RC clod buster project

Steve_C

Redtail Catfish
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Well after around 15yrs away it's nice to be starting back into it again. The first of the packages just showed up in the mail. I have to admit I am very pleasantly surprised by a few things. I snagged these axles and tires/wheels for a very reasonable price and was mostly just looking to get the axles to strip down/clean/rebuild as the start for my tuber, but now that I have them in hand I see a few things I didn't even realize at first through the pictures when I bought them. One thing is they have the tube mounted aluminum 4 link months for the lower bars which is nice. Also they have the aluminum upper 4 link mount to mount the upper bars on the top center of the axle which I like. Plus it has the aluminum vertical servo mount which is cool. Another thing is in the pic I thought the wheels were probably just chrome painted but they actually are the chromed clod (plastic) wheels but look look a good cleaning should get them looking pretty spiffy I would bet. Plus the tires are in a lot better shape than I expected so I'll probably shave them and roll the edges and be able to use them on the build.

Picked up some steel tube today (3/16 & 1/4) for making the chassis out of so soon as the Saftey-Sil 45 and lexan guardian body get here next week I can start measuring and building the two main frames rails the rest of the chassis will be built off of so won't be long now till I can really dive back in.
 

Fat Homer

Mmmmm... Doughnuts
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Cant wait to see this build finished... its going to be HOT!!!
 
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Steve_C

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I'm a very OCD person which can be a good & bad thing. So it makes me pretty detail oriented about things I build. In the past back years ago when I was building scale looking RC cars/trucks I was able to buy the old Parma Hemi motor to use on some of them. This truck I'm building isn't going to be a shelf queen, I plan to bash it pretty well, but I still want it to be as scale as I can make it. I had planned to use one in this build but since the old Parma Hemi is discontinued now that isn't an option. I did find a few on Ebay but no way I was gonna pay $80 for one.

So I did a little searching looking at die cast models online and found those 1:18 scale Muscle Machines that have the way oversized blown engine would be the perfect size. Most of them only have the injected blower scoop and a portion of the supercharger case that bolts right to the hood, but then I found a coupe that has the entire motor!

So just ordered this for $30 and going to strip the motor out to use in the tube frame build.

 

Fat Homer

Mmmmm... Doughnuts
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image.jpg Btw, a little trick i learned to make your body last longer once its painted and finished, is to get some E6000 glue and drywall mesh tape to cover any post hole areas...

It can also be used to repair rips and tears in the body after some hard bashing sessions...
 

Steve_C

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That's a handy tip Homer I had never seen that one before. I do remember a LOT of cracks and splits at the post holes back in the day thats for sure :)

Well lots of stuff showed up today. I'm sure the mail woman must hate me because I run a small business (custom fly rod business) from my home and get a lot of packages all the time, now there's even more for her to drop off.

The guardian body is extremely similar to the suburban body I use to like on my old clods so I was glad to see it was a really close match. Traxxas rod ends for making the 4 links came as well as the Saftey Silv45. I was busy with "work" work till about 8pm so only got to spend a few hours burning the midnight oil on the clod, but I got the body cut out and got the main rails of the frame laid out/cut/sanded the coating off and brazed together. The whole chassis is going to be 3/16" tube but I decided to make the two main rails out of 1/4" tube just because I plan to run this truck hard so I don't want to end up worrying about bending anything if it gets 4-5ft of air and lands all wonky. So now that the main rails are done the rest will be done out of 3/16 tube.

I was iffy about spending $35 for the five 18" sticks of saftey silv 45 brazing rod, but now I am glad I did. Using that stuff compared the the $4 rods from Lowes/HD is like night and day. This stuff flows like butter and leaves a really nice joint that doesn't have a huge build up of filler like the cheap stuff does. I do have to say though the very first brazed joint I did tonight was pretty sketchy and I ended up taking the first one apart and cleaning it/redoing it. I actually was a certified welder and fabricator for about 20 yrs of my life but I honestly have not touched a welder or brazing torch since about 2005 so I was VERY rusty lol. After that first joint though it all started coming back to me and I got the flame adjusted right and the joints are all nice and strong now.

So now I have the main rail done. All square and ready for doing some cross brace and then working on the upper tier of the frame rail hopefully tomorrow night after I get done working.




 

Fat Homer

Mmmmm... Doughnuts
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I wonder what the weight will be like once finished with all the metal framework... it does however seem like it will be one heck of a basher though...
 
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Steve_C

Redtail Catfish
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It'll be extremely light for a MT. I built one like this years ago and it weighed less than a stock clod. The metal tube itself is brake line tube which is not heavy at all. My old tube chassis clod would hit around 30 mph with a pair of 10turn motors on the old style NiMh batts. This one I am really considering brushless so I'm thinking it'll be a handful :D
 
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