M04-L "General Lee" Project

[lawdog]

This is my first post here at Tamiyaclub... I began an odyssey over a year ago to build my first RC car, a custom "General Lee" of my own. I had seen a few done before around the internet, mostly using a toy RC car body or one by HPI, which were the only two choices until recently. Both were very narrow, and required some work to fit a hobby-grade chassis. One of the best I saw (and that a few others copied) took a Duratrax Vendetta and cut it in half to stretch it to fit the body(ies). I decided to not try to cut and fabricate a chassis out of a 4WD car...seemed wasteful to me in addition to being more of a challenge than I felt up to.

After researching/settling on the available bodies (at the time, HPI '69 Charger body for Savage, and Malibu Toys 1/10 body sold at Wal-Mart years back), I selected the Tamiya M04L to use as my base car. I did this because it was narrow enough to fit both the bodies, and it was a true RWD chassis that was designed to be lengthened to fit various bodies. I ordered my M04L kit...one of the Classic VW Beetles. My wife had owned a Beetle at one point, so I thought I could use that body for her. The kit I ordered was supposed to come with a motor and ESC, but, when it arrived, no ESC. I had planned to upgrade the motor anyway, but concerns about the RWD platform being overpowered had made me initially settle on a Tamiya Sport/Black Can motor as a first step. The lack of an ESC in the kit meant I had to buy one in addition to the upgraded motor. I decided to go ahead and take the brushless plunge with a 12T/3300kv motor and ESC Combo from Yeah Racing. The build went fairly smoothly until I installed the radio gear. I had horrible interference issues with the AM receiver and radio, causing the car to turn/swerve unexpectedly. I had used a standard Futaba servo, and it was either defective or damaged very early on in the process. Once I replaced it with a more robust HiTec metal gear model, the problems ceased and the kit was ready to roll.

To bridge the long gap to reach the wheelbase needed for the HPI body, I needed about 45mm, and about 22mm less for the Malibu body. I originally had a guy at my LHS who said he knew someone who could fabricate an aluminum part for me that could work for both, so I drew him a template and waited, and waited. Well, it never got done, so I went about Plan B: buy Tamiya chassis trees and get the spacer parts from there. I bought four and was back in business. Being married with a toddler, in addition to the servo/spacer delays, made this project take longer than it should have, but I finally got it all together about a week ago.

Below are pics of the HPI lexan body (mounted on poles), the Malibu toy body, and the chassis fully extended (next post).

The HPI body is likely the one that will see the most action, in part due to the paint errors/defects discussed in Pete's thread above (it was my first body painting experience), but also because it's a standard lexan body that will be more durable than the painted plastic toy body.. To remedy the sillly built-in supercharger cut-out, I glued a piece of lexan under the hood, put the "filler" piece on that, and used model filler to fill the edges. After sanding, it was decent, and I painted the exterior of the "hood", then waxed/sealed it so that it would have roughly the same lustre as the lexan body. It came out OK, but does not hold up to close scrutiny. However, none of the HPI Chargers I have seen look totally clean because of the stupid blower on their body. The wheels are painted HPI stock wheels, 31mm in rear, 26mm up front, to mimic 8-spoke versions of the iconic American Racing Vectors on the General Lee. I ordered the Confederate Flag sticker separately from the GL sticker/decal kit, because it had much better color. I hand-cut the white backing for it. If I had it to do over, and I might, I would be much more careful painting and would cut the wheel wells to better fit the car application vs the intended Savage/Monster truck.

The Malibu body is obviously the most detailed/accurate, and it will likely be more of a shelf queen/display model. I fabricated an underbody mounting system by cutting the mounting poles at the proper height, then using glued nuts underneath the body to hold it in place. I did a few slow runs this way, but it did not stay in place for much else. I do like the "stance" here much better than the HPI, and the overall scale effect is much stronger. I recently made custom under-body mounts/platforms with velcro and left-over lexan, which did increase durability/driveability. The Malibu body is plastic, and thus a lot heavier than a typical lexan RC body. With the slightly higher mounting, this body, while looking great, is a bit top-heavy and prone to flipping at speed/in turns. I think it will definitely be the shelf queen.

