Squashed Beetle

[Pumesta 407]

I was having my daily poke about on Ebay like we all do, when I came across this very sad looking Monster Beetle, which had been accidentally jump on.  On looking at the photo's and saying to myself, I have that part.....and that one......and that one including a body in excellent condition.  I made a bid and secured it for £40, perhaps a bit much given the damage, but I think it's an ok price when I have most of the parts to fix it.  Also it saves a vintage Beetle from being skipped or broken for parts.  So a few pictures of how I received it

   

Broken Front suspension mount

 

Rear trailing arm mounting point

 

Front wheel

 

Both front servo heads broken

 

Servo cover smashed

 

Rear suspension mount

 

 

Plans are to fix it up to be a nice reliable runner that will still look good on the shelf.  Initially I plan to fix all the broken parts and inventory what parts I need and get it to a point where I can run it to check electrics and gearbox etc.  Then strip it all down clean and upgrade bits like the rear drive shafts etc

 

 

 

 

[Pumesta 407]

A raid on the parts bin turned up a multitude of spare parts

 

Rear trailing arm replaced, annoyingly the part that holds the aerial tube on the rear bumper is broken off, fortunately I still have one attached to my Blackfoot from when I ran the beetle shell on it.

 

Front suspension mount replaced

 

New servo cover fitted

 

Looking much better now

 

So need to order

ESC,

dog bones,

bearings,

servo saver,

new gearbox internals (I don't think they are to bad but given the MB rep for shedding them rebuilding the box seams like a good idea)

parts to do a central servo conversion

replace various missing and incorrect scews

[Frog Jumper 3658]

Your tires are pointing the wrong way... 

Terry

 

[Pumesta 407]

8 hours ago, Frog Jumper said:

Your tires are pointing the wrong way... 

Terry

 

I know, but I also know it bugs the life out of some people .  Anyway the MSC only works in reverse so maximum grip is provided in the only direction the car will run lol

[Pumesta 407]

After checking the receiver and servos were all working ok, I stripped the electrics out

.

I also hosed the rolling chassis down, while I will strip it down and clean properly it removed the worst of the crud.  I also replaced the broken wheel

[Pumesta 407]

Today was pay day so went on a bit of a splurge and ordered loads of parts.  I normally fit HPI ESC's but decided to try out the hobbywing 1060 they are half the price and appear to get good reviews on here.  Also ordered Frog dog bones, a set of counter and bevel gears, bearings and a HI torque servo saver.  Also I have noticed the Beetle chassis has a metal cover over the servo saver, which is not on my Blackfoot.  What purpose does it serve, as if I reposition the servo to the centre it will no longer do whatever it is that it's supposed to do.  Also to keep @Frog Jumper happy I put the wheels on the correct way round

[Pumesta 407]

Over the past day a few parts have arrived so it's time to start the dismantle and cleaning

 

[Pumesta 407]

All dismantled before being dumped in the sink

 

[Pumesta 407]

Started to build it all back up again

I think I will try turning the MSC plate upside down to provide a bit more clearance for the receiver.  I normally swap this and the cover for the King Blackfoot units, but as I have a few standard ones kicking about I will just use one of those for the time being.

 

Oh oh a stress mark on the chassis there is also one where one of the rear body mounts screws to the chassis. Almost certainly due to when the car got squished .  Chassis are easy and cheap enough to get but I think I will just 'drive her on' replace it if and when it snaps lol

[Pumesta 407]

With the first episode of the post Clarkson Top Gear being total drivel, I decided to do a wee bit more work to the Beetle.

 

Installed @mheald 's gearbox strengthening plates, I also fitted the dog bone universal shafts and refitted the gearbox to the chassis.  Pretty pointless really as I still have to rebuild the gearbox, just the bits haven't arrived yet.

 

Then test fitted the electronics

 

[mheald 351]

Great to see the mod being used! Should all be nice and tight in there!

Good luck with the rest of the re-build.

[Pumesta 407]

The postman brought me some more bits today

 

A high torque servo saver, and replacement counter and bevel gears.

