TAZ-NZ

I've given tips to a number of people in the forum and in private messages of late, on how best to make there blackfoot chassis reliable runners with modern electronics and motors. I repeated myself often enough that I wrote it all down into a txt file and over the last week I've been filling in extra details, to make it a useful guide for anyone planning on making their blackfoot chassis into a runner. It's based on what I've learned from the dozen or so blackfoot chassis i've built or repeared in the last few years, include a couple of leasons learned the hard way. Anyway I've turned it into a basic web-page and uploaded it to my webspace so anyone can access it, have a look and let me know that you think. You can find it here: Blackfoot reliability mod guide (old link dead see page two of this thread for the reliablity guide.) (There are sure to be some spelling and gramma mistakes too, feel free to point them out too.)

Standard model glue even when applied correct rarely holds up for long when used for repairs, as the breaks are normally in high stress areas, I find it's better to use something stronger if possible. Epoxy putty is great for modeling new front fenders and alike, but it tends to be bulky and you reallly want something that can be thinly applied on the inside of the body, this way you can paint over it and no one will know it's there. Since the area you say the break is in mostly large flat surfaces, I'd suggest two part epoxy (normal comes in double syringe) you just mix it apply it and it sets like concrete in minutes, give it 24 hours to harden fully and it's stronger that the original body. If it's a really large crack you may want to use some fibre grass cloth to re-enforce the epoxy. Sound like once you get the cracks repaired it should be a fairly easy restore, you should be able to pick up a sunroof and drive fairly easy and relatively cheaply. The biggest issue I can see for you now is finding a back windows, you'll be hard pressed to find a Blackfoot D-tree or a Super Blackfoot G-tree and if you do it will probably cost the earth, your probably going to have find one used either in a used/random parts lot or as part of a wrecked body. (unfortunately there aren't the number of wrecked bodies and chassis running around on ebay that there were a year ago.) I peiced together a orginal Blackfoot body set (complete with all ford markings) from all new parts a year ago and you don't want to know how much it cost, so is really worth the effort to restore the body you have.

The body doesn't look to bad, atleast from what you can make out in the image ( it always look worse in person), but people have started with alot worse and come up with some stunners. You've got the front windows and it hasn't been painted or badly scatched from that I can see,It looks like you have the rear window as well but again I can't tell for sure from the image, the right front fender is intact, can't see the left front fender (hopefully this isn't damaged, as they are a pain to repair) if that's intact your already ahead of half the used bodies out there. looks like your missing the sun roof (everyone is, but you can get them on ebay cheep) the chrome is a little warn but again seen alot worse and it all appears to be all there, looks like the hood is ok too, no split down the middle. The only thing you seam to be missing is the driver. I'm sure the paint (if there is any) and the decal have seen better days, and you probably missing a half dozen or more screws, and the body sure to have a few scatch and scapes, but without see some larger images with more detail it looks like you've got something worth working with.

Unless you pay big money it's hard to get a blackfoot that is in good condition all round, more often than not either body or the chassis need major work. I once picked up durt cheap off ebay, a near mint monster beetle chassis without body, it only had one broken steering upright, everyone bidding seemed to think it was a wreck. (I got it for spares, but ended up building it into a blackfoot) There are alot of good to average conidtion Blackfoot bodies out there, that are able to be restored, and can be picked up cheap with a bad paint jobs & lumped in with total wreck of a chassis on ebay. The Blackfoot is a great car, you just need to put a bit of work into it before you start bolting modern hardware to it, and then rememer it's 15+ year old design so it has it limits.

