43 replies to this topic

[Percymon]

24th Jan 2011...

Three months into RC and i'm embarking on a Clod project

Why project Cloider - the fusion of Clod and the Spider chassis from Gmade.

So the base Clod came from UK ebay and whilst not the cheapest place at times it wasn't too bad a purchase..

Body - no splits or cracks, never been painted, and the stickers are a combination of electrical insulation tape and company logos cut from magazines and glued on ! But the previous owner decided to extend the rear arches for some reason! All the chrome work is shot, and the front grill is scuffed from impacts but not irrecoverable. 'Windows' are pretty good now cleaned up, slight scuff on sunroof and windscreen but these should clean off with some mild cutting compound on the rotary polisher

Chassis - broken, badly repaired, but of no consequence, and the reason i won the auction for little money. Shock absorbers rusty & some broken but again not a problem as they'll be binned anyway

Axles/gearboxes - the usual scuffs and dirt on the casings from use, but internally they look pretty good, some evidence of the stock aluminium pinion gear wearing away, but far better than other cars i've opened up. The lot came complete with one new gearbox case which was a nice surprise.

Wheels n tyres - Wheel rims bear the usual rim edge scars but nothing too serious, a clean up and paint will have those sorted i think. Tyres initially looked OK, but i've discovered a small split in one of them (repairable) - they all look pretty similar other than the split, so copious amounts of rubber dressing may be in order to keep what i have supple.



Plans..

NIB Gmade Spider conversion kit has been purchased, but has 3-6 week shipping time from Canada
Wheels n tyres will be repaired / refurbed although some alloy beadlocks would be nice
Traxxas shocks - managed to stumble on 4 aluminium bodied ones last night on ebay again (part of an original set of 8)
Body - Hmmm Got a bit of time waiting for the chassis to arrive so will clean up the shell and see what i have to work with, should be able to styrene repair the rear arches. Will probably opt for a lightish colour scheme and 'dechrome' matt black the existing chrome work. I'm also looking at other bodies (50's pick up style mainly although a Tamiya Unimog body may be another option) but i need to assess the amount of bodywork i'll potentially lose with the added articluation of the Spider chassis. I'd rather not mount the body high on the chassis if i can help it.
Gearboxes / axles - these are being rebuilt with new casings and screws
Powertrain - no idea as yet, i'd like twin EZRun brushless set up, but budget might not stretch to that initially. whatever it is it'll be running from 7.2V NiMH stick pack(s)

Some pics , they aren't the best, but they'll give a reference point as the build progresses.

[Percymon]

Last night i spent 40 minutes just removing the decals - majority were electrical insulation tape. The ones on the bonnet (hood?) in particular were created by putting down a strip of tape, then cutting letters in it with a craft knife, scoring the underlying shell ! Owner had a sense of humour, bonnet decals read ..

"reconditioned Maclaren F1. NOT !"

Oh well, its stripped now and the holes in the hood and bed have been filled with epoxy putty. Its going to need a good sanding all over to remove some of the scruffs n scrapes, then some filler/primer. It'll be needing some form of bumper at the front, maybe a styrene creation ? , and the rear chrome one needs paint or replacing.

I'm no expert with bodies so i'm not expecting shelf queen standards !

I may well give up on this body, i'm not that fussed about the Clod look to be honest, but its cost me nothing but an hour of my time so far. I'm thinking about fitting a LED light bar on the cab, but i want all the wiring hidden so i may have to craft that and a roll bar from styrene myself to conceal wiring - i dont think i could fit leds and wiring into the Pro-line accessory light bar, and the 3racing version from Hong Kong looks like its wired externally too. If i stick with it i think it'll end up painting yellow on the top half and mid blue (to match the beadlock rings) on the bottom half, probably over lacquered with the Tamiya aluminium metal flake for a bit of sparkle. Going to be a bit of a clash with the red springs of the Traxxas shocks though !!



My second hand aluminium beadlock wheels arrived today (thanks Ben) - a few scuffs on them, nothing that wasn't visible in the seller's photos, and i got them for half what a new set would cost to ship from RC4WD so i can't complain

The Spider chassis has been despatched from Canada (thanks Gordon) who kindly sent it airmail rather than surface shipping so that should improve the original 6 week shipping time.


Ordered a load of M3 hex head cap bolts today too - I think they look a bit more 'engineered' than Tamiya screws; maybe no stronger but i hope will add to the 'modded' look of the axles etc.

[Percymon]

Another install from this evening..bringing the thread bang up to date...