 

Servo saver installed, even from a quick run round the backyard I can tell this is a world apart from the standard kit supplied one, I can see the rest of my cars having this upgrade fitted

[Pumesta 407]

Fitting the new gears

 

Reattached to the chassis

 

Back together and a bit dusty after her first run. I decided to give it a test run in the street. I usually don't run here as the kerbs are very unforgiving, but I didn't want to go to far from home in case  I needed to make any adjustments.  So one of the kerbs struck and  I managed to brake the new servo saver fortunately the part that broke had an alternative part on the tree so was able to swap it with that and seams to work just as well, I also managed to brake the numberplate light off, the rear body mounts kept falling off and the sunroof fell out lol

[StrokerBoy 772]

13 hours ago, Pumesta said:

So one of the kerbs struck and  I managed to brake the new servo saver

It's annoying when the kerbs just leap out without warning isn't it ?  My street is the same, I might complain to the council.

[Pumesta 407]

3 hours ago, StrokerBoy said:

It's annoying when the kerbs just leap out without warning isn't it ?  My street is the same, I might complain to the council.

yea think were installed by the same people that placed the telegraph pole that jumped out in front of me when I was 17 causing me to total my mums xr2

 

[Pumesta 407]

Central servo conversion

 

I wondered why it was almost imposable to drive in a straight line

Wheels should be round and not oval, also the rim was split where the tyre seals to it,  it also had a bit of black tempered glass inside.  Fortunately I have a few spare one

[Mannyp1980 49]

On 04/06/2016 at 10:38 PM, Pumesta said:

I wondered why it was almost imposable to drive in a straight line

Wheels should be round and not oval, also the rim was split where the tyre seals to it,  it also had a bit of black tempered glass inside.  Fortunately I have a few spare one

 

Ouch, kerbs do suck! Oval wheels can be a lot of fun to drive at speed though, I had a couple of cheap wonky wheels that I fitted to my TT01 with some drift tires. It was hilarious seeing the TT01 almost hopping around. But the Bug looks much better than it did when you got it.

[Pumesta 407]

Ok so managed to swamp the receiver despite it being wrapped up inside a balloon. Fortunately I managed to get it dried out and working 100%.  I decided to wrap it and the servo up in self amalgamating tape

 

 

For those who don't know while this looks like normal electrical tape, when it is wrapped together it forms a waterproof rubber seal.  It is most commonly used to waterproof satellite dishes when the cable attaches.  It will make it a pain if I ever need to change the crystal , but it's not something I think I will ever need to to do very often.

 

Also I had my Lipo let go  ,  It was all very undramatic no smoke or flames.  I took it out of the car after a run and it just wouldn't charge, when I put my meter on it, it appears to have had a cell fail.  So I ordered a couple of these

 

[Pumesta 407]

Really haven't done much to this recently other than drive it crash it then fix it.  I did fit a sports tuned motor, I got fed up with fixing rear body mount brace, it was fixed with various cable ties and random bits of plastic super glued together, so decided to try a more permanent repair

Some 3mm thread rod and nuts it feels a lot stronger than the standard plastic Tamiya item.  I need to get some new rear body mounts as mine are a bit banged up but despite this the whole body feels much more solid

 

[Ian_Gsi16V 533]

That is a great fix for the G1 part.

A few years ago a guy on here made some anodised ones, have one on mine..

[Pumesta 407]

So my £13 'action cam' arrived today

 

 

 

 

The quality is em shall we say poor. Although it was raining and naturally the camera will try and focus on the rain on the windscreen.  I think it will be better in better weather (turn the volume down as it's a bit loud)

 

 

[Ian_Gsi16V 533]

How did you mount the camera bud? Is it held down with double sided tape or have you screwed it down? 

[Pumesta 407]

the fixing plate is held to the servo cover with double sided tape the plate stays in the car and i just attach the camera when it is required. Just remember if you fit one you need to fit the plate in a way that the lens is centered and not just the fixing plate

 

[Frog Jumper 3658]

Hilarious video!  I love it!

Terry