79 replies to this topic

[wraith]

Still no posted pics! But when I get a chance there will be pics!

I recieved my winch in the mail yesterday from mikemodeler! So soon I can restart fabbing up my front bumper!
the more i put into this the more I think about switching to a different powerplant. As of right now it is going to have a 440 in it with a scratch built fuel injection setup. But I keep thinking this thing need a new 5.7 HEMI in it. opinions?
I am still as of right now leaning toward the fuel injected 440. I already have the frame and engine bay modded for it and I am not sure i want to redo anything to drop the hemi in it.
I am also contemplating on cuting out the bucket seats from the interior tub and fitting some racing seats with 5 point harnesses. If this thing was real, it would need those to tackle the Rubicon trail!
Trying to build this as I would a real truck.

[Chris guthro]

i dont like the new modern hemis, definatley a ''e.f.i '' unit on a 440 would be cool and unique! maybe scratchbuild a NV4500? that would be needed for the trails haha.

[wraith]

maybe a nv4500!
right now it has a 727 behind the 440. And I am still leaning towards a EFI on it!
thanks for the idea Chris! Scratch building a nv4500 might happen and go in the one i acutally have a pic posted of though!

[Chris guthro]

im just more of a manual truck fan than auto. haha

[wraith]

finally a pic! crummy cell pic but a pic!



Scale 8" lift on scale 37's!
I cut out the scoop from the old MPC monster truck kit and filled it in along with the openings for the zoomies. added hood scoops from the 71 duster.
Since this crummy cell phone pic I have redone the front suspension, scratching up some more realistic arched leaf springs.
The front bumper is from a diecast Humer I have modified slightly to my liking.
she will have a fuel injected 440 backed up by a 727. T-case will be married and came from a SoReal chevy diecast I bought solely for the wheels and t-case. lol!
More done to her to get her to look like this than what you can see from the pic! Hopefully more soon!

Edited by wraith, 03 March 2012 - 01:01 PM.

[Chris guthro]

looks good! them tires are sweeeet!!! do u have better pics of the lift?

[wraith]

I do I just need to get them uploaded!
maybe later today!

[wraith]

My original plan for the step side was to rebild the frame and use the leftover 4x4 parts from the "Firefighter" MPC kit I bought for the correct 79-80 cab, hood, and grille to build a replica of my dads 79 D-140 2wd long box.
then I saw this looking online for inspiration!



it took off from there!

[wraith]

teaser pic with the redone front suspension




more new and old pics soon!

[Chris guthro]

just dont cut the doors for the cage haha. thats a sweet truck, both 1;1 and 1;25, i like the transfer case u have made

[wraith]

No way I am cutting out the doors! I love the real blue truck, but if it were mine the doors would go back on!
Thanks for the compliments Chris! I didn't make the t-case. It is from the SoReal Chevy diecast. But I did shave it down it some places and added material in others to make it look better. I needed to shave it on the top side so it would sit as close as possible to the underside. I will have to get some pics of the t-case as well!

[wraith]

Well it looks like I found a BIG area that needs correction!
Looking at pics of real trucks and then looking at my model, the truck bed needs to be raised ! grrrr!
if you look at the real blue truck you can see the bed side step is level with the bottom of the cab. then look at my latest pic of the model and you can clearly see the bed side step sits lower than the cab. Time to raise the bed!
I finally saw this last night as i was starting to fab up my rockrails. hope I don't have to redo the back half of the frame totally.
This might be a blessing in disguise though! at first I was going to do a real wood bed floor then decided a real trail rig would need more stability. So now I am thinking that i can cut away my "filled" in frame and have a "open" fully exposed frame and just add the bed mount cross rails and get a lil more detail in the frame! I am also not completely happy with the fuel tank I made tp replicate the one on the kits frame. I want a bigger one and one a lil more realistic as well, on real trucks a very popular mod is to swap in a Ramcharger fuel tank. Bigger and relocates it to the back of the frame bewteen the rails. So it looks like I will be fabbing up a new fuel cell as well. And a skid plate for it. which reminds me I need to pick up some diamond plate sheet styrene.

Edited by wraith, 06 March 2012 - 06:08 AM.

[gray07]

I dont know how i missed these with me being a dodge nut, but it is turning out great, keep the updates coming.

[wraith]

I dont know how i missed these with me being a dodge nut, but it is turning out great, keep the updates coming.

FOR SURE!
i am also a MOPAR MAN!

[wraith]

update pics!
old front suspension set up. lasted about 3 days


new revised suspension!

[wraith]

Here you can see just how bad this frame was I started with
I had to reglue the front fenderwell back on and needed to add material to them and the frame to start with. Then it was on to remaking the rear half of the frame. All of this is done in these pics. Wish I had a pic of the frame in its multipe piece stage. It was almost complete junk! But I guess not since I was somehow able to save it!






here you can see the relief cuts I made to push the floor board up for clearance for the t-case. I also had to move the trans crossmember down.


In the pics you will see that I removed the "box" that was cast into the passenger inner fender for clearance for the heater box which is mold ed to the firewall. I di this to all these inner fenders on all of my builds. personally It helps make the model look a lil better and if you are lowering on, like 2 I have in the works, it really helps for tire clearance as well.

Edited by wraith, 07 March 2012 - 04:53 AM.

[wraith]

Here you can see the material i added to the front valance to help with strength and mounting area for the grille.



and the work done so far on the old monster truck hood..

I still have some work to do to it. you can see the nick in it in the front center. I also want to add a small rib down the center on my sharpie line.

I am debating on cutting out the buckets in the interior tub and putting these seats from a dead diecast in.


Color will/should be a Metallic Root Beer Brown with a tan interior. aat least that is my plan for now. Although the colors blue, like the real truck photo, and a dark copper and maybe even white have been going through my mind.I would paint it Hemi Orange like the new Challengers but I have that color already picked for another LRE Pro Touring truck.

[wraith]

The good thing about me having to tweak the rear part of the fram to get the box at the right height is that for a week or so I was wondering why it seemed like the box fenders were closer to the wheel than the front fenders. AS much as I don't/didn't want to massage the box fenders to add clearance I was about to do so! Glad I looked at more reference pics today! Now that is solved by the lifting of the box!

[Chris guthro]

very nice! what are those axles? they look odd haha nice save on the hood

[wraith]

^{Axles are the box stock axles that came in the old Dodge pickup 4x4 kits.
And the hood, thanks!
I wasn't sure what to do. ask if anyone had LRE hood for it or just see what I could do with what I had! I chose the later! lol!}