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Juhunio

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About Juhunio

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    Crickhowell, UK

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  1. Juhunio
    Thanks man, I appreciate the feedback 👍
  2. Juhunio
    Attaching the rear gear case means attaching the drive belt, which must be threaded onto the pulleys before screwing the rear gear case down. Once that's in place I'll be ready to attach the front stabiliser bar and then the upper deck, which also holds the front stabiliser in place The belt is, obviously, a thing of beauty. Again, a different shade of blue to the traditional Tamiya light blue, and if anything it's a closer match to the GPM parts. In fact, the belt is a bit like Lebowski's rug...it really ties the whole thing together Once it's threaded over the pulleys and the rear gear case is screwed down it's time to attach the front stabiliser bar. In one of my very first Buyee transactions in 2020 I bought two sets of the TA03 fluorescent stabiliser bars at a stupidly low price, to the point that until they arrived I was convinced it couldn't be real and I was going to receive an envelope full of brass screws or something! Happily, it was a legit (and lucky) purchase which meant I had two each of the red, yellow and blue bars. The reds went onto my 'Red Alert' TA03-RS TRF(ish) build, the yellows onto my TA03F-Pro David Jun restoration project and these blue ones have always been earmarked for this 'Bluebird' build. I chose the rod stoppers rather then full rod ends (eg 53644) to echo the original TA03 Hop Up parts (49121) which were a brass / gold rod stopper. And as for the carbon stabiliser support, well, they come in packs of two and these carbon-deck TA03s only need one and, as I had used one as an upgrade on the David Jun restoration, this is the spare. The front one goes on first... ...before attaching the rod stoppers and upper deck, which also holds the stabiliser bar down and is why these carbon chassis TA03s only need one of the carbon stabiliser supports, for the rear bar Attaching the rear stabiliser bar and support completes the process. With both gearcases attached, the suspension complete (apart from dampers) and the belt and upper deck both on, that's the bulk of the chassis build complete. Just a couple of final finishing touches (and dampers) to go
  3. Juhunio
    After that sneak peak of the servo stays on the lower deck, here are all the parts I've put together for the servo build. I'm using a low profile metal geared E-tronix servo because I had a couple in the box and it has a blue band around it! The lesser-seen white HT servo saver is paired with the F104 blue aluminium servo horn and a fancy blingy servo cap, which is all mounted to the servo mounts using step screws And attached to the lower deck. That's as uncluttered as it's going to get, because next it really is time to attach the gear cases! First on goes the front gear case, a nice easy fit as the two recessed 10mm screws through the top are now screwing into the threaded standoffs rather than the plastic J5 part. As you can see, using the 18mm standoffs to mount the steering there is actually plenty of clearance above the steering arms...so the 20mm parts would also have been absolutely fine So that's the front end all attached, next up is the rear gear-case which will mean attaching that blue drive belt
  4. Juhunio
    These 'Phoenix Racing' (???) steering arms popped up in a Japanese Auction 3-4 years ago and have been buried in the project box ever since. They'll be married to the carbon steering bar and connected to the servo and front hubs with tie rods made up from 18mm turnbuckles and short low friction adjusters The turnbuckle and adjuster wrenches once again proved their thumb-saving value when it came to making the tie rods! The steering arms come with the bushings needed to mount them onto the steering supports and the flanged tubes used to connect them to the steering bar, but no bearings. I'll use the bushings that came with the arms but will use the Tamiya flanged tubes instead purely for aesthetics - I prefer the darker colour of the Tamiya partd compared to the brass parts that came with the arms. The arms themselves are really nicely made, all very clean and smooth and a close facsimile of the Tamiya Hop Up steering arms, but in a lovely blue instead of silver I had a tube of 730 bearings in the box so they were nice and easy to put together And that's them mounted on the 18mm steering posts, with the silver bushings creating a pivot point. I do think they look better on the round posts than they would have done on the hex-shaped standoffs (more post-rationalisation!) Rather than following the TA03F-Pro manual and attaching the front and rear-gear cases next, I decided to build up the steering servo and attach it first so that I could complete the structural side of the lower deck. Before attaching the servo mounts to the servo, I first attached them to the deck for a couple of photos with all the structural posts on the deck and no other distractions
  5. Juhunio
    No worries, you're welcome! Spoiler alert () but the 20mm standoffs will be fine for the steering posts, as it turns out there's plenty of space underneath the gear case to accommodate the extra 2mm height of the standoff so you'd just need to extend the tie rods to allow for the extra 2mm height of the steering arms. I'm going to leave mine as is because I'm happy with how the round 18mm columns match with the round steering bushing and bearing mount. I've got spares though, so if you want a couple just shout and I'll post them to you no bother Gosh, really? It's a really substantial 'skin' that peeled off both sides . Top tip on the laquer, I'll find something appropriate and give it a spray 👍
  6. Juhunio
    Yup, I found the same problem when I used that shell on my Dark Impact In the end I did the same thing you're thinking of, replaced the brushless set up with a brushed HW ESC and BZ SS motor, which all fit much more easily. It's still tight, but at least the shell will sit level I also had a crack at a driver figure but, despite muchos trimming of the plastic around the seat area it was just to tight for running but fine for the shelf Looking forward to seeing your shell and driver come together 👍
