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mr crispy

TL01 based 4x4 Rally Mini Cooper

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So it's about time I started my annual TL01 project (remember last years Baja Bug? http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=72612&st=0 :D) I always seem to be chopping them up.

This year I've decided to redo a conversion I did years ago and make a 4x4 Classic Rally Mini Cooper. I had cut and shortened a TL01 chassis some years ago to fit the Mini bodyshell but I then bought an M03 Mini kit and it kind of got left out, scrounged for parts and I ended up selling the shortened chassis to a forum member.

Last year I picked up a TL01 chassis intending to make up a rally capable runner at some point but other projects took over and it didn't come to anything. Fortunately I still had the original M03 Mini suspension arms, body mounts and bumpers left over from the original build so it seemed the perfect excuse to finally build that classic rally Mini I always wanted.

Now obviously the Rally Mini's of the 60's weren't 4x4 but I figure using the TL01 chassis gives me plenty of options. I can keep it 4x4 and have the improved off road ability while keeping the classic looks, or I can drop out the rear diff and drive shafts and run it FWD, or even go completely bonkers and run it RWD if the mood takes me. That's one of the beauties of the TL chassis's, you have everything there to reconfigure running it multiple ways.

So over the last mouth I've been collecting parts to get going with the build.

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There is the TL01 donor chassis already fitted with M03 suspension arms, an M03 Racing Mini Cooper body set, 4x M03 universal drive shafts, a new set of M03 body mounts (thanks Jenny :D) M03 Mini wheels and the M03 Rally Block tyres.

Should be a fun build, I'll keep you posted :D

Nic

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I'm expecting great things! - I love the way you shorten those TL-01 chassis - I have a couple in a box just waiting for inspiration ;o)

Jx

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Tyres should fit. The Racing Mini Cooper body accepts 60D tyres, its the Mini Monte Carlo body that needs 55D tyres.

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Yep that's what I'd read, the racing body set was also cheaper :) First time I've seen the 60D rally block tyres in the flesh and they are very nice and directional too.

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As Jenny mentioned shortening the body was the first job, so here's what im playing with. The ideal wheelbase for the Racing Mini body is spot on 210mm.

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Where as the TL01 chassis is 255mm and a bit.

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So the chassis needs to loose 45mm in length. The obvious place to take this out is the old MSC servo bay. Cutting the chassis just needs a little planning so you end up joining the strongest parts together. In the past I've used a plastic motorcycle panel repair kit called Plastech to rejoin the parts but it's doesn't seem to be available anymore and I've only got a little bit left. I also had the last chassis I shortened crack open on one side so I needed to strengthen the join this time round.

But first, I stripped and throughly cleaned the 2nd hand TL01 chassis which turned out to be in a pretty good condition. I did my usually clean up by removing most of the grease and gunge with kitchen roll, then sprayed it with some Cillit Bang grease cleaner and after 10mins dunked everything in a bowl of hot water to soften the remaining crud. After a thorough scrub with an old stiff brush all the parts were laid out to dry overnight.

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All the metal pins and shafts were then cleaned up with some fine wet n dry paper and had a polish with some Autosol metal polish. This is well worth doing as the suspension pins can bind easily in these cars. Here's how the pins looked before and after a good polishing.

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All done.

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Rebuilding the diffs I decided to try out a thick silicone oil to stiffen them and get a limited slip diff effect. It's a 500,000wt oil which is more like treacle from Fastrax. Comes in a bottle with a dropper top but I needed to open the hole with a 3mm drill just to get it out :) Here it's been added to the diff gears.

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It's much like warm hot glue and makes the diffs noticable stiffer. This should ensure the wheels won't spin up and loose traction on loose surfaces.

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Right, time to chop it up. I separated the halfs, worked out where I wanted the cut lines to be and then use a set square to make sure they were at 90 degrees to the centre line. Marked them with a craft knife and started sawing with a fine hand saw.

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I prefer using the hand saw as you get a right-angled cut and it's easier to correct if it starts going off line. Once cut through I measured out the 45mm and repeated the process.