I re-release would be great, the Mudblaster would be the easiest, the tires are still in product for the for the dualhunter tamiya has already done the Re-release mudblaster body including the F-tree. The front bumper is the same as the lunchbox so no issue there, so that only really leave is the G,J,K tree and a couple of bits of aluminum. But it's never going to happen for the same reasons Tamiya change the blackfoot so many times, the Frog chassis was never deigned to be used as a monster truck chassis, the extra forces the larger wheels are just to great for it to be reliable. There are a whole host of things they would need to address some of them can me fixed some can't, here the list as I see it from front to back. Floppy steering: fixable - Add rubber bushed for radius arm screws like found on the super blackfoot (part SD8), Include better servo saver, Oil filled shocks as standard. Steering uprights (parts K1,K8) break to easily : fixable - Change plastic to that used for steering uprights on Super blackfoot (parts SA7, SA8) Front shock tower (part J11) breaks to easily: fixable - change servo cover (part G9) to same design as king/super blackfoot (part B10) and replace aluminum MSC mount with king/super blackfoot plastic MSC mount (part B1) less MSC mounting posts. Uneven stairing: fixable - change servo mounts (parts A8,C4) so steering servo is centered to chassis, include ESC to eliminate the need for second servo to allow this to be possible. Front chassis flex: fixable - include FROG full length aluminum side plate to brace chassis. Battery bay to small for standard 6 cell: fixed do what they did on re-release frog/brat chassis. Rear swing arms Sag, break to easily: inpractical to fix would require a change in materials, or a total re-design like what we got with the Super Blackfoot. (possible bandaid fit is to add sway bar to kit as standard) Diff can't handle the extra loads: fixable but very unlikely Tamiya mods drive cups to have Oldfrogshot's screw mod (extremely unlikely, they would have to find a way to make it full proff no easy, too tight or too loose and it doesn't work, no other option is to re-design diff, like we got with the super blackfoot. Hex axels (parts SA10) strip to easy: fixed same fix as re-release frog/brat, switch to dog-bone axels. Too easy to roll over in corners: fixable - add rear sway bar to kit. I would love to see them re-release the mudblaster, monster beetle and the orginal blackfoot, I could do with the spare parts for mine, but there are just too many things wrong with the design for Tamiya to do it. If it was a couple easy fixs then yes, but since the last time they tried to fix the blackfoot, they binned the entire transmission and rear suspension assembly and modified the front suspension heavily to match, I doubt they would start producing it again knowing its a faulty design.

Hi tschmidt, My suggested for things to if your going to run a 15t motor are: bin the orginal rear axel, hex drives, drive cup, and pickup up a set of these. RC Frog 2005 Assem Univ. Shaft , they are drop in upgrade but do the Oldfrogshot Screw mod on them. Pick up a new set of Frog/brat re-release bevel gears for the diff (the one you have are probably shot, not far short of it) Look at picking up a complete set or Frog/brat re-re transmissons gear (make sure you get the C-clip) this will give you more gear options. (a CRP adjustable motor mount goes great with these as you can run odd ball combos of gears) Grab a King/Super Blackfoot B-tree remove the old servo cover and the aluminum MSC mount, and replace them with the H1 and H10 parts for the new B-tree, you'll need a couple of extra 3x8mm screws to hold down the back of the new servo cover to the MSC mount. Doing this acts as a brace for the front shock tower, which tend to break without the extra support. (I'm guess your running a ESC so cut the MSC post of the new B1 part and mount your reciver under the servo cover in place of the MSC) With a ESC you only need one servo, so you can move the steering servo over and mount it on an angle so in centered like the image below, this helps handling alot, do this as part of a steering rod upgrade, just buy some ball ends and thread rod from you local hobby store to replace the stock steering arms. (Get something heavier duty that the stock items, and possible get a new servo saver too). Bearings all round will help take a lot of slack out of the wheel and help handling and preformance. (note all the ebay kits are two bearings short as they don't include replace the two that come in the transmission stock) If the the back end is sagging alot, it's probably your shocks, grab some shock claps to increase pressure on the springs, or replace the shocks. (you want it firm on the rear to stop roller overs in the corners) if you can find an old aftermarket rear sway bar they do wonders. A frog, full length aluminum helps reduces front end flex. That the should give you something to get started on, the screw mod and the servo cover swith are most in my book, without them you'll go though dozens of diffs in no time and you risk the front shock tower breaking and it very hard to find new now and often expensive to replace.

