Newt the Bold project

[George]

Great stuff Mike! You're an artist!

[riotwarrior]

Hydromike,

Anytime, and ya got questions, PM me I"ll offer what advise I can. As mentioned this is one part of AATV I GOT DOWN pat LOL.

any substrate can be used however the better the original the better the part as you know it's a mirror of what you work from.

To build a body tub mold would be so simple for one of these rigs, I'm almost tempted to do it. If only I had two more complete Muscateer axles LOL

I like the Frame you built for the lid, that's a fantastic idea and you can toss a rack onto it quite simple.

too bad not closer I'd help ya split the shells and re attach them when it comes time.

[hydromike]

Pushing ever slowly forward, I've basically finished up the latches for the engine cover and got the pins and receivers done over the weekend. I rolled her out into the driveway after drinking a couple protein shakes (phew, that pig's heavy...) and got a couple daylight shots that don't show a pile of beer bottles or other incriminating evidence in the background. The latches are just a pull/twist/lock design that I stole from a piece of exercise equipment. The pictures don't really show much more than other recent photos, but there's a ton of work in the latch mechanisms.





The latches (one on each side) protrude from the engine cover and are fitted with a 2" black fluted resin ball I found on ebay. They take some authority to engage/disengage, but heck man... you wanna see the engine, you gotta prove you can open the cover.





Back in January, I drew a mock-up of what I thought the engine cover could/should look like in Adobe Illustrator. It was a pretty simplistic rendering, but got the one gear with any teeth left turning in my head.





Basically, it turned out like I wanted it to.



...a couple more shots of it at the driveway car-show.

[riotwarrior]

Looking really good how it is, once you get it coloured it should look factory damn near!

Hope that this is up n running with some video soon.

Thanks for sharing!

[hydromike]

So I've basically been pouting about having to miss the Spring Busco ride due to schedule conflicts, but in between emotional fits I've actually been working on Newt. Newt is going to be running 1-1/4" Mudd-Ox axles with keyed #60 sprockets. After a lot of hesitation and much measuring and remeasuring, I slapped a couple axles into the Bridgeport vise and started cutting away. To my amazement, it actually worked. I'm bad at updating things; this picture was taken almost a month ago.





I really like how the sprockets fit on the axles. Time will tell how well they hold up, but I'm optimistic.


I've had the Kubota V1505 since late fall 2012, and haven't done a thing with it aside from filling the crankcase with oil and turning it over by hand a few times. I figured it was time to see if the thing actually ran, or if I had a 250lb. anchor on my hands. This was sold as a new engine, so I figured I'd just throw some diesel and 12 volts at it and see what happened. I ended up fighting with the engine for days before diagnosing two stuck injectors and three toasted glow plugs. I can't really explain why the glow plugs were effed (heating elements hanging out the bottoms...) but I figure that the injectors probably sat for years without any fuel in them and just got a bit used to being closed. After freeing them up and verifying (what I thought was) an OK spray pattern, I jammed them back in and still could really only get one cylinder to fire. There was evidence that someone had been inside the throttle control plate on the engine since it was missing a mounting bolt and it was painted a different color. After perusing some assembly diagrams, it seemed that someone pirated the governor spring in the engine to use on something else. I jammed my finger knuckle-deep inside the governor assembly, grabbed the darn governor assembly and cranked it over praying that there wasn't some misunderstood apparatus inside that would render my second favorite hand useless for some period of time. To my absolute delight, it roared to life and filled the small garage with a giant plume of burnt and unburnt diesel exhaust.


The exhaust basically consists of 1-1/4" elbows from Summit with a corresponding (small) glass pack. I was concerned that it would be too loud, but even in the echo-ey garage, it sounds just loud enough. It really has a nice rap to it. Immakeepit. It's all capped off with a blingy chrome stack.





There's still a lot of work to do on the frame and driveline that's difficult to access with the big blue body impeding things. That, and I still need to do a little fiberglass work on the body that I can't do with the frame in. It only takes a couple hours to get the frame and driveline out at this point, but the engine and frame itself require an engine hoist to move around. I yanked it out this weekend while everybody was having fun at Busco (sneer...) and bolted a bunch of it back together.





I'm going back and forth with chain adjuster designs for the axle-to-axle chains and I might have finally come up with something I like. Still lots to do and there are continually other things getting in the way of the project, but we're getting there. Slowly.

[liflod]

I think you should consider making a front end loader for it. You've got enough ballast and the frame looks heavy enough...

[fmints]

I know that you have been busy, with the conflict with your schedule and all,, missing Busco and such,, but how is Mr. Newt the Bold doing? I've been tracking this build since before I deployed to Afghanistan, and I must admit, Mr. Newt was very entertaining while I was over there! Thanks for the motivation Mike!!! Anyway, just wanted to let you know that we are waiting for the unveiling of this masterpiece and viewing the "First or Second Shake Down" video!!!

[riotwarrior]

Wow, looks great and thanks for the update. I still love that secondary gear box you are running and think maybe...

But can't wait to see how this works out. Need video...come on hurry up n gitterdun...

Thanks for the update

[liflod]

Here's my contribution to the project...
Waiting to see what Mike wants as far as colors. This is a sample with some scrap material.

[jpswift1]

Nice work, Lance! Looks just like the original.......you're having fun with that new toy you've got.

[hydromike]

Well... here it is so far.



The paint is a close match to the original blue gel-coat. It'll probably scratch much more easily than I'd like it to, but it'll be easily repaired. I ended up taping off the original decals and painting around them since they were in good shape for the most part. Grote still offers the same headlight buckets, and I found a set of tail-lights on eBay or Amazon, or something. The fiberglass engine cover still needs finishing, and the cooling and electrical systems are still waiting to be done. All of the big parts are in there, so it's not going to get a whole-lot heavier, which is good since I can barely push it on the concrete floor. I don't have any good ideas for the front grille yet. I didn't want to throw a winch up there, and I already have a good tow point in the rear for when (not if) I get stuck.

GeoJem helped me with a ton of little things I couldn't do myself like holding the backing washers on ~100 or so rivets holding the skid plate on, and putting the upper body on and off a few dozen times while I check clearances. We put the upper body on one last time, I mounted the headlights, taillights and a bunch of other parts to make it look somewhat whole at which point we opened up the garage door, stood back and admired our work.

It was at that point we arrived at the same conclusion.

"God, that's ugly".

[tbone9]

Ugly? Huh... I think it looks cool (in a swamp foxish kind of way). Nice work!

[Noel Woods]

Ugly? Huh... I think it looks cool (in a swamp foxish kind of way). Nice work!

That's what I was thinking, this thing looks really cool and its obviously been a labor of love to put it together. Its remarkable on how Mike has altered the mechanicals to make this a retromod type of rebuild. This is superb work.

[JoeMeg]

Lookin' good,Mike!!! Will there be a Christening at Pine Lake Raceway this June?

[ARGOJIM]

Looks great Mike, perhaps some matte clear coat will protect the paint without blinding you.

Simple thought on the grill, homemade round tube centers with mesh backing and perhaps rectangular steel/aluminum on the perimeter to give it that manly feel and some clearance as well as that "old school" look. Easy enough to make out of plastic pieces to see if you like the look.

Oh and since it's heavy enough a chrome Bulldog on top.