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Pintopower

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About Pintopower

  • Rank
    Member
  • Birthday 06/03/1980

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  • Website URL
    https://www.shapeways.com/shops/ampro

Profile Information

  • Location
    Willow Glen (San Jose), California
  • Interests
    I have loved RC cars since birth! My first RC car was a Nikko Dune buggy and soon after a pair of badly used Tyco Bandits that I fixed up. Then, I acquired a used RC10 when I was 10 (1990) and then a horribly used and abused Hornet when I was 11 (Its restored now). My first new RC Car was a Midnight pumpkin. It has hundreds of miles on it and I still take it everywhere with me (yes i'm still a kid). On the other side of things, I am a Mechanical Engineer at a technology firm in California. All of my colleagues think I am a weirdo for driving RC cars at lunch and not driving a $100,000 car like they do (lemmings). I am very passionate about my Family, my 100 year old house and my full size cars. That's a long list (in order of acquisition)... 1979 Ford Pinto Wagon 2.8 (restored) 1977 Ford Pinto Wagon 2.8 (restored) 1980 Ford Pinto Sedan 2.3 (restored) 1978 Fiat 124 Spider (restored) 1974 Ford Pangra Wagon (restored) 1980 Ford Pinto Cruising Wagon (restored) 1979 Fiat 131 Sedan (in progress) 1980 Fiat Strada (Original) 1984 Fiat Ritmo Cabrio (Original) 1976 Mercury Bobcat Runabout (nearly done) There are also two trucks: 1980 Toyota Hilux 1987 Ford F250 If anyone is in the San Francisco area in California, hit me up! I told you I love cars.

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  1. As long as it helps the car work, that’s what counts
  2. I totally agree. I was posting a very custom build years ago but...yeah, rather not get into it.
  3. This is a great point. Those cars are covered in molded parts. who knows. I love the thread on your MF01x. Just outstanding! I am surprised they allowed you to place it in the build series. When I used to do this, everything was removed since it was printed. Just total nonsense and one of the many reasons I really don't come here much. Seems things have changed for the better!
  4. This is a fantastic build. The engineering here is fantastic and I bet the car is transformed.
  5. Yeah they have not made parts for this car in decades....
  6. Yes, based on my spreadsheet of part numbers, I have over 3500 replacement and reengineered parts for Tamiya models alone. I have not, I know little about more modern Tamiya cars but it is something I should look into.
  7. Yeah i could not handle the terrible offset. I also wish rally legends was back. The issue with the plastic shocks it that the shaft is also plastic. This was too expensive for that nonsense. Thanks! Yes I agree. I think they did that since it was a larger scale platform. This car is very, very small. It is the same size as the Fiat Abarth 1000 (the Fiat 600 based car).
  8. Correct. That was designed to fit. There are a lot of random aftermarket parts some of the testers tried to use. These parts were rare 25 years ago, let alone now.
  9. In 2020, the gearbox pretty much fell off my FF01. I went in search for replacement parts and got a shock when I found that the hoarders, I mean collectors, wanted well over $500 for the parts I needed. Fast forward to a few months ago and after missing my FF01 way too long, I went ahead and redesigned the whole front end including re-engineering it to make it more robust. You can now rebuild your FF01 and get it back on the road where it belongs. Please note that this is a system and is not intended to be used with any factory or aftermarket parts gearbox parts. The heatsink will fit as it is not one of the plastic gearbox parts. SLS from Shapeways (there is a version without the fan mount): SLA (for display only, all holes must be tapped) FDM: Here is a prototype build/test from RC Everyday: AMPro full build: Now that the front is fixed, the rear will be redone as well since mine is totally shattered. Stay tuned. I hope this fixes all your FF01's!
  10. I love them. I am looking at a '81 Brava right now.... There are a lot of parts molded for those light on this body but given that both Tamiya AND Rally Legends did not do this, perhaps. Thanks so much! Oh yes, for sure. I made that a few months ago too!
  11. Have you ever started a project out of pure spite? The Fiat 131 and I go way back. For those of you in the US, you likely have never seen one even though they were indeed sold here. It is one of my all time favorite cars and I'm in the process of buying an '81 Brava 4 door. As such, I know how the 131 looks.... Tamiya seems to not know. Thus the start of project "Spite". While I am aware that manufacturers need to alter things on the bodies to fit a chassis, usually they will focus on important details that make are definitive for the car. The front of the 131 with its boxy grill and quad lamps are imbedded to anyone who is into rally from the '70's and '80's. Somehow Tamiya screwed that up. For example: Here you can see the grill I designed with the image of the 131 overlayed VS what Tamiya has done. Next we needed an interior and body mount system. The stock ones are way too noticeable and even protrude out of the side of the hood scoop. This was tough since the MF01X chassis is huge and left no room for any depth. Some magnets attached to the body mounting areas worked great. Seats and dash are separate since I am lazy and didn't want to mask. Since I could not model a driver, I jammed the Frog driver bases in there (I moded the arms to taper into the interior). The rear seats and speakers are not there for décor. They are needed since the rear upright is so tall, it protrudes into the greenhouse 7mm. I also made a dash with lights on the cluster and radio (this is the Stradale version) so the details were good enough for the inside. The wheels....oh the wheels....well the rear offset was increased 7mm per side to fill out the wheel arch. The fronts were 6mm (again, per side). I also like the 4 spoke campys so those needed to be modeled. Threw in some discs and we were good. There is also a faux lip (2mm in rad per side) that increased the look of the side walls. I also modeled lic plate lamp pylons, front marker lights, side repeaters, aux front lamps, and now I'm making a skid plate. Here is a comparison from the original to what I have whipped up. Here it is pretty much done with about 300 miles of lighting from MyTrickRC. I used the UF-7R: Note the lic. plate lights? Ah, dash lights: I need to take some outdoor shots but its been rainy lately. This is the second 131 Abarth that I have fixed. The first was the Rally Legends 131 in Alitalia livery. I made a grill (of course, repeaters, wheels with fake sidewalls and significant offset) and of course, lots of lights. Next, I will peel the window tint decals and scale the Tamiya interior up for this one. Side note, this car came painted and while there are weird things about it, most of the livery is actually on the inside. It is also bigger than the Tamiya, came with full electronics, bearings, oil shocks and cost LESS than the Tamiya. Everything shown will have a comprehensive build video starting with chassis assembly. I am just beside myself how well this came out and of course, I did immediately launch it of the old AMPro sidewalk jump. I did have to make a bumper/skid plate as the front spoiler would have been destroyed.
  12. Someone looking for me? If I owe them money, I have no idea who that devilishly handsome AMPro guy is....
  13. Sorry I rarely come here and check my mail. amproengineering@gmail.com
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