Old Skool is right, just pickup a King/Super Blackfoot B-tree and replace the original aluminum MSC mount with the new plastic B1 part, and replace the missing servo cover with the new B10 part, because the King/Super Blackfoot servo cover bolts to both the shock tower and the MSC mount it act as a brace for the shock tower. (you will also need five 3x8mm screws) Also check there is no damage to the H1 part at the very front of the chassis as the shock tower also bolts to this, if it damage just pick a Frog/Brat re-release H-Tree and replace it (means taking the whole chassis apart). The front bumper on the orginal black foot is the same as the Lunch box, you should be able to pick up a Re-release lunchbox bumper easy enough. I've got a JG shock tower laying around at home I think, but they don't look as good as the stock shock tower does.

Looks great, It really come a long way, are the tires new, or did you use something to bring them up looking that good ? And who cares if it's not shelf queen they're built to be run no sit on display, my Blackfoot only looks that good because it's barely been run since I built it. My Mudblaster on the other hand was built to be bashed and was been, It still hasn't been painted becuase it whould end up looking more like your blackfoot started out looking with my hopeless painting skills. Just be careful you might get the bug, and end up replacing every part on car with new or aftermarket parts, I build my mudblaster when there were no Re-releases the H-tree alone could cost $100 USD on ebay back then, I started with a trashed chassis and a mint body basically, and about 4 chassis later I have a basically all new Mudblaster, I could have purchased one NIB for less, but it wouldn't have been half the fun it was to hunt down all the parts. That's why I gave you list if tips & moids to save you learning what I did the hard way, many of the parts are easy to come by now, but there are a few like the front shock tower that are getting hard to find new, so you need to put a little more care into looking after them.

Magnetic Mayhems are great motors, why Kyosho stopped making them is beyond me. I've got five of them 4 forward, 1 reverse, if you want to keep them in good running order for as long as possible, check out this link: http://www.marcee.org/Articles/MagneticMayhem.html It gives instruction on how to mod them to have bearing instead of just bushes, making them much more reliable and helps preformance some too. Just make sure you run them in again before you really have at them. Just did a quick spin around the web looks like you may be able to get the Magnetic Mayhem still, Kyosho has them on there site under K-Speed Monster Truck same part number as the old Magnetic Mayhem 70671 & 70672, a quick Google turns a few stores that are stocking them, some with images showing the Magnetic Mayhem sticker on the motors. I may shoot them an email and check they have then in stock. Sorry to get off topic bfst24, but if you can get them the Magnetic Mayhems are great motors, good torgue and speed and they come in forward and reverse.

Great work, a few people have talked about making aluminum rear swing arms but your the first to do it that I know of. I really like the idea of the Spring loaded body mount, the stock body mounts break easily but anything stronger risks spliting the body, I may just have to steal that idea to mount my mint Blackfoot hard body on the custom chaissis I'm slowly building for it. I also tempted to ask you what it would cost for a set of those front swing arm assemblies, I could do with the extra weight up front on my mud-blaster, as much as I could do with the extra strenght. (I'd want to anno them black so they look stock) The only thing you did I'd question is the gearbox side braces, I know you did it because the common belief is that it's the transmission side plates flex and thus allow the diff spur gears seperate and thus you diff dies a quick and noisy death, the catch is that there is so much play between the Diff bearing supports (the B2 psrts) that diff can self destructed without the need for any real flex in the transmission side plates. Now you can shim the side plates so to remove the play between the Bearing supports and side plates, I've done this myself with layers of aluminum foil tape, but you can only take out so my play in the diff before it binds badly. I still beleave the simpliest and most effective fix for the diff problem is Oldfrogshot's screw mod, it's simple and it works great, it's also doesn't change the looks of the car. I running huge torque though my transmission with this Mod without issue, without this mod my setup will eat a stock diff in minutes. (infact your can almost measure it in seconds) But again great work, very impressive.

