As a few of you know, I hang out mostly in the Georgia chapter, SCX-10 forum, and the classified. I own a fully built 100 Series Land Cruiser. If you know anything about the Land Cruiser it's a legendary off road vehicle that is primarily designed for 3rd world countries, the UN buys 6 a day! Toyota may make you think of a economy car, but they make some of the most reliable and toughest 4X4 trucks in the world. The 70 Series Land Cruiser is iconic in many countries and the Land Cruiser is known in Australia as the car that built Australia. Toyota never released the 70 Series in the US, or North America for that matter. I've always dreamed of owning one, but with the paper work, import fees, it would cost several hundred thousand to import a 2011 70 Series. Only a few have done this, I will do it one day if I can ever afford it. I would rather have a brand new 70 Series than a Ferrari or exotic.
I was surfing the classified one day and came accross a 70 Series Land Cruiser on a Trail Finder chassis. I instantly fell in love and bought it.
A few specs on it:
Body: Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter's Pick-up. This Was Produced by Discovery Comunications in 2001. The Truck is 18" Long and 7-1/2" Tall. They are no longer being made, so incredibly rare hard body.
Chassis: Is a custom TF1 chassis extended about 1.5" at the center skid
Transmission: 16:1 RC4WD red planetary
Transfer case: I think is a GCM. not positive on the brand, but it's a 1:1
Axles: T60 ARB Edition F/R
Leafs: soft reds with helpers leafs in the rear, and highlift leafs in the front
Wheels: 1.9 G-made VR01 black (brand new)
Tires: 1.9 Military tires
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After that picture, I have taken ownership and the build will take a wild turn.
Once I got it I tore it down and gave the body/frame a good bath. Soaked the tires in cleaning solution and detailed the tread/rims with another cleaning solution to really make them pop. The previous owner removed all the electronics so I had to source them to get this thing running.
I have picked up the following for the build:
Trail Finder Chassis
Land Cruiser 70 Series Body
T-60 Axles fully built with aluminum knuckles, c-hubs, ARB diff covers (in the mail), CVD's, HD lockers.
Mamba Max ESC
Axial 27T Brushed motor
Hitech HS645MG Digital Servo with aluminum horn (may go into my Class 1 XJ, stronger than my XJ's servo)
FS-GT3B TX and FS GR-3C RX.
Mud Plugger 1.9 Military Tires
I do have some rather large plans for this rig. I'll be fabricating a ARB winch bumper for the front and a dual carrier for the rear with a metal replacement bed/rack as well. She needs a little touch up work on the front end, the glue on the light buckets and corner lamps are hazing over. I'll need to remove and buff it off and re-glue with a clear epoxy, frame is painted a military green, powdercoating with a 35% gloss black and the body is being shot in a gun metal grey color in a automotive paint booth, Interior is missing a few things, I'll be picking up some styrene and scale diamond plating to spruce things up inside and out. The leaf spring mounts sit a little low, ill have to find a way to shift them up or reposition so the bumper can mount a little closer. I could go coil overs in the front and chop the frame slightly to allow a tighter bumper, but the 70 came with leafs, want to keep it that way.
Something similar to this: (although not as aggressive)
I began early last night mocking up the axle position, I used the aluminum coil over mounts for the T-60's to mount them on the leaf springs, I still have a little work to do for them to mount 100%. I'll be cutting part of the mount off, and counter sinking a bolt/nut to secure the leafs properly, I could spend $40 to get the right mounts, but these seem to be working perfectly...time will tell. I started bending some 1/8" steel tubing to make the fender guards and sliders. I have gotten in touch with a good friend who has a paint shop and powder coating setup, this will be last on the list since I want to get all the tubing and mounts welded and mounted properly before I start painting. I have already made a styrene bumper for the rear, needs a little tweaking but looks pretty darn good. The front bumper is going to be tricky becuase the way the leaf springs mount and the body. I may mount the "ARB" replica to the body as its' a hardbody. I did copy some of this from my post on another forum, so I may of already said a few things. Needless to say I am very excited to begin, I will be mounted the electronics this weekend and hopefully have it somewhat running by next weekend.
Current Issues I am facing and not quite sure how to deal with it:
1) I picked up a Hitech HS645MG servo, however the motor is mounted upfront and it's very tight, so I'm not sure where I'll be mounting the servo
2) The Axial 27T motors colar is too large to fit into the transmission. I will need to either bore the whole out with a press or buy a new motor, I'm not sure what I want to do yet.
3) T-60 Axles are about 0.5" to wide upfront, I am brainstorming on how I will shorten them. I am thinking I will take them apart and cut the housings, shafts and re-assemble. I will be welding the shafts back together, so hopefully they are steel. I don't know a lot about the T-60's, nor Trail Finders. I'm actually quite a noob with RC Crawlers...
4) There is NO room to mount a large battery, barely enough to mount a RX and ESC. I may be making a "utility" box to house the battery on the bed, however I don't want to have a heavy battery on one side. I may have to go saddle packs or a much smaller battery.
This rig isn't going to be wheeled hard, it will see minimal wheeling time, and it'll be very very mild. I plan on truly going all out on this thing, it'll be getting a true automotive paint job with clear coat, full powder coating, and mandrel bent tubing all the way around. It weighs more than my fully built SCX-10 XJ already, I haven't even started on the tube work or electronics! So I don't think it'll crawl to well.
