Please Help: Mechanics and Car Construction

So it’s no mystery that the vehicle system in C:DDA is a little daunting, and the thing is I have no idea where to start. I’ve attempted to experiment but the game isn’t giving me liberties to do anything and I don’t know why. I’ve attempted to follow the process in a logical fashion (i.e. accumulating the parts and attempting to install them in a way that a car functions realistically), yet I’m not getting any tangible results and it has begun to be a bit frustrating by following this hit or miss (mostly miss) process.

What I’m requesting is a fully detailed and step-by-step guide to build a few sample vehicles (bike, car, etc), or a link to said guide. I’ve tried to do the rogue-like thing and figure it out on my own but everybody has their limit. And creating a death machine that rolls through town with no way to stop it and careens into a building and explodes(super FUN), is mine.

tl;dr I need a detailed guide on vehicle construction written or linked please.

Any and all help is appreciated.

You did not post where it was you were getting hung up, so Im just going to assume your not even getting any frames.

  1. Step one is to get your mechanics up to level 1 you can do this easily by:

Building makeshift lock-picks, or crowbar. It is recommended that even if you get the official versions to stick with makeshift for increased xp through failure.
break into all the locked doors by (a)ctivating crowbar/pick on locked door until success, make sure to do this from the outside as most doors can simply be opened from the inside.

  1. Build your starter cart frame.

get some wood & nails/wood and rope or other materials you can use to make a frame
Use the construction menu to build your first vehicle frame ( * > v ) if I am not mistaken

  1. Build onto, make cart useful, make specialty carts

(e)xamine the frame you just made and (i)nstall a box or other holder spot, use for all the looting!
Build other carts you can later adjust for mobile battery storage/ generator etc…

  1. By now you should be to level 2 and have equipment to uninstall at least some parts of vehichles

deconstruct everything that you can, but don’t have a planned purpose to use (don’t deconstruct that military/whatever vehicle that you plan to use as a mobile base later)
if you end up with the resources to do so build yourself a nice bike for increased silent looting potential
add wheels to your carts if you have not already
start modding everything you can/building the frames of car of your dreams
if you can not find a welding rig, build a makeshift one and use sparingly until you can get a vehicle mounted one working off car batteries.

  1. Vehicular WIN

by now you are sufficient level to install engines.
build/modifiy whatever vehicle(s) you plan to use for their intended purposes. Install engines, controls, sufficent number of wheels, fuel of choice, and batteries (if batteries is not chosen fuel source)
*note: make sure the vehicle is properly orientated (if not already orientated I believe the natural orientation is north) If you do not do this you will end up with a strange crab vehicle that drives sideways/ backwards from the way you intend for it to.
continue modding and installing vehicle until victory is assured via your death machine overflowing with turrets and everything the apocalypse survivor needs to live a life of looting luxury.

Yo. Don’t worry, just experiment and you’ll get the hang of it eventually. It’s pretty easy once you’ve got the hang of it.
I’ll give you some pointers.

Tools:

[ul][li]Hacksaw. 100% Absolutely essential. Although I think you might be able to use a circular saw as well. Found in hardware stores, garages, public works sites etc. Very hard to craft these by hand unless you have a full metalworking setup ready-- crucible, forge, metal chisel etc.[/li]
[li]Wrench. Again, hardware stores, public works and garages. Pretty common, very essential.[/li]
[li]CBM: Integrated Toolset really, really helps a lot, but it’s not strictly necessary so don’t worry if you don’t have it.[/li]
[li]Welder or Acetylene Torch-- You’ll usually find one or both in a garage-- you only need one. Start with the torch if you find one, as they don’t need batteries.[/li]
[li]no welder or torch? makeshift welders can be crafted with a little skill in electronics.[/li]
[li]if you still can’t craft a welder or find an Ace Torch… Duct Tape.[/ul]

What to do.

