Tribute to my Dad's 79 F100 featuring Banzai

[Shinchu]

So if I'm building a 79 f150 4x4 correctly, front needs radius arms and coil spring on a driver side drop axle. (With married t case as not to get torch/pitchforks)
Maybe I can cheat with linked front as long as I keep spring and shock separate.

I have been pretty sure of this but now I'm 100% positive I need to do that... and it wont be cheap lol

Oh wow I just realized my truck right now is pretty much a highboy with links front and rear hahaha yuck!

 

[Browneye]

I know I have a color photo stashed away somewhere of my old truck, but gee, it sold about 1989. I bought it in 1979, through my brother in law - he was in the car-biz for a bazillion years, he sold Fords for at least fourteen of those years and was a die-hard Ford guy. We used to joke that 'on a quiet night you could HEAR a Chevy rust'. :lmao:

IIRC I paid about $3800 for it as a 3 year old truck with about 35K miles on it. I think it only had about 95K when I sold it ten years later, and I think I got about $3000 for it. Not bad for driving it a decade. And it still ran and looked great. I wish I could have it back now.

Yes, they had leaf springs front and rear. Mine had a 360 2bbl that was a dog motor, and an automatic transmission. I decided to drop a 390 reman motor in it as the block is identical. In fact, they didn't even know or bother to check that the core was different than the new motor. That really livened up the truck. At one point the transfercase blew and I recall having to pay about $400 to have it rebuilt and thought that was quite a lot of money. A new motor was about a grand.

I drove it for a number of years, then the ex-wife. After a few months of driving it you'd want to just not drive it anymore, it was BIG, loud, heavy, and rode like a, well, a truck. The ride was very hard, and it would roll over around the corners. LOL I remember my oldest daughter, maybe 3 or 4 years old, would go the dump with me - back then out in the county you had to haul your own trash. So we'd go a couple of times a month, had a half-dozen trash cans, throw them in the truck and drive up to the transfer station. She just turned 31.

In WA state a lot of people, including us, would heat their home in winter with an air-tight stove and firewood. We would go cut several cords of wood, split and stack, for the winter. And we would sell a few to offset costs. I had half a sheet of plywood on both sides of the box and behind the cab so you could stack firewood all the way to the hieght of the cab. It would crawl out of the muddy fireroads and go down the hiwy at 55 without a stutter. One time I stopped at the truck scales and it weighed in a 10,700 pounds. Since the truck was 5700 empty that was 5000lbs of firewood in the back of it, and it still had an inch or two before the bumpstops hit the rear axle. It really was a heavy duty truck, and we used it that way.

I did a quick search and found an image that is so close it could pass for the one I had, although I put chrome steel wheels on mine and it had 33" radials. I remember replacing the old style bias ply tires with the new bigger radials and the ride was greatly improved. Still rode hard though.






This one looks like it too...

 

[2mtech]

I'll have to admit that was a good looking truck.

I drove it for a number of years, then the ex-wife.

After driving her for a number of years I understand why she's your ex.

After a few months of driving it you'd want to just not drive it anymore, it was BIG, loud, heavy, and rode like a, well, a truck. The ride was very hard, and it would roll over around the corners.

Are we still talking about your ex...? Now I clearly understand why she's your ex!!

Sorry...couldn't resist.

 

[Shinchu]

Chris that was an AWESOME story. and now i want one

oh and i got something on its way for the 79 ascender. something i wish i had in time for proline...

 

[mgputer]

Chris that was an AWESOME story. and now i want one

oh and i got something on its way for the 79 ascender. something i wish i had in time for proline...

New tires? [emoji848] A servo? [emoji848]

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

 

[CODYBOY]

Hey Chris, did you have any luck rounding up Andrews package? Here is the tracking #
9500114877578170104300. I had Marcia remove that address from your file. Sorry again for the hassle! :roll:
Ernie

 

[Natedog]

Chris that was an AWESOME story. and now i want one

oh and i got something on its way for the 79 ascender. something i wish i had in time for proline...

Yes, it was! Buddy had a white one back in high school and yes the 360 motor was a turd, 390 was a 1000x better motor! However, that truck looked great, wheeled great and was heavy duty, as Chris said it rode hard when empty. "thumbsup"

 

[Shinchu]

Servo already replaced a while back. I think it was last page I went with the ds3218. It's a little slow due to lower voltage bit seems stronger.

As for tires... Not yet but its getting closer

Ernie I haven't had time to stop by my old place. Maybe this weekend. I will let you know as soon as I get it. Thank you!!!

Now back to my new goodies...
If you saw my post in chit chat latest purchases... I got a package from rc4wd yesterday

FLAT BOINGERS!!!!!

Installation of the massive aluminum GCM brackets was easy. Not sure why I didn't do this sooner!
Nailed the wheelbase first try but single leaf couldnt support the weight so I put a short leaf under the main and that got it just right.
No chino mod or anything yet but the springs are a 4 pack so I have a spare pair that would be super easy to swap between chino mod or not chino mod. Especially since I have a new dremel it's really tempting...
Havent wheeled it yet but I'm going to head out to the backyard rock stack with my new go pro with tripod and get some footage! Birthdays are great!

 

[mgputer]

Re: Tribute to my Dad's 79 F-150 RANGER LARIAT

That's an awesome pic of the boingers! Almost looks like a real truck! Can't wait to see it when the body gets put on!