It looking good, come a long way from where it started, be good to see it when your finished. Yeah they can really get up and go, but the transmission was never designed for modern motors, I suggest doing the screw mod I linked in my other reply as soon as possible even if you keep the stock axel and drive cups. I'm running a 22 turn, 550 can, Kyosho Magnetic Mayhem with ball bearing mod, with a custom 8.4volt bump pack (pictured below), and a Hitec EZN-R Pro ESC, the combo produces huge torgue and reduces a stock diffs to rubbish in under 5 minutes of run time. (Making the screw mod a must in my book of anyone running one of these transmissions) Here's a picture of my Blackfoot & Chassis as of the last time I took pictures. (I've tried selling it a couple of times, but no ones offer me enough to part with it yet.) In regards to the broken body mounts, to make life easier removing the body, a good trick is to thread a screw part way into the body post, then cut of the head of the screw and drill a small hole though the screw shalf near the top, this way you can place body over the screw shalfs and then use standard body clips to hold everything it place. It makes the removing the body easy and you don't have the problem of the body posts stripping out on the inside and the screws becoming loose.

Just a couple of tips, from someone who just about done it all, when it come to orginal blackfoot/Mudblaster chassis. 1) There is a space inside the chassis foward of the main battery, underneath the aluminum MSC plate designed to house your 4x AA battery brick, just remove the main battery and insert the AA-battery brick via the battery door, it should can slide in and forwars a tilt forwards into place. (this helps lower the center of gravity and helps prevent roll overs when corning at speed.) 2) Look at picking up a King/Supet Blackfoot "B" parts tree, and replacing the orginal aluminum MSC with the B1 part (cut of the mounts for the MSC since your using a ESC) and replace the orginal Servo cover with the B10 part. The new version of the servo cover bolts to the MSC mount at the back and act as a brace for the front shock tower, a common failure failure point on this chassis that expense to replace. (it cheaper to pick up a B-tree for $18-20 USB from E-bay than trying to replace orginal J tree when it breaks) 3) Your diff gear are trashed, no question about it. Get a new set of replacement bevel gears for a Re-release Frog/Brat, you can get them for as little as $7+ shipping on ebay. (get two sets infact your'll need them) 4) Get yourself a set of "Frog Universal Drive Shalfs, then apply Oldfrogshot's screw mod to the drive cups, this stops the drive cups seperating and eating the bevel gears. (may look expensive but take it from someone on there 5th or 6th set of bevel gears, it's worth every cent and then some) 5) Since your running an ESC, look at centering your steering servo like in this picture below, it will improve handling noticable, but will require you purchasing some threaded rod and cutting it to lenght. (Makes the truck turn the equally well in both directions) 6) Replace all the plastic bushes with real bearing, helps preformance and handling alot. (worn bushes make for floppy wheels and greater friction on the axels) Other things to look at are a CRP adjustable motor mount and a full set of Frog transmission gears so you can adjust your gear ratios, and try hunting down a set of CRP heavy duty steering uprights to replace the orginal K1,K8 parts (these are hard to come by and tend to be expensive but as the orginals break often and are hard to find new, it's better to get something that will last.) Also look at picking up a Frog/Brat re-release C-tree your rear swing arms C6,C9 will fail sooner or later and it's a handy to have the spares laying around. Almost forgot, I found epoxy putty works well as a way out repairing the damaged hard bodies, one of my Blackfoot bodies way damaged it the same place as your and I repaired it this way. (model it to the basic shape let in set for a day and they sand to the final shape, then paint)

It's a little bent out of shape and one or two the screw holes are starting to strip out on me, It's one of the few use parts left on the chassis, almost everything else is new including the screws. I've got a Re-release H-tree on it's way, I would have replaced it earlier but it's a pain to get at, and there was no way I was paying the pre re-release rate of a $100 USD for a mint vintage H-tree. The Chassis you see today is the third this projects had: - The first was a wreck, about the only thing I'm still using from it, is the JG bumper. - The second was a used runner, but was starting to show it's age, the H1 part, rear swing arms, and transmission case are about the only things I'm still using from that chassis. - The third one I build with mint parts straight off the trees, and a complete set of new screw bags. I've been slowly replacing the used parts with mint or upgraded items. I'll tell you now, buy NIB kits, it's cheaper in the long run for projects like this, but there's more fun in hunt when you restore a car part by part. I'll probably try your servo mod on my Blackfoot in the next day or two, I'll post pics of the results.

Argh, now I have to strip it down and rebuild it again. It will have to wait until I get a new H1 part.

I plan on painting the Lexan body metalic blue, and putting a set of factory decal on it. The hard body, I'm still not sure, I started out thinking I would paint in blue too, but I'm not so sure anymore. I'm afraid of stuffing up the paint on the hard body, because I suck with a spray can.

