My DT-03 for fun driving and tinkering

[Grumpy pants 4485]

I’m reading your on going thread with interest.

I’m pretty close to pulling the trigger on a DT03 for some cheap back garden running. 

[Nobbi1977 1793]

 Cricket bat tape on the inside of the shell helps stop the disintegration. 
 

I might have a spare shock tower or two as I tend to run FRP hop up ones. I noticed there are re enforced M parts now as a hop up

[BuggyDad 4476]

57 minutes ago, Nobbi1977 said:

 Cricket bat tape on the inside of the shell helps stop the disintegration. 
 

I might have a spare shock tower or two as I tend to run FRP hop up ones. I noticed there are re enforced M parts now as a hop up

So do you go for reinforced m parts and aluminum shock towers for more overall toughness? I remember the parts being a very flexible material, presumed that to be as a good absorber of knocks to the shock tower. And I was hesitant about aluminium because of the idea that you'll just snap the next thing instead, something's got to give. But as a straight replacement it costs no more than a parts sprue. 

I bought plasterboard tape and some shoe goo, as per a couple of videos I saw from the USA on body repairs/reinforcement. I'm going to try that on both old and I think as a preventative measure on new. And was thinking also to glue plastic washers inside on the mount holes when I get round to looking for some suitable ones, or just double up the lexan. 

It's taken some hits this wee car in its short life, it must be said. 

[BuggyDad 4476]

59 minutes ago, Grumpy pants said:

I’m reading your on going thread with interest.

I’m pretty close to pulling the trigger on a DT03 for some cheap back garden running. 

Do it! I don't think anything else comes close on value, especially with it on Amazon for £72 now, with all the good bits. 

[BuggyDad 4476]

A confession:

I've now bought five of these kits.

One for my lad for his birthday, more expensively from a proper shop. 

Then one for me, just to keep him company.

Awaited the amazon parcel expecting it to lack one or more of Torque Tuned/CVAs/ESC. It had them all including TBLE-04S. So the next week I ordered two more. One for my nephew for Christmas, one for spares. 

Then yesterday I broke stuff and saw it had got even cheaper, so I thought what the he'll and hit the buy button on the basis that if we needed the spares before we'd need them again... 

And anyway my XV-01 will take the motor and ESC out of it. So if anyone needs a B screws bag or some terrible front tyres give me a yell!

Best stop now... 

[Nobbi1977 1793]

1 hour ago, BuggyDad said:

So do you go for reinforced m parts and aluminum shock towers for more overall toughness? I remember the parts being a very flexible material, presumed that to be as a good absorber of knocks to the shock tower. And I was hesitant about aluminium because of the idea that you'll just snap the next thing instead, something's got to give. But as a straight replacement it costs no more than a parts sprue. 

I bought plasterboard tape and some shoe goo, as per a couple of videos I saw from the USA on body repairs/reinforcement. I'm going to try that on both old and I think as a preventative measure on new. And was thinking also to glue plastic washers inside on the mount holes when I get round to looking for some suitable ones, or just double up the lexan. 

It's taken some hits this wee car in its short life, it must be said. 

I have not broken anything on any of mine so far. One has metal shock tower holders and carbon shock towers (they used to be cheap from Japan ). Sons is all stock I think. A couple of others we run and then moved on.

I think the most common breakage is the shock tower in a roll. I have seen snapped off front tubs when people have hit things hard with the front wheels. At these prices they are almost disposable. 
 

I have ordered a set of M parts for my charity build just to get a look at them.

[BuggyDad 4476]

3 hours ago, Nobbi1977 said:

I have not broken anything on any of mine so far. One has metal shock tower holders and carbon shock towers (they used to be cheap from Japan ). Sons is all stock I think. A couple of others we run and then moved on.

I think the most common breakage is the shock tower in a roll. I have seen snapped off front tubs when people have hit things hard with the front wheels. At these prices they are almost disposable. 
 

I have ordered a set of M parts for my charity build just to get a look at them.

I'll shortly have so many spares that I intended to keep all these bits stock until I experience specific repeated breakages myself. If that's front shock towers then I'd perhaps only replace them with aluminium if I also went reinforced on the support below. Would be interested anyway to hear about the reinforced bits. Is their reinforced plastic the same material as the stock drive shafts are made of? 

[SlideWRX 785]

22 hours ago, BuggyDad said:

Took some knocks today. 

You know, I've seen that spot a lot as a breakage point. luckily I haven't broken it myself (yet...), but it got me wondering.

