Daytona Transport

[darkside]

I think other than the contest, this will be my first build thread on here.

So who's ready to watch me screw up a Daytona Transport?












First up, lets do away with the stock grille and swap in one from a Super Bee. I had to add little pieces to the sides to fill into the grille along with a roll pan under the grille.



The roll pan.



Now how about putting some curves into the bed?

First the sides were cut off, leaving a little on each end to reattach to, then a spacer was bent to match the hump of the wheelwell and cemented in. Once it dried enough, the front edge was reattached. Note the small pie cuts at the top edges of the flare where the spacer ends. These will keep the flare from distorting when the ends of the side are pulled back in.



A filler added to the front top.



To get the rear to line up, a relief cut was made right behind the flare to allow the panel to angle up in the back. Then the back was reattached, and some scrap styrene fills the relief cut.



A filler added to the rear top section and we have a side with shape and room to tuck the rear tires.

[tool]

very cool cant wait to see more on this project !!

[darkside]

I didn't like the stock seats, so out they went and the plastic started flyin'.



Now I have a bare tub to work with. Notice the doghouse has been widened for a V8, probably a SBC.



In an attempt to get this as low as possible, I removed the floorboards from the frame and will use the interior tub as the floor.

I've also trimmed any extending bracing from the frame and recovered it with strips of .010

[harron68]

You are so talented and skilled!! That is a real lesson on how to make imagination become real. I am astonished and grateful you're putting this up on the web. Thanx!

[darkside]

I decided to open the doors.



Which means the body now has to tie into the interior tub, on this project it was a Royal PITA.

These simple 4 pieces fought me every way they could, but they're in.



How they line up with the tub.



That just leaves these two hole to fill. I decided to move on to something else for now. I've had my fill of filling gaps for right now.



So lets move on to the rear suspension. The stock unit is leafs and a solid axle. As I want this low, nothing can be under the bed, so I decided to come up with an airbag suspended trailing arm setup.

Lets get started with the main beam, the bag mounts , axle mounts, and front mounts.



With that sorted out, it's time to add some strength and detail.





And a test fit. They look like they'll work, just need some tweaking.

[Steve-o]

This is a really cool project !!
Must keep us posted .... ;D

[darkside]

The arms are spaced too far from the mounting location on the bed. I figured out a remedy and an easy mounting method at the same time.

First I drilled through the front pivot bushing and mounting plate.



Then cut of the front mounting plate and trim the pivot bushing on the front of the arm.


Next a rod is cut and a small length of 1/8" tube is glued to the mounting plate. Once the cement dried, the tube is sanded down to a thin spacer.



I dipped the end of the rod into some Weld-On 16 to glue it in place (I use the Weld-On as a gap filling glue) and quickly cleaned up any excess and set aside to dry.


Now the front mounts can be cemented to the bed, allowed to dry, and then mount the arms to the mounts. This will be SO much easier as there is no a lot of room to work with.

The finished product with the collapsed bags and upper bag mounts. The bags are just slices of 3/16" tubing with the edges rounded, the mounts are made from .030 sheet. The pins sticking out behind the bags are shock mounts.

[darkside]

I've got the trailing arm mounts in and the shocks are just about done. I've also started filling in the frame where it was trimmed for the stock suspension and added supports for the sides behind the wheelwells.

Now the last modification to the bed, new hydraulic rams. The ones from the kit are too big and hang to low for my liking. Smaller ones might not be realistic, but it's a needed sacrifice for ground clearance.

The stock ram hanging below the body.



My new high tech-more power/less size ram next to the stock one.





The new rams.

[rustyrat1960]

This is friggin' mind blowing to the "MAXIMUM" Dave!!
Out standing work!!
I am loving every little bit of this build!!
I am in awe of Your detailing here!!
Thank You so very much for sharing!!
I will be watching
Later
Russ

[darkside]

How about a peak at what she looks like?

[darkside]

Back to the interior.

As this has fly by wire steering, I can be creative with the design of the dash/steering wheel and I plan to! I'm guessing the original idea for the kit dash was to have it lift out of the way when entering/exiting the truck. I plan to follow that idea.


I used the back of a Corvette seat to make a dash pod. After sanding the seat to shape, I added a strip of .010 to make the face, a piece of 3/16" tube and 1/8" tube for the steering column. I then bent two pieces of 3/64" rod to make the support arms that join with a bushing on the end.



I then drilled a small piece of rectangle stock for a pin, then notched out the center for the support arm bushing.



In the driving position.





Swung up and out of the way.

[badroadahead]

Beautiful work.

I love the dash pod!

Dave

[darkside]

I used 1/4" tube to make the tunnel that hides the hinge, a notch was cut for the dash pod to fit into.



Down for driving.



Up for entrance/exit.



I hope the interior tub is one round of filler and prime away from paint. I've also come up with what I hope is a simple fix for the holes where the hinges go.


While I'm in high gear on this build, lets get that front suspension out of the way. This time a trailing arm and a locating arm. Not very realistic, but it looks cool.


First extensions from the frame for the front of the arms to mount to were made, following with the arms. The arms are .100 rod, some scrap .040 and a couples of slices if 1/4" tube.



Checking the fit with the transaxle, it's close enough for me.



The additional bars are to act like a triangulated 4 link, but in reality would not work, but thanks to the gaps of 1/25 scale, it has movement and I'm claiming artistic license on this one.



Now to find a matching set of driveshafts to make the axles from.

One more quick mod, I filled the mack panel and then trimmed it to fit the transaxle.

[gangster]

Looking great.
Nice scratch work.
I like the looks of it..

[darkside]

Thanks for the comments everyone, I'm glad your enjoying my first build here at the University.

You can see I've extended the main trailing arm and added an airbag mount to it, along with upper bag mounts on the frame. Time to start figuring out the drivetrain,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, please let it fit!!!!

Lining up the transaxle.



With the block in place and some rod to represent axle, it's time to see if there's clearance for the axles.





So far it looks like it will work. Keep your fingers crossed.