TheMidnight Pumpkin

I ordered a bunch of parts to make a light up, portable, drone track. I bought 92 meters (300 feet) of battery powered LED lights. 92 meters (300 feet) of glow in the dark, water proof tape. 40 solar LED porch lights. An assortment of PVC pipe. An assortment of 2x4's,1x2's, and OHB particle board (lumber). Its going to be awesome!

No all I see is the gas gauge saying to upgrade. I figure they changed their policy and expect everyone to pay now. So that means I'll be closing my photo bucket account!

The Kong Head reminds me of the old movie "Rolling Vengeance". Any of you guys remember that one? -lol I'm interested to see what body you find that will fit on this thing. The extra wheel wells are the puzzling aspect since I can't think of another body that is setup for 6x6 use. But I agree with above, this body leaves a lot to be desired. But the truck is pretty cool beyond the weirdness of the body. I also always thought the Bullhead was pretty weird as well... but it was pretty fun to drive!

I bid on another Volkswagen Type 2 today on ebay. I really wasn't looking for a second. But you know these things happen! -lol

I've never seen that kit before. This is a dumb question. But where does the body pin on at? It appears to pin on in the truck bed on the back. Or are those holes for the roll bar? I don't see any holes in the front? Thanks

I finished touching up the paint (again) on my Tamiya F150 w/ '50 Chevy pickup body. Backstory - Every time I knock some paint off I repaint it the same color. The real trucks always have patina unless they are show trucks. So by recoating the old paint with new inside the lexan. It creates a nice patina look from the paint imperfections. I also added some body washers this time to change how the body sits on the chassis.

I was thinking about painting mine with a brush since there's so many tiny areas around the windows. I figure taping all those would be a nightmare when I could just hand paint the details in. Though brushing these bodies does leave them more susceptible to paint flaking off from crash impacts. I was also considering just painting the roof & back windows black, leaving only the fronts clear. Lastly I also kind of wish they would have sold these with an interior tray to hide the RC guts seen through all the windows. But yeah, I love these bodies!

Look what I got in the mail yesterday!

So they have an editor so you can tweak the t-shirt design. So I took the designs on there and made this:

If you were going to do a gear diff swap, use the manuals linked off this forum. They show you actual drawings for the parts, thus you could dig around them to find one with the right number of teeth. But it sounds like you are leaning towards rebuilding the ball diff. Either way works.

I found these on ebay. I have never tried them. But maybe they will help someone with a clod buster who is needing an esc. DualMotor 8.4+8.4 V ESC Speed Control http://www.ebay.com/itm/DualMotor-8-4-8-4-V-ESC-speed-Control-Fi-t-E-Maxx-Clodbuster-Futaba-Receiver-/200648741402?hash=item2eb798d21a:g:RXcAAOxyWalR3SIj

I know this is an old topic. But does Tamiya Club still sell t-shirts? I like the webpage logo and would buy one if I could get an extra large size. Plus obviously it supports the group, which is a benefit.

I swapped my TA02 rear ball diff out for these: SP-602 Diff Bevel Set SP-529 Touring & Rally Gear Set The cost was nothing noteworthy and it gave me better performance from the gear diff. I bet its possible for your car as well. You just have to figure out which gear set has the correct diff gear to put the bevel gears in. Worst case you buy a couple from different models until you find the right one. Then share your results with the group. I'd also do some searching both on this site, and online. I'm sure someone somewhere has done that swap. Because Tamiya reuses a lot of parts between their RC's.

Its all good fellas, whatever works for you. I might try magnets on my next lexan body. I like the idea of not drilling holes.

The battery monitors I linked plug into the balance plug and they have a buzzer and lights to notify you of a low battery. They have them in any "S" rating so you can use them on any RC running any battery voltage. Me, I literally hot glue one on each car, truck, boat, or quadcopter that I own, since all I run are lipo's. Then its always there when I want to run it.

Your build is awesome! On the topic of Awesome Kong, I always liked the skinny bodied version. Which I believe was a later evolution - http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/monstertruck/images/9/94/Awesomekong-1.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150613213348

I would checkout this retailer as they make parts that others don't. http://www.integy.com/ Then if they don't have what you want, then I would search retailers that specialize in RC crawler and pulling parts. As there are specially made gears for those applications for popular trucks. For example, I picked up a set of metal gear boxes with metal gears for my clod buster, to upgrade the stock plastic ones.

A few years ago some friends and I built this track:

Stealth mounts? I've never heard of those. (quick search) - magnets! http://www.rcmart.com/aluminum-stealth-body-mount-p-59496.html?cPath=438_942

I buy these battery monitors instead of relying on the speed controller to shut off for my lipo's. I use these on cars/trucks, boats, and planes/quadcopters. They work great by beeping, and blinking lights to notify you when to stop. https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hobby-king-battery-monitor-2s.html

Its hard to say when we can't see the end cap. But it appears to be a stock replacement motor. I've got several stockers that have changeable brushes. See if its marked ROAR on any of it. If so then you got a 27 turn stock motor. Additionally, it doesn't seem to be an old modified motor since the timing does not appear to be adjustable. But again its hard to tell from the picture.

Based on this part of your original post, I would say stay reliable and go with a sport tuned. Why risk eating parts if you don't need the extra speed. A brushed is still fun to drive... and cheaper in the broader sense.

IL is the worst right now since they are billions in debt with no present state budget. They claimed on the news that by the end of the month I-dot will stop all road construction projects in the present condition from no funds to complete them. They also said there's been over 200 lawsuits filed against the state for not paying its bills, most of which are public schools who filed them. Its completely nuts and IMO unAmerican! Imagine seeing pubic schools filing bankruptcy from lack of state funding! I feel bad for those citizens since they don't deserve this nightmare...

I've never tried command strips. So I can't comment on those. But I did have a spontaneous idea about trying hot glued on magnets. You can get tiny rare earth magnets that are about the diameter of a pencil. I bet they would work, and not mess up the paint as bad as velcro. The only concern that I can think of is keeping the RC radio away from them. But otherwise they might turn out to be the best option if you didn't want to use clips. Has anyone tried magnets?

I did a little painting today. But I've got nothing to share pic's of yet.