The chassis pics show the full extension with five, yes five, spacers in place. It is surprisingly rigid. The only other mod aside from the motor/ESC is Yeah Racing 55mm oil dampers in the rear....the ones up front are smaller, and I didn't like the fit of the YR dampers there, plus all the weight is in the back of this thing, so the stock friction dampers seem to do OK.

Since I made the decision on this car/project to fit the narrow bodies discussed above, IMEX has come out with General Lee ripoff body for a standard 190mm chassis, and I have recently learned that Kamtec in the UK also makes a very good Charger body for standard chassis cars. I think my next project may be a more versatile chassis for jumping/bashing, like the DF-03ra. The M04L is great on the flat, but it's not a jumper, especially stretched.

[lawdog]

Chassis pics added.

[caddyshack @ the chop shop]

Looks good, thats alot of spacers you have used bet tamiya are out of stock now :lol

craig

[6-Speed]

wow. that's amazing! Great work

[mike_o]

lawdog,

welcome, and thanks for sharing!

Mike

[lawdog]

lawdog,

welcome, and thanks for sharing!

Mike

Thanks to all. I had been a lurker through the process, and look forward to taking advantage of the collective knowledge here on this site, especially when I start monkeying around with a DF-03ra in the future.

[RichieRich]

That looks really nice. BoLink made a Dodge Charger body a while back, but it didn't look that great. The HPI body is awesome aside from that crazy blower. It's a nod to the fast and furious crowd which doesn't appreciate the awesomeness of the charger with the 440 or 426 Hemi.

[Kevin_Mc]

that looks amazing, it's some size too!

my M04 looked surprisingly big with one extra spacer never mind the 45 you've used. I love it!

[lawdog]

That looks really nice. BoLink made a Dodge Charger body a while back, but it didn't look that great. The HPI body is awesome aside from that crazy blower. It's a nod to the fast and furious crowd which doesn't appreciate the awesomeness of the charger with the 440 or 426 Hemi.

That's what started the whole "quest"...I saw the Bolink "Lil Rebel" body when I was a kid and a fan of the show. I coveted it, but my parents would never spend the money for a hobby-grade RC. I tried to find the Bolink body for a while, and lost out on the only one I saw on Ebay then or since. I tried every Bolink distributor I could find, as well as the company directly, but no luck. By then I had seen the HPI and the Malibu toys body as the preferred/only options, and they were more detailed than the Bolink anyway. I bought both the HPI and the Malibu toy RC. I also bought a Hitari General Lee 1/18 toy RC off ebay from the UK because that body was also very detailed and I thought it might fit some cheaper 1/18 cars I had/had seen. The blower on the HPI body is VERY annoying...not sure why they didn't make more of an "option" than it is...there's no way to make the hood totally clean if you opt not to use it.

As I was 2/3 of the way through this M-04L project to fit the narrower HPI and Malibu bodies, IMEX came out with a limited run of a standard size (190mm) General Lee ripoff body called the "Hillbilly Ride". My LHS had told me about it, and they ordered me one. It was weird, because IMEX didn't publicize that body very much...never on their web site, for sale online, etc. It was like the Bolink body...not terribly accurate, and the paint color was almost fluorescent. I've attached pic below to show the differences.

Recently, Kamtec in the UK has started selling a 190mm lexan version of a Charger body that looks pretty good, and a gentleman I met from another RC board got one of those for his project that was very similar to mine. It turned out pretty well, and is even on Kamtec's site.

Kamtec Charger Body

When I get my DF-03ra, I will use the Kamtec body for "show", and possibly the IMEX for bashing. I also may continue with a "fleet" of iconic movie muscle cars, including the "Smokey & The Bandit" Pontiac Tans-Am, and the Chevy Nova from "Death Proof". Any other ideas?

[Falcon#5]

That looks really nice. BoLink made a Dodge Charger body a while back, but it didn't look that great. The HPI body is awesome aside from that crazy blower. It's a nod to the fast and furious crowd which doesn't appreciate the awesomeness of the charger with the 440 or 426 Hemi.

+1

Great car, plus 'The Dukes of Hazzard' was played in real-time.

Not in fast-forward like 'The fast and the furious'!!