[ol][li]Read some mechanics books. Many things take quite high mechanics skill to do-- i.e repairing bodywork takes like 2 skill, adding a second engine takes +12.[/li]
[li]Take your hacksaw and wrench, start stripping bits of existing vehicles to train. totally wrecked vehicles blocking roads are great for this.[/li]
[li]Find a vehicle in good condition-- ideally one you can just add fuel to and go. Try to stay away from stuff with broken (gray) engines, four missing tires etc.[/li]
[li] Start repairing anything that’s nearly broken on it with your torch or welder-- e.g red body panels etc.[/li]
[li] Repair the gas tanks before you add gas, or it will start leaking out.[/li]
[li]once your mech skill is high enough, find a sports car and rip the V12 engine out of it and stick it in your doom train.[/li][/ol]

Additional stuff.

[ol][li]Cars need vehicle controls to drive.[/li]
[li]If you hit something at over 30mph without weearing a seatbelt, you’ll be thrown through the windshield. Get some rope and craft a 5-point harness.[/li]
[li]You need a battery with some charge to start the engine.[/li]
[li]Alternators charge your battery while the engine is running, even if you’ve just left it parked on the street. Try and find a storage battery or two-- you’ll probably be running a lot of electricty through-- headlights, music, turrets, mini-fridges, toostations/kitchens etc.[/li]
[li]Get some solar panels. just take them off a nearby solar car and stick them on.[/li]
[li] Larger engines are noisier. i.e a V8 truck engine is noisier than an inline-3, a V12 is noisier than a V8.[/li]
[li]Mufflers (exhausts) cut the noise of the engine dramatically. always fit a muffler with V8s and V12 engines. Once you start getting multiple engines, you need one muffler per engine.[/li]
[li]Electric engines are the quietest. Bike pedals technically count as an engine and are obviously quieter, but that’s just being picky.[/li][/ol]

Once you’ve got it sorted, start adding stuff like RV kitchens and drainkable water tanks, Vehicle Welding rigs for mid-drive repairs, mini-fridges to keep drinks nice and cold and meat from rotting, floodlights, turrets and armour-- most types of armour can be crafted-- however the best is military composite-- and that can only be obtained from scavanging military vehicles. Second best is probably Hard plating, spiked and then steel. There’s some other ones that you can experiment with too-- wood, bone, rebar, goo etc.

There’s superalloy armour as well, but that’s more like thin titanium stuff. Very light, but not very hard-wearing unless it’s been buffed recently. Very rare too.
Actually that’s a thing, maybe we should have a super-alloy speedboat.

^ far more better than mine

I just posted it and then saw the ‘someone’s posted before you’ warning. lol. beat me to it again lol…

Anyway, make sure you post your vehicles in the vehicle thread! we always love seeing the crazy stuff people make.

Thanks guys. I just really didn’t know how to start and it turns out my mechanics skill wasn’t nearly high enough to install all of the things that I needed. Now that I know I need to train first, this should go a lot smoother. I also didn’t know you could build frames, which makes this a process that’s a lot easier to start.

[quote=“Iosyn, post:5, topic:10684”]I just posted it and then saw the ‘someone’s posted before you’ warning. lol. beat me to it again lol…

Anyway, make sure you post your vehicles in the vehicle thread! we always love seeing the crazy stuff people make.[/quote]
This SO MUCH this. To anyone that has not already I recomend reading your way thorough the WHOLE thing. Hearing about V8 segways loosing control, hitting squirrels at high speeds and causing mass carnage/chaos is somethign everyone should read for themselves.

Yeah. You can build frames very easily-- for that you’ll need again a welder or an acetylene torch. You can also just strip down an existing car to get the frames from that.

Eventually you can build heavy-duty frames that can take a lot more damage-- these come as standard in most military vehicles.

Essentially you need lots of scrap metal, metal chunks and lumps of metal-- disassembling cars (and stripping broken (gray) parts from wrecked vehicles is a good way to start.
You can also disassemble metal frames and stuff like shop lockers and shop display frames for pipes and metal-- also you can do stuff like disassemble a lump of steel into a number of chunks of steel and chunks of steel into scrap metal etc.

Yeah. You can build frames very easily-- for that you’ll need again a welder or an acetylene torch. You can also just strip down an existing car to get the frames from that.

Eventually you can build heavy-duty frames that can take a lot more damage-- these come as standard in most military vehicles.

