[Samurai]

Those of you who know my son is in 3rd grade, might wonder about the title. Rest might wonder why this thread is in the Shifting Gear section. All questions will be answered as you read on.

In actuality this is a school project. And like most such projects, the main objective is to test the skill and patience of the parents. Seriously, when they ask a 3rd grader to make a model of an automobile, who are they really planning to test?

At first my son thrusted the Pogo MAD Art & Crafts book in my face. This book had a model car making instructions, which basically uses all kind of trash. Only trouble is I have to visit 5 different shops to buy stuff that will generate the trash. Being a lazy guy I didn't want to do that, besides it defeats the idea of creating the car from trash.

But I am a TeamBHPian, I don't need some TV youth in a fake pirate outfit tell me how to build a car. So I told me son I will build it from scratch, using only the stuff we have at home. There will be no purchasing of any item to build this car.

Construction material used:
Chart paper left over from previous projects, this was the sheet metal, glass, alloys and tyres.
Mocktail/Cocktail straw, this was the leaf spring, axle housing and roll cage.
Coconut stick, this was the axle.
Staple pins were the rivets and Fevicol was the welding.
Rubber band were the U-clamps.
Marker pens were the paint brushes.

I started off making a car, but as it progressed, it looked more and more like a Jeep, and finally I ended up making a Jeep. Now, it might it very crude, but that's intentional. Afterall it is a Jeep, and it is supposed to be made by a 3rd grader... wink..wink. Any better, they might not believe it was made by him.

I didn't take any work-in-progress photos. However, after the work was done, I realised I can write this thread. So I only have photos of the finished product.







Here is an underbody shot.



Any Jeep build is incomplete without offroad testing. So I had to conduct offroad testing by creating a obstacle. And I have to say it passed the test in flying colors, just using the wind power from my breath. Available in high-definition.

YouTube - Toy Jeep Offroading

The entire body shell was made using a single piece of paper, which was cut from the chart paper, after I designed entire layout on it. Only the chassis (which holds the leaf springs) and the windshield were seperate pieces of paper.

Once I was done, my son was impressed. He gave me the best compliment he could think of, You are more talented than all my classmates.

In other words, I'm definitely smarter than a 3rd grader.

[harjeev]

Thats great!!!
Wish building & maintaining jeep for bigger kids(us guys) was so simple!!!

[wildon]

What is the On Road Price for this ?
Nice work

[Spitfire]

LEAF SPRINGS?? You could have gone coils..

[Vid6639]

Samu San I am disappointed. It needs bigger alloys and why did you design a 2WD Jeep. I was expecting LSD and 4WD with a winch and all.

[Samurai]

Even my Jeep doesn't have coil springs, my son's Jeep can't get it before mine.

Although, at first I wanted to do SPoA, then I applied the above logic.

Viddy, how did you figure it was a 2WD, it is actually a 0WD. Don't you see both axles are dead axles?

[pranava999]

Hey it looks worthy of hosting your own show on Pogo albeit with a samurai outfit!!

[StarVegabond]

Hey Samurai san

that is a great DIY stuff. I have been doing some of those for my 2nd grader (e.g PC Keyboard, etc, etc), i know how difficult or easy it is.
it puts all of our engineering knowledge to test.

It feels great to receive the compliment from one's kid.

i am sure, your kid will build bigger and better things can a toy jeep when he grow up.

that post of yours was very refreshing

[Sam Kapasi]

Well done Samu. And that is really a great job. And a sweet and refreshing thread to read.

[EssYouWe]

Haha good stuff!

If only M&M and Tata can make their SUVs as stable as that.

[dhiman]

Average kya deti hai? :P

[Jayabusa]

Was great to see it move. Anyone seeing the video first would wonder whether it's a DIY R/C Jeep, what with it stopping & moving over the book.

[maddy42]

Nice one. Used to remember while drawing in school i used to start off with the intention of a car but end in a jeep as its so much easier. All squares and not undesired artistic lines

Missing rear footboard and front bumper and also a hook. Arai wont approve. Well the GC is awesome though

[theMAG]

Originally Posted by Samurai

The entire body shell was made using a single piece of paper

Thats a typical monocoque as opposed to ladder-on-frame if it were done using 2 pieces of paper.

[sudev]

Cute - Paint job is from hell but leaf springs are nifty .... and tubular chassis too!?

May be you can upload the engineering drawings here for other less mechanically abled (grand)fathers.
;-)