Little progress tonight, not through lack of effort though !

Spent an hour wrestling just one tire onto the alloy beadlock rims - i eventually resorted to some improvised tire levers and it made my life 10 times easier ! One wheel for a taster of what's to come - looking at this one wheel is motivation for the project alone





Epoxy on the body has set but will give it a bit more time before sanding - it looks a lot better just for getting the stickers off and giving it a wash ! I've left some mounting holes for now, may use these for some form of custom roll cage and if not then i'll fill with styrene or epoxy at a later date.

[kaiser]

thats one dirty beast.

the tires are shot though, once that dry rot sets in it's over.
those wheels might be dyeable, not sure. but dye would be better then paint.

[Percymon]

Well i've made some progress..

Wheels n tyres..

Westfield fasteners gave excellent service with next day delivery, despite only ordering at 4pm the previous day. All 4 beadlock wheels are now fitted with hex bolt head type screws and look much better for it ('ive retained the cap head screws on the inside for now). My improvised tyre levers have been a great help fitting the tyres. I found a slight cut across the tread on one, repaired inside with some hemming web tape and general purpose flexible adhesive. I may be living on borrowed time with the tyres, but they'll do to get me up n running and break the truck in. In the meantime they'll get a few coatings of rubber dressing/preservative to improve their chances.


Gearboxes,

One set of newly purchased cases and another new set that came with the truck - these have progressed as far as i can take them at present as there are no axle E parts in the UK. I have back order with time tunnel, and now i have an order with the crawler store based in Italy. Hopefully Italy will deliver within a week, so i'll be back on track.


Suspension,

Four Traxxas shocks are ready n waiting, should be man enough for the job (the wheels are a bit weighty at ca 400g each!)


Chassis - despatched last Monday by air mail so hopefully either in the country or awaiting next flight from Canada - can't wait to feast my eyes on it


Powertrain

One near new EVX2 ESC and twin Titan 550 motors (can handle up to 16.8V) won on eBay tonight, so they'll be my start point and hopefully enough to not bother with twin brushless


Body..

I used milliput epoxy putty to plug the holes in the body, but after 2 days it wasn't fully cured, so i've taken it back out and i'll styrene them instead (Milliput was possibly oldish stock at my LHS ?). I have a 3Racing 5 spot light bar on the way from RCMart, which i hope to combine with my own crafted aluminium tube roll over bar.
Have some Tamiya Yellow for the upper body and Tamiya mica blue for the lower half (hopefully to match the wheel beadlock colour). Yellow will be overlacquered with clear pearl for a bit of added sparkle.


Other messings...

Been trying to assess whether i need axle wideners or just simple 14mm hex convertors. I've gained approx 32mm in track moving to the beadlock wheels (different offset), but not sure whether this is enough to avoid body contact with wheel articulation. Really need to get the chassis built up to see it for real to be honest but i'm impatient

[tonysmini]

Sounding good, you'll have to put up a few pics. I stuck a bid on the titans too, but got too busy stripping my zilla down and forgot about them.

[Percymon]

Well i've no chassis yet, and no e parts so i can't complete the axles either.

I can pretty much only work on the body at present so that might be tonights hobby half hour (HHH) with a few styrene repairs and some measurements for a customer roll cage.

[Percymon]

Update from last few days..


Sunday 6th Feb...

Lack of E parts is holding things up now - i've ordered another 2 sets from the scaler store based in Italy and i'm hoping they do have physical stock as there are currently none in the UK. Uk sellers are quoting 2-3 week lead time, shipping from Italy should be a week.

Today i used the old battered e parts to loosely build up one axle and mount stock Clod plastic rims and hub carriers, measured the distance between inner face of tyres to assess stock track width. Built again with just hex drive nuts and the beadlock rims, and i've gained approx 32mm in total track width through the change in wheel offsets and mounting.

Whether this is enough to prevent body clearance issues under articulation is debatable. May need wideners still, but its nigh on impossible to find anywhere outside the US that stocks them, irrespective of make

Its not all bad news though - just won an almost new Traxxas EVX-2 and two Titan motors for £55



Tuesday 8th Feb...

Today is a truely great day for me - this morning the post man delivered my Traxxas EVX-2 ESC and twin Titan motors, but also in his hand was a box marked 'air mail' .

Woohoo, my Gmade Spider chassis kit has landed !! - 8 days from Canada - RESULT !

My axles E parts are on route from Italy too, so with a following wind i'll have all the bits n bob i need by the weekend .

