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DeBruce

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Posts posted by DeBruce


  1. Thanks Kontemax. Actually the chassis plate for the SA has the two additional holes in it for the front battery mount that are not present on the Astute plate. Sooooo... should I buy an available Astute plate and drill it? It wouldn't technically be correct but who would know? Could I live with myself knowing it wasn't technically the correct part? Is there something wrong with me that this kind of detail bothers me?

    Also agree about the gearbox casing. The SA one seems to have an additional hole in one side that you fit the A3 part and main shaft into, whereas I don't think the Astute has this. This is because the SA main shaft actually rotates as part of the slipper clutch design and so needs a bearing on both sides to rotate inside. On the Astute the gearbox shaft is fixed and I think the spur gear spins on the shaft as there is no clutch assembly as part of it.


  2. t3garrett I'm gonna be honest, at this point it's mostly new parts! I'll add the UJ's to the list of bits I need. Is there any easy way to get the right parts?

    I'm going to strip down the gearbox tonight so we will see what we have in there!

    Question, I want to replace the chassis plate to make it like new. I can see standard plates on the bay - shall I just get one and carefully drill and countersink the additional holes I need for the SA? I don't want to buy a carbon fibre part - wanna keep it as close to original as possible. Or does anyone have a genuine new SA plate they would part with?


  3. Hi there

    Great project

    Super astutes are awesome (I have 2, one is my favorite runner/ racer). Shame about the front arms they are quite rare now. And a shame about the front bulkhead but that was going to happen, it s the most fragile part on the SA. If I were you I wouldnt bother getting another original one if the car is going to be a runner, you should get a 3d printed one, much stronger. Check your rear susension arm mounts they are prone to breaking as well and check your main gear shaft which is also a weak point. If you need help or parts feel free to pm me .

    Best of luck with the rebuild, the car is really worth it !

    Yes the ORB racing stuff looks interesting. I'm thinking of doing this as an original shelfer (mostly) and then doing a kind of 'Ultra Astute' using as many alternative parts as I can - I've already got a comprehensive list of what I want to get for that project.


  4. Hi all,

    I've been away on holiday, hence the delay. So I took some pictures of the rear section and found...

    Front battery holder broken.

    Rear shock tower mount corner worn.

    Rear battery holder cracked.

    Rear lower arms scratched and chipped.

    Rear hinge pin bent.

    Rear bulkhead cracked.

    Weird clutch assembly arrangement with different spur.

    Gearbox access panel cracked.

    Various screw heads rounded.

    So lots to do at the back end too!

    image_zps2fto5kuw.jpeg

    image_zpsbrt2x1tx.jpeg


  5. Ive started by examining what's wrong with what I have. Starting with the front end...

    The lower arms are scratched with chunks missing from them.

    The bumper is scratched.

    The rubber o-rings on the lower arms are perished and split.

    The bulkhead reinforcement piece is cracked.

    The adjusters dented and damaged.

    The damper mount is scuffed and worn on the top edges.

    Many of the screw heads are stripped.

    There are screws missing completely.

    The is quite a lot of play in the steering mechanism.

    So all in all a positive start!

    image_zps0jluktsg.jpeg

    • Like 1

  6. After the mild restoration of my original Astute, I've decided to try and get myself a Super Astute. I always wanted one and they are somewhat to on the ground. Luckily i managed snag myself a bargain chassis with other assorted bits on eBay which arrived a few days later. Below is the chassis that arrived. Also included were a set of white star dish wheels, and a repro body and under tray.

    I'm going to use this thread to properly document the restoration project, which based on the state of the chassis, is going to need to be comprehensive...

    image_zpsmdpjkhln.jpeg

    • Like 1

  7. So here's the finished article. For a colour scheme I've gone with the Tamiya Metallic Red with Black decals. Agonised over the colour choices but in the end I'm very pleased with it. For the window I used car window tinting film which works really well. Let me know what you guys think - an improvement on what I started with?

    I still have a few bits and pieces to do.

    Front 6mm adjusters to black.

    Servo Supports to black.

    Front Bumper fixings to black 10.9 grade steel (done).

    IMAG1904_zps3ov3ewmm.jpg

    IMAG1908_zpst0d3wedn.jpg

    IMAG1909_zps8zynktge.jpg

    IMAG1907_zps05gcqtg2.jpg

    • Like 3

  8. Okay so here's a complete top view of the assembled chassis. The electronics consist of a Dynatech 01R which is period appropriate but more importantly it's black! I've also got a Tekin 411P ESC controlled by a Acoms AR-201 receiver and a technisport handset to control the buggy. Next step is to rebuild the motor with new rotor and brushes.

    IMAG1899_zpsmsy7hddr.jpg

    And here is a picture on wheels. I've added a set of anodised black wheel nuts to maintain the blacked out theme.

    IMAG1903_zpsa5cqmwob.jpg

    • Like 2

  9. When I dismantled the original car I found that a number of the screws were in a very poor condition. Titanium is a fantastic metal because it's very light but it's also quite soft which makes it quite easy to strip and destroy screw heads. I did try to purchase some direct titanium replacements however they are hard to come by so I decided to go in a different direction. Instead of going with titanium, since I was being pushed in the direction of steel, I've gone for 10.9 grade steel for high strength. The idea being if I have to sacrifice some weight then I might as well get a high tensile strength component out of it. The plan is to replace all the fixings with black 10.9 grade coated (for corrosion) steel where I can.

    In this picture you can again see the very visible weave of the chassis plate.

