The Shop Truck 79 F150

[66sprint6]

Hey guys! After the shortcourse craze came and went, I was left with a shortcourse truck that scratched the go fast itch, but left the scale itch...well...itchin LOL. I realized the only way to be happy was to build a scaler that could be quick, durable and handle half-decently. Me and a buddy got to brainstorming and decided to build a couple rigs with similar specs so we could bomb em around and have some fun. They will be based on the SCX10 using the axles and tranny, dingo or similar wheelbase, open diffs (front at least), smaller tires size, lower than usual suspension and decent speed (nothing too crazy). My friend has been building his version and I finally got mine to roller status tonight. I bring to you...IronWorks new Shop Truck, a 79 F150 with all the trimmings.

Specs:

Axial SCX10 chassis, heated and bent to lower the skid and ride height to about 2.25"
AX10 shocks with internal springs on both side of the piston to allow droop and some rebound
Open front diff, locked rear
Dingo wheelbase

Future:
Brushless setup
better driveshafts and tranny internals
1.55 or 1.9 wheels
SC/Iron hybrid tire
Scale touches, drop bed, interior, lights, bumpers etc.

Right now she is just a roller, but will be finished up with a sensored brushless motor and MMP combo and run with 2 or 3 cell lipo. I dont want it to be TOO fast, but fast enough to have fun bouncing it off stuff and jumping everything I can. Im not looking for 50+mph, just somethin quick enough to be fun but slow enough to be able to handle. I am following the KISS method for now, and will add bumpers, lights and a drop bed down the road. I was shooting for a clean F150 with 35s and think I will be all over it. Thats all for now, gonna work on gettin this thing running and work on making it handle a bit better.
Matt

 

[lonleycreeper]

Very nice, love the paint job. I did a very similar build about a year ago, same paint scheme even.

 

[93 FORD BRONCO]

Is that a proline body. I thought they only made a 4 door f-150.

 

[66sprint6]

HPI body and HPI makes the 4 door as well! Proline makes a bump side body that I used to have, but its a little small for Axial axles. Im liking this, and hope I can get it to perform the way I want it too. I dont want anything special, I just wanna be able to bash and have fun. She wont crawl very well with the open front diff but Ill still try!!! Ide LOVE to figure out a way to lock and unlock reliably but thats another project for another day.
Matt

 

[66sprint6]

Forgot to mention, and you cant even tell in the pics but I tried my best to fix the side trim to look more realistic. I hated the way the trim looked on these bodies so I ripped it all off the Mule and then added it back to the bed but it still didnt look right to me. On this rig I decided to make it more 3D with the black middle part sticking up like on the 1:1. I cut up some small zip ties and stuck em to the middle of the stickers on the sticky side then put them on the body. In person it really is subtle, but instead of my eye sayin "dang that trim looks flat and lame" it just goes right by it as if its supposed to be that way. I dig it!!! I also cut about 1/4" off the bottom of the cab and bed to make the truck look longer which, again is subtle but made a noticeable difference. Now if I can just add some other touches here and there to get the truck lookin a little more like it should.
Matt

 

[ScaleFreak93]

So how long till this goes the way of the comp courier? :ror: Looks good, love what you did with the trim "thumbsup"

 

[66sprint6]

Nah, Ive decided to make every rig I ever own unique and fill a performance gap that the others cant/wont. The CompCourier is my big tire, go anywhere, do anything kinda rig. The Mule is my mid wheelbase, mid height tire rig. The BlueBronco is my short wheelbase, small tire rig and this one will be my go fast, handle decently, jump over stuff and bash the crap out of it rig lol.
Matt

 

[93 FORD BRONCO]

HPI body and HPI makes the 4 door as well! Proline makes a bump side body that I used to have, but its a little small for Axial axles. Im liking this, and hope I can get it to perform the way I want it too. I dont want anything special, I just wanna be able to bash and have fun. She wont crawl very well with the open front diff but Ill still try!!! Ide LOVE to figure out a way to lock and unlock reliably but thats another project for another day.
Matt

You could find a way to incorporate that lock unlock feature the traxxus crawler has. Isn't that called a dig? It would be cool if they could make hubs that you could actually turn to lock and unlock ur diffs. I guess it would be pointless though, You'de have to use tweezers to turn them. I'm sure ou could find a way to do it though. I don't think it would be that hard to do. Can't wait to see some action pictures of this thing. As soon as I get some money I'm ordering this body but I'm thinking blacked out for a paint job.

 

[66sprint6]

Just added a short spec list to the first post.

