My Ford FW-60 Project

[rockNmayhem]

Time for a quick update for the evening. I'm still waiting on the wheels and tires to get here so I decided it was time to start making some more detailed parts for the Ford. I got a little bored tonight looking at the plastic exhaust stack so I decided to do something about it. Took me a few hours but I think it's worth it and looks much better than before. Tell me what you guys think.







Thanks for lookin,
Tyler

[mazdaparts]

looks good.

[Espeefan]

What rims did you end up going with? The RC4WD Militants?

The rain cap is a cool little touch.

[rockNmayhem]

Originally Posted by Espeefan

What rims did you end up going with? The RC4WD Militants?

The rain cap is a cool little touch.

Hey Nathan I did end up going with the military wheels and tires. They just look great on a couple of rigs I've seen them on and think they look really close to a tractor wheel that I can make them work. I hope to have them soon and I'm really hoping the offset will work too.

Tyler

[tootall]

The tractor looks great. Makes me want to build my own.

[rockNmayhem]

Well it's time for a little update. I started to re-arrange the electronics and components in the tractor so I could hide it all better and I think it worked. All I have that will be visable will be the wire connections at the back once it is all done so I think I accomplished what I set out to do so far. I also got the new wheels and tires in and put a couple together in hopes they would look better and I have to say I think they look pretty good right now. I'm kinda debating now wether or not I should go duals, lemme know what you guys think.

Anyways enough with the talk here is the tractor as it sits right now.







Hope you guys enjoy and lemme know what you think I should do about the blankness on the front of the frame on the passenger side. It just looks too bare for me.

Tyler

[Claus]

You could hang a tool box on the frame or make some kind of suitcase weights, you could also add a tow cable like most all Scraper Specials have. Those tires look a little short, if your going to keep them I would dual them up.

Here is some photos of steps, tool boxes, tow cables and front weights.

[rockNmayhem]

Well just a small update for this tractor. I'm still drilling out the new wheels for duals and they should hopefully be able to be turned out next week sometime and ready to put back on. I have been working on getting everything solid mounted and it seems it is all gonna fit. All I really have left to do is strip it back down to the bare frame and powdercoat it all to match. I got some new axles in for it that I will post pics of this week along with the new lights that I hope to be installing this week as well.

Tyler

[rockNmayhem]

Well Its almost been a month now on this project and got some time off today to work on the wheels. Still have one left to finish up but it shouldn't take but maybe an hour. Anyways thought I'd post some progress before it gets too late.

As always here are the newest pics for everyone to see.

Here's the blanks that I started with.


Being turned and all the holes drilled.


And now a few to show the difference between the single narrow tires and the duals installed.




Much better with duals all around.




And a few close ups of the wheels and tires.





Good spacing I believe.



Thanks for looking guys and hope you all like the progress. I'm hoping to have this tractor running before the snow flies.

I have to get the chassis blasted tomorrow hopefully at work and then powder coat it this week as well then it will all go back together then the blade will be finished and ready to plow.

Leave me some comments if you'd like.

Tyler

[mazdaparts]

That looks great. I wonder if RC4WD would mold some of those tires without the sipes for a solid v tread.

[Lil Giants]

That looks much better with duals Tyler... although your tires are too close together. Would it be possible to make a spacer to add 1/4 to 3/8 inch between the tires? It's not for looks, but rather to improve traction performance by allowing the tread of each tire to penetrate the surface so the earth will roll up each side of the tire.

I have 24.5x32 tires on my 1:1 4wd with about 16" spacing.

[Espeefan]

You did a pretty nice job turning the rims. Did you make brand new one piece rims, turned to look like duals, or separate rims that bolt onto the RC4WD rims, like true duals? I wouldn't worry about the tire spacing. It looks a little tight, but not all that unscale. I've seen clamp on duals that fit that tight on 1:1 tractors, and some clamp on duals that had a much wider spacing too. Some so wide they almost match the width of hub mounted duals, spread wide to clear the crops.

In anycase, I think it looks much better with duals.

[Tamiya Cowboy]

The wheel look great very nice set up.. Nate is right I have seen clam on duals pretty much rubbing on the old Case 4wd..

[ihbuilder]

looks good Tyler , you did a good job on those : thumbs up :

[rockNmayhem]

Thanks for all the compliments guys. I wasn't sure if I wanted wide mount duals or narrow, but I decided narrower so it was easier to turn this beast around. I have pushed it in a circle a couple times and the turning radius grew tremendously. Adding that other 1/4" that I was thinking on each wheel would have really killed me I think.

On another note, I got the fenders all mounted and everything is now done no the frame for now so I will get it blasted tomorrow instead of like I was hoping for today and hopefully get it powder coated by this weekend so I can get it all back together and running for some more test vids.

Now it's time to start on wiring up all the lights.

Anybody know where I can get some 8mm clear lenses? I can't seem to find anything that will work for me. I tried cutting a piece of plexi dowel rod but it didn't look to clear when it was turned out on the lathe. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Tyler

[Espeefan]

8mm LEDs? There are quite a few options out there. You could also buy some 8mm lenses and build an LED holder - more less a tube with the lense on the end of it. I know Axial has some larger clear lenses, used on their light kits for the rock crawlers they have. Garden Trucking sells some larger round lenses too, also clear, or orange, or red. They are larger then 5mm, I know that much, but how bit, I can't remember. Check under the company store, and then click 'lighting'.

Axial's light bucket set -

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXYWV9&P=7
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXYWW1&P=7

Here are some 8mm LEDs, available online.

http://www.ledssuperbright.com/8mm-led-c-8
http://ledz.com/?p=leds.8mm

Maybe this will help. I do believe you can also polish fiber optic cable and acrylic rod. Try sanding it in various grades, working your way up as fine as you can. Something like 2500 grit or even better! I've heard some guys use a business card to finish up the ends of fiber optic cables. I don't know how well it works.

[Stuff]

looking good! love the duals!

[russisloud]

nice work on the wide rims test drive video?

[rockNmayhem]

Originally Posted by Stuff

looking good! love the duals!

Thanks for the compliment. There was a lot of time and work into making that one set of wheels.

Originally Posted by russisloud

nice work on the wide rims test drive video?

Very soon Russ, very soon hopefully. I've got the chassis blasted and at the powder coaters so hopefully he can slip it in with some other parts this week and that way it would be kinda like a christmas present to myself.

Tyler

[rockNmayhem]

Well ladies and gentlemen the time has come. As of six months ago I started what I thought would be a quick project. Boy howdy was I wrong. Through the last six months I have spent a lot of time with trial and error building my Ford tractor, but luckily for me time prevailed and I now have a final result to all my hard work. I now present to you "Big Blue" in it's final stages. It is now running and all buttoned up besides a few front lights and details now. So enough with the talk and here are some new pictures to hold you guys over till I get time to take some video tomorrow.