Needing information on a clod

[klavy69]

As the title states I'm way out of my comfort zone on this thing for knowledge. Can the clod gurus tell me what this started as and what I should be looking up parts for? Its got a few nice parts on it and plan on tearing it down to freshen it up and get this thing tightened up. Linkages are not right on the bottom and rubbing. Shock reservoirs are hitting tires. Screws broken off in the rear aluminum gear case for axle stiffener/ support. Every screw is loose and if i tighten them it binds something up.. And I'm sure the list will grow as it gets torn down...

Like should this thing have dual shocks and suggestions on a little of everything is much appreciated.

I realize this part of the forum doesn't get alot of traffic so I'm gonna be patient with this one. Learning pictures here yet so bear with me and can get more if you need them...

Thanx in advance.
Todd

[Elkcycles]

The photos could be deceiving me. I'm inclined to say this is a Boyer chassis. It doesn't quite look like a Boyer chassis, but a closeup on the link mounts could tell more. Is it true and straight or distorted? The gearcases appear to be JPS, are they marked on the sides? Single shocks are probably the original design intent.

[Elkcycles]

Correction. JPS cases indicate that this is possibly a John Boyer chassis. Someone had some coin into the build at some point, but it has changed over time. Boyer's chassis usually had nicely brazed link mounts, as this one does, but the paint is terrible. These were usually powder coated. Also, Boyer tubework had lots of fine details. There was a builder by the name of Hulkwerks that used to produce similar versions to these on the RCC forum, but his run was limited to a few years. It does not appear to have the curves of a New Era chassis.

The shocks look like Progressive reservoirs. Progressive made platform dampening for mountain bike suspensions in the early 2000's and also offered a line of shock reservoirs for the Maxx trucks. There should be an Allen adjuster on the bottom of the caps. Their full sized suspensions worked fairly well, but I don't know how well the technology scaled down.

It appears that the chassis been resprayed at some point, as the links obviously have been as well.

[klavy69]

Thank you sir. Yes. JPS on the cases. Not sure whats in them but they seem to spin freely and nicely. The rods are solid and non magnetic. They are nice but yeah, they were painted, covered in monokote to change color and then painted again. The cage has at least 3 different colors painted over it. Sad thing about the cage is that there are several crossbraces cut off in different areas. The shocks are associated with the reservoirs you mentioned and the seem to work well. Some leakage and need rebuilding but I asked about the double shocks because there is 4 more shocks that came with it without the reservoirs and 2 more plates like the front has where you can mount 2 shocks to it.

Gonna start by pulling it mostly apart to get the cage separated and strip some paint. Hoping the powder coat survives but no big deal since it needs some parts brazed/soldered back in. The parts that were cut off might be in the box of dirt and parts I got with it. It'll make that part easier if they're in there.

The crappy part about this thing is I bought it from the lhs for a wanted ad a couple years ago and the buyer paid $20 for me to go get it and then ghosted me. I figured I didn't have one so why not just keep it since he might get back to me after awhile. Well its been 2+ years so its time to do something with it.

I'm still struggling with pictures but what would you need pics of to get a better idea what's up? I can give it a go...

Thanx again and appreciate the intel.
Todd

[Steve71]

I agree with Elkcycles it does look like a Boyer chassis for the most part, but the joints look pretty rough which John's chassis had nice clean joints back in the day so that kind'a throws me a tad. But it could just be that it's been painted and reworked so many times...so hence the roughness of the look of the chassis perhaps.

Not sure what you paid for it, or how much you know about rare clod parts...but the JPS gearcases are extremely collectable by die hard vintage clod builders. I have seen guys pay $800-$1000 for just the bare cases alone if they are in good shape.

[Lowgear]

Yeah, people are paying a mint for JPS stuff these days.

A set of 8 used Trinity Power Plus Clod shocks just sold on eBay for $935!! All the old Clod hop-ups are going for mega money these days. I have a Chevy badged Clod loaded with APM and ESP parts, and also 8 of those shocks that was built in the early '90s. Maybe I should sell it to make myself a couple of grand.

