rajicon

We often played darts like this..... with tequila or 141 proof rum

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. But thanks for the heads up. Thats a pretty poor effort. Could of done better with a spray can with dodgey tip. How on earth did they manage damage everything ? I remember Tamiya Addict had some hit and miss experiences with them too Were these the original parts from your first Ranger?

Yep, Suzuki Mighty boy. Your go TA-Mark That was a Toyota Caldina. Most of them stink of stale cigarette smoke (just like a friends) as they were very common for company cars in Japan.

Oh, so close ... but look at the rear *its based on an alto

Nice try, but sorry not a Starlet

Thanks mr pushrod. Possibly the smallest pick up ever made. I wanted one when I was small, then I "grew up" (to 6 foot).

We seemed to have moved on without someone guessing Mr Pushrods one Is it a Toyota Caldina?

I just painted up a Honda City using a translucent blue, back with aluminium. It came up looking so nice. It looks a deep rich blue with the slightest of reflection from the aluminium underneath. Sort of similar effect to those metalic flakes without the gastly chunky flakes. Tamiya have quite a few translucent colours. It required a little more patience, but Im very happy with the result.

If your using the Voltec wheels still, dont forget to take into account the bigger size. Work out the rolling diameter of both these and standard 1/10th wheels to compare. I try to work it out so I know how many turns of the pinion it takes to move the car 1m. From what I recall, 1/8th TGX wheels are a little smaller... so could be considered for quicker acceleration.

When making a Gravel Hound I encounted a problem. The centre drivshaft connects to the front diff pinion via part E2. This is shaft with a cup on one end while the other end has a slot to accept the pinion gear. I was unable to fit part E2 as it was too long, it was amost as long as E3 (same, but for the rear and also accepts the spur gear). I had to cut the shaft shorter and grind the slot again. When this sprue was moulded the metal shaft was not set deep enough into the plastic cup. It took me a long time to realise it was not something I had done wrong, rather a mistake made by Tamiya.

Thanks Mad Ax, Ive been wondering about the handling. I always felt the WW2 handled quite well (for a big model) until you gave it a bit to lift the front wheels. But now things are completely different. Longer wheelbase but less weight, skinnier track but lower ride height and of course the high centre of gravity. I really dont know what to expect. I currently have the standard silver springs on both ends. Because of the less weight they look fine for the front, but for the rear it sags a little. Ill have to go through my slection of springs to find out what works best. I hope to have it ready to give it a go this afternoon if the rain hold off for a while.

The other pics And to see what it should look like click click here

There have been a few projects around lately about Wild Willy 2 and Wheelers, so I decide to finish my Wheeler project thats been stalled for around a year. Its started with a Chevron City Turbo body for a m-chassis. The idea was to fit to a WW2. First of all I changed the suspension arms with M03 ones to bring the wheels in. I then tried these flipped around to stretch the wheelbase. This worked, but there was no way I would be able to drive it without the drive shafts binding from the angle created from the swept back arms. After coming to the conclusion the original chassis would not work I decided to fabricate a new chassis. One where the rear gearbox would bolt straight on. The Chassis The chassis has been made from about 6 layers of 200gsm fibreglass. In order to form the shape around a plaster mould, I vacuum bagged it. Now I use my vacuum bag set up to make snowboards. Because of the large surface area of a board, the pressure switch is set at around 25"mg. On such a small mold it pulled down really tight, squeezing the layers together and squeezing out the excess resin. But there was a bit too much vacuum, the outer edges where a little brittle from lack of resin. Therefore a painted a coat of resin on the outside fixed that. The chassis came out light, thin and extremely strong. On a strip I tested about 40mm wide, it was able to be bent in an arc to around 180 before snapping. And it seem quite stiff, but the bends and other chassis parts would further strengthen this. It has been made longer than the WW2 so that its the correct wheelbase as an M03. The Chassis Reinforcements These parts were made from 6-8mm High Density PE. It is strong and stiff when thick, yet it can withstand heavy impacts with mild deformation. Any impact sustained from action as part of an rc car will only bounce back. Its a little heavier than standard plastics though but has an excellent friction coefficient. The parts made were the front bulkhead, lower suspension pick up/chassis brace, upper chassis brace and few others small bits used to bolt the upper FRP chassis plate to the main chassis. Oh, and the battery holder. The battery now slides out forwards as there is very little room between the chassis and the rear of the body. The Suspension Basically at both ends its is essentially M03 seeing as the WW2 uses TL01 suspension (straight swap for less width). Shocks are set up as standard as per M03 (except rear lower joint/adjuster is a longer one, V6 of supension parts). Drive shafts, steering tie rods, c hubs, uprights, screw pins, etc are all M03. Front hexes are standard 6mm while the rear are 10mm from WW2. I used a set of axles in the front instead of the mini stub ones as i didnt have the stub ones at hand. Wheels and Tyres I wanted something that looked a little older in style. Also something bigger than 1/10th as the gearing is designed with a low ratio for the large tyres of a WW2. Something around the size of 1/8th. But 1/8th are to deeped dished, they need longer axles and they are too low profile. Then there are the RC Boys ones, but they too look a little fancy and are too big for the body shell. When in a store, I spotted some F201 rims and tyres. The fat tyres/small rims looked just right. With The F201 Front and Rear tyres and rims they rubbed. The tyres have double lip for the rim beading. With this in mind I cut the bead from the inside of the rims. The double lip will give plenty of contact when I glue them up. Other Things The body posts are an adaption of what were on the WW2 trees. The front ones swivel so the battery can slide out between them. When the body is on they lean towards each other. This was to create a little triangulation to stiffen the slightly loose posts. The steering sevo was a bit hard to figure out how too fit and secure it. Then it dawned upon my to cut a recess in the lower chassis brace and screw it to that, mounting it vertical with the horn facing the front. And of course there is the wheely bar/wheel hanging out the back. I thought I would post a few pics before I finish it. All I have to do now are a few small things. Im thinking about a transparent green or blue with a silver backing. The stickers for it are mainly gold and red with some white lettering. I will also need to put a lower turn motor in it as it has such a low gear ratio. And then the ESC and receiver need to be mounted. I have to strip them from another car this weekend. I hope to have a few pics of it running soon.

