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A FF01 at last!

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Following on from my successful refurb of a Manta Ray, I thought I would have a go at re-adding to my fleet another car that I owned in the past but sold. It is this build that I will be covering in this thread.

The FF01 was the first hobby-grade RC car that I owned, purchased back in 1996 with the proceeds of my first job as a bicycle mechanic. I bought the kit from a long-since-closed LHS by the name of RC World, and then spent subsequent months slowly ballracing it, buying one or two ballraces at a time with each week's pay. (Ballraces cost a lot back then, and bicycle mechanics weren't the recipients of huge paychecks!) :)

Once I had it fully ballraced, I added a Trinity Midnight 27t ROAR stock motor and a forwards-only ESC from one of my model planes, and raced it informally with a bunch of guys at a local "track" marked out on a parking lot. It did pretty well, racing against other FF01s, TA02s and the like.

I kept the car until the turn of the millennium, when I sold it (along with the Manta Ray mentioned previously) to fund a trip abroad. I don't regret the sale - if I had not made the journey, I would not have met my wife, would not have the career I currently enjoy, and would probably not have the RC collection I have today. Nonetheless, as with the Manta Ray, I think the time has come for a FF01 to once again grace my model shelf.

So far the project has consisted of several purchases, but no deliveries yet. I can however show you the sellers' pics of what I have bought so far:

Used FF01 chassis (and free dust) from a fellow forum member:

38FC9ADA-6B11-4306-BCD0-78B4907B26F7_zps

Period-correct Castrol Honda Civic bodyset from Time Tunnel Models:

58467.jpg

Ballraced alloy steering assembly from Fusion Hobbies:

thumbnail_zps7jpc19pm.jpg

Alloy uprights, also from Fusion Hobbies:

GPM_TA3021-2_zpsu5vsdykk.jpg

One of them new-fangled brushed/brushless Tamiya ESCs off Amazon:

41N50PCjlpL.jpg

Spektrum RX from Modelsport:

spmsr201.jpg

Hopefully most of these bits and pieces should be arriving soon, and I will be able to update the thread with some photos of progress. Stay tuned!

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Will that steering work? I have an FF-01 too and was wanting to remove the slop from the steering. Another good hop-up is the motor heat sink.

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I used one of these ballraced steering sets on my DF01, which shares the same steering components as the FF01, and it worked very well indeed. It should do the same here.

I won't be running a particularly hot motor in this chassis, so I should be fine without a heatsink. I will certainly consider it if temperatures become an issue though. Thanks for the suggestion.

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The first of the project pieces have started to arrive! First to get here was the chassis, complete with free dust as advertised:

20140817_200223_zpsxz8iq5xw.jpg

All parts are present and accounted for (apart from a couple of screws) and most of the plastics seem in reasonable condition, apart from the front underside which is well mangled:

20140817_200333_zpstzlrxwst.jpg

Unfortunately the A parts sprue which would contain a replacement seems really hard to come by these days. Humph. I will have to see what I can do to save this one. (Unless anyone knows of an A parts sprue in stock anywhere?)

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Shortly after the courier dropped off the chassis, there was another knock on the door, this time from the postie bringing the bodyset:

20140817_201219_zpst8cyna7g.jpg

I am in two minds as to what to do with the shell. On one hand, the boxart colours look good, and it would be a pity to let all the decals that came with the shell go to waste. But then this isn't a rare shell anymore since its rerelease on the FF03, and there are some very nice street-legal Civics out there to inspire a non-boxart scheme. Decisions, decisions...

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hi,

not sure about the price :o:huh: but thought you may be interested ,ebay item #151383662358

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Thanks for the link, however I reckon the price is a bit steep. I could probably pick up a second FF01 roller for not much more than that - an approach I am considering.

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id wait too, as you say ,a good roller will appear soon enough , and most likely for half the price asked for those A-parts ;)

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Another piece of the puzzle arrived today:

20140818_185207_zpsbsgjdtnp.jpg

Any suggestions as to a suitable motor to go with it? (Not necessarily for use in the FF01 - I think I might use this in one of my TT01s, and take the ESC currently in it for use in this project.)

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i can recommend the 13.5 or 17.5 trackstar sensored motors , they now come in a rather dashing red anodise , great motors for the price , i have been using them for well over a year now and all 4 have given no issues , just a drop of oil in the bearings now and again , and work great with the TBLE-02S

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Thanks! I will look into them.

Another RC-related item arrived in the post today:

20140819_161241_zpsdjjk4qgf.jpg

I opted for rubber-sealed bearings rather than metal-shielded ones even though this is not an offroad chassis, simply due to ease of maintenance. I doubt I would ever race this car, so the small rolling resistance penalty is worth it for the convenience of being able to drive in dusty conditions without having to do a strip and rebuild afterwards.

