69 GTO

Was going to post this in the electric forum but most them guys over there are car guys so i figured i'd post it here.
Just wanted to share a pic of what i have been workin on recently,this started out as a pile of 1/4" brass tubing thursday. I've got about 25hours of work into it right now and still have a long way to go but it's coming along nicely. Its gonna use clod axles and the rest is all hand made. Building the frame and cage to fit in a panel truck or suburban body. here were i'm at right now.

Maxx

j-maxx

thats nice man

R/C car guy

is that just for show and something to do or is it really strong? it looks strong because you have plenty of supports in there and looks like it would take a nice beating.

Savage_Dias

Sounds like a fun project & it looks like you put alot of work into it for 25 hours but how heavy is it? One of my friends is building a chassis for a Clod & it's nowhere near that sturdy. When you connect the tubing, did you drill holes into it or build up the solder to fill the gap?

nitromacguyver

wouldn't steel be better. from my experiance brass is a fairly soft metal or is that what you are making up for with all of the supports?

RIRS4

Sweet bro!!!! I'm sure it looks alot heavier than it actually is. You mind sharing what thickness tubing you used? Also, you got a scale to weigh that baby up? I've been thinking about making a roll cage for my AE MGT. This would allow for an easier way to mount my 1/8 digger body, but I'm afraid I'll spend 25+ hours and the first day I'll roll the SOB and crush my nice work. LOL I'm sure it'll hold up alot better on some slow rock crawling rolls. Keep up the good work and please keep us posted on the new updates!!![8D]

69 GTO

Got a few more pic's of some progress i got done tonight but let me answer your guys questions first.
Its made for running...but it will just look good will doing it!
It's all brass tubing and the tube is 1/4" with a wall thickness of 1/32"

As far as strength and durability,i'm 6'6" 260# and i can stand with all my wieght on top of this chassis. Brass is softer than steel but when you use gussets and braces you would be surprised at how strong it is,i have made a few roll cages for some of my nitro trucks and even after a series of rools and endos they have never broke. I try to get as small a gap as i can between the tubes so i take a dremel with a round stone and fishmouth the end of the tube the same way you would for a real(1:1) cars roll cage. This makes it much stronger!

As far as the wieght i just put it on the scale and it's just between 1.5#-1.75# ...that's the good thing about brass is its strength to wieght ratio...as strong as it is and it's still under 2lbs.
I just ordered some JPS aluminum wheels and Imex Baja tires for it .
I'll update this as i progress in the project. but for now heres the chassis as of tonight.....

RIRS4

OOOOOOO man!!!! It doesn't weigh anywhere near I thought. That's awesome. Did you use any vehicle for a reference for suspension, or are you just taking it as it comes? After hearing what you said about being able to stand on it I might just go ahead and try making one for the MGT now. Keep the pics a comin'

69 GTO

RIRS4 i printed off some pics of grave digger from his website just for a refference on what kinda angles to put the braces at and for just a basic design. But its mostly all free hand,i'll sit the body on and measure out where to put a brace then solder it on.

Yeah most people are shocked at how light it is.....i understand why they would think its heavy though,it looks like it would be heavy but next time your at the hobby shop pick up a pc of brass tube and feel how light it is. If you decide to build one just make sure you leave "openings" so that you can get to any thing on the truck you need to. The first time i build one was for a nitro MT and i forgot to leave it open where the pull start was....DOH!

Savage_Dias

lol Looking even better maxxoverkill. When my friend was getting ready to start his clod I asked him the same question about butting the tubing together & he couldn't make up his mind so he decided to use L brackets instead of brake like tubing.

RIRS4

hmmmmmmmm, openings...... sounds like a good idea!! I can see how that might happen with all the excitement of getting a sweet rollcage almost done. "Just need to put this little brace here......and........ I'm finished!!!" "oh wait[&o] I can't put fuel or batteries without dissassembling the entire truck now" hehehehehehe That's a definate THANKS for the heads up. once again, keep the pics coming.

nitromacguyver

when you solder it do you use a propane torch or mapp gas or just a soldering gun?
do you use normal solder like for electrical work or plumbers grade solder? keep us updated. thanks thats looking really good.