It wasn't cheap $78.00 from Diversity Model Aircraft. But they will make any battery config you like, just send him a picture of the layout you want.

They're already available, I scored a set off Ebay direct from Japan, they arrived on Friday and I fitted them to my Mudblaster on Sunday. They're a badword of a lot easier to fit than the stock axles or even the modern dog bones, the drive cups are longer than those of the Re-Release Frog, but the axles will work with the Re-Release drive cups, but only just.

Well it's been over a year since I first posted picture of this project and in that time of replaced more than half the parts on it and learned a badword of a lot in the process. So here are some picture of my Mudblaster today, and a few details for those of you that are interested. My latest mod was to convert the steering assembly to that of a King Blackfoot, thus eliminating the asymmetric stock steering setup, I had to make custom 60mm steering rods to suit the new setup. I've done a lot of work on the chassis to try and eliminate the weaknesses it has in it's stock form. The Mods so fare are: CHASSIS: - JG heavy duty front bumper. - King Blackfoot SD8 rubber bushings. - CRP bushed front arms. - CRP heavy duty uprights. - Trinity aluminum oil filled front shocks. - Lowered front body mount. - Full length front skid plate. - Parma aluminum side nerf bars. - King Blackfoot servo saver assembly. - King Blackfoot servo cover. - Modified King Blackfoot MSC mount. - Trinity aluminum oil filled rear shocks. - CRP battery door Clip. - Lowered rear body mounts. - Frog aluminum swing arm supports. - Parma aluminum swing arm central support. - CRP adjustable motor mount. - Re-release Frog 19t Pinon. - Frog 49t spur gear. - Frog brass counter gear. - Fully ball raced. - Re-release drive cups w/ Oldfrogshot screw mod. - 2005 Frog Universal Axles. - CRP differential bearing supports. - Parma rear sway bar. - Motor Heatsink. - Monster Beetle gold wheel rims. - Unknown brand low profile diamond treaded tires. ELECTRONICS: - Custom 7 cell 8.4v 3700mah NiHm Battery. - Kyosho Magnetic Mayhem 22x1 Motor. - Hitec Hitec Aggressor CRX 3-channel controller. - Hitec DXC dual conversion receiver. - Hitec HS-325HB heavy duty ball bear servo. - Hitec EZN-R Pro electronic speed controller. Here's a picture of the custom 7 Cell 8.4v 3700mah NiHm hump battery. The body is a Re-issue set with an orginal vintage roll bar. I also have a NIB Parma Lexan Mudblaster body. TO DO LIST: - Replace old H1 part. - Replace old rear swing arms. - Screw mod, then fit long drive cups that came with universal axles. - Find & fit aluminum wheel hubs. - Paint Lexan body. - Trim Lexan body. - Paint hard body. - Fit windows to body. - Apply decals. - Bash and have fun doing it. I'm basically happy with it now. I'd love to find out who made/makes the tires and get a spear set. And I really need to learn to paint a lot better before I try and paint the hard body. I've got a Blackfoot that is basically getting the same treatment, but I'm fitting it with Lunchbox rims & Big Bear tires. It should be a little less extreme, i.e. a few more stock parts.

We'll this is a project that's been a long time in the works, due to missing parts, broken radio gear, a broken shoulder and a few other things, but I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully this time it's not an oncoming car But anyway onto the details, basically it's a re-release Lunchbox body mounted on a PTI Goliath chassis, with a few minor mods, powered by a Kyosho Magnetic Mayhem Motor. I've worked out a mounting plate for the body, that allows me to mount the body un-modified onto the chassis without having to modify it either. I'm just waiting on some aluminum tube & bolts to finish mounting the body properly. The tube will be cut to make four spacers, and the bolts will pass though the body mounting plate, down the center of the spacers and bolt directly into existing holes in the chassis. Here are some picture of my progress, and a reason why there should be a law against some people using spray paint.

Check out this site, it's basically the ultimate list of CRP parts. http://www.rcchopshop.com/team_crp_rc_car_parts.html I just wish a few more of them were still available.

