F-350 Aluminum body

[SMaxxin]

I was chosen to build one of these aluminum bodies and do a little write up giving my opinion on it so here goes....

The builder of the body is Stewart Wegner, ebay user is stew-2 http://myworld.ebay.com/stew-2/

The body showed up Friday with the cab in one box and the bed in another. He sent them priority with conformation...no snail mail hope you get it shipping here!

I carefully pulled them from the boxes and my first impression was...WOW, it look great followed by WOW it is very delicate! Stew included a note stating not to worry it will stiffen up once the body parts are installed, also included were a four pop sickle sticks, small pieces of aluminum and styrene to help add strength where screw holes or body mount holes will be drilled.

A closer look under the body and you can see that the panels are held together with hot glue, it seems to hold very well but some trimming of the excess glue will be necessary to fit the glass....Expect to have to massage the panels to fit the body parts to it, this is not for someone that want to screw on the parts and run you will need to make mounts for the grill, glue and probably trim the glass to get a good fit. I'll take pics as I do these things.

 

[Lessen]

Wow! That's crazy!

 

[SMaxxin]

The stock body has grill mounts molded into the hood but on this one I had to make some, a simple piece of plastic cut 14mm long and a hole drilled to accept the screws that will hold the grill. I used a two part epoxy to glue them onto the hood.

 

[alpinehyperlite]

So is it like tough aluminum foil or something? Its freaking badass.

 

[SMaxxin]

So is it like tough aluminum foil or something

It's about as strong as a beer can and it dents very easy but the structure as whole is getting a little better now that the windows are installed. I think I could have gotten a better fit if I would have cut the glass into individual pieces but leaving it all in one added more strength IMO. The pics don't show it very good but I put several dents in it with my hands getting the grill to fit and putting glass in there....Of course I have big goofy hands with not much feeling in the finger tips. A pic with the grill and glass installed.

 

[NCNitro]

That looks really cool! But it also looks quite fragile. The scale damge should look awesome.

 

[Rolex]

That's amazing. Do you have any idea what it would sell for?

 

[SMaxxin]

That looks really cool! But it also looks quite fragile. The scale damge should look awesome.

It really does take a delicate hand to work with one of these, the more I touch it the more dents it's getting

That's amazing. Do you have any idea what it would sell for?

The only place that I know of to buy them is on eBay, his auctions start at $0.99 so high bidder wins. I added a link to his eBay account in the first post.

 

[Racer 1966]

.005 aluminum, wow! That's crazy but cool! He says it's not stamped so there's a lot of work to get all the detail in them. Thanks for sharing this! :thumbup:

 

[SMaxxin]

The little bit of video I got won't be ready until this weekend so heres a few pics to give you an idea of how it went. I didn't baby it but I have driven harder with lexan and the hard bodies.


Before Pics

After Pics

 

[alpinehyperlite]

HAHAHAHA!!!! Awesome stuff.

 

[NCNitro]

Damn! That thing is tore up! :whhooo:

 

[Rolex]

WOW!!! It looks GREAT wrecked! That's ultimate scale. I think those bodies should be required for competitions. Shove a fender or bumper into a tire and you're in trouble.

 

[alpinehyperlite]

And some real glass (although dangerous) would be freaking badass. PSHHHH!! Cracking your windshield in a roll over..... epic...

 

[neobart]

LMAO You can't fake that kind of damage. Totally bad ass.

 

[Lessen]

WOW!!! It looks GREAT wrecked! That's ultimate scale. I think those bodies should be required for competitions. Shove a fender or bumper into a tire and you're in trouble.

Agreed. That's awesome. Probably could be a bit thicker for the damage was a bit more realistic but all in all that's awesome looking after some driving. Very cool! :thumbup::thumbup:

 

[Racer 1966]

I was thinking the same thing about the glass as Alpine,but the damage factor is still cool! :thumbup:

 

[SMaxxin]

I didn't try to kill it but I wasn't exactly nice to it. I did add some extra support especially around the tail area and all of the seems. I used popsicle sticks and a also added shoe goo in several places. Sure I could have done more to help it but I didn't want to build a body inside of a body. The bed and the cab were held together with two 4/40 nuts and bolts right under the rear window, clear RTV silicone all the way around and several popsicle sticks

No pretty scenery, no nice trails, just punishing cement blocks.....And my heavy breathing LOL

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[alpinehyperlite]

Thats great.... so, wheres your review? lol

 

[Rolex]

That's absolutely great. I should get one just to wreck it and park it next to the Ugly Truckling.