Project Seven - WIP

This is as she arrived back in June - in desperate need of some TLC (and especially a brake job). 35 years of Florida sun had not been kind to the paintwork, but to be honest, the patina has really grown on me, and I think I'd rather clear coat it than repaint it. The other benefit of finding this truck down south is that it's virtually free of structural rust. 

An extensive tune up was performed over the summer and fall... 

...as well as repairs to the HVAC system and electronics. 

It's been... an adventure... so far. The goal is to reverse the years of neglect and get the truck back to a point where it can be a daily driver (during the summer at least) 

By the end of the season it was running pretty well - now it's time to take on a new project: remaking the real life vehicle in scale. I'm challenging myself to get as close as I possibly can to replicating the weathering present on the full size vehicle. 

There's also some damage to the bodywork in places - it all adds to her "character" - I'll be reproducing this in scale too. 

The interior is "well broken in" too - and although I won't be able to replicate that old car smell, I'll do my best to weather the interior to of the model to match. 

I've even bought a topper for it - this will be a removable part of the model. 

I'll see how much work I can get done on the scale copy this winter - Come spring, I'll be able to pull the cover off and regain access to my reference material 

Of course, no styrene kit for this truck exists, but many makes and models can be found as 3D-printer ready files in various places online. This example is quite detailed and comes in multiple parts, which will make painting, detailing, and weathering much easier. 

I'm also able to make limited modifications to the .stl files myself to better approximate the exact spec of my truck. For example, here I've converted the front axle from 4WD to 2WD (meaning it's now a simple beam axle). Some other modifications will have to be done once the parts are printed. Someone more versed in CAD than I could probably figure those out prior to printing as well, but let's not eliminate all of the plastic-cutting from this project! 

Starting this model coincides with commissioning a new 3D printer - my Elegoo Saturn 2 has an 8K screen and reproduces the detail of the 3D file very accurately. 

Playing around a bit with anti-aliasing... The steps may look the same size, but they're shallower on the part in the top half of the screen, which means there's less to sand down prior to painting. 

The quality of the .stl files I purchased combined with the resolution of the new printer means that the final model will be incredibly detailed. 

This is one of the parts that will need updating post-print (mostly because I didn't think of it until now). The rear crossmembers aren't correct, and will be reworked in styrene. What's in the file is perfectly fine for a curbside model, but that's not how we do things in my studio... 

I've had some luck printing very small parts on this printer too... These generic seat belt parts will be used for this build, as well as a number of other upcoming projects. 

Here's all of the donor styrene parts (for now anyway) 

The 3D files come with the premium Dana 44 option... mine has the humble Dana 35, which I'll be appropriating from one of my YJ parts kits. Brakes are from a ZJ donor kit. 

The glue-bombed 4.0 from the same parts kit has been disassembled. Like its 1:1 counterpart, this will need some TLC before it's going anywhere... 

Other stuff I know I'll use... hood hinges, pedals, wipers and so on. 

And some stuff I may or may not use... engine bay parts from my ZJ parts kit 

I may try to use some of these ZJ parts to detail the suspension