RC4WD Cruiser Icon FJ40 build

[zanthrax]

edit: it's done

I've been a fan of the FJ Land Cruiser for a long time.
Just after I finished my D110 RC4WD released their Cruiser kit, I didn't get into it right anyway because of the fact that it's not leaf sprung.
Also I've been following the Icon 4x4 youtube channel for several years, their trucks look great, the attention to detail is out of this world. They replace the FJ body with an aluminum one, the chassis gets replaced with a modern custom one, the main part they use from their donor vehicles is the VIN plate.

Recently RC4WD had a sale on the Cruiser kit, 1 and 1 clicked together in my head so now I'm building a scale Icon FJ40.

I'm going to take it slow on this one and try and go as detailed as possible, which brings along plenty of challenges since a lot of Icon stuff is their own design.

This is what I'm starting with.

This is what I'm hoping to end up with.

The body color might end up different but the black accents and custom bumpers and wheels are high on my list. I decided on the soft top, it's their most popular option and it seemed like a nice challenge. I decided against their 4 door FJ44, it looks great but the shorter wheelbase is better for crawling.

The chassis is built and wired. Nothing exceptional here except for the winch controller.

Some parts.

Clear PVC for the windows in the soft top, Proline BF Goodrich AT 1.9s seem to be about the right diameter, a winch, an LED kit and some upgraded axle shafts.

Start of the work on the body.

Cleaned the indicators and cut the outside doors.

Started work on drawing the front bumper in Sketchup for 3D printing.

There's a lot left to do.

• Make a frame for the soft top
• Sew the soft top
• Clean the rear hatch
• Finish the model for the front bumper
• Model the rear bumper with carriers for a spare and a gas can
• Model the custom wheels, maybe in a beadlock design
• Model the side mirror
• Fix the interior, dash, seats, center console, door skins
• Fix many more details on the exterior like new indicators and moving the gas door
• Choose a paint color for the body
• The list goes on and on

I'll keep you guys updated

 

[322]

nice. If my wallet was bigger I would love an icon 1:1.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[adamsfly]

Looking forward to seeing more of this build. I like your idea of the soft top and I am interested in how you go about doing that.

 

[zanthrax]

Getting some work done on turning the hard top into a frame for the soft top.

 

[zanthrax]

Got most of the modifications to the hard top done, just need to smooth it out a little, add a few more attachment points in the middle and add some reinforcements maybe.

I really need to get working on the 3D models for the bumpers and wheels before starting the cardboard patterns for the soft top.

 

[zanthrax]

I've never used a sewing machine before, this is going better than expected. I also like the way the clear plastic and black cotton are looking scale wise.

 

[zanthrax]

Got the soft top all sewn up. It's not glued down yet but it fits very snug. I expected this to come out a lot worse.
Bonus cat hair.

 

[adamsfly]

Oh yeah! That top came out great!

 

[chino63]

Very nice ah... ahhhh... ahhhh chooo!! Excuse me... Work.

I'm allergic to cat hair.:ror:

 

[zanthrax]

Glued down the soft top on it's frame and got glue all over it. :x
I also got a lot of work done on the modification to the body.
The doors and tailgate stil need hinges but I waiting with those until everything is nice and smooth.
Still procrastinating on modelling the bumpers and wheels...

I'm liking the white color. It's just primer now but until today I was mostly thinking of gunmetal or sand for the body color.

 

[raceeng18]

Looks great Zanthrax, following along, in the middle of building one myself.

 

[bigchimp]

So is that just black canvas? Looks really good.

 

[zanthrax]

Haven't posted in this thread for 6 months, didn't get much done on this truck for 6 months.

I modified the passenger bench to be as wide as the driver seat, finished up the details on the exterior, cleaned the dash.

Today I painted the body (still drying) and build the center console.

 

[zanthrax]

Starting to look like something...

 

[zanthrax]

Got a lot more details done, body and interiors 99% done.
I'm still working on the bumpers and still need to find a solution that I like for the wheels.

 

[zanthrax]

Nero the cat is helping on building the front bumper. Getting them printed was pretty costly and building then by hand is a lot more fun.

 

[zanthrax]

99% done, only thing left is to design some new caps for the gmade beadlock wheels. I've tried and failed twice.
Brush off the cat hair and I can get it dirty.

 

[hoyt]

Looks great man

Get some tape to get that cat hair off the top though lol.

 

[zanthrax]

Finally got the wheels done, initially I wanted to draw a new outer piece for the Gmade beadlocks I had on it, I was worried that would not hold the tires on or pull through a screw.
So I designed a cap to fit in the existing wheel. I completely messed up that model and the STL would not load properly in a bunch of program I tried.
That's where I was stuck for months, without motivation to redraw it all.
Yesterday I ran into a post about an online tool to fix STLs and it worked! (https://makeprintable.com)
I printed that working STL and also a thicker one to use as a template to drill the 12 hole pattern to 7 holes.

So now it's done! The Deckard figure is a bit small but I like the look of it for this truck, I might change it out.

 

[jamesbernatchez]

I love FJs and that came out really wonderful! Great work on the soft top, especially for being the first go.