Toad16v

Thanks!

Thank you!

Began work on the corrado shell for the car. I have no idea how the spoiler is supposed to fit the shell, or how I'm going to fit it, but I guess I'll figure it out. Trimmed the shell and spoiler out yesterday. Fiddled around and marked it up today to drill the post holes, used a 5mm drill bit to allow me to make minor adjustments to the positioning. Sadly I've got the holes about 2 or 3mm too far back on the shell so it sits too far forward and the wheels are towards the rear of the arches. I've retrimmed the rear arches to make the wheels look better but have lost the nice clean, straight line I did have. Will try to fix it with wet and dry tomorrow, but I think it'll just be one of those things. The front arches are less of a bad fit - the pictures make it look worse than it is - and trimming them further will affect the shape of the arch too badly. Got a combination of paints coming to try out, ordered ps 16, 58 and 59 to try to mimic the blue pearl effect, plus some silver for backing and smoke for the moon roof. Doubt the weather will be kind enough to let me paint it for a few days looking at the forecast.

Cut out my new Kamtec Corrado bodyshell and marked up the body post holes so I can hopefully drill it in the next few days. Have to work out how to attach the spoiler to the shell next. Swapped one of the front hubs on the Dark Impact for a new one which I tried tapping prior to fitting to see if that was better or not. Wacked new bearings in as I have plenty. Hopefully the fittings won't back out on this one as they have done on the original hub. Applied loctite to the grub screw in the front universal joint while it was in bits.

Got a better set of 5mm hexes, also fitted some JC racing 5 spoke wheels, tyres and foam inserts as although the kit tyres do seem to have worn in and improved, I'm still not 100% on them and wanted an alternate set. I'm hoping the softer rubber will quickly wear in a bit and provide better grip on the street, although they were pretty slippy on my first go resulting in a near full speed run into a kerb reducing the level of newness of the shell. I set the tracking so it runs pretty much straight without any trim, this did involve removing the new turnbuckle as it was wound right in and didn't want to turn, this did give me the excuse of refitting it in the correct orientation. A present arrived from the gf earlier, the Kamtec corrado shell, plus the chassis cover which was timely as I had to shake all the gravel and detritus from the chassis after my run around the street. I'm still concerned about it affecting the temperature of the electronics, but keeping them clean is probably more important. I did find the Kamtec lean was a bit easier to crack and end up with splits in places I didn't really want. I'll be extra careful with the actual shell as a result.

Quick test run this morning showed that it's far more nimble around tight turns with the centre one way in place. I'm curious as to how brutal it is on the system when it catches up and drive is restored to the front wheels again. Glad I went to the effort of installing it.

Received my turnbuckle adjusters and some ball connectors today, had been thinking of using ball collars and self tapping screws as the steering bridge and servo saver had already been drilled with self tapping step screws but this wasn't possible given the options I had in terms of lengths, so I used leftover ends and the ball connectors with machine threads. The ball connectors seemed to screw in firmly and I'm hopeful they won't fall out. If they do I'll either get connectors with longer threads and put a nut on the back or put ball nuts on and run a screw through from the back. I regret not putting the turnbuckle on in the same orientation as the others on the car, it annoys me, but not enough to take it apart again and put stress on those threads. I'll have a run with it later and check the tracking, hopefully it isn't too far out - I don't think I can shorten the link much more. I noticed the wiper arms moving vertically a little on the tubes they are mounted on where the top deck doesn't quite touch them, wondering if a spacer is worthwhile there. I also bought some 5mm alloy hexes, but found they had been machined really badly so went back to the 8mm ones I have on there for now.

