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Steeldrifter

RC Clod Buster project

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Well after around 15yrs away it's nice to be starting back into it again. The first of the packages just showed up in the mail. I have to admit I am very pleasantly surprised by a few things. I snagged these axles and tires/wheels for a very reasonable price and was mostly just looking to get the axles to strip down/clean/rebuild as the start for my tuber, but now that I have them in hand I see a few things I didn't even realize at first through the pictures when I bought them. One thing is they have the tube mounted aluminum 4 link months for the lower bars which is nice. Also they have the aluminum upper 4 link mount to mount the upper bars on the top center of the axle which I like. Plus it has the aluminum vertical servo mount which is cool. Another thing is in the pic I thought the wheels were probably just chrome painted but they actually are the chromed clod (plastic) wheels but look look a good cleaning should get them looking pretty spiffy I would bet. Plus the tires are in a lot better shape than I expected so I'll probably shave them and roll the edges and be able to use them on the build.

Picked up some steel tube today (3/16 & 1/4) for making the chassis out of so soon as the Saftey-Sil 45 and lexan guardian body get here next week I can start measuring and building the two main frames rails the rest of the chassis will be built off of so won't be long now till I can really dive back in.

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There goes all your free time.

 

Will it have a snow plow? it's that time of year soon.

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There goes all your free time.

 

I don't think I've known what that is in the past 10 years anyway laugh.png

 

 

flytire I should build one of those backhoes to dig my new koi pond with next spring lol

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Miniature truck. Then you'll be making a miniature house, and miniature aquariums, miniature Bonsai Garden.

Miniature fly fishing rods?

 

It's making me tired just thinking about it.

 

I need a nap.

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I'm a very OCD person which can be a good & bad thing. So it makes me pretty detail oriented about things I build. In the past back years ago when I was building scale looking RC cars/trucks I was able to buy the old Parma Hemi motor to use on some of them. This truck I'm building isn't going to be a shelf queen, I plan to bash it pretty well, but I still want it to be as scale as I can make it. I had planned to use one in this build but since the old Parma Hemi is discontinued now that isn't an option. I did find a few on Ebay but no way I was gonna pay $80 for one.

So I did a little searching looking at die cast models online and found those 1:18 scale Muscle Machines that have the way oversized blown engine would be the perfect size. Most of them only have the injected blower scoop and a portion of the supercharger case that bolts right to the hood, but then I found a coupe that has the entire motor!

So just ordered this for $30 and going to strip the motor out to use in the tube frame build.

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My brother was a grand national champion (I think that's what they called it) in the 80's, maybe the 90's. He was sponsored by triton (think that was the name). They provided him all the stuff and equipment, travel and entrance fees. He would race the stuff that would be coming out but wasn't really out to the general public yet. He would win races and others would run out and buy whatever he was racing. That was the theory anyway.

 

After 30 or 40 years of doing this he sold everything and bought a racing go karts. Now almost in his 60's he's running around racing really super fast go karts.

 

Maybe you should just jump right toe go karts?

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At 6'5" I think any go kart that would fit me would be called a car ;) lol

 

That's cool he's doing that in his 60's. Love to hear people out doing things like that at that age, gives me hope maybe I'll still be enjoying the things I love 15 yrs down the road.

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Well lots of stuff showed up today. I'm sure the mail woman must hate me because in addition to tons of rod building parts she is always dropping off now she has all this stuff to drop off as well lol

The guardian body is extremely similar to the suburban body I use to like on my old clods so I was glad to see it was a really close match. Traxxas rod ends for making the 4 links came as well as the Saftey Silv45. I was busy with "work" work (ie-rod building) till about 8pm so only got to spend a few hours burning the midnight oil on the clod, but I got the body cut out and got the main rails of the frame laid out/cut/sanded the coating off and brazed together. The whole chassis is going to be 3/16" tube but I decided to make the two main rails out of 1/4" tube just because I plan to run this truck hard so I don't want to end up worrying about bending anything if it gets 4-5ft of air and lands all wonky. So now that the main rails are done the rest will be done out of 3/16 tube.

I was iffy about spending $35 for the five 18" sticks of saftey silv 45 brazing rod, but now I am glad I did. Using that stuff compared the the $4 rods from Lowes/HD is like night and day. This stuff flows like butter and leaves a really nice joint that doesn't have a huge build up of filler like the cheap stuff does. I do have to say though the very first brazed joint I did tonight was pretty sketchy and I ended up taking the first one apart and cleaning it/redoing it. I actually was a certified welder and fabricator for about 20 yrs of my life but I honestly have not touched a welder or brazing torch since about 2005 so I was VERY rusty lol. After that first joint though it all started coming back to me and I got the flame adjusted right and the joints are all nice and strong now.

So now I have the main rail done. All square and ready for doing some cross brace and then working on the upper tier of the frame rail hopefully tomorrow night after I get done working.

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1) I'm at work, so I have to wait until this evening to see the pictures. (No problem, I'm used to that)

 

2) I thought you were getting all this stuff to take up time during the Winter months? You'll be done long before Winter even gets here!

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2) I thought you were getting all this stuff to take up time during the Winter months? You'll be done long before Winter even gets here!

 

Guess I'll just have to build another one then happy.png

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Think I'm gonna have to place an order for some more midnight oil because I've been burning all mine up lately. Been trying to make some more progress on the clod chassis after working all day but have been able to get a bit more done late each night. Still a LOT left to do (maybe 50% done with the frame work) but at least its starting to look like more than just a pile of straight tube now. Mocked it up to see what wheelbase I want it as well, looks like 15" is going to be about where I will put the axles.


Somewhat slow going when you consider I've already got probably 20 hours into the chassis, but it is pretty time consuming. Mainly just making sure all the tubes are bent at the exact same angle and that everything is square. Plus I'm going through and sanding off the flux after each bar is brazed on because the more bars that I attached the harder it is to get in there with paper to clean it.


Anyway here's how it sits tonight now.


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So, when you paint that body ... do you paint the inside?

That would give it the deep, candy apple look, since the plastic itself would duplicate the layers of clear lacquer.

Or do you paint the outside? Do you tape the windows so they stay clear? Do you paint the door and hood seams so they look like black separations?

 

Never mind ... I'll just wait until you're done.

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