# Resin Jeep project.



## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

There's so much incredible work in here, I have to show off one of my own. This jeep is one of my own resin castings, built up to be an HO replica of my current 1:1 ride, a '00 Jeep Wrangler Sport which has been lifted, fit with 32" tires and a tube bumper. Ive worked long and hard to get this baby right, and it turned out better than I could have ever expected. Just too bad my camera phone takes sucky pics, this thing looks way better in person.











Yes, those are stock Tyco turbo hopper/quad tires all the way around; theyve not been cut down or narrowed And no the chassis isnt a tyco Quad all hacked up. The chassis is a heavily modified Matchbox Speedtrack piece, set up to run on standard type (AFX/Tyco/etc) slot track. The narrow placement of the pickup skis is why I chose the chassis, since its the only thing with a narrow enough front section to mount these tires such that the contraption can run on a 2-lane track. Trust me, this is my 3rd attempt to build a lifted, big tired chassis for a proper looking Jeep. Its the only thing Ive built that works. I can run 2 of these side by side even on tomy track without (much) rubbing, or running into the guard rails. The pickup skis are Tyco TCR pieces, modified to fit, which is how it can get power on the wider rails. The original motor was made for the speedtrack's 6v power pack and had to be trashed. In its place, I made a frankenstein of a power plant: Tyco curvehugger motor can, 440X2 motor magnets, red wire Tomy turbo arm, and tyco HP-7 front bulkhead/brush assembly. It feeds power thru a lifelike axle/pinion setup and lifelike rear hubs are fit with the hopper tires all the way around. Although its a bit topheavy, and the hopper tires have little grip, this thing is FAST. It'll smoke most any JL t-jet and slides and fishtails like you wouldnt believe. Its only real weaknesses are its up-high stance, wieght, and the lack of grip from the hopper tires, which unfortunately are your only choice for tires that are big and knobby for this type of bodystyle.

Hope you guys like it, since its pretty much the masterpiece of all the customs Ive built so far. And if anyone else is interested in how to set up Matchbox chassis for standard tracks, Id be glad to help. You wont be sorry once you get one and run it!


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

*Nifty work!*



grungerockjeepe said:


> ............... Although its a bit topheavy............ Its only real weaknesses are its up-high stance, weight.....................
> Kinda sounds like a jeep  Just funnin ya Grunge  Hey man, Where's the dark blue paint? This is an awesome build. I'd like to see some over and under detail pics of all your mods when you "unsuck" your camera. Need some more insight into the voodoo you've performed. I can totally relate to the camera agonies. It took me 21 shots to get two presentable shots of my latest GT-40. Took longer to get the pics and edit, than it did to paint the darn car. LOL. I finally got it figured out. I've got an old AFX Blazer I've been trying to do something with and never really got it off the schnide. After seeing this jeep project, I think I'm headed in a new (right) direction.  BH


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

AWESOME Jeep........Very very nicely executed. I plan to build some off road style projects shortly too.


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Thanks for the props! Yeah Bill, it does handle a lot like the real thing. But thats what makes it a fun piece to run. Speaking of dark blue paint, here's a link to my gallery of all the resin slots Ive cast and built up. The blue TJ was my first finished version of the casting.

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/grungerockjeeper/album/576460762340282934


And as for the tech on how I brought this to life, this gallery isnt that great but it'll give you an idea as to how I built the Jeep and bug, as well as how I mount my bodies and divorce the front axles on my stuff. Maybe it'll spark some ideas for you guys.

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/grungerockjeeper/album/576460762340282734

Oh yeah, when you follow these links, look to the left. You'll see a clickable link to another gallery called 'showslots', you'll see some better angles of this jeep, my real Jeep which I modeld this after, as well as a Tyco CJ-7 that I customized into my own Mad-Max style Jeep.


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

TX Street Racer said:


> AWESOME Jeep........Very very nicely executed. I plan to build some off road style projects shortly too.


Thanks, bro. I've always been a fan of offroad vehicles, so 6 years ago when I got back into slots, I immediately started hunting a Jeep slot. When I got my first Tyco CJ (Now, I have one of every decoration and every make of HO Jeep known to exist but 2) I didnt even have it out of the package 30 seconds before I started hunting for bigger tires for it. This MB conversion is my 4th time to attempt such a thing. The first was based on the HP2 I got with the original Jeep and it was a flop. All I could find in knobby tires was a set of vinyls, and they gripped for crap. I had to solder extensions onto the pickups so they;d reach the rails. That lasted about 10 laps, till I gave up on that.

I tried to scratch build a bigtire chassis out of a wild mix of parts and that went horribly wrong.

After seeing the tyco US-1 stompers, I tried that and it almost worked. But the Hopper/Quad tires I was using were too wide. Even though I trimed the sides of the chassis allowing the tires to sit inboard more, and I shaved the edges of the tires down enough to fit tyco track, it was a no-go on Tomy. It was acceptable for a while until I noticed that the rear gearsets on both versions were slowly destroying themselves: the worm gear was scalping the axle gear. I tried a different worm, since the original design is doomed to fail. But still, I drove these things brutally so it didnt work out.

So far, no problems with the Matchbox chassis, and again when I drive it, Im gunning it hard in the straights, sliding thru every turn, and fishtailing out of them. Nothing's broken yet and both the bug and Jeep dont even have a chip in the finish. Future Floor Wax protects the paint on all my stuff. I even got ahold of some of the Euro-spec MB cars, which are set up to run on 12v systems, and some even have wide enough pickups to run unchanged. The motors are every bit as powerful as the ones I built up, but you have to find them, and you have to remove a bunch of govt. mandated resistors, capacitors, etc. But thats no biggie.


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## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

awesome work man!! :thumbsup:

Wes


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

grungerockjeepe said:


> Future Floor Wax protects the paint on all my stuff.



Yep, I swear by that stuff too!


Also, it sounds like you've certainly been working on alot of chassis......glad to see that you found a combination that works for you


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

I've scragged a lot of stuff building my one-off projects. Funny thing about the Matchbox is that Im on my 3rd version (straight up racer, truck, and now a drift car) and everything has worked. Much better than when I turned a tyco cliffhanger into a front driver for my resin mini cooper...


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## scratch (May 16, 2005)

grungerockjeepe,

Cool stuff, off road, _nicely _ done by the way . . .

Cheers,
Jas


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Again, thanks for talking up my junk!


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

Tires really set her off, looks great grunge! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: rr


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## boss9 (Apr 19, 2002)

That's one tough Jeep!

Ya' did good, Grunge!

keep it up and keep us posted of your progress and new stuff!

That Jeep looks "trail-rated" ! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: 




Cheers..


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