Having plenty of time to fiddle about at stuff indoors at the moment I've been able to install some more bits onto my Dark Impact. Most of my RC driving recently and probably for the next month or so is in the street by our house. We are lucky to live at the end of a quiet cul de sac, so I can make the most of the road. I took part in last months postal racing round with both the Dark Impact and the Terra Scorcher. It was great fun, and I think it helped improve my driving skills. I found that the Terra Scorcher performed as well as the Dark Impact, I think partially it was down to the Dark Impact understeering more so cornering was trickier although it was quicker/faster on the brief straights. The understeering is undoubtedly partly down to the tyres not being great for running on tarmac, and I may look to replace them at some point soon but I'd like to do more with the setup of the car to make it a little better. I've lowered it on the suspension to help a little with this so the wishbones are running closer to horizontal than they were. Quite some time back I bought a large number of parts from rcjaz, while I was at it I picked up a centre one way kit. I've been really unsure about fitting it as I have never been convinced that it suits my sort of driving or use of the car, but given my recent bashing in the street and desire to improve the turning circle I decided to fit it and see how it affects things. The car was a bit grubbier than I really would like it to be when opening up the gearboxes, but I took my time to clean off all the surfaces, joints and areas around the gearbox cover, and then cleaned it a bit more when the cover was off, hopefully no foreign objects made it inside. I stripped the old prop joint, cleaned it and left the various components together in case I want to swap it back. I'll probably get a new bearing for it as its been exposed to grit, grub and the outside world on one face and I don't see the point in saving a few pence on a bearing that takes a while to swap out. The new joint got built up as per the instructions, I smeared a bit of grease between the bearings, bushes and e clip to reduce any friction likely to build up between rotating and non-rotating parts. It probably isn't necessary, but I like to play it safe. I wacked a bit more grease into the gearbox before screwing it back together. As part of a job lot of parts from ebay I also picked up an aluminium one piece prop joint which I fitted to the front. I replaced the outer bearing as it was a bit grubby as outlined above. Fitting it gave me the opportunity to check out the front diff, which looked to be in good condition as well. Again I saved all the leftover parts in case I want to revert to standard. As well as these two slightly more involved jobs, I put loctitie on the heat sink screws, this was another hop up that I really didn't think much of in terms of usefulness or effectiveness, but during my recent use of the car I was surprised to feel how warm the bars had become, I'm glad I did fall for their anodised charm now. I do wonder if lowering the gearing for the shorter, more technical 'courses' I'm doing would be better for heat buildup but this might be something to fiddle about with in future. The final job I did today was to remove the Carson receiver and replaced it with a Flysky receiver to use with my FS-I6. I had to adjust the wiring a bit, and then set up the endpoints on the steering. It appears that there is better throw in one direction than the other, so I should benefit turning in one way than I used to with the old, basic Carson transmitter. I'm quite looking forward to taking it out and finding out if anything I did to the car has had a noticeable benefit to the driving experience, sadly its a bit damp out and wandering around is quite painful still so this may be a few days away.

Swapped the front wishbones on my terra scorcher for new ones - the originals hadn't appreciated my early rc car driving skill levels and had a fair bit more play than they should. While I was at it I checked a couple of 3mm shims in to reduce play even further. I had hoped to install the stainless steel pins, but they're too short with the metal A5 reinforcement I have fitted, so polished up, greased and refitted the screw pins. Removed, cleaned and emptied the cvas and refilled with 500 weight oil as reccomended on here, hopefully will help it run a bit nicer.

Here is one in the correct colour. Not my car but I'm pretty certain it is my vr6 behind it.

Evening. I'm looking to build a replica of my old vw corrado. I have the shell ordered from Kamtec and I need to sort out the paint now. The easy choice would be to replicate my candy white vr6, but I'd really like to build something close to my old, blue 16v. The paint on it was a less common factory paint called blue pearl effect. Looked dark blue, but depending on the sun could move from green to purple. I think I can match the basic blue with something like ps59, but can I put that on top of something to give a pearl effect to the paint? Also, it had a glass sunroof - technically a moonroof from a passat. I assume I can just get some smoke paint to replicate that in the roof? Any ideas welcome!