Essentially you need lots of scrap metal, metal chunks and lumps of metal-- disassembling cars (and stripping broken (gray) parts from wrecked vehicles is a good way to start.
You can also disassemble metal frames and stuff like shop lockers and shop display frames for pipes and metal-- also you can do stuff like disassemble a lump of steel into a number of chunks of steel and chunks of steel into scrap metal etc.[/quote]

Early game welder/acetylene torch are not likely to just “show up” in a convenient spot so going wood, to get your first cart(s) is a good way to go about things.

simple guide to car construction (focus on not spending much battery at start)

  1. Get tools, hacksaw and wrench is enought for start but jack will come usefull too
  2. Get Under The Hood, that book will teach you some usefull recipes and give some skills
  3. Read Under The Hood (until it turns yellow or grey if its yellow keep it for recipes)
  4. Get shoping cart, will come in handy for looting
  5. Remove wire basket and replace it with trunk you need one steel frame to make it
  6. Remove frames, batteries, solar panels (this will give you some skills too!)
  7. Place frame on ground with construction menu somewhere in base near door
  8. Attach frames to have some of them inside and outside your base
  9. Attach batteries anywhere (or everywhere!) and solar panels outside (more skills + stable free source of energy for your crafting and welding needs but unuseable for now)
  10. Repair every damaged part if you can
  11. Learn other skills and get materials (electric skill and fabrication will be usefull)
  12. Create vehicle welding rig (you will probaly want electric forge rig later if you plan to make everything from scratch)
  13. Get vehicle what is looking like something what you want make, personaly i like to make modification of apc or flatbed truck
  14. Get parts and mount them on your vehicle

TIPS:
~broken solar panels are good source of solar cells, with some skills you can craft solar panels from solar cells and upgrade existing solar cells
~get at least steel plating on every tile of vehicle
~wreckages are good source of scrap metal by using hacksaw on them not to mention skills
~after you get some stuff try to replace your tires with steel threads, they will slow you down but you will be still fast enought to drive at decend speed (you do not need more than 100 km/h anyway) fear minefields no more
~electric water purifier and foodco buddy purifies water at vehicle tanks instantly
~welding rig is probaly thing what you want on your wehicle next to driver seat so you can repair on the run
~electric vehicles are good you just need some solar panels and big vehicles allow you to instal more of them
~if you go to electricty your third engie should be gasoline powered lawnmover engine with truck alternator and muffler anyway in case you run out of battery power when you fight horde with pulse lasers

Late to chime in but there’s also a vehicle construction guide on the wiki if yer like

I’m working on installing the welding rig next to my driver’s seat as we speak. You can also put a clean water tank next to the driver’s seat so you can drink while you drive. (Install a faucet). Or even put the kitchen and foodco units by the driver’s seat so you can grill waffles while you drive. (Note: Don’t do this. Park first.)

A much more dubious idea would be installing a cask of whiskey by the driver’s seat… I’m not sure if you can drink from adjacent tiles with those anyway.

You know, a guide on how to make a vehicle look half decent might be useful too. It’s not immediately obvious what frame looks like what, or what a quarterpanel or board looks like on top of it.

For example most frames seem to look like bare metal girders, but the one with this symbol ^ is showing up as a red surface tile like it’s a bonnet. Without having anything installed on it.

And some vehicle parts which count as being external will show up as pictures with the ground texture beneath them. So if you put a funnel on top of your vehicle you’ll have grass on the roof…

Yeah. You can build frames very easily-- for that you’ll need again a welder or an acetylene torch. You can also just strip down an existing car to get the frames from that.

Eventually you can build heavy-duty frames that can take a lot more damage-- these come as standard in most military vehicles.

Essentially you need lots of scrap metal, metal chunks and lumps of metal-- disassembling cars (and stripping broken (gray) parts from wrecked vehicles is a good way to start.
You can also disassemble metal frames and stuff like shop lockers and shop display frames for pipes and metal-- also you can do stuff like disassemble a lump of steel into a number of chunks of steel and chunks of steel into scrap metal etc.[/quote]

Early game welder/acetylene torch are not likely to just “show up” in a convenient spot so going wood, to get your first cart(s) is a good way to go about things.[/quote]

I seem to almost always find at least one acetylene torch inside the barns at farms.

I’ve found them there sometimes, but I more often find a welder there (sometimes even both).