Rustler build with pics! Winter Basher with a winter theme . . .

Okay everybody, last week I took the time to make some cool changes to my Rustler, and at the same time helped my Son, Tayton, build himself a Rustler from all of our spare parts. He did awesome, his runs and drives great too!
I took pictures of the process. The only pictures I really forgot to take was of all the parts before I opened and installed them . . oops.
I will label each picture as we go, beginning with a pic of the end product:

It is hard to see in this pic, but there is actually a snowflake painted towards the rear. I love how this turned out! Wait til you see the other pics to follow . . .


Here she is about two weeks earlier, fairly stock with some minor upgrades/changes . . .


As I mentioned above, fairly stock . . .


I had already installed the aluminum bulkhead earlier along with the shocks . . .


And as seen, I had also already installed blue aluminum battery hold down. You probably notice that the tires are pretty well spent, as well . . .


Not impressed with the Reedy Radon motor; it didn't hold up to the water as well as the Titan 550 12T, so it came out after this pic as you will see in the final pics . . .


Last picture taken before before disassembled (don't mind the snail, lol) . . .

-Derek, Next Level RC

Fast forward two weeks while enjoying my paid vacation . . .

In order to run a pickup or an SUV body I pulled some Traxxas Stampede body mounts from my inventory. The following pics show the process . . .


The front tower will only be needed if you are wanting to run a pickup body, that you may level the body out. But it does make the body sit kind of high just like a Stampede. For this project I only need the rear body mount because I will be running a Hummer body. You may also notice on the rear mount that I removed one of the screw holes on the right side; I will explain why below . . .


Gotta have some bling while I'm at it


This my friend is the reason that I removed one of the screw holes, in order to clear the transmission case. I only removed it for illustration though because I will actually be running the mount one hole higher to level the Hummer body . . .


. . . like this . . .


Here is what it looks like from the front installed (this would be on the lowest setting, like for a pickup body) . . .


And here is what it looks like from the rear. Those blue bolts are sweet!

At this point I was ready to get on with the rest of the project . . .

-Derek, Next Level RC

After painting the body and installing all of my parts, I took it outside to run it. I decided at the last minute that I should probably take some pictures first . . .


Ready to rock! . . .


Those are Traxxas white dish wheels wrapped in 2.2" HPI Yokohama Geolanders . . .


And of course I couldn't leave out the blue wheel nuts . . .


Blue RPM A-Arms and front bumper look great with that blue aluminum bulkhead . . .


Might as well toss the blue RPM arms on the rear too. And, a welcome return to a Titan 550 12 turn . . .


What you may barely see in this pic is the black RPM Caster Blocks on front, GPM blue aluminum front hubs with bearings, and blue aluminum rear hubs with bearings . . .


It is still kind of hard to see in the pic, but I literally folded up a piece of paint mask and cut it into a snowflake like we would in grade school. That is how I put the snowflake in the paint job to follow the winter theme along with the colors . . .


She sure turned out great, at this point I was getting fairly anxious to get it dirty . . .


Strikin' another pose . . .


And last pic, time to sling some dirt!

It has ran great so far, and now I'm ready to go brushless . . .

-Derek, Next Level RC

Great job! Clever idea with the snowflake paint detail too! Thanks for posting the build and the photos, always fun to see other folks builds like this.

P.S. Cool Old-Timer in the background! Is that yours? Reminded me of the annual Grants Pass Back to the Fifties event. Have you ever been?

Don't think we've been to that one. But yes, that is our '56 Chevy Bel-Air 4 Door Hardtop. It's basically a family heirloom, we love that car.
Glad you like the snowflake idea on the Rustler, it was kind of a last minute thing.

-Derek, Next Level RC

You can learn about the Grants Pass Back to the Fifties event here: http://www.backtothefifties.us/
I don't know if you're into that kind of thing, but your car would be a perfect fit.