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Cleaned up the cut edges and then fixed the parts on to the other uncut half so I could line up the cut perfectly on that side.

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Lines scored as before and repeat the process. I then used a little super glue to temp join the first pair of chassis parts.

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When dry I covered the outer side with tape and used the plastech to start joining and fill the cut. The tape stops the plastech coming through the other side before its set.

Once it's cured I refit the other side to check the alignment. You can see the dried plastech here with a bit of a gap on the other side :)

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Yeah that's going to need some filling!

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I had just enough Plastech to get the other side joined :)

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Checking against the ruler it looks like the wheelbase should be about right. Now here's why the TL01 chassis suits this project so well. Fitting the M03 Mini body mounts onto the standard TL mounting points, its like its been designed to fit :D

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A slight flexing of the body posts but that looks pretty dam good to me!

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So I had a few ideas on how to reinforce the join area from bolting through metal plates to back filling with epoxy glues but then I remembered the fibreglass resin I have left over from a Halfords kit I bought years ago.

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The resin is mixed with a hardener and remains liquid for apx 5mins before going solid. I'd used it in some Airsoft projects and knew it would be perfect to strengthen this join. It does get hot when it sets so I poured it in thin layers to reduce any warping and made sure I kept the screw holes for the battery holders clear.

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The beauty of this method is the resin is quite runny at first so will find its way into all the nooks and crannies and fill the gaps so I covered the outside with tape again. The resin goes fully hard within 10mins and you can remove the tape soon after.

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Same on the other side.

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That oval screw hole had tape over it so the resin back filled it nicely.

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After a little filing I checked the chassis halfs could still be joined ok.

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There was a slight warping on the bottom edge but it hasn't effected the fit or the gear shaft mounts.

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Quick coat of Halford gloss black primer and it looks quite professional :)

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With the chassis now shortened I cut the propshaft with a dremel.

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Fits like a glove and confirmed the chassis is still straight :D I just needed to drill a 2nd 2mm hole for the gear pin.

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Finally I fitted the M03 suspension arms and the 55mm friction shocks, wheels, tyres and the drive shafts... Will the wheelbase be right and will the body fit?

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YEAH BABY!

Full compression shot :)

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A few nudie shots :)

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Not bad ground clearance either.

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More to come :)

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Wow! You work fast!

Looks great so far. Keen to see how it performs.

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you have to wonder why Tamiya never did this -its so obvious a solution .

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Next job was to make the steering tie bars. I cut the head off a 3mm bolt and fitted Tamiya rod ends. The nuts are used hear to set the correct depth so I know each one has the same amount of thread screwed into it.

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I've used an old but reliable Sanwa servo and a servo saver I had in the spares. It means the throw will be a bit short so I'll replace this with a proper TL01 length servo arm at some point. Beefed up the ball end mounts with a washer and a 3mm nut for a bit of added strength. I also used 3mm machine bolts to fix it to the servo posts.

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There's s couple of simple mods you can do to the TL01 chassis to improve the steering. First I filed off the lip around the edge of the holes where the steering arms come through. It's only 1-2mm high but on extreme angles it can found the rod ends and jam your steering, it also gives debris somewhere to collect.

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I also drilled a hole directly beneath where the servo screw will be. This allows debris to exit the area and you can now access the screw for tightening or removing the servo arm without taking the whole servo out.

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You can see there's nothing to catch on the arms now :)

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A set of rubber sealed bearings arrived from RCBearings so I went ahead and refitted all the internal gears... I was so eager to get this done I completey forgot to the photo the process :( So here's a photo of the gears in place :)

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As it'll live off road I've gone with the smallest 19 tooth pinion the chassis will take I had in my spares. Its darker than usual so I'm hoping its a hardened item I bought a while ago.