The back of that spot is hollow, so it is kind of a shell.  What could we put in there to fill it up and give it strength?  I wouldn't want to use a glue that melts the plastic, but what about epoxy?  what else?

[BuggyDad 4476]

3 hours ago, SlideWRX said:

You know, I've seen that spot a lot as a breakage point. luckily I haven't broken it myself (yet...), but it got me wondering.

The back of that spot is hollow, so it is kind of a shell.  What could we put in there to fill it up and give it strength?  I wouldn't want to use a glue that melts the plastic, but what about epoxy?  what else?

Or could a back plate be added, keep it hollow but braced? If its a front hit and therefore the front that breaks in tension anyway, I suspect filling the back may make little difference. The practical answer may just be to replace it with aluminium when it breaks, and correspondingly the support beneath with the reinforced version. And drive better... 

[Kol__ 3377]

Great thread @BuggyDad, an enjoyable read and good to get some more info ahead of the arrival of my Amazon bargain later this week. However, for now I'll be putting mine away for a rainy day build

[alvinlwh 5895]

4 hours ago, SlideWRX said:

The back of that spot is hollow, so it is kind of a shell.  What could we put in there to fill it up and give it strength?  I wouldn't want to use a glue that melts the plastic, but what about epoxy?  what else?

Not going to work, any glue, putty or filling will never be as strong as the original moulding. The materials are not bonded in a molecular level to be part of the original material. Put it this way, if you smash a hammer into a plasterboard wall (drywall), the filler in the joint will usually come out first, if I make sense. 

However, if you can somehow melt new materials (weld) into the original, the bond will be complete. 

[BuggyDad 4476]

I'm quite pleased with the plasterboard tape and shoe goo body repair/reinforcing method. 

I had cracked front of roof and back of the cab sides. The rest is preventative. Shell hits the servo which means the front pin puts a bit of downward pressure on the shell, worsening the effect on an already weak point, plus there's plenty of clearance beneath the front body pin hole, so I went to town there. I also spaced the servo down by 1mm. Suspect my servo might be slightly big so I won't be buying the same one again for my XV-01. 

Next body shell I paint I might do a layer round the weak areas before running at all. It's so easy to do. Also where paint might rub.

Tempted later to paint some of this mesh black then stick it inside the windows for a bit of a retro racing look as well as well as reinforcement, but I'd need to refine my method first or it'll be a cloudy mess. 

[BuggyDad 4476]

I went for it on the window netting. I think it's reasonably "scale" actually. On a fresh shell it would look better. Until it gets dirty.... 

I just painted the plasterboard tape black then used spray glue. 

[BuggyDad 4476]

Removed a bit of rear shock tower that takes the top shock mount back a bit too far with ball nuts. Not necessary by any means but my wide spring was just capable of fouling the upper arm. Now it isn't, and the shock moves in line with suspension travel. But really because the paint for my driver hasn't turned up yet. 

[SlideWRX 785]

22 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

Not going to work, any glue, putty or filling will never be as strong as the original moulding. The materials are not bonded in a molecular level to be part of the original material. Put it this way, if you smash a hammer into a plasterboard wall (drywall), the filler in the joint will usually come out first, if I make sense. 

However, if you can somehow melt new materials (weld) into the original, the bond will be complete. 

I was thinking like if you put an expanding foam into an aluminum can; no bonding, but structural support is better than if it wasn't there.  'Course, it could pop out in this situation, so... 

I was avoiding bonding, as I was worrying about weakening the part, because I was filling it in.  Maybe worrying too much. In hindsight, bonding is all that would hold something in there to support the piece. I suppose I could pull some material off of the sprue and glue it across the hole and try to close it up.  This is all far from perfect, just pondering ways to get a bit more strength.

[alvinlwh 5895]

17 minutes ago, SlideWRX said:

I was thinking like if you put an expanding foam into an aluminum can; no bonding, but structural support is better than if it wasn't there.  'Course, it could pop out in this situation, so... 

I was avoiding bonding, as I was worrying about weakening the part, because I was filling it in.  Maybe worrying too much. In hindsight, bonding is all that would hold something in there to support the piece. I suppose I could pull some material off of the sprue and glue it across the hole and try to close it up.  This is all far from perfect, just pondering ways to get a bit more strength.

Now, I am not sure if standard plastic cement will work on that part, about to go to bed so can't try, perhaps you can try if you have some. If it works then plastic putty can work because it uses the same cement as a solvent. 

Your idea is effectively what some static modellers uses to fill gaps, dissolve sprue in cement to a paste and use it as a filler. 