Anyways, I'll update as I progress through my build stages, this will be a long build, over the next couple of months and possibly a year. I'm not going to rush this build like I have before. I have found out that getting that instant gratification soon leads to instant second purchase for the part I should of used. My username is "Sin City", it will be a very aggressive yet OEM build, dark, classy, and flawless...
I was surfing the classified one day and came accross a 70 Series Land Cruiser on a Trail Finder chassis. I instantly fell in love and bought it.
A few specs on it:
Body: Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter's Pick-up. This Was Produced by Discovery Comunications in 2001. The Truck is 18" Long and 7-1/2" Tall. They are no longer being made, so incredibly rare hard body.
Chassis: Is a custom TF1 chassis extended about 1.5" at the center skid
Transmission: 16:1 RC4WD red planetary
Transfer case: I think is a GCM. not positive on the brand, but it's a 1:1
Axles: T60 ARB Edition F/R
Leafs: soft reds with helpers leafs in the rear, and highlift leafs in the front
Wheels: 1.9 G-made VR01 black (brand new)
Tires: 1.9 Military tires
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
After that picture, I have taken ownership and the build will take a wild turn.
Once I got it I tore it down and gave the body/frame a good bath. Soaked the tires in cleaning solution and detailed the tread/rims with another cleaning solution to really make them pop. The previous owner removed all the electronics so I had to source them to get this thing running.
I have picked up the following for the build:
Trail Finder Chassis
Land Cruiser 70 Series Body
T-60 Axles fully built with aluminum knuckles, c-hubs, ARB diff covers (in the mail), CVD's, HD lockers.
Mamba Max ESC
Axial 27T Brushed motor
Hitech HS645MG Digital Servo with aluminum horn (may go into my Class 1 XJ, stronger than my XJ's servo)
FS-GT3B TX and FS GR-3C RX.
Mud Plugger 1.9 Military Tires
I do have some rather large plans for this rig. I'll be fabricating a ARB winch bumper for the front and a dual carrier for the rear with a metal replacement bed/rack as well. She needs a little touch up work on the front end, the glue on the light buckets and corner lamps are hazing over. I'll need to remove and buff it off and re-glue with a clear epoxy, frame is painted a military green, powdercoating with a 35% gloss black and the body is being shot in a gun metal grey color in a automotive paint booth, Interior is missing a few things, I'll be picking up some styrene and scale diamond plating to spruce things up inside and out. The leaf spring mounts sit a little low, ill have to find a way to shift them up or reposition so the bumper can mount a little closer. I could go coil overs in the front and chop the frame slightly to allow a tighter bumper, but the 70 came with leafs, want to keep it that way.
Something similar to this: (although not as aggressive)
I began early last night mocking up the axle position, I used the aluminum coil over mounts for the T-60's to mount them on the leaf springs, I still have a little work to do for them to mount 100%. I'll be cutting part of the mount off, and counter sinking a bolt/nut to secure the leafs properly, I could spend $40 to get the right mounts, but these seem to be working perfectly...time will tell. I started bending some 1/8" steel tubing to make the fender guards and sliders. I have gotten in touch with a good friend who has a paint shop and powder coating setup, this will be last on the list since I want to get all the tubing and mounts welded and mounted properly before I start painting. I have already made a styrene bumper for the rear, needs a little tweaking but looks pretty darn good. The front bumper is going to be tricky becuase the way the leaf springs mount and the body. I may mount the "ARB" replica to the body as its' a hardbody. I did copy some of this from my post on another forum, so I may of already said a few things. Needless to say I am very excited to begin, I will be mounted the electronics this weekend and hopefully have it somewhat running by next weekend.
Current Issues I am facing and not quite sure how to deal with it:
1) I picked up a Hitech HS645MG servo, however the motor is mounted upfront and it's very tight, so I'm not sure where I'll be mounting the servo
2) The Axial 27T motors colar is too large to fit into the transmission. I will need to either bore the whole out with a press or buy a new motor, I'm not sure what I want to do yet.
3) T-60 Axles are about 0.5" to wide upfront, I am brainstorming on how I will shorten them. I am thinking I will take them apart and cut the housings, shafts and re-assemble. I will be welding the shafts back together, so hopefully they are steel. I don't know a lot about the T-60's, nor Trail Finders. I'm actually quite a noob with RC Crawlers...
4) There is NO room to mount a large battery, barely enough to mount a RX and ESC. I may be making a "utility" box to house the battery on the bed, however I don't want to have a heavy battery on one side. I may have to go saddle packs or a much smaller battery.
This rig isn't going to be wheeled hard, it will see minimal wheeling time, and it'll be very very mild. I plan on truly going all out on this thing, it'll be getting a true automotive paint job with clear coat, full powder coating, and mandrel bent tubing all the way around. It weighs more than my fully built SCX-10 XJ already, I haven't even started on the tube work or electronics! So I don't think it'll crawl to well.
Anyways, I'll update as I progress through my build stages, this will be a long build, over the next couple of months and possibly a year. I'm not going to rush this build like I have before. I have found out that getting that instant gratification soon leads to instant second purchase for the part I should of used. My username is "Sin City", it will be a very aggressive yet OEM build, dark, classy, and flawless...
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