Fitted it to an HPI 35T motor. Now TBH the only reason for that is it's what I had available as I'm all out of standard Tamiya silvercans. It does have a built in cooling fan so ill see how well it goes. If I want a bit more power i might fit a torque tuned motor later. I desoldered the wires and resoldered them at 90 degrees to help direct them well away from the rear wheel and clear the bodyshell. The shorter M03 arms reduce the clearance here so every little helps. Slipped a little heat shrink over the expose bits too as it'll be picking up a fair bit of debris thrown off the wheel.

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Quick look at the chassis so far. The battery is now slightly rear of centre since the cut n shut.

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It means the weight is going to be rear bias, compresses the rear shocks a little more than the front so I may need to soften the front a little. I have a set of oil filled dampers on the way so no point fettling with them now.

As it stands the fronts are pretty much at full extension and it does create a little outward camber.

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Once I get the new shocks fitted I'll see what can be done about that. Can you get an adjustable tie rod to replace the M03 upper arms? They're pretty short so don't have much room to shrink them.

Another body check to make sure the battery and motor cables clear the shell as its quite a close fit.

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With the bearings here I finally got to fit the universals and drive cups.

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Nice quality items from Jazrider.

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3-Racing do a set of adjustable arms for the M03 which may still be available. They aren't listed as discontinued on 3-Racings own website, but I can't find them in stock.

http://www.rcmart.com/3racing-m03m04-turnbuckle-m03m-p-23057.html?cPath=595_744_707

There is also the M05 set which you can probably adapt.

http://www.rcmart.com/3racing-m0516lb-linkage-p-29745.html?cPath=595_744_1389

Looks like the TL01 upper suspension arms attach via step screws that screw into the arm, whereas the M05 the step screw goes through the arm and screws into to the chassis, you you'll need these

http://www.rcmart.com/tamiya-50579-3x10mm-step-screw-5pcs-p-29783.html?cPath=595_744_1233 Then attach a 5mm ball nut to the end.

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Those M05 arms look perfect Andy thanks. I knew someone on here would point me in the right direction. I had tried putting two of Tamiyas shortest shock ends together but they were already longer than the M03 part they were meant to replace! Cutting them down left hardly any room for the threads to screw into.

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This is a really smart build. I'm inspired to revisit my love of the tl01 chassis. I've done a couple and have just sold my last one out to cali. Maybe I'll look for a couple of cheap ones to tinker with

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M05 linkage set and paint ordered. Laying out the electrics today I've decided to try locating the ESC on top of the right hand battery mount to help balance the motor. It also leaves more space above the chassis for an interior platform. To make room I've cut out some 2mm plasticard and fixed it temporarily in place with a cable tie.

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Made it longer than the TEU101 so I can fix the on/off switch there too.

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Then I started probably my least favourite part of any build, cutting the lexan. Using sharp scissors I cut off the extra plastic first and then cut as close as I dare to the final lines I want. This time I used a circle cutter to take out most of the wheel arches and then used a sanding drum in my dremel to get to the final shape I wanted.

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I've decided to take this extra curved section under the front bumper off mine as I want as much clearance as possible for off road running.

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So I used some tape to get the right cut line to follow.

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I'll paint in the grill and bumper with a silver before spraying the body colour. I finally went over the edges with some fine sand paper and had a look at it on the chassis with the electrics.

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I'm happy with that. None of the wheels catch the body even on full lock and compression. These friction shocks are holding the body at maximum height, the dampers will be softer but allow this much droop. Driven it around in doors and that oil certainly stiffens the diffs nicely. It'll be interesting to see how it performs on loose ground.

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Lovely build mate! The body really does sit well

When you joined up the chassis though, why just the resin and not the fibreglass tissue as well? Surely the strength comes from the tissue?

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Well, I did consider that but Id already secured the join with the last of the plastech, so what I really wanted was to back fill the area behind it to form a plug. The glass matting is also a fiddly PITA to get right and I figured it wasn't really needed here. If I do this method again I will drill a few 3mm holes in the sides first, cover the outside with tape and then fill in with the resin. That will make sure the body it thoroughly gripped by the resin.

The oil dampers arrived today, got them from a German ebay shop and they look like theyre a clone of the super mini CVAs.

