Kol's ORV build

[Kol__]

Haha, yes @GeeWings mate, I think the first crash and scratch is gonna hurt a little!

I'm thinking the stripped back streamlined body and the gunship grey paint will suit a bit of a battered look.

Maybe I should just scrap the box art sticker set and instead bung some of those WWII Spitfire shark teeth stickers up the sides of it and send it off to the warzone to get some war wounds...

[GeeWings]

9 minutes ago, Kol__ said:

Haha, yes @GeeWings mate, I think the first crash and scratch is gonna hurt a little!

I'm thinking the stripped back streamlined body and the gunship grey paint will suit a bit of a battered look.

Maybe I should just scrap the box art sticker set and instead bung some of those WWII Spitfire shark teeth stickers up the sides of it and send it off to the warzone to get some war wounds...

Well the airfield is close by right? I remember me and my cousins ragging about there as kids on his death trap go-cart and my death trap scrambler 

[BuggyDad]

Amazing work - Beetle shell looks mint! 

Did you fix up that Blackfoot body? I reckon plastic welding on some sheet behind and it'd be fine. 

Love the Brat body too. That's a Tamiya itch to scratch for me. 

[Kol__]

Cheers @BuggyDad

The Blackfoot body has been parked for a rainy day, but I think you're right, a big old strip of styrene and a good amount of plastic weld and I think it could be repaired.

The Brat body is pretty cool. Always reminded me a bit of an Aussie Ute (think tv's 'Neighbours' in the 90's) though

[Kol__]

Got two coats of the Gunship Grey on the body and the can ran out. Fair bit to cover on this body I suppose and I was also doing the underside of the arches, but was a bit annoying running out. This particular colour seemed oddly light in the can from the start and even having preheated the can in hot water the can got very cold when spraying. I can only assume it must be a different type of paint in the can for this particular colour.

Hoping the localish hobby shops will have some T-48 in stock and I can pick up another couple of cans tomorrow and finish her off.

[GeeWings]

On 2/24/2022 at 11:14 AM, Kol__ said:

Cheers @BuggyDad

The Blackfoot body has been parked for a rainy day, but I think you're right, a big old strip of styrene and a good amount of plastic weld and I think it could be repaired.

The Brat body is pretty cool. Always reminded me a bit of an Aussie Ute (think tv's 'Neighbours' in the 90's) though

Yes, something very cool about them and the Tamiya model captures that perfectly. There are a couple close by to me and one is in excellent condition. Always great to see them out and about.

[Kol__]

It's been quite some time since I got any updates on this thread, but I have been tinkering away and posted some pics of the truck on other threads on the forum here and there.

Lifting the truck by the front bumper one day and the 1980's plastic mount broke like brittle cheese.

Replaced it with a rere piece and fitted the frog metal brace on the front underside of the chassis.

I was umming and ahing about what to do about the colour difference between the orange of the nose cone and the stickers. In the end I decided not to spray the nose cone orange and instead sprayed the rear of it white to back it and therefore brighten the orange colour of the plastic. It worked well I'd say and the match is much better.

However, it did mean that the mouldings in the plastic showed through some what.

The plastic looks so red with the lighting in the pic above, but it is stock orange!

Added some detailing to the window surrounds and door handles by hand and masked round the front and rear window surrounds.

You can see above how badly the clear areas of the glossy stickers really stand out against the more matt finish to the Tamiya TS paint. 

[Kol__]

As some forum members will have seen on a separate thread, I wasn't that happy about the line between the nose cone and body, so I experimented with covering it up somehow.

Wasn't sure if I liked the result or not, so decided to add some more chequers to the body.

You can see in the photo above that I have applied a matt clear coat over the body paint and stickers (except the chequers). Really helps to blend the stickers into the body much better without the gloss finish to the stickers. I lightly keyed up the nose cone and coated that with the matt clear as well.

After some deliberation and discussion with other forum members, the niggles I had about mixing the two designs wouldn't go away and so I decided to remove all traces of the chequers and embrace the panel gap between the nose cone and body!

[Kol__]

So she's finished... for now at least and is finally in a ready to run state.

Found some luminous cable ties locally which I think sit nicely with this build (plus future 'bright' plans for it).

