F150 Baja Trail / Race Truck

[Mad Ax]

I glued it with Gorilla Glue.  This stuff is great - not only can it be used to stick large apes to things, it can also be used to join plastic.

Time was running out, as I had to pack for a short trip away with the wife tomorrow, but I really, really wanted to get the new sump guard finished too - or at least, get it a little further along.

I started with some L-section to make the upper mount.

[Mad Ax]

There!

OK - I know, I get it, the sump guard is way too big.  Yes, I know.  I'm going to make it smaller, just not today, because I don't have time.

 

[Mad Ax]

Sunshine grass pics.  Looks like it's sitting in the paddock waiting for the race to be called.

[Mad Ax]

I gave it a very brief test run, but had to stop because my unpatented invisible body mount solution kept coming loose.  Oh, and also the sump guard is too big and the tyres catch it on full lock.

I was just about realising it was time to give up with invisible body mounts and go back to a proper solution with posts, when I noticed the rear mount had snapped.  That's been there for a very, very long time, so it's not really surprising it's had enough.

I'll come up with something before the Club 380 meet.

[2qwik]

Awesome thread thanks mate! Ive a TA02T NIB that Im planning on building, definitely some great ideas here-pre rebuild!

[Mad Ax]

More updates!  This truck has been moved around from bench to bench to other overloaded semi-flat surface over the last month, as I work on other stuff and try not to let this one slip out of my mind.

At last, I made the time to get on and finish the last few important bits before it can be run in anger.  The body mount broke last time I was messing around with  it, although I didn't really like the body mount idea anyway, and the sump guard caught on the tyres when turning, so those needed fixing.  I'm hoping to take this to the Club 380 meeting on 31st May so I can see how well it runs on the grass track and maybe persuade the organisers to include a heat for these sort of vehicles next year, and that meant I had limited time to get it all working properly.

This is what I started with.  The whole truck sort of leans forward because the front shocks aren't quite right, and the body isn't really sitting at the right height either.

Full compression - there's an embarrassing amount of air under there.  That needs to change.

Same at the rear.  The standard truck had a great stance and an amazing wheel tuck, but the bigger shocks and hook-and-loop body mount pushes it too high.

[Mad Ax]

First, I turned my attention to the front suspension.  I had used these cheapo shocks from nearly 2 decades ago (I think they are from Yeah Racing), but for some reason I had mounted them to the upright lower mount.  This made the front end lower than the rear.

It was an easy fix to move them to the correct holes.  Back-in-the-day I was going for soft suspension for low-speed crawling, and the wider mount offered a softer response, but this is more suitable for racing.

Now we have a more neutral resting position, I can re-mount the body.  I put the sump guard back on for now as it may dictate where the front of the body must go.

[Mad Ax]

Body roughly plonked on

Rear wheel tuck looks good, we need to try to keep this height.

I found an offcut of L-section that already had a hole in it.  Ignore the filed out bit, I obviously started making a bracket for something else at some point.

Body mounts fitted, holes drilled.

It fits thus.

[Mad Ax]

Looking good!

I was lucky to get away with this - it almost didn't fit because of the spare wheel moulding.  Although ultimately it would be nice to get rid of the moulding, build a custom rear cage and add a proper spare.

Yes!

[Mad Ax]

OK - now to tidy up the sump guard before adding the front body mounts.  I don't know why.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Cutting aluminium sheet once it's been bent into shape is a nightmare, but I got there in the end.  I was also able to tidy up all the rough edges that I never bothered filing down before.

As I may have remarked previously, the bulkhead on this chassis is cracked and split in places.  It seemed sensible to me to drill right through so I can add nuts, instead of relying on the plastic to hold a self-tapper.

Sump guard reinstalled.  I used locknuts as this is an area that may get shifted around, and I don't want to lose any screws during a race.

[Mad Ax]

OK - ready to fabricate a front body mount!

The body can now sit slightly lower, and cover a bit of the guard.  That's fine, also cool.

The body got pulled back very slightly when fitting the rear mounts.  This isn't really a problem as it gives plenty of room for the tyre to swing.

Full compression.

Partial compression.  Clearance is just about perfect.  I'd be surprised if I don't get the odd rub during a race.

[Mad Ax]

OK, now we have our body height determined, we can make another bracket.  The problem is, the front tower is on an angle, so the 90-degree L-section won't work.

It was hard to do a neat job, but I eventually managed to bend it into roughly the right shape.  I tidied up as best I could with a toffee hammer on the flat anvil section of the bench vice.  I'm not much of a panel beater.

Installed.

[Mad Ax]

And now for the interior / floor / arch liners.  This is something I made years ago to try to hide the huge air gap between body and chassis after installing the Manta Ray shock towers.  It's neat but caused some problems installing the body posts.

The old mount system was getting in the way.  I tried to drill through the big block of stacked plastic slices but in the end I had to cut it off.

Now installed with a new plastic plate up front.

[Mad Ax]

And, "finished."  But, not completely finished.  I'll go back and tidy up the "engine block" part sometime.

After this, I was able to give the truck its first proper run since I finished rebuilding it.  Every other run has been compromised by unglued tyres, dodgy ESC, unsecure body or tyres rubbing on the sump guard.  Finally, finally, I got to drive it the way it was built to be driven.

It is an absolute hoot.  It really doesn't need any more than the silvercan, there's enough power to make it hop around the garden quite happily.  The longer shock towers give it a lovely scale bounce over rough stuff, and it jumps nicely on the little hump between grass and patio.

The tyres grip really well on grass, but are hard enough to slide on the patio slabs.  It doesn't powerslide as well as the XV-01T, which has brushless power and a front weight bias, but it still drifts nicely and hooks up well.  It can be a little understeery but then again it is a scale race truck, it shouldn't be driven like a 4wd buggy because it will never handle like one.  A little understeer is much nicer than instant grip roll, which is a problem when these trucks get more power or stickier tyres.

I'm really looking forward to showing it off at Club 380 and just maybe having a chance to run it around the track between heats.

[NM Frontier]

Very fun build, love seeing these old tucks!