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You get everything but the silicone oil so I've used the leftovers from my enormous bottle that came with the Axial SCX10 build.

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It's pretty much on a par with Tamiya CVAs although the O rings are made of a softer clear silicone rubber which I hope will seal better.

Built the front units up first and they work out a little longer than the standard TL01 units I had fitted. I went with the 3 hole damper disc.

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You can tell they have apx 4mm more travel though so they actually compress shorter than the Tamiya friction jobbies, which is just what I'd hoped for :)

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Spring strength was about the same and is probably a tad too hard for the fronts as they will already be compressed by almost 5mm when fitted, due to the shorter M03 arms. They still do a much better job at damping though and don't foul at all.

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I put the rear dampers together using the 2 hole discs to get a slightly harder ride as there will be more weight on them. They can extend out to their full 55mm length so I slipped a spare O ring onto the shaft to give them a softer impact on full compression. They still allow the chassis to bottom out.

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Typical with my builds a simple job like this often becomes more involved and this was no different as fitting them to the rear shock position revealed a small problem... they wouldn't clear the chassis and line up with the shock mounts due to the shorter M03 arms.

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TBH I was expecting this to be an issue but thought I'd got away with it as the fronts didn't have any fit issues. My solution for this also addresses one of the other known stress areas of the TL01 and I had fortunately anticipated it. Ive beefed up the shock towers before by using 12mm aluminium C channel from a DIY store (Wickes in the UK). The channel is cut and fits over the shock towers nicely.

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I drilled two holes and fitted a 3mm machine screw through the holes into the old shock tower holes. This secures it and spreads the load over the whole tower structure. I then drill another two 3mm holes further out and fix Tamiya ball ends into them to attach the shocks.

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This means the upper mounting point for the shocks has been moved further outwards so they now clear the chassis.

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I'll give it a coat of paint once I've test run them. Its certainly a stronger mounting point for the shocks and means split shock towers shouldnt be a worry anymore. I might do this to the front end as well for the extra strength.

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The rear dampers needed an adjustment so I fitted a shock collar to get the rebound rate feeling about right. The fronts are still too hard, I'm thinking I might try cutting a coil or two off the springs to see it that will work. It'll let me retain the matching colour springs all around which Id prefer.

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Did a little work today. I swapped the servo arm over from my Monster Beetle project so the Mini now has a proper TL01 item which has more leverage.

I also trimmed a coil off each end of the front shock springs. I used a thin bit of scrap alum to slide between the coils to seperate and protect the lower coil. I then cut away the upper coil with a carbon disc in the dremel.

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Same done at both ends of the spring.

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Front springs are now a little softer :)

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The paint was dispatched today so hopefully I'll be painting by the end of the week. I've also started working out how the interior will be mounted.

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Oh wow, how sexy is all this?? Cool many, diggin it and it would seem there was a post floating about with an M04 and M03 mating to give a two motor 4wd M chassis car, can't seem to find it, but I know I read it in the last few months as I am toying with that idea.

I sure aplaud your resourcefulness in the fabbing of parts you need to make this better, stronger, and not the least...shorter. LOL

Looking great on the stance and now I might know what I need to do with my spare M03 Mini Race body??? Who knows what will become of my TL-01 chassis that has been kicking around for years here.

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Started on the interior. I've cut out a platform from 2mm plasticard, notched the back edge so it slots into the rear body mounts and drilled two holes to fit over the front body mounts.

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I also cut down the TL01 antenna mount so it's flush with the underside, drilled out a 3mm hole and screwed a M3 machine screw through the platform, into the mount. Now that isn't going anywhere :)

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Drilled a 2mm hole through the front body mounts to secure it with an R clip underneath. The upper clip was already on the lowest hole.

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Sits just below the window level.

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Just right for a Scorcher driver figure (actually this might be from a Blitzer guessing by the colour) :D

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I'll add some old skool seat tops and work in a moving head mechanism to link his head to the steering system as it should be pretty visible once the paint is on... Come on postie!

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Thoroughly enjoying this, I too am hoping the postie gets a move on!

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