a pretty good updated movie! Just think of all those remakes.... Lee Majors on the big screen! I think I have to get me his "6 million dollar man" action figure as for a driver. My Evel Knievel looks more like him than that figure though ;-)

 

[Killa-Cotton]

Try a different offset wheel and that will help a lot.

 

[bent]

did u make ur links?

 

[fxman]

I had great plans in the beginning for this but got distracted by many other projects (you know what I mean . Built a Sawback and a Mercedes G-Model and totally lost interest in this ...
Since this was sitting on my SCX10 chassis which I wanted to actually drive I got another chassis (TCS I think) and axles - so I had to start over completely with link lengths and so forth...

But: I finally got back to it and made some progress. I wasn't happy with the axle width from the beginning. Took me forever to figure out what kind of axle and offset would narrow it down enough ... and after cutting SCX10 axles, using TLTs I ended up with MRC axles that I enhanced with very helpful D-Lux mounts, metal gears and c hubs and Tamiya drive shafts. While this was sitting on the workbench, I wanted to drive my SCX10, so I ended up getting me another chassis (TCS), took the entire project apart, built new links and body mounts



Built a bed and hood from styrene (scale cockpit is in the making), servo is chassis mounted. And I found a decent way to mount a winch to the original Clodbuster bumper and to the chassis.





It flexes OK - the wheels tuck in just fine - and it actually performs very well for all the pieced together flea market parts I gathered the last months ;-)



Just not sure about the wheels. I have some 1.55 steelies that the Fall Guy's truck had as well, but they are black and they just have to be chrome! Someone experiences with chrome paint?

Roll bar, GMC grill and guard are not mounted yet, but the rig is ready for some paint job I think! Finally!