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With the bearing kit in my possession, I could make a start on the chassis rebuild. First order of business was to reduce the car to kit form and give everything a good cleaning:

20140819_162639-1_zpsb3hjsjvp.jpg

With heat and gentle persuasion I managed to return the front undertray to its proper shape. It won't win any beauty contests, but it is structurally sound - fine for a runner, which this car will be.

The ball diff is still turning smoothly, so I won't be rebuilding it at this point - a quick clean should be sufficient.

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Following the manual, the front sub-assembly is first to be built. The simple gearbox goes together easily, riding on new bearings, with a small dollop of fresh grease:

20140819_172436_zpsje9d7fne.jpg

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This thread seems to be flying now - looking forward to watching it develop!

I honestly had no idea that the FF-01 was so complicated compared to the M-chassis cars, so it is great to see another one getting built.

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Oh, this is going to be great! What is the part number for the steering set-up? I may want one then for my FF-01. This is a fun car too.

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This thread seems to be flying now - looking forward to watching it develop! I honestly had no idea that the FF-01 was so complicated compared to the M-chassis cars, so it is great to see another one getting built.

I had a good bit of time to myself today, being off duty while my wife was off at work, so I managed to make a fair bit of progress. I am fast reaching the point at which I will need the parts ordered from Fusion Hobbies, so the pace will soon slow again while I wait for their arrival.

The FF01 shares a lot of DNA with the TA02, and as such has quite a few more parts than a M03/FF02 chassis. The FF01 front sub-assembly alone is made up of a gearbox housing, undertray, bumper piece, gearbox lid and shock tower. This mounts to the front of a tub (with separate mech deck) that holds the steering mechanism and battery - quite a bit more complex than the two chassis halves and a bumper that serve the same purpose on the M03!

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Oh, this is going to be great! What is the part number for the steering set-up? I may want one then for my FF-01. This is a fun car too.

The steering assembly part number is GPM DF1048, followed by a letter denoting the colour. They are available in most of the common anodised hues. They are sold as fitting the DF01, but as the DF01, TA01, TA02 and FF01 all use the same steering arrangement, I see no reason why it shouldn't work for all of them. I will confirm this when mine arrives from Fusion Hobbies, hopefully soon!

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Like the picture of all the bits ready to go, bring on the build!

On with the build then! :)

Next is the rear sub-assembly:

20140819_191413_zpscvh858v4.jpg

The FF01 can be built with two different wheelbase options, depending on which way round you fit the rear bulkhead. I went for the longer option (standard touring car length) to suit my Civic bodyshell.

FF01 connoisseurs will also notice that the rear hubs are mounted differently to the way specified in the manual. The chassis I received came with rear hubs that provide a bit of extra toe-in, but these have to be mounted the other way around to the stock items, otherwise they provide toe-out.

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With front and rear sub-assemblies pretty much complete, the time had come to attach them to the tub:

20140820_080730_zpswmjinbs4.jpg

I must say I am quite pleased with how it looks so far. I'll admit that when I first received the chassis, I was concerned that I may have overpaid as it looked very well-used, to put it mildly. However under the thick layer of dust and grime, most of the plastics were in very good condition, and even those that were a bit scratched have come up really nicely after the application of a bit of plastic polish. I reckon that, when finished, this FF01 will be every bit as tidy as the one I sold 14 years ago, maybe even more so!

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With the basic chassis as progressed as it can be until the next parts delivery, I decided to turn my attention to the shocks. As with the rest of the chassis, they arrived covered in dirt, but once this was cleaned off, they turned out to be in good nick.

The original builder had omitted to fit the correct internal spacers, so the shocks had to be opened up so these could be fitted. I decided to take this opportunity to strip them completely in preparation for rebuilding with new seals and fresh oil.

20140820_110222_zpscdhqpdv2.jpg

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Shocks are done!

20140820_184641_zps1l79uzrn.jpg

20140820_184625_zpshtlarlup.jpg

In other news, I made rather an interesting (to me at any rate) discovery this afternoon. When looking at the decals that came with my bodyshell, several of the minor sponsors' names looked familiar. This led me to do a bit of research, through which I discovered that the fullsize race car depicted by this shell was built and prepped by a garage just down the road from where I live!

With this in mind, I have decided to go with the boxart colours and decals. At the very least I can get a photo of the model outside the garage that prepped the fullsize, and I might even be able to get the shell signed by the chief mechanic, who apparently still works there!

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Coming along fast.

Are you going to celebrate the completion of this build with an FF04 Pro which was announced today? Modern vs. Vintage :D

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Coming along fast.

Are you going to celebrate the completion of this build with an FF04 Pro which was announced today? Modern vs. Vintage :D

I managed make good progress today, being off duty again. Unfortunately the project has now gone as far as it can without another parts delivery, so updates will slow down for a while.

I would very much like to add a FF04 to the fleet, along with a FF02 and a FF03 - I like having all the members of a family as it were. Maybe one day, when budget allows...

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I have an FF02 I keep meaning to post up. Spent far too much money on it years ago and still haven't got as far as running it! Or painting the 306 Maxi shell which came with it for that matter...

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