Hi everyone
Just a bit about me, I'm Rich, 24 and work as an aircraft service engineer. I live in Corsham, Wiltshire. Have been into RC modelling for a few years now, but havent done a lot for the last couple of years. I thought i'd get back into it with a new project, so here goes!
I have always been into the M03 mini, i really like their chukability, far more nimbler than a touring car due to their short and narrow wheel base and their light weight. What I didnt like though was due to them being fwd, getting off the line quickly is difficult, and going round corners is understeer heaven! So I thought it is about time i did something about it.
I thought a 4wd ta02 would be a good base, as parts are readily available, and are cheap as chips. So, i bought this from a passionford.com member!
I would now like to apologise for the quality of the next pics, they aree off my phone.
Here is the m03 chassis mini that i will be using as a donor for all the suspension components, and other bits i may need along the way.
I firstly needed a chassis. With a bit of careful measuring of the 4wd chassis I marked up and cut out a new chassis from aluminium. This is shorter than the original, to account for the shorter wheel base.
Here's the careful calculations I needed to do!
After the chassis was filed down and made good, I started on mounting the front and rear gearboxes.
After these were fitted, The mini suspension went on. This proved to be a complete ball ache at the front, because the mini lower arms were a lot longer than the front gearbox could cope with, so they needed modifying to fit, and a few spacers here and there.
The rear suspension went on easy enough.
I needed to make up a custom mount to fit the front suspension top arms. The orignial ones wouldnt work due to the amount of butchering that needed to take place to get the lower arms on, it meant that the mounting holes were way out.
After a few mock ups, this is the design of the mount i chose. It needed to be small enough to fit around the suspension components, but big enough to keep some strength at the front end.
Next, the steering. I thought about using the original 4wd steering system, but due to the limited space, and the amount of space the 4wd servo and linkage system required, it just wasn't feasable. I needed to make up a bracket to raise the servo, so the mini steering system would fit around the 4wd gear box.
Then, a top plate was made up to give the chassis a bit of strength, and so I had somewhere to mount the receiver/speed control.
And thats it for now! It is now a complete rolling chassis. All it needs are front and rear diffs, all the gears for the gearboxes, and the electrics fitting.
Have got a 10 turn motor, so I am expecting this thing to properly shift, have got a huge open area to drive this in, so it should be fun! :cool:
Got an angila van shell for it for now, but it will be replaced with a pukka gen mini shell.
Updates when the postman arrives, and I will use a proper camera next time!!
Cheers
Rich