Otis311

I typically replace the screw pins with stainless steel shafts and e-clips. I leave the piece you are speaking of alone though. It adds a lot of strength the the front end. Unless you find/make an aluminum brace to bridge the front of the two pins as is standard in higher end vehicles. The main issue with the screw pins is that they fall out and/or rust. There is not a huge gain in reducing slop though.

It feels like time slows down as you watch a part just slowly roll to the gap between boards. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson by now.

Blitzer Beetle. Had a lot of fun with that car.

I have some really old ones, like 7 years old and some newer ones about 3 years old. All of them are 128mm

I have some old Duratrax round hard packs. They are similar to the Reedy WolfPack. They were just a little too tight in some of my cars. Specifically any car where the battery slides through the side in a oval shaped hole. My go to now are the Venom packs that the OP described. They are not really hard case batteries though. They are a soft pack wrapped in a layer of foam and a couple of plastic round pack ends are attached. They have fit anything I have put them in, a little loose in some instances.

That ratio would be fine with a 27 turn motor. You could probably run a larger pinion if you were just driving on the road.

The servos should work. The potentiometers in the servos may be dirty and not responding properly. Another thing could be that the receiver is putting out a digital signal and the old analog servos are not capable of using that signal. Not familiar with that radio system but you may be able to set the signal to normal/analog mode with the transmitter. The servos simply may not be compatible. What brand are the servos?

The gear mesh is set by choosing the correct holes like you mentioned. The only issue that could arise is installing the motor mount backwards as it is two sided. Other than that the motors my have burned up because it is geared too high. The Sport tuned probably barely handled it but the 17 turn motor had no chance. You also mentioned running it on grass. That would really make things heat up.

Tamiya makes a tool for this (thread forming tool) but as other have stated you can just use an extra screw and obtain the same results. I have made it a habit to use a tiny bit of grease on the machine screws going into plastic, especially the reinforced plastics.

That looks good to me. It's relatively thick steel. It also doesn't have an air tight seal so it will safely release the pressure in the event of a meltdown.

No harm done. Easy fixes are the best. At least you didn't damage anything due to the error. Nothing worse than breaking a part mid build.

Looking good. My favorite kit. I like the blue and the gulf logo matches the wheels.

The shocks used on the long damper version are "CVA mini" but they are used with taller shock towers so the effect is more or less evened out. If you are looking for more ground clearance you won't get much with longer shocks. The limiting factor is the droop ability of the swing arms. Anyway, you could modify the current "CVA super mini" by using the longer ball end on the shock shaft. That would give you more ground clearance but you would bottom out the shock. To answer your question though 60mm shocks would work. I like the Tamiya CVA shocks so I would suggest looking for a set of CVA mini shocks if you are looking for longer shocks.

Running in grass can put a lot of strain on the motor/ESC. The Slash is probably just more capable of overcoming the drag. Do you encounter the same issue with the Hotshot running on the road?

The lack of symmetry has always bothered me as well. In practice it really doesn't matter. Most RC cars are asymmetric in many other ways that would have a much greater effect on performance.

Thanks for the replies. I have silver, bright silver, bright gun metal and white all at my disposal. I will do some tests. I figure I will use silver and finally a light coat of white. @Truck Norris I can't tell which one is which. What I can tell is that they are all AWESOME!

The weights look like simple stick on weights. You can see them (small black rectangles) adhered to the top of the front bulkhead and sides of the tub toward the front. Those are nice black ones, I'm used to plain oxidized gray.

Digging this one up. Anyone have more insight? Thanks.

Dremel can do some serious damage. I use it on low speed and take my sweet time. Always relieved when I am done, very stressful. That can be said for every step of completing a body.

My Blitzer is my main runner and I really haven't upgraded much. For shocks I run the stock Tamiya CVA shocks with three hole pistons and soft oil. Stock springs as well. This shock setup is fast and soaks up bumps well. I don't hit jumps. A steel pinion would be good. Rear tires need to be upgraded, pick a good 2.2 truck tire. The stock fronts are pretty good. A lot of people swap the front knuckles from left to right to reduce bump steer from the tie rod geometry. I never did this but I could see how this would help.

I am still not convinced on this method. After trying a few times I just don't have good results. I have never had an issue with curved body scissors. Less chance of slicing my hand wide open too. With either method I would have to do fine tuning with a Dremel after cutting.

Being that it is coaxial wire it would be very difficult to properly repair. I would suggest getting a new wire. Attempting to repair the damaged wire sounds frustrating at best. Shorting the inner wire to the shield would probably be bad for the transmitter.

First off I would suggest, if you don't already have it, Tamiya brand masking tape. It would be best to paint the lighter color first as you planned. I would paint the entire body white. As far as making it symmetric, I would make sure the line across the roof was perfectly square and then pull the angles down to the same point on each wheel arch. That paint scheme looks bad@$$!!!

My suggestion would be to find some 48 pitch gears, the smallest spur and largest pinion that would fit in the gearbox. Just look for a spur that has the corresponding holes to mount up on your gear shaft. Can't remember what the biggest pinion that fits but it is easily located knowledge on this forum. If you modify the gearbox you can fit a pretty big pinion. I would pair all this with a high turn (low KV) brushless motor.

Do your hop-ups include the spur gear adapter?