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markbt73

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About markbt73

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  • Birthday 01/07/1973

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  1. The reason bronze is used for bushings, as I understand it, is that bronze absorbs oil, so if you oil them once, they're good for a good long time. I usually add a drop of 3-in-1 oil on each bushing when I build the kit, and then just leave them alone. However, on used motors, I have solved bushing "chatter" by adding a fresh drop of oil. I have done this with the motor running on a test stand before, and you can actually hear it smooth out and speed up. Over-oiling probably won't hurt anything, but it has the potential to make a mess, and it's wasteful. Think of it this way: these are industrial motors repurposed for RC cars. How often do you think the fan motors in a printing press (which I have seen 380 and 540 motors used for) get oiled? If you guessed never, you'd be right.
  2. A lot of touring car bodies advertised as "200 mm" are actually a little wider than that, so if you can get the wheelbase down, those should fit as well. Same thing for any American bodies from RJ Speed or Sabula Tech or McAllister advertised as "8 inches" wide, that's 203 mm, and they're usually a hair over. And most of those don't have defined rear wheel arches, so you have some wiggle room in the wheelbase.
  3. For static kits, there are a couple of different options, and sometimes certain things work better for certain parts. For joining large parts, like halves of an engine block, I like liquid solvent adhesive. You hold the two pieces together and put the solvent along the seam with a syringe, or some brands have a brush in the cap that works as well. The stuff I use is sold under the name Plastruct Bondene, but if you look for "plastic model solvent cement" you'll find a few brands. To attach smaller parts, I like the good old fashioned plastic model cement in a tube, usually Testor's brand. It's thicker, so you can put a tiny dab of it on a part with a toothpick and it stays put so you can assemble. Clear parts like windows and light lenses are tricky. Most adhesives will turn the windows milky around the edges if you're not carful. I've used white glue before (Elmer's or similar), but it doesn't always stick well. It works better when all the windows are one piece and you just glue the whole thing in place. There is such a thing as "clear-safe" model cement, but I've never tried it. Most important, DON'T use cyanoacrylate-based "super glue." It's too brittle, too messy, and doesn't bond as well as normal cements anyway. And, as stated, don't use any threadlock on your Lunchbox anywhere except the grub screw on the motor pinion gear. It isn't needed anywhere else, and it will ruin the plastic parts.
  4. Nice collection! One of my favorite chassis as well. To answer your question - yes! You can flip the stock suspension arms over. You need to figure out a way to attach the U-shaped shock mounts; in the past I've cut off that round plastic lump on the bottom of the arm. You'll need shorter front spring shafts, and short springs. Pan car front springs work, but so does a ballpoint pen spring cut in half. You can also use Grasshopper II front arms, they have shock mounts built in, and will widen the front track about 13mm for some added stability. They'll mount upside-down too.
  5. There is a possibility that the motor wires were soldered on the wrong tabs from the factory. It could happen. It doesn't actually matter on a standard RS540; the motor runs the same in forward as it does in reverse. Set up the radio and ESC in the correct way, because that matters a lot more. 100% forward throttle on forward, brakes and then 50% reverse throttle on reverse. That's the way the electronics are supposed to work. Do this without the motor plugged in, watch the blinky lights to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to do, verify with a voltmeter attached to the ESC's motor output wires if you feel the need. Then plug in the motor wires in whichever direction makes the car go the right way. If the colors don't line up, and that annoys you, then re-solder the wires at the motor. Don't mess with radio or ESC wiring unless you know exactly what you're doing.
  6. So now that we've decided to move, I need to figure out how to pack up a room full of RC (and static model) stuff that has been in the same room for 12 years, and safely ship it across the country. Yes, the smart move would be to sell a bunch of things before moving, but I just don't want to. The unfinished/project stuff actually isn't hard; most of it is in plastic tote bins already, and I figure I can just tape those shut and call it good. And the couple of NIB RC models and all the NIB static kits can just get boxed up. No worries there. It's the shelves and shelves of completed cars that worry me; they take up a ton of space, and if I try to cram several of them in a box, I'll end up with flattened tires and broken shock towers. Not ideal. So here's what I'm thinking: Why not get more tote bins, and just sort of "re-kit" them? Disassemble as much as is necessary to make them fit the bins, put all the wheels and tires together by themselves so they don't get squashed, all the bodies in another to prevent damage to them, and pack up the chassis in small boxes in pieces, or at least components? It would be kind of like having a whole bunch of new cars to assemble after the move, at my leisure. Crazy? Or genius?