I was once waiting for a package to be delivered. Is it was coming from Japan and I knew from their efficient postage when to expect it. When things seemed like they were taking a little longer I started to think. So I decided to go to the post office to see if there was anything waiting for me. Sure enough, there it was. Im guessing the notice had been left by the door and blown away, only to be found soggy in the garden a week later. So when something doesnt turn up, why dont people just check their post office???

I know what you mean there. I used to race a Wild Willy in an open class (small club). Only ever completed 2 out of the 3 laps, but I was the winner when it came to fun. Again, batteries couldnt last much longer than 3 laps. Thats what everyone out our way were doing too. I moved on to a AYK Bobcat as that was the car of choice at Karringal rc car club (mainly because some guy had a heap he was selling). By this time everything was getting too competitive. A while later when I received a 959 for a birthday present in grade 5 the track was long gone form Karringal Hub expanding once again. I drove past it the other day and rembered how I would get Red Rooster Space Shuttle meals for lunch while waiting for the batteries to charge. I also think about some of the old stores I would frequent, such as ABC models where I dream about the fancy 4WD Kyoshos. My father had helis and we would often get invited from Max Tandy to go to Sale for huge heli and plane meets. Those were the days, walkmans and cassette taps, LA Olympics, skateboards that looked like flattened fish with wheels the size of coke cans, Tarax soft drinks, taking ghetto blasters and cardboard sheets to school to breakdance during lunchtimes, monster trucks, car shows had interesting concept cars, Beyond 2000, Its A Knockout, Neighbours just started and Kylie Minogue wore overalls (and not hot pants), Jason Donovan was dating Kylie, riding a 3 speed chopper or a bmx, footy cards in the back wheel, everybody would be at the park when not at home, the park equipment was fun (the safety police ruined that), Swan Larger and Allan Bond, Swan Larger blimp, Christopher Skase, Rayban sunglasses, Bob Hawke (PM who once held the record for drinking a yard class of beer), Ronald Reagan, Gorbachov and the USSR, video games like Outrun and Bubble Booble, Comodore 64, Expo 88...... Im feeling quite nostalgic now.

Yeah, I just thought that it would be strong enough to even do a little testing before you started on your final chassis plates. Most hop up chassis plates are FRP, just fiberglass with black pigment/dye/tint mixed with the resin. If you were going to lay up the carbon fibre, it could be possible to use fibreglass intsead. A really small amount of Dulux Ultra Deep Base pigment/tinter from an auto paint supplier will mix with the resin without effecting its strength. But use many layers of lighter weight as has a finer weave and will be stiffer. wasnt sure if it was Tasmania or New Zealand (from Melbourne myself) On another note, I noticed standard 1/10th hex wheels will fit the rear axle of a Wild Willy, just leaving the bearing exposed. I guess the design of having the wheel weight shared with the hex and bearing has gone now because the quality of plastic used in the rims has become better. Also with a little cutting down, a M03 front upright and axle could fit to the suspension arm of a Wild Willy. This will give the same width for both front and rear of a Wheeler allowing an easy WW to Wheeler conversion.

Its coming along nicely. What you could do is laminate either side of the balsa with a couple of layers of 200g/m fibreglass. Although this would only be a temporary measure as the balsa can still soak in water. Where abouts are you from?

Hahaha, I remember that wheeler doc. If your going through the trouble of making a custom chassis and centre shaft for the TA01, then why not start with a TL01 instead?? There have been a few cut down TL01s around. Make new chassis plates (left and right instead of top and lower) and grind the centre shaft down (plus redrill the hole for the pin). Heres a few measurements of the WW2 that might be of interest, Front: lower kingpin (in c hub) to lower kingpin 120mm NB, WW2 has one assembly that locks into place where TL01 steering knuckle would be. This measurement is from where the TL01 knuckle would be. Rear: lower screw pin (outer lower arm/rear upright) to screw pin 117mm Both ends: inner screwpin/u shaped pin, 41mm These are all taken with a tape measure as my calipers are packed away. So if the chassis being used is same as these measurements, then using TL01/WW2 parts(as noted in wheeler doc) and the TG10 alxes and B14 hexes it should all work out the right width. Not forgetting the the extra width needed for the wider Wheeler body comes from the rims large offset. The M03 has the same mesurements for the inner screwpin/u shaped bolt. That said, then any touring car which the rims wont rub, should be usable shouldnt it ????? I have made a custom fibreglass monocoque chassis for a WW2 which I need to assemble. Ive had people staying so everything has been in storage. I hope to finish it in the next few weeks.

They didnt have much faith of it reaching New York (or California) without breaking

next one,

Roy Ascott's Stimpsons Scorcher

A long while back, there was also a member here at TC Forums that was a teacher who decided to do the same thing for some students. http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?...pic=5430&hl

I was looking through an eBay sellers listings (someone we all know very well) and I came across this. The shipping is underlined in red.

Another interesting note is that under the English name is the Japanese name. In both of the catalogues they are the same; トヨタ　ハイラックス　ハイ　リフト Toyota Hilux High Lift No that sounds familiar

Its easier to buy another than it is to finish off the project that we already have. I too have bought things in the past which I just had to have, only to realise that not long after my intrest has moved on. Im now in need of more storage space for other (non rc) projects, therefore considering selling off most of my cars.