RIRS4

I'd like to know what you are soldering with also. I haven't done much soldering and wouldn't mind if you threw some helpful hints out there. I was told to get a "good" soldering gun. Not sure, but I think it's a 150watt(?) Weller. I was almost tempted to try to find some steel tubing and braze(sp?) it together. I do pretty good at that when it's just small areas. This should be a pretty inexpensive soldering project though. I think it cost me $10 for 12lengths of 3/16" brass tubing and $2.50 for a tubing bender. LOL

69 GTO

Hey guys i use a weller 40wt soldering iron. Dont try to use a gun it's just WAY to big and bulky and it will be a real pain in the neck. As for solder just get some 1/16" silver solder for the most part then i also use a little 1/8" silver solder on a few joints where there 2or 3 bars intersecting.
A 40wt iron is more than enough because brass heats up very fast so any more than that is not needed also a chesil tip is the best tip to use on it,not the standard pointed tip.

RIRS4 you are correct the cost to build somthing like this is very cheap i think i have maybe $30 in the frame at the most,its more time/work than money.

Heres the latest pic of the frame with the lower section finished

69 GTO

Just a updated pic.....i got the body,shocks and 4-links today and now have the axles and 4links mounted under it.

dodgy Guy who luvs rc

thats sweet great work [sm=spinnyeyes.gif]

WonderWheels

Totally
Is that the engine in there?

RIRS4

I've got a few more questions for you, if you don't mind? Are you gonna run an 8 shock setup? How did you know how wide to make the chassis, and how long? When you mounted the links, how did you know where to put them? Was it trial and error, or are you taking measurements from another truck? Thanks. I don't want to put alot of time into building a chassis just to find out it's too wide/narrow and then have the same thing happen when I mount the links. Any info. is MUCH appreciated. Thanks. OH and keep up the good work. That thing looks sweet!!!

69 GTO

RIRS4 the way i did the width and the length was to take a grave digger body i had for my maxx and take some measurments from the inside of that body. Then i had a basic idea of how wide and how long i could make it and still have it fit the body and look right,really there is no "wrong" width or length but i wanted the tires to sit right under the body so i built it off the body i was gonna use.

As far as where to mount the links.......all you want to do is to keep the axle level and the same from side to side. i mpunted the links to the axle first and then positioned the truck at ride hiegt (by sitting it on a old tire) then placed the axle under the truck and saw where the links needed to go and made the mounts. The only thing you want to do when you mount the links is to make sure that the top links are triangelated,in other words make sure the ends that mount to the axle on the top links are closer to each other so that they help to hold the axle from moving side to side.(like a panhard bar or track locator in a 1:1 drag car) if you need any help when you start building just let me know.

RIRS4

It's all starting to come together now(in my head anyways) I'm gonna have to grab that bronco body that HPI makes. This is the particular one I wanted to use for the tube chassis. More of a replica rock crawler than Monster truck. I even thought about going with a full comp. tube buggy replica. I thought that would be pretty cool too. Not 100% sure yet. Whatever I build probably won't get much use but will need to function. Isn't that the point? lol Well, I appreciate your willingness to help me out and answer my questions. I'm sure I'll be asking more of them. Would you mind if I looked and drooled over the pictures you posted? I might just try to look at your main chassis(below roll cage) and start with something similiar to that, if you don't mind? Thanks again

Ron

69 GTO

Well its really coming along now guys. Just got my tires and JPS aluminum wheels and got the shocks mounted. Plus i finished the body tonight.

69 GTO

I still have to take the whole truck back apart to clean and paint the frame....i'm thinkin ethier orange or silver......anyone got an opinion as to which color would look better?

lynx the great

My Feedback: (1)

....... im at a loss for words ........


im thinking that frame would look great cromed!

WonderWheels

why do you make it sooooooooooooo high?
won't it be top heavy?
is it nitro or electric?

mad_taffy2k

dude i have just orderd a clod buster and its people like you who maek me want it so bad this is what i wanted from a monster truck im looking to make my own chassi for it like you but nothing as complex as that but how do you sort the servos for string and stuff out thats whats worring me