Capo JK Max Project

Page 3:  Building the Body

Time to put on the finishing touches.  Originally I wanted to get this painted at an automotive body shop, but I didn't have much luck finding someone who was interested in doing the work.  I wanted a deep blood red which you could partially see through like Tamiya transparent red when it is in the bottle.  I ended up with a candy red translucent enamel paint.  Sadly, it appears the spray can was quite old because I got a lot of splotching and orange peel.  The clear lacquer I put over the top helped a bit, but I didn't exactly end up with a showroom finish.  I does look nice from a distance though, and this way I am not so concerned about getting it scratched.  The above photo shows the majority of the body parts after painting and clear coat.  I did the front fenders in flat black.  The side panels and doors are stamped sheet, but the hood and grille appear to be cast.

The center console is one of the rare plastic parts in this kit.  I painted it black and then used a silver paint pen to do the trim.  I originally planned to run the wires under the center tunnel, but it turns out this is filled with the transmission.  Instead I ran the wires under the seats.

This micro servo is used to drive the working steering wheel.  The splined shaft shown did not fit correctly on this brand of servo so I ended up bonding them together.  The right hand image shows the little circuit cards which contain the LEDs for the dash lighting.

The finalized dash is quite realistic.  I painted some more details here including the air vents and the pedals.  The instrument panel is a very nice printed transparency.  I painted the seats with tan and masked the slots on top.

The grille and the windshield parts are attached directly to the cage assembly with screws.  The grille part houses the headlight assemblies which contain both low and high beams as well as turn signals.  The hood has plastic vent inserts and metal hinges.  It locks shut with side clamps.  There is a wire support to hold the hood up when open.

The wiring system is among the most complex I've ever done.  I ended up using 6 channels.  Besides the receiver and ESC, there is also a BEC, a light controller, and a winch controller.  It worked out like this:

• Channel 1:  Steering.  My 50 kg-cm steering servo runs at 8.0V off the 14A BEC.  The BEC needed to be wired directly to the battery.  I needed a Y-harness to run the steering wheel servo off the same channel, but this servo can only run at 6V.  I did this by running the steering wheel servo from the ESC power and the steering servo from the BEC.  I only split the signal wire.  This channel also needs to run to the lighting system so the blinkers know when to flash.
  
• Channel 2:  Throttle.  This carries the power from the Hobbywing 1080 ESC to the receiver.  This channel needs to be split to the lighting system so brake lights and reverse lights can work.
• Channel 3:  Transmission.  This controls shifting of the 2 speed transmission.  This needs to be split to also control the engine belts.  This is mapped to a 3-position switch and the belts only run when the transmission is in neutral.
• Channel 4:  Sway Bar.  This controls a micro servo to lock and unlock the sway bar.  This is mapped to a 2-position switch.
• Channel 5:  Lights.  This is mapped to a button to toggle through different lighting modes.
• Channel 6:  Winch.  This is used to drive the winch.  The winch also needs power which I pulled off the binding port on the receiver instead of going straight to the battery.  This means less power for the winch but simpler wiring to the battery.

The kit came with quite a few unused plastic parts.  Among these are the mirrors that I ended up installing.  There are also door handles here for the rear doors of Capo's larger Jeep model.