Finished trimming, prepping and masking the shell, wing and mirrors yesterday, laid down the black on the wing and mirrors, and ps-16 on the body between showers yesterday, bringing the parts and paint in to sit in front of a fan heater between coats and utilising my girlfriends hair dryer for additional heat and drying. I used the entire can of ps-16, and this morning put two coats of ps-41 silver on as backing. I'm really pleased with the colour and appearance of the shell. I'm also really pleased that I went to the effort of masking the windows. I used minimal stickers, because I hate stickering stuff, and I am just not that bothered about having it box art, I've just fitted what makes sense. Took it out for another hoon around in the street. It has been really windy, there are twigs and bits of fir tree all in the road which the car bounced over and provided a few obstacles to drive around. The oversteering seems to have been reduced, I turned the expo down on the controller to reduce the twitchy-ness, and I wonder if the tyres are wearing in a bit. I had been thinking about stripping the diffs and redistributing grease to make the rear looser than the front, but I am going to leave it for a bit longer to see if it continues to become more reasonable. I'm a bit disappointed by the play in the rear hubs - the bearings seem to be a bit floppy and the driveshafts move more than I expected even with the shims in place. Going to check the bearings are correct. Also surprised by how much dust, stones and debris was in the tub after the run. Think I'll order a Kamtec cover, although I worry about how much warmer it will make the motor run, it'll be better without crap getting into all the nooks and crannies.

I've ordered some turnbuckles, ball connectors and have some spare ends I can use to make up a connector from the servo to the steering bridge, hopefully I've got my measurements and assumptions right. I've also ordered some cheap 5mm hexes. Ran the car out on the street again. It oversteers really easily if you jump on the power too quickly in corners, definitely need to learn how to drive it more carefully. Not sure how to make it more stable, perhaps better, not box tyres. Made a start on the shell. Easily my least favourite part of this hobby. Definitely not doing box art sticker jobs as my stickering always ends up bad. Going to paint it the correct blue, do lights, grille etc, but that is it. One thing I like is clear windows, it would be so much easier to use the stickers but I think I will try to mask the windows before spraying. Ultimately this will just be a bashing body. Given the oversteering I imagine it'll encounter a few kerbs - the wheels have a few marks already so getting it perfect isn't that important to me, but I want it reasonable. Usually I drill and file body holes at the farm but given that I'm stuck at home, I bought a body hole reamer from ebay. I'm not sure if I got a rubbish one or if other people have just been luckier, but it is absolutely rubbish, just pushes the plastic out the way rather than cutting it. Going to try to pick up a file tomorrow to sort the mess out. Have at least got holes in the body now so I can see how it sits.

Pics from the build process.

Thank you! I'm feeling better today, definitely looking forward to everything inside not hurting so much! Yeah, picked it up after a reccomendation on here. Been handy for sitting cars on while doing work.

Finished the chassis now, fitted the electronics and run it around the street to see what it's like and what I want to adjust or amend. I picked up a waterproof, metal geared etronix servo for this build, maybe a little overkill, but better than the other way round. When I fitted the servo saver etc I noticed that the centre position of the servo and the no. of teeth conspire to leave the steering off centre a bit without an adjustable link from the servo to the steering bridge. I've used the trims on the controller to bring it back, but I'm not especially happy with that approach. I need to find out what length turnbuckle I would need to replace it. I've I've kimborough servo saver that would probably be a good replacement and make life easier when doing this. The hw 1060 sits nicely in the chassis space and I've tidied up the cables for now although I could, and will improve this. I haven't been overly impressed with the tble 02 esc in the past and just swapped the one out of my terra scorcher for another hw 1060. I've fitted one of the flysky recievers I picked up off ebay too - throttle is ch3 on the fs-i6. I was surprised by how quick the car felt/seemed on the quick test. I'm glad I fitted the metal motor mount as I imagine there's a good chance of heat building up in it with the taller gearing. After the run I fitted some 8mm aluminium hexes and shimmed the axles to remove slop, I've some serrated nuts, but I'll get some 5mm hexes and go back to the normal nylocs in due course. I wasn't going to glue the tyres but put a couple of spots around the inside edge of the rim, not too sure if I should get some foams to fit in these tyres or not so I didn't want to make too good a job of it. Photos to follow once Flikr catches up...

I really like my Dark Impact, it isn't a straightforward kit to build and bash though. You need to look after the diffs and adjust them regularly. It seems like you already know this, so it shouldn't put you off, however, I would reccomend a Terra Scorcher or another buggy from that family. Lots of upgrades, adjustability and pretty solid (apart from the a5 part) from the box.

