# From weak to sweet! How I get my ideas.



## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

This isnt designed to be a full on step-by-step or tutorial on how to make a custom. But it does show where the inspiration comes from and how my process works...more or less, anyway.

So the story is this: Ive been wanting to do a custom army Jeep based on the AW CJ-5 for a while just never got around to it. So Bud's HO was running a sale: free shipping $20 and over and 10% off $30 or more. I grabbed a couple pup trailers (for some US-1 customs I want to do), their last 6 pairs of black silicone tires, and I wanted to grab an AW 4-gear nekkid chassis. No dice on the 4-gear so I went to looking for something to bump it over $30. He has a couple custom painted AW bodies, and a dirty dukes Jeep repainted in olive drab was one of them. For $10 I figured Id give it a good home.

Now not to knock Bud's at all--great retailer, great products, fantastic service. But here was the 'custom painted' body I recieved--mounted to a standard garden variety AW XT:


















Just a straight up blast of olive drab. Winshield was masked off and all, but no detail painting or body mods whatsoever. I wasnt mad, or even dissapointed. Just amazes me what passes for 'custom' is all. And the good news is, no excuse not to perfect it into my own AW army Jeep. 

I could have just detail painted it and left it alone otherwise and that wouldve made a huge difference. One idea I had was snagging some of those black repro T-jet truck rims (fronts only) and running ribbed tires all around for a really accurate look. But since I also had the idea of doing this in a day and doing a write-up I chose the use-what-I-got route.










At this point, i scrounged around to see what I could use to cook up a nice Jeep. A workable machine gun, pair of sandbags, ammo box, some repro treaded T-jet dune buggy tires and a set of stripped chrome front AW XT wheels. The tires a smidge wider than the stock XT 'medium' fronts but much narrower than the rears. They fit the shouldered rims nicely, so a little ream job on 2 to fit the rear axle, sand, and prep them and the front bumper for some rattle can paint. I have a few bits here to fab up a pedestal mount for the machine gun, but then I get a different idea:










That junk matchbox front wheel will make a nice stand. A 1/16 brad as a peg/swivel, and it rigs up nice:










Some well placed paint to the interior, lose the rollbar (sandbags/ammo box cover the holes) and now that the paint is all dry I can get everything mocked up. A little future on the seats and the step rails to differentiate the black that should be matte vs semi gloss to finish it out, glue in the gun mount and interior details and BAM! Might as well make an idiot move and bust the tabs off the winshield while Im mounting it up. No worries tho, Army Jeeps usually have the windshield folded anyways:




























Came out MUCH better than Id even imagined! Unlike the CJ-7s subbed in by AFX and Tyco as old school Army Jeeps, these Kaiser-Willys era CJ-5s are really an outgrowth of the M38-A1 which is about a 3rd generation military Jeep if memory serves so its not exactly the right model but VERY close. The gun of course isnt any kind of accurate replica, and the coke bottle mags with that wide footprint are a bit cartoonish but I like that look anyway.

Hope you guys like it!


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## clydeomite (May 5, 2004)

Really Kool and off the beaten path Good Job. Rat Patrol....
Clyde-0-Mite


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Thanks, man. Rat patrol, huh? Its not a rat-rodded style...at least I dont think it is. But I do have a rat rod army jeep planned based on a Bob-Zilla traded item....


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## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

OH YEAH!!! SWEET JEEP!

Wes


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

*Rat Patrol = TV Show*



grungerockjeepe said:


> Thanks, man. *Rat patrol*, huh? Its not a rat-rodded style...at least I dont think it is. But I do have a rat rod army jeep planned based on a Bob-Zilla traded item....


LOL- ummmm...I believe his Rat Patrol reference was about the WWII TV Show from the late 1960's -starring Chris George, who was racing around(in an Army Jeep) the African Deserts, chasing after the Germans in a Cat and Mouse scenerio every week.


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Ah, gotcha. Well that was a good bit before my time!


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## 1scalevolvo (Feb 5, 2004)

:thumbsup: Great Job ! I have a TYCO Jurassic Park Humvee I am going to customise into a Road WArrior truck.

Neal :dude:


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## tjd241 (Jan 25, 2004)

*66-68...*

We loved that show. Every kid in the neighborhood would run home in order not to miss it. Those were the days.


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## XracerHO (Feb 6, 2008)

Great idea & work on the Army Jeep. :thumbsup: Going to get some olive drab paint. ..RL


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Sadly my Rat Patrol lunch box didnt survive mom's purge period.

Trick build Jeeper!


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

VERY slick. Now I wanna pick up a couple of these... Bud's always seems to have them at shows in the bargain bins...


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## 41-willys (Jan 7, 2000)

I like the Jeep too. My first though when I saw it finished was a Rat Patrol jeep also.


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## slotto (Feb 9, 2010)

Well played


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## TUFFONE (Dec 21, 2004)

All you need is Troy and Moffitt!


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Jeeps lend themselves to customizing VERY nicely. And that mold is no exception. Ive done 9 of them so far and have a few more ideas banging around in my head for the future.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

All nice lookers! Rat Patrol really brings back some memories, great show.


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## 1scalevolvo (Feb 5, 2004)

:thumbsup:Great builds Grunge!!I like the one with the fabbed the Hard top . I have a few IDEAL TCR Jeep's , two of which run on TYCO 440 X-2 chassis.2 extra that I want to customise. BTW I am doing about 5 AFX Javelin dollar bin bodies as "Road Warrior " cars with each having its own theme.Will post soon ! Keep them coming!


Neal :dude:


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

lookin forward to those jav's, Neal. Im a sucker for all things post-apocolyptic...


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## bobhch (Apr 22, 2007)

Love your Rat Patrol machine gun tote-ing JEEP!!!!

Bob...Jeeps Rock...zilla


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## 1scalevolvo (Feb 5, 2004)

:thumbsup: C/o my latest post's Grunge' !! Neal


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