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DeBruce

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About DeBruce

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  1. Still looking for a pair of these damper mount stays if anyone can help!
  2. Hey all, I am trying to build a Tamiya Avante and one pair of parts I am missing are the metal damper stays part no's 19804445. These are the two small metal parts that hold the rear damper mount. They seem to have the same part number in the manual but there are different Left side and Right side parts. Would anyone have a pair of these they would be willing to part with?
  3. I was going to say earlier that the title post for this thread is not quite correct as these are the add on carbon fibre chassis kit 53100 which is not the same (writing different) as the original Evo chassis plates. It's not good news for some sellers that have had these up on eBay for eye watering prices. Good for those wanting to hop up a Top Force though.
  4. As per title, to finish off a restoration project I need a set of the Avante 2001 white camlock wheels.
  5. Hey I might be completely wrong but isn't the pink motor without the label not an actopower but a budget version they out in the rere dynastorm? I had some memory that this version unless tunable than the true Actopower?
  6. What 3D modeling software do you use? I'd like to have a go at designing some if my own parts too.... 🤔
  7. Out of curiosity, do the longer shocks give you greater arm articulation or is the max / min articulation limited by the arm plastics themselves?
  8. Next we add the rear arms using the rear hinge pins, which are held in place using e-clips. We must also add the rear strengthening brace which goes on the hinge pin before you add the forward e-clip. This braces the two rear arm mounts apart so that running forces do not twist and break the arms. Obviously this is only partially successful as breakages of these rear arm mounts are common. We can also add the front shock tower. This is slotted onto the front bulkhead and then secured in place with two stepped screws which fit through the holes in the bulkhead and screw into two press nuts that fit into the shock tower itself. Here I am reusing the original shock tower - it would be nice to have a few original parts in this build! There is an additional fixing for the shock tower which also secures the bulkhead brace so we add this later when we add the brace itself. Finally we can add the gearbox assembly itself to the chassis. This sits in the location on the chassis place between the rear arms and is then held in place with one self tapping screw and two threaded screws that secure into aluminium posts inserted into the gearbox plastics. On the original gearbox the self tapping screw had cracked the plastic so in this build I worked this screw very slowly in, working it backwards and forwards, so that the new thread was cut very slowly, the heating effect of working the screw helping to cut the thread. It's also worth noting that on my original Astute build, the two screws into the aluminium posts had become corroded in place. This is because the Aluminium and Titanium are about as dissimilar as it's possible to get and had promoted a galvanic reaction between the two metals, effectively welding the screws into place. With the gearbox now held in place with its three fixings, the chassis now looks like this. Note that the aluminium posts at the front of the gearbox can be seen in the image below. These also provide two of the location mounting points for the rear bulkhead, as we shall see later.
  9. Next the build... Here you can see the new plastics parts trees to be used. First is the D parts tree which carries the front and rear bulkhead and the rear arm mounts, notorious weak points on this chassis. Next is the E parts tree which carries the front and rear bumpers. Finally the elusive B parts trees which hold the front and rear arms. First part of the build is to attach the rear arm mounts and rear bumper and the front bulkhead using the press nuts and 8mm black steel fixings to the new chassis plate. I worked the screws slowly tight, trying to work the press nuts gently into the plastic. Then the front bulkhead is attached using the front two fixing holes only. The rear two are used later to also hold the Super Astute brace in place. Once the front bulkhead is fixed into place I added the 730 bearings, four of the few left over from the original Astute design. However as per my previous build, in order to reduce weight I have used plastic bearings from the Carisma M14 3x7x3 which fit. Into these we secure the front lower Super Astute arms using the pin and an e-clip on either end. Finally we add the front bumper and fit the two larger fixings in place with nyloc nuts on top to secure this part. The result at the end of this stage can be seen below.
  10. Next to the plastics... Below are some images of the old plastics parts I removed from the chassis I received. You can see that the parts have had a hard life. The old front lower arms are badly scuffed underneath and one has a chunk missing. However we can see that they are clearly very tough and overall the is no evidence of cracking or splitting of these legs. Next the front bulkhead - again this has stood up very well. I could find no evidence of cracking or chaffing and in fact I could have reused this part. The only reason not to was the fact I had a new part available on the appropriate tree. This is evidence that the Super Astute brace works well to protect the bulkhead part from the stresses that splits it on the standard Astute Next the front bumper - as you can see this is severely scuffed and has cracked in one location where a screw was over tightened. This will be replaced with a new part. Here are the two titanium screws that hold the front bumper to the front bulkhead. Titanium is a very light metal which is excellent for use on RC cars, but is also very soft and so very prone to heads stripping if you are not very careful. For the new car I am using black 10.9 grade steel as it is easier to get hold of, however there will be a weight penalty for using it. Unfortunately I forget to take a picture of the front brace and will add one later. However it was in reasonably good shape although had cracked around one of the press nuts. This is a good illustration of the problems with these press nuts which, if over tightened, press outwards on the plastic too hard and can split it apart. Care must be used when tightening screws into these press nuts.
  11. Time for the next update... Next step was to prepare the main chassis plate. The old plate was perfectly usable but scuffed on the underneath so I purchased a new plate however the plate was an Astute and not Super Astute plate. The difference is the two additional holes required for the Super Astute forward battery holder. Using the old plate as a template, I marked, drilled and tapped these two holes. In the picture below you can see the old and new plates side by side.
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