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

 

[Shinchu]

Yeah here is another pic I snapped last night

And I got some footage with the gopro...
https://youtu.be/Ge7RR_ryzu4

I drives ok but now I can see why tuning leafs is a whole new thing in and of itself.
I put small helpers under the main leafs and it supports the weight, but there is nearly zero flex like it's too stiff.
Could be shock oil or maybe shock position. I think I have some tamiya shock oil and some losi oil I can see if going lighter would help. Pulled out the helper leafs and the shackles maxed out and got stuck as soon as I went over a few bumps.
Shackles and mounts are both mounted as close in towards each other as they can to encourage more arch but it's just not enough. Gotta take the brackets off to flip front brackets to get them a little closer. I will show you what I mean later.
Tinkering and tuning is fun!

 

[2mtech]

Scale looks, realism, performance...is it a holy RC trinity that can ever truly exist? Tune in next time, same Shinchu time, same Shinchu channel.....

 

[Shinchu]

Determined to get the flat BOINGERS tuned for a run at my father in laws backyard tomorrow, I went all-in for leaf tuning. Removed tweaked and re-installed the whole setup several times, trying different shackle locations and fine tuning the wheelbase... Eventually ended up with near vertical shackles, perfect wheelbase, and Thanks to chino modding the leafs... Flexxxxx!!!!11!1one!!!
I even removed the rear upper links so she is now PURE LEAF out back now. I even used some spacers between the axle and leafs to get the ride height perfectly level. (Yes like poor mans lift blocks lol)
Pics later and vid from the in laws after that.
Tomorrow is gonna be cool...

**Another shot of the new leaf setup, tuned, tested, ready to ROCK!

a pic that could get me banned from sbg forums lol FLLLLLEX!!!!!!1UNO1!!!!

And I'm here at the in laws now, got a whole bunch of go pro footage. Its gonna take a while to edit and upload. But I will leave you with 3 cool words... "In" "cab" "footage"!

 

[Shinchu]

Bit of bad news...
Jk3drc refunded my PayPal for the full amount. I have emailed them to ask why. Waiting on a response. 8(
Really wanted that 3d printed 79 body...

Now I am wondering if I should try scratch building a long bed for the proline cab... But the huge fender arch of the prolone is kinda... Eh.

What do... I guess it could be worse at least I got my money back.

 

[durok]

Not sure what the deal was with yesterday and RC projects... :evil:

Sorry you got "blocked" from your long-awaited best-laid plans - that's totally the pits.

I also had a bad day after finally making a lot of progress on my "took 2 years to start building it" Bomber kit.

Broke a screw head off in a high-dollar aluminum part, broke an MIP hex driver tip off in a high-dollar hardened steel part!

Going to have to completely change my build plan as well, at least for the near future until I can replace some parts and/or get some extraction tools or a machinist's help.

Argh! :shock:

 

[2mtech]

Bit of bad news...
Jk3drc refunded my PayPal for the full amount. I have emailed them to ask why. Waiting on a response. 8(
Really wanted that 3d printed 79 body...

Now I am wondering if I should try scratch building a long bed for the proline cab... But the huge fender arch of the prolone is kinda... Eh.

What do... I guess it could be worse at least I got my money back.

Man, that bites...I was looking forward to seeing what that looked like

Yeah, at least you got your money back, but that's little consolation when you were already glad to part with that money to have something unique.

You could always hit up Lowes lumber section and Headquake a body. "thumbsup"

 

[smog]

Sorry to hear about the 3d print. It was an exciting move to ice the cake. I have no doubt you will come up with another epic idea, however. This thread is just too epic now

 

[durok]

Motivation for Shinchu!

 

[smog]

Motivation for Shinchu!

Buy it sinchu!:mrgreen:

 

[Shinchu]

Thank you gents. Still no word back after I sent an email. Maybe I will try contacting him via youtube where he is still uploading vids.
Gonna fight for this one!

But in the meantime my brain has been in "what if" mode.
What if I cant get it. Then what?
What if I do get it and the build is "done"? Then what?

Time to build something else! Maybe... I have some ideas.

Leafed 85 yota?
Linked 71 scout?
Whatever it is, it's getting 1.9s and will be capable as all hell. I drove Andrews truck at the in laws and the capability of that rig had me giggling when it would crawl up vertical rock faces... With wet tires.

Well gang, we shall see. Down, but not out! Shinchu doesn't know the word "quit"!

Dirk thanks for the motivation brother.
Smog I cant buy it lol I'm broke plus it's a std cab (won't fit my fam) and it only has one gas tank. Colors are spot on though!
I could tell you what else was different but that's not the point of the pics
Thanks for the support! I will figure out this Korean body thing no matter what. Its funny how much more a human being wants something when they are told "no".

**still need to upload the footage I got last weekend. Then went again on the 4th and andrew and I both drove HARD. Pushed the trucks to the limit and maybe a little beyond. Never thought I would break a crawler after owning a yeti haha but... Rocks are... Well, rocks.
I will get to andrews truck in his thread but mine... Well I was wiggling the fronts out of a spot and must have been wiggling harder than I thought. Pulled the tie rod clean out of the passenger side ROD end! It was hot (93 in San Marcos) so that softer plastic might have contributed.

I found a spare yeti shock end from the pitbox same size as the 2.5mm Lunsford tie rod and threaded it on.
5 minutes later, the other side let go lol
So back to the pitbox for another axial part haha
20 minutes later the first axial rod end let go!
I said ok time to beef it up...
Used a couple of the links removed during the leaf swap and cobbled together a quick trail fix tie rod. Sucker is ugly but TUFF!!!
with all that said, the little ds3218 servos have some guts at 6.4 volts!
Also I'm going to get some metal rod ends so they dont pull out again. Or maybe thats a good servo saver feature... Hmmm...
Anyway truck ran great and I will get the vids up this weekend.

ASCENDERS ASSEMBLE!!!!!

 

[smog]

85 Yota or a 71 Scout, your taste cannot be questioned my friend! You and your kid had a great crawl, by the sounds of it. Sounds like your pit skills are up to the task.