  7. Not much anymore, really; I have been fortunate enough to lay my hands on just about everything I wanted as a kid. I regret selling a few things, but that's another story altogether. There is one $150 that I regret not spending, though. Way back in the early 2000s, Hub Hobby had a clearance rack for kits that had been sitting on the shelf for too long. I managed to score some great deals off that rack: a Kyosho Nostalgic Series MGB for $160, and a Kawada Wolf (missing decals and instructions) for $90. But for the longest time, there were two Associated RC10 Dual Sport Team kits sitting there, one electric and one nitro, and they kept dropping in price: $120, then $100, then finally $75 each. I hemmed, I hawed, I waited a week too long... and the guy behind the counter bought them for himself. They also had a stack of the TA03RS Lancia 037 kits marked down to around $130 for a while, which I regretted, but now I have the TA02S version, so I'm good.
  8. To be honest, I find the whole premise of that thread to be a little silly anyway. "Here's photos of cool stuff I've done but don't you dare comment on it!" makes very little sense to me. Probably why I clicked on it the first day it was up, and haven't bothered to go back. But hey, you guys do you. Doesn't bother me any. As for this thread, there's another forum I frequent that's ostensibly a car forum, but drifts off into other topics as well: https://opposite-lock.com/. There is one and only one rule for posting there: "Be Excellent To Each Other." Good advice in general, especially so on the internet, where there's no body language or vocal tone to help convey your meaning. This argument doesn't strike me as being particularly excellent. But that's all I'll say. Carry on..
  9. For carefree running, the Squash Van is the way to go. I don't have one, or any of the 4WD variations on that basic theme, but I have the 6WD King Yellow and I've had several 2WD versions over the years. All absolutely bulletproof mechanically, more stable than you'd imagine, and a delight to run. The all-gear drive in the King Yellow is silky-smooth and free-running (with full bearings) so I would expect no less from the SV. That said, I'm also no stranger to the ORV monsters, having owned quite a few of those over the years. I greatly prefer it to the Frog/Brat form of the ORV, because the front end is actually less sloppy. As far as the diff and axles go, yes, it is an issue, but there are solutions available. Personally, I like the through-bolt method for fixing the diff, but it does require some mechanical know-how and parts modification to pull it off. Braces or stiffer side plates for the gearbox are a simpler option, and more cost-effective than the MIP diff. One other thing to consider is your driving style. Either one of these is going to tend to roll over if you turn hard. The Squash Van's lexan body is far better able to shrug off such abuse; the Monster Beetle's hard plastic body can get cracked or scratched or parts broken off easily. The sound of a freshly-painted Tamiya hard body grinding against a paved surface after it rolls over is a terrible sound to hear. TL;DR - You can't go wrong with either one, but the Squash Van is the better choice for more worry-free fun.
  10. I'm really sorry to hear that, he always seemed like a good guy. That's a pretty good send-off...
  11. It's funny this thread should come up now, because my wife and I are in the early planning stages of a cross-country move, and I'm beginning to look around my workshop (and the house in general) and think seriously about how much stuff I want to pack up and move, and how much I want to get rid of beforehand. When it comes to RC cars, currently I have 40 complete cars that could be driven within, say, half an hour's notice. Some are missing a speed control, or need motor wires soldered on, or something like that. I have another 14 that are disassembled or halfway-finished or not started yet, mostly already packed away in plastic tote boxes. And I have a box of scale crawler components - axles, gearboxes, etc - that could yield another 2 or possibly 3 scaler chassis. I've also got a stack of probably 20 body shells that were either old shells that came with a car, or botched paint jobs, or just old and beat-up. And several drawers full of parts, wheels and tires, hardware, and the like, not to mention a big box of scratch-building materials like styrene and aluminum sheet that I have gathered over the years. Oh, and there's the small matter of the 100 or so unbuilt static model kits, some of which are 1/8 scale and have boxes bigger than NIB RC models, the couple dozen built models I want to keep, and 40 or 50 Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars (which don't take up much room, at least). It's a lot of stuff, and obviously with this impending move, I'm in a complete buying freeze until afterwards. And honestly, there isn't much more I really want, at least for now. I can't stomach the thought of dropping $400 on any new or re-release kits, as interesting as they may be. I've had Mids and Avantes in various online shopping carts over the past couple years, and never pulled the trigger. I guess I just don't want them that bad, which is probably for the best. But the tough part is going to be figuring out what, if anything, I'm going to sell. I hate selling RC stuff, it's always a hassle, and I'm never satisfied with the money I get for things, and half the time when I sell something I just want it back in three months. So I have a feeling most if not all of the complete cars (finished or unfinished) are coming with. The stack of old body shells I'll get rid of, along with a big chunk of the scratch-building material. I've already thrown out several sets of old worn-out tires, tons of broken parts, and other useless stuff. The one wild card in all of this is that many of the houses we're looking at have great places to run off-road RC cars, but basically no place to run on-road. I only have a few cars that are strictly on-road, so maybe those should find new homes. You can always drive an off-road car on-road, but not vice versa. So maybe that's one place I can thin the herd a little. I do worry slightly, though, that in a new and almost certainly bigger house, my RC collection's ranks could swell to truly preposterous numbers. Let's hope this "not really wanting anything new" feeling lasts a good long while.