I thought about a dig style deal but then it would be 2wd or 4wd which might actually work but I love 4wd offroad racers alot and wanted to try to make that work. Might have to look into doin a 2wd/4wd deal down the road tho!!! Ive ran the rig around as a roller and it needs ALOT of work, but Im gettin there. Need to sell my shortcourse motor/esc setup and buy a sensored brushless setup for this, that way I can crawl AND git the go pedal when I wanna open her up.
Matt

 

[XSRCdesign]

one of my favorite rigs ever to drive was a original scx-10 with a brushless in it. Kinda miss that thing

 

[66sprint6]

Tossed together some slider/boatside/electronic and battery trays from some scrap aluminum. Contrary to my usual 60/40 front weight balance Im gonna try to keep it as close to 50/50 front to back and side to side as I can. These will work for now, turned out pretty decent and they are super light.

They are gettin some paint at the moment then I will try to incorporate some inner fenders to finish off the underside and protect the electronics.
Matt

 

[93 FORD BRONCO]

You said you heated and bent the fraim to lower the height the body sits. If I buy this body will I have a problem with the height the body sits on an unmodified scx frame. I'm going to try and get the body to sit at about the same height as yours.

 

[66sprint6]

No way!!! Before I bent it I set it on the shock hoops with the body posts all the way down and the bottom of the body was lined up with the bottom of the frame...spot on perfect!!! I cut a little bit out of the bottom of the body and it still looked right, but I wanted to lower the ride height itself without having to use smaller shocks. Im runnin AX10 shocks and still sits lower than most SCX10s and I still have a good bit of travel. I have a custom chassis on my other F150 (Mule) and I remembered how low it used to sit before I made the shocks taller so I followed the way it was bent and did it with the SCX10 chassis. Its ugly, but I hammered it back out and got it as close to even on both sides as I could and itll do for now!
Matt

 

[RootBreaker]

im not a ford guy.. im that other guy.. hah..

but that is one sick truck u got there!!!!

 

[66sprint6]

Thanks! Im gonna try to work out the inner fenders tonight. Im in the middle of makin some tires for it, but they are a bit bigger than what I would like to run. Ide love to put together a 1.55 wheel with a 3.5" tire but in order to get the backspacing correct itll prolly be a 1.9 with similar height tire. Still got alot to do before I get to that point tho. Cant wait to get it running!
Matt

 

[93 FORD BRONCO]

I've seen someone in here use the 4 door version of this body and the fender flares looked way out of scale. For some reason yours look alot better and closer to the 1.1. I know you said you modified the trim. When you say trim we're you talking about the fender flares or the actuall trim that runs along the side of the body? This truck has really inspired me to do one almost exactly the same except like I said all black with maybe a top over the bed. As soon as my check comes I'm the mail I'll be ordering the body. I'll be sure to post a thread on it once I get it. Do you have any plans for a front or rear bumper. I was brainstorming what might look good on that body but couldn't really decide.

 

[66sprint6]

The trim pieces Im talkin bout are the ones that run down the "dents" in the side of the body. I cut the wheel wells out using the normal lines after tryin to figure out a way to make em look more realistic. There really isnt a way to do it without majoy surgery so I said screw it and cut em normal. One day I might cut em completely out and put some better ones in but again, Im tryin to KISS! I did cut some material off the bottom of the bed, cab and front fenders to make the body look longer which helped ALOT! As for bumpers, I will make some later on but until then the molded stockers will do. Not sure if Ill build some to look stock, some late 70s/80s style tube bumpers or even a Baja inspired deal, we will see! I plan on either tossing a cover over the bed until I cut it out completely and do a drop bed or leavin it alone and blacked out.
Matt

 

[93 FORD BRONCO]

Is the grill and headlights all one sticker

 

[66sprint6]

Yeah, its all one sticker and I suck at gettin it to not look stupid on the corners. Itll be replaced eventually tho so I dont care.'

Got the inner fenders finished up along with the electronics trays. I couldt put together my usual CD case/butter container/tupperware inner fender this time around cause it just wouldnt jive with the electronics tray, the placement of the shock hoops and the position of the fender openings on the body so I basically just extended the splash guards on the trays up to the body and then ran a piece of flat scrap lexan behind each shock hoop to black out the rest. Itll work for now!!!

I also played with the spring rates in the shocks to try and get the ride height I wanted, which was a little lower in the rear than the front. I finally got it, but Im still waitin to set anything in stone until the motor shows up and I can actually go out and run it. Once its running I will do all I can to tweak the suspension to do what I want it to but for now it looks a little better. Ide actually like for it to be lower but would have to cut the body up alot to make that happen. I also finished up putting together a 3.5/1.25/1.55 tire (35/12.5/15 scale) made out of a couple old Short Course tires Jmel gave me and have em glued up to a set of 1.9 wheels I got from KingJames for the moment. They look alot like an A/T tire and Ive got reinforced SC sidewalls in them, firm foams and they have been belted so I look forward to seein if they hold up.

These wheels are only temporary as I have a set of Gmade steelies on the way and will be lookin for a set of 1.55s with as close to 0 or even + offset as possible. Till then, Ill rock 1.9s I guess.
Matt

 

[93 FORD BRONCO]

Coming along nicely. Need to fix that stance though. Looks like you got a bed full of bricks