Moar progress, I fitted the bearings, spacer and front diff, followed by the suspension arms and the front diff casing etc. I'm not keen on the fact that the diff casing is held together at the bottom by the bumper rather than screws, but I guess it's solid enough if they have kept this design for so long. I checked the shocks were clear of air bubbles, fitted the bladders and caps and cleaned the excess oil off and then fitted the stock springs. These needed the thickest spacers to remove all play from the springs which I was again somewhat surprised by. Next I built up the hubs, fitted the drive cups, driveshafts and then the hubs with kit screws etc. Everything moves happily enough, the front diff seems to spin more easily than the rear which wasn't my aim, but I'm not going to fiddle with it until I've run the car. After advice on here and from other research I used the ball connectors rather than self tappers with ball collars to fit the shocks onto the car. Finally I'm onto the steering. I wasn't keen on the stock tie rods - they looked like they would limit movement, plus on all of my other cars I now have turnbuckles for adjustment so I ordered the turnbuckle kit. I've made that up as per instructions - 40mm outside to outside, fitted a set of 850 bearings to the arms and will next move on to fitting the ball joints.

First time using my new fastrax stand for filling the shocks. Pretty handy so far. Not too sure if the spacers are right or not. The shocks have around 8mm travel right now, which seems miniscule compared to the buggies I've built. Going to keep the faith and see how they turn out. Held the piston end of the rod with needle nosed pliers to do the ball connectors up, worked better than I had expected.

Didn't do anything on the build yesterday, felt sorer and didn't fancy sitting down for too long. Started on the cvas this morning so I can leave them to settle for longer. No idea about the best setup, so building with the standard two hole pistons and spacers as per the instructions. Trimmed up all the parts and polished the pistons where the sprue attached. Finding the e clips harder at the moment due to being a bit wobbly and I blame the drugs for reducing my motor skills. On Thursday I did sort the self centring out on my new flysky fs-i6 and recalibrate the sticks to get them showing true centre on the display.

Evening. Looking to build the mini cvas and attach to my tt01 built tomorrow. Might anyone be able to advise on the best method of attaching them? The kit includes, and the instructions offer both 5mm ball connectors or self tapper with ball collars. I'm not sure which is best for this application. The stock pogo sticks are attached with a self tapper arrangement so I'm leaning towards replicating this with the self tapper and ball collar.

Trying not to sit still for too long, so doing little bits and them having a break or a short walk. Also, I need to keep myself entertained for a few days. Built up the back end and fitted the toe in rear uprights, need to work out what body posts are required for the subaru body. It might say in the paperwork but I haven't noticed it. Only had one slight teaser during the build and that was the bearing for the rear part of the drive cup at the front of the rear gearbox wouldn't push into place and let the bevel gear fit properly. I had to loosen the gear cover to get it seated correctly. Built up the front diff now so I can put the horrible aw grease away from the rest of the build. I'm surprised how effective it feels providing a limited slip effect on the rear diff now that the driveshafts are in. I was slightly more generous with the grease in the front diff as I hope to have that one a bit stiffer.

Rear diff built with aw grease for lubrication of the bevel gearand pseudo LSD effect. Ceramic grease between the bevel gears and plastic casing.

Decided to fit a 22t pinion rather than the kit one, but with the standard spur for now. Also have an alloy motor mount ordered but that won't arrive fir a couple of days I expect.

Bonjour. I've had an operation planned for a while to repair a couple of hernias, so I've known that I'll be off work for a little while and I'll need something to do. I saw a few VW Corrado bodyshells on the various Facebook groups and really fancied doing one while I procrastinate over actually rebuilding my real Corrado. This lead me to 'requiring' a road going chassis, as I only have buggies up to this point and I decided on the tt01e as it's fairly inexpensive and gives me a good base for to put the shell I want on. Also, hopefully it's fairly simple and I'll not struggle too much whole somewhat incapacitated. I wasn't quite sure what to expect - I've not had general anaesthetic before, but I feel pretty ropey. Was stuck in hospital for 24 hours longer than expected while my body slowly began to cooperate. This build will be fairly slow paced and probably feature a few mistakes, and hopefully not too much bending over. Also, I'm going to try to update the thread in real time, or as close to it as I can get. I started picking up the kit and various hop ups over the last few weeks. Bearings and an alloy prop shaft were the first things on the list. A set of cva dampers, toe in rear hubs and turnbuckle tie rods were soon picked up too. I'm hoping that this will be a fun little kit for blatting up and down the street over the summer. Here's the kit and I'm about to set off on this new journey!