Start with oldfrogshot's drive cup screw mod, links below. http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.a...74&sid=3142 http://www.tamiyaclub.com/xforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8104 It work great, I got a full set of the custom axles and modified TA04 cups with the screw mod & set of dog bones from oldfrogshot, and installed them on my Mudblaster. It's running a Kyosho Magnetc Mayhem 22x1 turn 550 motor, running off a 8.4v battery, so a lot of stress is being put of the drive train, and I'm yet to have an issue with this setup. I've got a full set of the new re-release Frog dog bones & axles coming, and I plan to do the screw mod of the drive cups and them mount them in the Blackfoot I'm restoring. You should also of course ball race the whole transmission and axle assembly. Also see if you can hunt down a set of CRP Diff. Bearing Supports (1608) http://www.rcchopshop.com/images/crp/crp1608b.JPG And a CRP Adjustable motor mounting kit (2107) http://www.rcchopshop.com/images/crp/crp2107.jpg Both can be found of ebay from time to time. Make sure your transmission side plates a dead flat, if not dump them and get another set off ebay cheap. Also as long as you have your spur gear is ball raced, glue the B1 parts to the transmission side plates to stop them spinning and wearing out, and creating play in the transmission, if they are worn dump them too. You may also want to get a set of Thorp aluminum wheel hubs or look into getting some aluminum hexs and set of after market wheels. I've also thought of looking into the possibility of making a belt driven ball-bearing diff transmission, using the parts from a TLT-1 transmission, but I've never had all the parts in front of me at the same to work it out. Hope some of this helps. TAZ-NZ

Sounds like 2.2" inserts will work in a pinch, but I'm probably going to have to make something if I want a perfect match.

Cardsigner I'm truly impressed, very nice truck. After seeing that I had another think about chassis, and then came across this in another post: http://www.junfac.com/conversion_feather.htm I'm thinking it may be a good alternative to Bruiser chassis setup you used, it would needs some modding to work, but It should give a good solid platform to build from, without the complexity of fabricating a tube chassis. What do you think ? I just can't bring myself to use a bruiser chassis, the Bruiser or Mountaineer are the only kits I'd ever buy just as a shelf queen. Whatever I use it going to need to be strong, this is going to a basher in the true meaning of the word. I'm already collecting parts, I've got the motors, and the wheels, I can buy the transmission & axles as parts, I got a ESC picked out, and I'm keeping an eye out for a Blackfoot body in the right condition.

Doesn't anyone know of a brand/model of foam inserts that suit the Lunchbox wheel size ? Everything I've found is to big or to small for the hub size. I'm wanting to eliminate the flat tyre effect you get with the Lunchbox tyres when they are under load, but still keep the tyres relatively soft.

quote:Originally posted by Cul-TechIt would work, my only advice on a tube chassis that small is make sure you leave enough space above the axles for the servos during full suspension compression.[] id="quote">id="quote">I may just have to steal the push-pull cable steer setup idea, from your hybrid beetle crawler then. [] badword I may use it on the PTI Goliath chassis I'm using for my current Lunchbox crawler project. It's just such I great solution to the problem. I figure the Blackfoot body should give me plenty of room to hide most things up out of the way, and the Big Bear wheels & tyres should give the truck enough width to help overcome the higher resulting COG from causing it to tip in the corners, but it's all theory until I get some parts in hand. I've already started my shopping list [] I just parted with the bright orange Blackfoot in my showroom and I miss it already, the colour really grew on me. I'm thinking I may do a less than original Hukes of Hazard theme for this project. I'd delete the sunroof, and the spot mounts on the roll-bar and add a clod buster blower to the bonnet. Paint the body the correct orange, the roll-bar black, keep the front grill, rear bumper & blower chrome. Then decal it with the confederate flag cross-ways on the roof, the "01" on the doors, "GENERAL LEE" on top of the rear wheel arches, and a two sets of crossed rebal & checkered flags on the rear corners of the deck. Now all I need is the money, the time, the parts, and the skills to build the tube chassis. Oh well I'll get there in the end or I'll cheat and get someone else to build it for me [] but then I'd need to add more money to that list.