    IMAG1901_zpsyzclgank.jpg

    • Like 1

  10. And here is a gratuitous shot of the rear hub assembly. Not much to say here except I've used the same black plastic bushings and that I made the toe in adjustment link from Hotbodies turnbuckles to allow easier toe in adjustment.

    I added new metal shielded bearings into the hubs for the drive shafts, but I intend to upgrade to Tamiya blue rubber shielded bearings when I get them. And I replaced the rubber o-rings inside the drive shaft joints.

    Both hubs I managed to get were cracked at the lower mounting point so I will stay on the lookout for good new ones and if I can get a 3D model this is an area I will look to strengthen.

    IMAG1898_zpsig2k8b8g.jpg


  11. Okay here is a close up picture of the front hub assembly showing the F103 part with 0.8mm spacers.

    IMAG1895_zpss68koydq.jpg

    And this image from the front shows my solution for the bushes. I've read that the metal bushes in the Astute were Tamiyas idea to improve tolerances in their plastics mouldings and were not specifically intended to improve friction of the joint. Thus changing the bushings for bearings is a mistake because the bearings do not withstand the pounding that these joints take on the track. However the bushings are heavy. So I searched for a set of Nylon bushes which I was unable to find. I have however managed to find a 3x7x3 plastic bush used on the Carisma M14 and I have used these in all the bushing locations. These are lighter than the original metal bushes but have good fit and tolerance. My intention is to glue them into place to remove the variability between the bearing and the arm, etc, as per original intent. As a happy coincidence they continue the black theme.

    IMAG1897_zpsh3rvhn9d.jpg

    The blue 6mm adjusters are annoying - these are going to be replaced with black parts asap.


  12. Wow, looks like you got the reinforced rear arms too ! They were a change during the production run. These arms have extra plastic compared with early run Astute's and are quite rare I think.

    I do? What were the differences? I'll do a bit of research and see if I can find some comparable pics!

    Found and you're right! I bought the two trees of front and rear arms separately so it was completely by accident that they are both the reinforced type!

    astute_modifications_03.jpg

    • Like 1

  13. Have you checked Shapeways for 3d printed parts ?

    I'm not sure there are any available yet, but there are quite a lot of the hard to find Top Force J parts on there. Maybe TC members simensays or pintopower could model something ?

    Actually I've given a friend one of each of all the C Parts and they are going to create 3D models of them for me. A colleague at work has a sample part that was 3D printed in a metal (I think something like aluminium) and I'd like to see if I can get the key weak parts printed in a stronger material, retaining the original design ideas but making them more durable.

    • Like 4

  14. One slight problem that I should mention - when I came to remove the gearbox assembly from the original car, the fixings for the rear aluminium hex spacers had corroded together and I completely stripped the heads trying to remove them. I wasn't sure what I was going to do but found a suggestion to drill the heads until they broke off which worked perfectly and I was able to get the gearbox off the original car, although I did I have buy replacement hex spacers.


  15. I should preface this thread with a thank you to t3garrett and thommo for help with some of the harder parts to find.

    I managed to get two sets of brand new B-parts trees for the original front and rear lower arms. The intention is to restore the original suspension back to the car. I know these arms are much more flexible than some of the other options but I want originality and I like how the front line of the arms blend with the bumper in a neat curve.

    I also purchased replacement C Hubs which, thanks to a handy tip, turned out to be the same as the Super Astute parts. However the front uprights have so far proved impossible to source. However one of my aims with this project was to maintain the original wheelbase and the original Astute uprights set the wheels back about 5mm behind the pivot point.

    I wanted to get new parts and keep things black where possible (the current Mapcap upright is white like the super astute arm) and maintain the geometry to the steering arm. One suggestion was to use the F103 parts which have very similar arm geometry and are made of black carbon reinforced plastic.

    There are two versions of these arms... The hop up part 53259 has a 3.5mm reward offset which is the closest I could find to the original part but not actually what I want. However there is an alternative F103 part 54154 has zero offset for the wheel which was perfect. This part is shorter than the original Astute part so I used two 0.8mm black nylon washers (3x8x0.8) to remove the slack.

    For the bushings I decided to do something different, based on some advice and good posts across various forums but I'll add that later.

    image_zpsuopgxdpl.jpeg

    • Like 3

  16. Pleased to see this emerge as a build thread and really looking forward to seeing your progress. The weave on the chassis plate does look a bit lighter, but normal I think. I have some original Egress shock towers that have the same lighter appearance.

    If you have not already started bolting it together, it's a good idea to use the bare chassis plate as a template for drilling the holes in the undercowl. Assuming you are going to use a replica undercowl, sometimes the dimples don't quite match the actual chassis.

    The weave is a lot lighter than on my other chassis plates, both of which look like they have been sort of painted black by Tamiya whereas this plate effectively looks untreated.

    Yep got a full replica body and that's a really good tip, thanks. However in this case I've already painted the body as I did that first. Really like how it turned out to be honest - agonised over colour choices for a long time (it's not that radical a colour but I'm very picky about things looking exactly how I want them to).


  17. I stripped down the front end from the original car and removed the CVA 1's. I'll restore these for some other project at a later date. The CVA 2's were really easy to build and they seem to be lovely and smooth in operation. I've built them up with the included damper oil and springs to start with so that I can use this as a base from which to tune the handling (if I run it that much!). They bolted back up to the original damper mounting plate using the original upper fixing.

    This gives a nice smooth operation and looks good as a starter! I'm leaving the original larger upper arm that comes with the original Astute as I like that it's thicker and stronger than normal upper arms. I also like the use of bushings in all the moving joints (more about this later too!). I've left the anti-roll bar in place from the original car.

    image_zpstge6vkbm.jpeg

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