Today I've ordered a Acoms Technosport II 2.4G radio kit, nice n cheap for the youngster to use, and hope this won't get fried on the Clod ! Ordered two steel pinions (13T, 32dp) and battery lead adaptors. More money gone, but its a Clod project after all so thats to be expected

Been looking at bodies too, think i will go for the Pro-line PL3238-60 Baja shell - its got a nice 318mm wheelbase, and overall length is 54mm up on the Clod so should look ok on the extended chassis.

Some pics of the Spider kit...







Every stage of the build comes in a separate labelled bag, hence all the plastic packaging. Manual comes on a CD with both jpg and pdf files of the build process. Very well laid out and logical.

As standard the kit comes with rear steer lockout and front bumper; I have an additional bumper for the rear (another 200g of metal to haul around lol!). Whatever this thing hits when its built will certainly bare the scars !


Original Clod Body...

I have added some initial styrene repair sections to the existing Clod body where the rear wheel arches had been cut - will see how these hold up when i refine them. I built a new roll cage from styrene, but promptly snapped it test fitting - serves me right for not letting things harden off. I have some Al tubing to hand so i may just combine that with the bits of the original roll cage into something a bit more presentable, and no doubt more serviceable. YeahRacing spot light set now on its way from Dinball.




Thursday 10th Feb..

A little progress last night.

Managed to complete the first 3 bags worth of the assembly (front bumper, upper 4 link mounts and lower link mounts at the axles) which was very easy. My only difficulty was that the chassis instructions only show the Gmade components, so you have to constantly reference the Clod manual to tie the Gmade and Tamiya components together. It doesn't require rocket science but it did take me a while to get my head around it, particularly which bolts connect to Tamiya bits and which don't !

My new E parts (clod axles) arrived from Italy yesterday (next day delivery, marvellous), and the steel 13T pinions arrived this morning so i will be able to get the axles, gearboxes and bracketry fully assembled today (hopefully !). I had to drill an additional 3mm hole in each of the four Tamiya E parts for the second screw that ties the axles end stiffeners and the 4 link lower mounts either side of the Tamiya 'C' section (no different to other manufacturer's axle stiffeners).

Will get some pics up again once i have the axles assembled.

[Percymon]

Tonight's progress, and some build pics to feast your eyes on...

Front axle, complete with axle stiffeners, lower and upper 4 link mounts, front steering rods and front bumper.

Where possible i've replaced Tamiya/Gmade bolts with M3 hex cap head bolts and nyloc nuts (steering rods just mocked up with Gmade bolts for now).









Rear axle is in similar state, although needs the rear steering lock out adding.



Aim for tomorrow is to replace a few bolts, mount the rear steer lock out and fit the Traxxas Titan 550 motors.

[commiedoor]

ahh , you could have called it a '' SPOD '' ? just as soon as the posty drops all the rest of my crodzirra parts off i can begin on mine . come on bearings ! where are ya's

[tonysmini]

Looks like we'll all be building this weekend, all I am waiting for now are my two pinions then I have everything I need for mine.

[commiedoor]

AAAARRRGGGGHHHH , every thing is here except the bearing set !!! dang hong kong post , australian post ! paid extra for quick postage and its still as slow as their famously slow '' free post'' ... ...

[Percymon]

Some pics of the completed chassis...








Still got the electrics and servo to sort out.

It sure is a big boy !, that IS a stock Hotshot next to it, not a QD version !!

[SteelRat]

Looks fantastic.. bet you're pleased with it so far?

Any ideas what you're going to do vis the body?

[Percymon]

Looks fantastic.. bet you're pleased with it so far?

Any ideas what you're going to do vis the body?

Body wise I'm going two fold !

I'm trying to repair the original clod shell. I've added some styrene repairs to the rear wings where previous owner hacked lumps out. I've skimmed these with epoxy resin today so i'm hoping I can pretty much hide the damage externally. All being well it'll be two tone paint - metallic blue lower and yellow upper, the later over lacquered with pearl clear for a bit of sparkle. I've plans for a matching blue roll bar with spot lights.

As an alternative I'm looking for a narrowish 1/8th shell, maybe a proline baja, maybe an old American truck or car with flaming skulls on it?. Just spotted a painted T MAXX F350 shell for under £20 so that might be the decision made!!

[SteelRat]

Body wise I'm going two fold !

I'm trying to repair the original clod shell. I've added some styrene repairs to the rear wings where previous owner hacked lumps out. I've skimmed these with epoxy resin today so i'm hoping I can pretty much hide the damage externally. All being well it'll be two tone paint - metallic blue lower and yellow upper, the later over lacquered with pearl clear for a bit of sparkle. I've plans for a matching blue roll bar with spot lights.