[Steve71]

A set of 8 used Trinity Power Plus Clod shocks just sold on eBay for $935!!

WHAT?? holy crap man. I look on ebay every once in a while just to stay current with some clod prices but I missed that one. Wow that is absolutely insane. Really makes me wish I would have held onto all my JPS/ESP clod parts from back in the day

[klavy69]

so some 'cut' pictures. There seems to be 3 cross members cut out. One nicely done, another neatly done and one done with a chainsaw I think. I stripped, beadblasted, scraped, wire wheeled, picked, drilled, and stripped again, bead blasted again, and picked again, and wire wheeled one last time with a dremel to get all the coatings off. Seems the green was a home powdercoating too. It had been touched up with green paint at some point in time also. Underneath that was I think the original black powdercoat along with some green paint under the powdercoating that had been damaged somewhere along the line. Somewhere in there purple had been done under some of the chassis green paint. All in all it was 12-14 hours I will never get back. Would've made a big time saver to go replace the bead blaster media with something more aggressive but I'm off work and have more time that money at this point...

I had some stainless 1/8" welding rod so I stripped the coating off of that and made the replacement parts for the crossmembers cut out. I drilled and cut a 3/8" stainless washer for replacement gussets for the chain saw hacked gussets/crossmember. Took it to a friend of mine who said he could weld the crossmembers back together and checked out some of his stuff he has 'welded'. He used to be a good drinking and darts buddy but damn...I left there in a hurry. I've seen some birdshit welds before but there was no chance he was getting some 'practice' in on this chassis. Not after all the work I did to strip it. Long story short I'll be checking in with another friend of mine who works on hospital equipment. Just gotta find a time where we can get together since he's an hour and a half away from me now.

[klavy69]

Some more pictures that I could get loaded that weren't too big. No real order or logic in the way besides going down my phone and trying each one. Will be tearing down the gear cases next. Hope I can get some better pictures then that will work. Will be working my way through the links first to try and strip them to see whats under them or see what I need to build something different. From there will determine whether or not to go 4 wheel steer or not. I think I can replicate the steering servo mount from the front to the rear. Is it worth it for the fun/wierd factor or not? Also kicking around the idea of making dual shock mounts for this thing all around. As heavy as this is it will help in the long run...I think. Anyway, if you made it this far thanx for humoring me

Todd

[klavy69]

Yeah, people are paying a mint for JPS stuff these days.

A set of 8 used Trinity Power Plus Clod shocks just sold on eBay for $935!! All the old Clod hop-ups are going for mega money these days.

...but the JPS gearcases are extremely collectable by die hard vintage clod builders. I have seen guys pay $800-$1000 for just the bare cases alone if they are in good shape.

I have 4 of the trinity power plus clod shocks that came with it I was debating to put on instead of the associated shocks and you guys are making it real hard to put this thing back together instead of parting it on ebay

I won't be doing that but someday when its time to move I'll only be keeping certain stuff so its good to know that it'll be worth something then. Thanx for all the information so far. More pics and questions to come as I start dismantling the front and rear ends...

Todd

[klavy69]

Rear end mostly apart

Appears to be stock gears. Any recommendations on putting different gears in? The blue nylon work better than these? Thorp? Do I need all thorp if I go that route?

Going to take further apart and clean up. When it goes back together I'd like to put it back in best possible way. Also, what grease am I looking to put in here. Looks like something blue already in there...

[klavy69]

Picture just because I like the look of machined aluminum

[klavy69]

Welp! Not much holding these together besides paint...any recommendations on using original parts or hop up alloy?

Way more cracks all over on them. They were red but painted black.

[klavy69]

Any ideas on front servo/bumper mount? Assuming JPS...

[Dadio]

Wish I could answer any of your questions but I can't sorry , I'm really enjoying watching the build , so many cool parts on it already