Off-road stadium truck > convert to on-road

[dbarnett22]

After being away from RC for almost 20 years, I'm finally getting back into the hobby. I'm not in it for the competition or anything - just that I now have 2 kids and I'm looking for a new area for us to connect on.

As part of my new endeavor, I'm looking to dive into something I've always wanted to do - convert my offroad truck into an on-road car. I'm not looking to race it, so there's no need to swap gearboxes, etc in order to achieve 80mph or anything. I have no experience with road cars - but I'm willing to learn.

Here's the specifics - I have a 1/10 scale JRX-T Pro truck and I want to put a 1960s Mustang body on it along with the necessary road wheels and tires on it. I just want to be able to put a car body, tires, and whatever else is needed on it so it looks like 100% road car (not just a road car body on a truck chassis).


My question is - has anyone done anything similar to this?
Do you have any tips, suggestions, etc? I'm sure new body mounts will have to be bought or made.....
Where did you have issues/troubles with your conversion? How did you overcome it?
How do you know what size of body to use (190mm, 200mm, etc)?
Is it necessary to change the shock towers?
What else do I need to know?


While my RC skill and prowess may be outdated - my tinkering, fabrication, and engineering skills are well above par. Any thoughts and insight would be great!

Thanks!

[jeepfreek]

I, like you, have gotten back into the game after a long time away. I just picked up a XX and an XXT from a friend. I just use them to play around, not to race. My suspension components are quite a bit wider and taller on the XXT truck than the XX buggy. This is my first experience with Losi vehicles, my kids used to race Traxxas in back in the day, and of course dad was the pit man. I made mounts to install a XXT body on my XX. Since you can fab, mounting a Mustang body should be easy for you. Your big problem will be the height of the shock towers and width of the lower arms. A buggy would be a better starting point, since it's narrower and shock towers are lower. You might consider a vintage truck body, like a '72 Chevy, '56 Ford, or early Bronco. These are bodies I was looking at for my cars. They won't require the drastic suspension mods it will take to tuck it all into a low rolling Stang body. If it were mine, I'd leave this a truck and hunt up a classic buggy to mod into a car.

[Casper]

There are some pretty inexpensive onroad cars out there with some muscle car bodies. Much easier then trying to convert a stadium truck to a muscle car.

HPI makes a '66 mustang body.

http://search.horizonhobby.com/index.jsp?N=0&Ntt=mustang+body&sid=12984D8645EE

Like I said I would round up a used or cheap TC and mount up one of these bodies!

[racern8]

Back when everybody used NI-MH battery packs, my dad dremeled 4 little loops on the left side of the battery tray on a XXX-T for an oval car. He kept the same wheels, but changed to losi rubber oval tires for dirt and custom made foam tires for carpet. He won some race on a dirt oval track somewhere. I was younger and I can't remember where it was.

[jeepfreek]

Back when everybody used NI-MH battery packs

What do you mean "back when"? I'm running 1500 niCads right now and am going to step up to NiMHs. They'll be fine for what I do, and I won't have to upgrade my chargers.

[Briguy]

What do you mean "back when"? I'm running 1500 niCads right now and am going to step up to NiMHs. They'll be fine for what I do, and I won't have to upgrade my chargers.

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:


They still make Nicads ? :D