FINALLY, after 18 years I HAVE ONE TO RUN

I have wanted a King Cab since they came out. I just didn't have the funds to buy one. My only solace came later in 1990 when I bought my own MadCap(see showroom post on that one). I had a fun time with that MadCap and it is still hanging about in pieces around the house. :lol: I did know that they were related in the tranny so I had just a little feeling what it was like to drive one in a distant relative type of way. Fast forward to the last few years and my joining TC and getting parts in hobby shop raids and from trades here and I started to accumulate the brothers to my MadCap and a BRAND NEW MadCap as well. I just recently got the final bits for the MadCap, so new photos to come. I was mesmerized by the Astute and its technical merits(or downfalls) and the Saint Dragon was a rather odd ball looking car, but it was my MadCap's cousin, so I had to buy it since I could get one new in box to build from a great TC deal. I still have to admit that I am still stumbling on the NEW BUILD King Cab, but I won't let that stop me from completing that one day. I have waited about 4 years to finish off the Astute COMPLETE NEW BUILD(another in need of new photos) so I can say this...Patience pays off in the end.

Now about this runner. I always like the 1:1 Nissans with the wagon wheel type wheels, so Blitzer wheels were found in a raid and stored for this project. I bought a bit of a beater Blackfoot chassis last year, but the tires and the shocks were swiped from it to add some bling and different all purpose tires to the runner. I mean have you seen the price of King Cab tires???? About as affordable as Egress, Astute, SuperShot...you get the idea. Just about all the other used parts were from a deal I bought over 2 years ago from JJ(pepito) in New Jersey. I haven't seen much of him online lately so don't know what he may be up to. His King Cab project was just that, but the price was right and I found a ton of parts in my big raid last year, so I got it all ready to assemble. I began to notice how hard it was to find the EXACT screws in 3 X 25 as it would seem an oddball size. I could have taken the Dremel out to some 3 X 27 screws, but decided against that. I wanted the UJs in the back as I knew I wanted the driveline to last as long as possible. Mark Biddle helped me out with that problem as he wanted some Astute UJs and I had a set around collecting dust. Astute UJs and King Cab UJs are not interchangeable as the outdrive shafts are different, but you CAN use Astute dogbones and vice versa if you find some and don't mind them looking slightly different, they are the same length. Other hop up type parts came from various hobby shop raids over the last 2 years as I have wanted to get this project started just after I bought it, but never got around to it. I put a JG front brush catcher/cat catcher bumper on and it mounts to the lower chassis, don't know if it will help much though. I found a CRP rear bumper set, so decided to give it a try, it looks....um.....different. I don't know if it will stay. The body is obviously the remake from JG I think and it would look like someone bought the Tamiya decal sheet long ago and did a decent paint job, so I can't complain as I want to bash this up and it came with the deal from JJ. I mounted the body using Team CRP BODY BUTTONS. They are long discontinued and don't know if the current seller by the same name on eBay will resurrect as I have asked about some Blackfoot bits before and his reply is 'Currently we don't have a priority for that part'. I guess if it doesn't make money, he might not bring it back. The body mounts really center around the black 'buttons' you see on the hood and in the bed. The fronts are what they call 'low profile' and they are a nylon expanding plug of sorts. All you really do is push down FIRMLY on the button and it expands with the pin moving into the 'flower'. I will try to google the words(Nylatch) on the grommet with the 'flower' action and see what comes up. The mounts on the chassis are just pieces of Kydex that have been cut small and pre tapped for screws and a little carving to clear the rear shock tower along with the BIG hole to accept the nylon 'flower'. I pretty much re tapped them and heated them up to bend to better angles to accept the body as they didn't look too good at first fitting. I will try my best to get some good closeup photos of all that so my words are not wasted without visuals. Well I think that is about all, oh yea, almost forgot...FULL BEARINGS, metal shields in the wheels, Tamiya Rubber shield in the tranny, and Duratrax Teflon shield in the gears. I beleive the shocks are RC10 and they are held on the lower arms with some parts from a Super Clod shock parts tree I bought on the bay for $1 !!! I fit a small Kimbrough Products servo saver on the steering servo just in case I drive crazy(I always do) and I also found a home for my Tamiya CPR unit, the P160F, it is almost the right model for this kit and age. That is about all for now, I am stoked to say the least and couldn't do this without the help of TC as there have been members stepping up and sending me screws and MSC and all sorts of little things to get this on the road as well as some advice on what breaks the most. I will be careful when running, but if this thing is as much fun as my MadCap adventures, I am in trouble of wearing tires out.