[alvinlwh 5895]

14 hours ago, BuggyDad said:

I'm quite pleased with the plasterboard tape and shoe goo body repair/reinforcing method. 

Also where paint might rub.

I have a shell where I used an entire tube of glue to reinforce it that when you knock on it, it sounded solid not hollow. 

Tape on where paint may rub is a good idea, I do it on my SW-01s where there is so little space that the RX plugs will rub. 

[BuggyDad 4476]

I bought this cheap spring set:

https://www.makeitbuildit.co.uk/fastrax-1-10th-95mm-spring-set-soft-blue-med-red-hard-black-7940

They fit! Diameter is bigger than stock but smaller than the Core RC Big Bore ones. Although the Core RC ones taper in at the bottom for a better fit. I'm going to try the black (hard) ones first. They're harder than the Core ones. Quite possibly too hard but I have to try all the options. I also think I need to go for heavier oil, but I'll either do that and keep the Core springs on to assess that change first, or I'll try out all the various springs before I fiddle with the oil. No time to play for a few days anyway.

I also noticed that in fact the Core RC springs had indeed been fouling the upper arms, so my adjustment to the mount position was justified:

Some paint has worn off both on the middle windings, where it bows out. 

[BuggyDad 4476]

Excitingly (for me anyway) I now also have the following bits to play with:

- Schumacher front hex conversion

- cheap fastrax buggy wheel sets x2, hex front and rear. Aim being to learn from different tyres, mostly on the front. 

- paint for a new shell, in a colour which could be great or rubbish, we'll see.

- all the paints I need for the driver, which is the thing that excites me the most. I am likely to do a terrible job on first attempt of course, I'm no artist, but hey ho. 

- the necessaries to try a new way of mounting a wing, with some bodging.

Not sure when I'll get time. Hopefully painting Monday night. 

[BuggyDad 4476]

And it turns out you can adjust camber just by bad driving:

[BuggyDad 4476]

However, I now also realise I'm going to need shorter steering arms:

So hex conversion will have to wait for that. Maybe I'll just get some M3 rod and cut it to length. 

Edit. No it won't. There's enough depth in the ball cups to take the existing rods. I think I just have to drill the hole to diameter and file the c cups a little to take the height of the uprights. Question is, is a simple 3mm drill bit OK here or do I need a reamer? Or should I instead try to fit a Schumacher c hub?

Noted also that the axle is offset about 3mm behind the kingpin on the Schumacher uprights. What's this called? I think caster is angle so I don't think it's that, but it's related. What does it do to handling? 

[SlideWRX 785]

It should make higher speeds a bit more stable.  The only thing I've seen specific to that is this bit I found. It is an upright that is swappable between trailing and lined up. at the end it mentioned the trailing setup for high speed circuit:

 

[BuggyDad 4476]

8 hours ago, SlideWRX said:

It should make higher speeds a bit more stable.  The only thing I've seen specific to that is this bit I found. It is an upright that is swappable between trailing and lined up. at the end it mentioned the trailing setup for high speed circuit:

 

Makes perfect sense. An element of self-centring. Just like a caster wheel, but not the definition of wheel caster, confusingly. 

So keeps it in a straight line but correspondingly requires more servo torque to turn. 

[BuggyDad 4476]

The hex uprights will have to wait. They're going to hit the c hubs and I'd need to cut out a section that would weaken them, so rather than doing that I've ordered some the TRF201 C hubs which take them as is, so I'll await those. However, the uprights themselves seem nicely designed and I've got some wheels that await them, so I am looking forward to sorting all that in a oner. I think that makes more sense than bit by bit.

Meanwhile I fitted Ballistic Buggy green 4WD fronts and they turn a badly understeering car into a slightly oversteering one (on one run in slippery conditions, vs the stock front ribs), so the effect is dramatic. Perfect fit on the stock wheels. Fastrax studs are I think slightly gripper on the terrain I've tried them than the stock buggy tyres - squared off so half the length of the spikes, in a denser layout and a softer compound. Look forward to matching front and rears, which might be a better balance. 

I've also reverted to stock springs for now. Figured I'd settle on some tyres then try to be a bit more scientific on suspension and try to experience and learn the effects of each single change. Gut feel is when I changed to harder rear springs what I really wanted was higher ride height, not necessarily a higher spring rate. But we'll see. 

[BuggyDad 4476]

Painted my first driver figure. He won't be gracing the catwalk but he's probably a better driver than me. 

Was hoping to get a Tamiya stars sticker onto his helmet but I think my stickers are too big so he'll probably stay as he is.

His clothes are too glossy because my matt varnish hasn't turned up, so that'll get dulled down.