As an alternative I'm looking for a narrowish 1/8th shell, maybe a proline baja, maybe an old American truck or car with flaming skulls on it?. Just spotted a painted T MAXX F350 shell for under £20 so that might be the decision made!!

I like the idea of going 1/8th.. never did like those cars where people put the shell right in the middle of a much extended wheelbase, or put the shell too high up. It just looks like a truck shaped dust cover rather than part and parcel of the model if you know what I mean. I realise though with a 15" wheelbase, it's not going to be exactly very scale looking what ever you do

[city hutner]

looks good, frankly you dont need beadlocks with clod tires. I have a custom clod crawler and have yet to have a problem. Nice looking chassis.

[Percymon]

Never got a reply from rc end of line about the Atomik shell, so kicked that idea out.

Found an XTM Racing MT shell that looked right, but at 220mm wide it fouled the wheels after about 2 inches of articulation. So the hunt was on for a long enough wheelbase shell but not too wide.

Most shells are just not big enough - this things need a shell wheelbase of at least 320mm to look right. The XTM shell was 360mm but too wide, and at £50, a bit pricey.

I narrowed my choice down to the Pro-line Beetle Baja Long shell and the long version of the Ford F-650 pick up. Have ordered the latter as at least its a truck type body and it measures 505mm overall length, 180mm width (supposedly) and wheelbase of 350mm. Should fit OK without trimming ? ? ?

Got some Pactra Chezoom Teal, Pactra Fiery Orange and some paint masks coming along with the shell.



Have extended one set of motor wires, and got the velcro stuck on the RX and the ESC.

[Percymon]

looks good, frankly you dont need beadlocks with clod tires. I have a custom clod crawler and have yet to have a problem. Nice looking chassis.

Its not likely to see many rocks, unless its smashing through them lol!

Its more for bashing , and with the weight in the wheels it should keep it upright most of the time.

[kaiser]

check out these bodies percy:

zielkeracing.com

amazing work.

[Percymon]

check out these bodies percy:

zielkeracing.com

amazing work.

Cheers Pete, spotted those earlier this week, the ones at adrcracing are rather nice too!

[Percymon]

What a frustrating weekend !

New F650 shell arrived Saturday morning, set to work trimming the worst of the mould off and cutting the wheelarches (tough going on 0.060" lexan !)

Then turned my attention to the electrics, wired it all up and went through programming controls. First test, wheels off ground and a horrendous sound from rear gearbox ! No choice but to remove all the links, rear steer lockout and split the gearbox . All looked fine on inspection, tried it again off the chassis and same grinding noise . Pinpointed the noise to the pinion gear. When I built this one up I dropped the supplied Ansmann grub screw for the pinion into the unknown depths of my study carpet, so I put a Traxxas grub screw in. Turned out the Traxxas one was a few mm longer than the Ansmann one, and with such a small pionion was contacting the spur gear!. Found a short Tamiya grub screw and fitted that, rebuilt it all and did a shakedown test in the house. Sounds a lot better now, thank goodness.

I spent probably 6 hours on it Saturday with litlle to show for my efforts

Didn't get as much done as i'd hoped Sunday either (washing 3 1:1 cars took a bit of my time!) , but finished cutting the body and sorted out the body post length. Routed the wiring a bit better and took off the front bumper/servo mount ready for the arrival of some alloy servo mounts to replace the Tamiya plastic ones i'd used initially.

Should be able to start paint in the next few days, just waiting on some paint masks to arrive.







Next i need to decide what batteries to buy, as i know the Traxxas to Tamiya convertors are not ideal (even in the lower power training mode of the ESC). Not sure whether to stick with 7.2V packs, or go for two 8.4V ones (NiMH only). No idea how much difference there is with the higher voltage, but certainly don't want to mash the gearbox internals , or worse have my 9yr smack the whole thing into a post at 30mph !

[SteelRat]

Oooh good choice of bodyshell Percy; suits the wheel base of the chassis beautifully! Will look forward to seeing the end result.

[Percymon]

Oooh good choice of bodyshell Percy; suits the wheel base of the chassis beautifully!

Not much choice when you have such a long wheelbase, 1/10th shells look stupid (although i'm still continuing to repair the original Clod shell), and there's not that much in 1/8th that is long enough whilst not excessive in width.

[Rob Buckle]

Will look forward to seeing the end result.

Me too! Really interesting thread Percymon.