  7. Juhunio
    The appearance of chassis plates means it's decision time...whether to use the grey plastic J Parts, or the carbon battery plate in combination with some blue standoffs in place of the steering support bridge (J5) I've already built a couple of TA03s with the J Parts and fancied trying something different so went ahead and followed up on the aluminium standoff option. I had bought the M3x20mm and M3x25mm standoffs a couple of years ago, but wasn't sure if they would be the right lengths or not so it was time for some measurements. The height of J5 where the front bulkhead screws in is 25mm, so my 25mm standoffs would be perfect for that... And the posts for the battery plate are also 25mm, so again I'm all good there... However, the J5 part sections which act as the steering supports are 18mm high. So my 20mm standoffs would be a couple of mm too long 🫤 I couldn't find the order confirmation email for the standoffs but did some digging around on Google and turns out I got them from Ali Express. It also turns out they don't do them in 18mm! I considered maybe using the 20mm parts and just making the steering tie rods a little longer to bridge the gap, but dug out my TA03F-Pro David Jun to take a look at it and it's all quite tight in there, there wasn't a whole load of clearance either side of the steering arms so the 20mm parts would most likely simply have been too high. So, I needed an alternative. Ideally one that wouldn't have to crawl its way here from the far East. Thankfully, and bizarrely, Amazon came up trumps with these 18mm blue threaded columns being available on next day delivery. They are obviously a different shape to the 25mm parts but I've rationalised that 😂 The round column is a common shape for Tamiya's own aluminium steering posts, and would also be a good eye-fit with the round bearing-mount of the steering arms. So the 25mm Ali Express standoffs will work for the main chassis supports (front gear case and battery plate) while the 18mm Amazon parts will be perfect for the steering supports. The 20mm Ali Express parts will just have to end up in the mixed trays of random bits! Strangely, the battery plate had a thin plastic protective layer on each side of it. I don't think I've seen that on a Tamiya carbon fibre part before, but they peeled off pretty easily to reveal a nice clean carbon fibre plate In terms of attaching the battery plate, the Hop Up is supplied with 8mm round headed screws but, seeing as how I had these nice countersunk washers in the box but nowhere to use them, I decided to use them here along with countersunk screws And it all fits together nicely and looks great, ready to attach the gear cases!
  8. Juhunio
    So that's both the front and rear sections complete... Lined up and ready to be attached to the chassis...
  9. Juhunio
    Some great progress made over the last couple of days, starting with the rear suspension. Here are all the blue bits and bobs, along with the suspension pins and back-up wheel axles As with the front uprights , the GPM rear uprights are really well made. The bearings slotted in snugly but smoothly with no 'persuasion' needed. Yes, they are a different shade of blue to the usual Tamiya blue, but even Tamiya blue isn't all that consistent, as shown by the difference in the axle spacers and the hex hubs And once they're attached using the suspension shafts and clipped into the upper arms, that's the rear section complete
  10. Juhunio
    Thanks Steve, I trust your judgement on quality parts so don't worry; I'll wait for the 49069 to turn up and see what they're like with the black springs, or if anyone has a new pair of the light blue springs to swap or sell in the meantime 👍
  11. Juhunio
    Time to move on to the rear gear case, featuring a lovely selection of Tamiya Hop Ups and the GPM rear uprights. As with the front uprights I could have gone for Tamiya silver parts but, for the same reasons of availability, price, colour and quality I'll be using the GPM parts I'm pretty sure that the 53332 long wheel axle set will end up being redundant; for one thing, it's a TA03-R part not TA03-F and, for another, the Skyline body shell doesn't have a particularly wide rear stance so these wide axles will probably push the wheels out too far. So I suspect I'll be removing the axles and spacers when it comes to the finishing touches but I'll fit it for now, just for that added little flash of blue if nothing else . The ball diff makes its final visible appearance, ready to be dropped into the gear case Then it's covered over and secured using more blue aluminium screws and the titanium suspension shafts that attach the rear arms The second aluminium counter shaft gets built into the rear counter gear using the remaining ball diff L parts and more lovely rubber sealed bearings The rear damper stay also goes on at this stage along with the rear upper arms, which once again are adjustable arms built from 23mm turnbuckles and short low friction adjusters With the damper stay and upper arms attached and counter gear slotted in, it's time to open up that second aluminium belt pulley and attach the rear counter gear cover And that's the gearbox side of things complete! Ready for the rear suspension...
  12. Juhunio
    A few you say, hmmm? 🤔 👀
  13. Juhunio
    I've got the jeans, just need the jacket! It's true though, it might be overkill. Either way, whether I use them on this build or not, I've got a surplus of red and yellow and a dearth of blue so a swap would be a good move!
  14. Juhunio
    Thanks for looking 👍 Seems at some point Tamiya changed the colours and they all went to a flat / darker shade rather than the original, more fluorescent colours 🤷🏻‍♂️ Yes, this is for the bluebird TA03 build. I've managed to get my hands on a set of the all blue SLF dampers (49069) but they come with black springs and that just won't do 😂
  15. Juhunio
    Beautiful! One of my favourite body shells, it looks great when finished too, the proportions all work really nicely 👍 Has it been rereleased then? As for the livery...I did a Team Black Falcon Bilstein AMG a couple of years ago which was there or thereabouts...am I close?
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