Bob-Stormer

I've gotten a LOT of inspiration from this thread on large scale and scratch built vehicles. I'm one of those folks that feels if you're gonna look for ideas, you better share something once in a while. So here we go.

I've been doing RC for most of 30 years... still love it. Every so often, I just get the urge to make something, and for no real reason. You get inspired by a design or a part, etc. Doesn't have to be practical or useful or even work good. It's just fun to see if you can make it yourself. So I hope, in some small way this thread inspires you to pursue a crazy idea and REALLY build a car. Not take one of the box... but build one.

This project got it's start from this huge fiberglass 1955 Chevy body I've had laying around (48" long). Then one day I was in the warehouse and saw those big Integy reservoir shocks and for whatever reason it made me think how they'd probably look pretty scale on that 55 body. And that's when I started scrounging parts to make my own giant scale RC vechicle.

I found some go-kart wheels and tires I thought looked good with the body and got started. I don't know how fast this will get built, so be easy on me if you don't see updates. But the piece of it I enjoy building the most (from past builds) is the cage, and as it's last, it kind of forces me to "get there" quicker, so I can have more fun.

I don't claim to be any kind of expert fabricator, this is just me having a good time in the shop. This is more about the journey and day dreaming, and doing it yourself.

Here goes.

Bob-Stormer

Rear suspension is using 1" go-kart parts, some of you will recognize the bearing flanges. I threaded some 3/8 rod and made the side links. Links are about 12" center to center.

The little crawler truck in the last image is something I made too. We'll save that for another build thread.

nitro_bizcuitz

hey this may sound very stupid but how do i send my owen question ....

thanx andrea......

Bob-Stormer

3/4"x3/4" thin wall, mild steel square tubing. Main frame rails are 9" apart. Wheelbase is about 27"

Bob-Stormer

I was going to do a straight front axle and just pop it on there. Then I decided to make my own double wishbone suspension instead. The first wishbone shown was more of a proof of idea to see if I could make it work. The double wishbone is just more badass looking. A lot harder to make though (as I find out). Tough to weld those little nuts to small tubing.

Bending small tubing is hard to do without kinking it, so I made a little jig (using an inner race off some junked bearing) to hold in a vice, and heated the inner edge of the tubing with a torch and slowly bent them around into a 5" diameter 180 degree bend. They'll get cut and made into arms.

troppo

Love what i`ve seen so far mate.
This is going to be one hell of a build, cant wait to see what you do next

DarkFire989

Awesome build so far dude! Cant wait to see the rest.

Dirty_Vinylpusher

Awesome project!


Looking forward to seeing more.

IloveMYxt2

Nice arms. This things going to be beefier than Japanese cars.

da mad maori

wow nice work man!! very clean... love the body shes gunna look nutz

bentley marshall

hey now thats cool

C.lyra

Wow, that´s awesome..... can´t wait to see more pictures....

da mad maori

amen

troppo

The best reason to build something, for the love of it

dc2 man

very pro looking...

WOW.....

Frederik_b

Hey Bob-Stormer, that looks like it will be a fun project! Very nice work!

The more I go in this large scale forum the more I find people with the same kind of mind as me when you guys describe why you like to home build, I feel exactly the same.We just like to do things, think about how to do it, run into problems etc. Isee you joined a long time ago, Iam glad youstarted posting about your build and I will be following it for sure !

Fred

Lars from Norway

Yes yes!Looking forward to see more!

quarterscalelegends

nice clean welds there! I had one of those bodies on one of my monster trucks for a bit. I thought it looked pretty cool.

Bob-Stormer

Thanks for all the kind words guys. I'll do my best as the "new guy" here to provide some decent build ideas and information. and thank YOU GUYS for the inspiration.

Made a little jig to build the arms on. Easier to spin them around when welding or clamp small bits. Next time I build one of these big cars I'm making the arms bigger too. And a kind of rough idea of what the front suspension might look like mounted. I ran out of the 5/16 rod ends, more on the way.

redfisher1974

Very impressive

lbsickboy

Looking real sweet there bob real sweet were you planing on polishing this or something else

Bob-Stormer

Contemplating powder coating the chassis and rear swing arm, and chroming the front arms. Although, in the back of my mind, I see a re-do on the front suspension to make the arms longer and keep the overall width the same. I'm guessing the rear will have 5-8 inches of travel, and it would be nice if the front had the same. I'm a bit dubious the front will have the travel I'm interested in seeing with the stubby arms. We'll see though.

C.lyra

Again awesome build.... Do the reservoir on the damper work??

Dirty_Vinylpusher

The only thing that worries me is that electric motor.....
A beast like this needs to make a bit of noise and blow smoke.

Bob-Stormer

Motor is a 24volt electric scooter motor (says 24v 350watt on it), I initially plan to run at 7.4 volts. I've estimated the speed at around 3.6 mph, as a test spot. No transmission, ansi 25 chain from motor to axle. This whole build is about testing and learning for the second version. I tell everybody, "you have to build the first one, so you can build the second one". And the second one is the one I'm interested in. Lot of testing and seat of the pants engineering going on in this build. Just need to get it done and test the concept. Things like will that servo work with what I'm gonna guess is a 50-60 pound vehicle. Will that scooter motor work at all? should I go to 35 chain? will I have enough torque to make this work with 25" tires, or am I going to have to go to wheelchair motors? Dunno. can't wait to find out though.

Built the spindles. Basically a 5/8" bolt welded to some 1/8" thick square tube I cut in half. The a-arm ball joints will mount on the top and bottom. Silly little parts... My eyes ain't what they used to be. Right now, because the A-arms are kinda stubby, it's looking like about 2.5-3" of front wheel travel. That should be good enough.

I'm toying with the idea of using a gas cylinder to pivot the body up and out of the way, hinged at the back. I don't think the fiberglass is strong enough in the body, so I'm either going to have to re-enforce the glass or build a subframe and glass it in. Leaning toward the subframe. I've used those gas cylinders on other projects, they add some "flash" if used right, and they're pretty cheap.

Roll bar lights started showing up. I wanted to put 4 small offroad lights on the roof. Firstly because I REALLY want to build that structure, and secondly, because (4) 55watt lights on that thing driving around at night would look like a UFO landed. Should look pretty cool, and a good lipo pack should light it up for say 20 minutes. First light set I scrounged ended up being 4" in diameter.... just a "shade" to big. After a pile of research, I ended up going with (4) Piaa 004xt because they are super small at about 2.5" in diameter. These, http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PIA-0492/

I'll have to put a lipo cutoff on the lights... ...lol...