  12. Yes, one of those. A little plastic one, I think it was actually a Traxxas shock end.
  13. The springs help a little to keep the axle from slapping when you accelerate, but there's a much better way. I use an old tie-rod end, drill a hole in that "tongue" sticking out of the front of the gearbox, then another hole in the back of the chassis battery compartment, and screw it in place. If you locate the hole so that the rear axle's mounting pin is halfway up the slots, the axle will still have articulation side to side, but it can't slap up and down in the slots.Works great, and I've done it on a few Hornets over the years. The photos don't show it well, but maybe a lousy drawing will?
  14. That's a good analogy. Another is the two cars currently parked in my garage. One is a Chrysler 300 sedan with a 5.7 liter Hemi V8. It has 363 horsepower, and can run a 1/4 mile in 14 seconds with the air conditioning on. It's extremely quick, comfortable, and full of gadgets, half of which I don't even use. And yet, to some, it's considered "slow" and "cheap." The other is a 1971 MGB GT. It has all of 95 horsepower to its name, and can just about hit 60 MPH by the time I get to the end of a highway on-ramp. It has no power features whatsoever, is incredibly loud and hot inside, and has a tendency to break down at inconvenient times. I've spent massive amounts of time and money just keeping it on the road. Which one is the "better" car? Depends where I want to go. The MG is terrifying on the highway; it's just so small and tinny that I feel like I'm going to get squashed like a bug at any moment. It can't keep up with the traffic very well, and gets lost among all the big trucks. The Chrysler is built for the highway, has the power to pass almost anything I want to with just a flex of my right calf muscle, and will happliy cruise along at 80 MPH or better for hours on end. On a two-lane country road, the roles reverse. The Chrysler feels too big, its automatic transmission is always in the wrong gear, and its numb steering and soft suspension make it a chore to go fast around curves. The MG, on the other hand, comes alive on these roads. You can feel every little bump and imperfection of the road, feel the tires squirming on the asphalt when you take a corner fast, and flicking the long gear lever back and forth between second and third gear, while heel-toeing and cranking that big thin-rimed steering wheel around becomes a sort of dance. Likewise, take a stock Tamiya TT02 out to a big empty parking lot, or take a DT03 to a skate park, and it will get boring very quickly. There's just too much ground to cover for that little 540 motor, so you upgrade the power. And now it's fast, but the handling is still lousy. So you throw more money at it, and it gets better, but now it breaks every time you hit something. You realize you could have bought an RTR model for less than you've spent, gotten better performance, more durability, and enjoyed your parking-lot sessions more. Does that make the Tamiya models a bad choice for everyone? Not at all, because that RTR is only ever going to be exactly what it was when you cut the zip-ties holding it in the package. There's nothing to improve; all you can really do is replace the body with something different, maybe change the wheels, and then go burn through more battery packs blasting around. Even if you up the power, it does exactly the same thing, only a little faster. For something meant to jump over houses and survive, it's surprisingly one-dimensional. The trouble with things that only are meant to go fast is, how fast is fast enough? When does simply mashing the throttle reach a point of diminishing returns? If you're drag racing or something, I can see chasing that next tenth of a second, but if you're just messing around, are you really going to notice a meaningful difference between the toy car that does 50 MPH and the toy car that does 60? But take that same stock Tamiya model, and put it on a small, tight race track, where you can't hit more than 30% throttle. No need to actually go to a track, just set up some markers in that same parking lot. Watch that super-scale-looking body shell zooming around the track, and try very hard not to hit a board and mess it up. Find a line that works, and spend an entire battery pack learning how to put the car within a few millimeters of the same place, lap after lap. Then take it back home, see all the cracks and scuffs on the body, and decide to replace it with a new body, only detail this one even better. Experiment with springs and shocks to see if you can shave a little time off your laps, upgrade the steering to be just a little more precise. Leave the 540 motor alone; it's plenty for this, and battery packs last ages. I guess the point of all this ramble is that if you only want to see a model car go flying past as fast as possible, then no, a Tamiya model is probably a terrible choice. But if you want to explore the depths of what's possible, if you really want to get into a hobby that can last a good long time, there is no substitute for putting in the work.
  15. If you're asking the question, then no, Tamiya products probably aren't right for you. They are, however, very very right for some of us. That's what makes the world interesting: if you don't like something, you don't need to waste time/money/energy on it; you can look for something else you do like.
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