[Kol__]

So took it for a decent blast and put a couple of NiMH battery packs through it. Really fun to drive, quirky and just great fun!!

First battle scars...

[Kol__]

I'm going to run it like it is for a while, but future plans include replacing the shocks and wheels, fitting the MIP ball diff and associated parts, and also some AMPro engineering parts.

[Frankster]

Looking great.  Just seeing this build thread now. 

[Kol__]

On 7/12/2022 at 12:14 AM, Frankster said:

Looking great.  Just seeing this build thread now. 

Thanks mate, really enjoying running since it's been finished, it's such a laugh and runs really well. At some point in the future I'll upgrade it again with the gear box mod pictured above🙂

[Kol__]

Time to update this thread!

On a run at the end of the summer, both front, lower shock mounts snapped.

Not surprising given the age of the vintage plastics, so ordered up some replacement rere parts -

At the same time I decided to strengthen this weak area by fitting some 7mm internal diameter brass tubing over the shock mount. Cut to length...

And fitted over the end of the mount, glued in place with super glue...

I also changed out the yellow Monster Beetle shock bodies for the grey shock bodies from the 2018 Astute (rears), which are identical other than the colour.

I used the pistons from the Astute 2018 as well, as the holes are bigger...

 

I fitted a set of rere Black Foot CVA springs, which I had powder coated yellow...

Fully built up...

And fitted to the truck...

I also drilled out the shock mount hole straight through to the other side and fitted a longer bolt secured with a washer and nut on the other side...

That should fully reinforce that whole mount 👍

This is how she ended up looking once fixed up and the shocks ready for action...

[Re-Bugged]

Great job with the Shocks mate 👍🏻
 

[Frankster]

Looking good 👍 

[Sgt.Speirs]

@Kol__: These grey dampers with yellow springs look great with the body. Good choice 👍🏻 

[mtbkym01]

Great thread and great result. It makes me want to work on an ORV again, and I just finished a new build Monster Beetle 

[Elbowloh]

Great of course, but where are the shark's teeth? 

[Frankster]

As the spikes in my tires are wearing down I was considering to change to Lunchbox tires.  This will lower ride height and have a wider stance to avoid flipping over.  Any thought on this?

[Kol__]

Thanks guys, this one is a bit of a labour of love or perhaps a better name is 'long term project'!!!

33 minutes ago, Frankster said:

As the spikes in my tires are wearing down I was considering to change to Lunchbox tires.  This will lower ride height and have a wider stance to avoid flipping over.  Any thought on this?

I know what you mean mate, the MB center of gravity does seem quite high and unstable on the original tyres. That's part of the fun of driving it though!😂

The Lunchbox wheels are a smaller diameter, so the tyres won't work on the MB. The lower profile of the Blitzer Beetle tyres will work and they are a direct fit to the 2.2" MB wheels - rear Blitzer tyres only though, the ribbed fronts are narrower. There are also other 2.2" tyres from Schumacher and Pro-Line that will work with the MB wheels👍

[Frog Jumper]

1 hour ago, Frankster said:

As the spikes in my tires are wearing down I was considering to change to Lunchbox tires.  This will lower ride height and have a wider stance to avoid flipping over.  Any thought on this?

Depending on your driving conditions, you could get lower profile on road or off-road tires..,

Additionally, you could get axle extensions to push the wheels out slightly.  I use 17mm long extensions on my BF bc I’m using huge tires…

[El Gecko]

2 hours ago, Frankster said:

As the spikes in my tires are wearing down I was considering to change to Lunchbox tires.  This will lower ride height and have a wider stance to avoid flipping over.  Any thought on this?

 

 

[Saito2]

Thanks for linking that @El Gecko.  As you can see @Frankster, LB tires on MB rims get quite bulgy in the sidewalls, though they will stretch over the MB rims. They do add stability, both from the lower COG and the wider width and handle better with the softer compound. Lunch Box wheels unfortunately, won't fit the Monster Beetle in the front at least.

[Frankster]

i have seen other stretch the tires from LB to MB. Wheels / rims will need to be stock MB.   Blitzer tires will be too small for the stance IMO. Lower with and stability will minimize any more hard body battle scars 😢