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I got caught up in the recent TA03 fever on here! So while there's nothing ground breaking in this thread, there will hopefully be something different in my take on the chassis

There will be two three at least five builds in this thread:

  • A TA03-RS 911 GT1, in 1996 Le Mans livery and nicknamed 'Code Red'
  • A TA03F-Pro David Jun restore and rebuild
  • A TA03F-TRF project, built entirely from parts, most of which are blue, nicknamed 'Bluebird'
  • A TA03F-Pro 'Drift' Chassis that will be built with a liberal spray of purple aluminium parts
  • A TA03F Subaru Impreza that was bought from Japan as a built shelf-queen to participate in the Silver Can Budget Rally Build Off

First, an introduction to the 911 GT1 build...

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I'm no fan of the 'street' version of the TA03R-S 911 GT1, but did a bit of reading up and discovered the 1996 Le Mans version (58193) which is stunning. The shape of the shell just suits a racing livery better than a civilian look, in my opinion. So I ordered a set of repro stickers and found the manual online to give that a go

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I decided to do something different with the build and instead of going Tamiya blue, I've assembled a heap of red parts instead. It all started with seeing the red servo mounts on Tamico and wondering what else was available in red. Turns out, quite a bit!

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The 23mm turnbuckles might be a little too long for use as adjustable upper arms, but I can't find the shorter lengths so settled on a few 3rd party bits instead. Red GPM King Pins because I refuse to pay £70 for red Tamiya King Pins on eBay!!

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And a few additional Hop Ups I managed to track down. The Ball Diff is going in the rear gearbox, in a little nod to the TA02 with its gear/ball front/rear diff combo 

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For wheels, the Le Mans version had the gold mesh wheels in the different front and rear offsets. I managed to find a set of the fronts, but no joy on the rears (50742) so far. So as an alternative I'm going to try the two-part chrome rims with separate gold mesh hubs, using the different offset options they offer to see how that works

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And electronics will finish off the colour scheme, along with a Tamiya 1600SP Racing Pack

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I'm going to make my own stabiliser arms as demonstrated by @wtcc5 and @Sgt.Speirs and paint them fluorescent red to go with the red springs from the 53163 spring set

I've got the rear body mount support plate on the way, and am still on the look out for the pink / purple lightweight drive shafts, but not holding out too much hope.

If a set of silver Hub Carriers come up at a sensible price I might bite, but I'm not too worried about the 'heavy metal' hop ups on this one, as they're all included on the F-Pro

 

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Are you going full out carbon chassis on both?

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On 12/30/2021 at 12:14 PM, svenb said:

Are you going full out carbon chassis on both?

The David Jun is full carbon already, so I’m going to keep the RS as a tub 

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@Juhunio: You found so much more red aluminium parts than I did (for my Mampe Capri project) :o Great work!

This build will be great! --> I will follow closely ;)

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Part number 49103.

There's listings on ebay.

There was also a blue belt for the F-Pro.

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1 hour ago, wtcc5 said:

@Juhunio: You found so much more red aluminium parts than I did (for my Mampe Capri project) :o 

@wtcc5

Sorry to hijack but what chassis are you going to use for the Capri?

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1 hour ago, M 800STD said:

Part number 49103.

There's listings on ebay.

There was also a blue belt for the F-Pro.

Yup, the eBay ones get a bit spenny once you factor in GSP shipping and import tax clearance :blink:

But I think I found one in a Hobby Store...still overseas, but better priced than eBay and the shipping could include a couple of other tasty bits. Fingers crossed!

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1 hour ago, svenb said:

@wtcc5

Sorry to hijack but what chassis are you going to use for the Capri?

Nothing special, just the TT-02, that then will be upgraded to a TT-02S. Most of the red parts (servo stays for example) were meant for this chassis. I just wish Tamiya would have made more red parts for the TT-02… I am not sure if I will buy some of the red Yeah Racing parts for it (motor mount, center drive shaft, steering assembly, …).

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4 minutes ago, wtcc5 said:

Nothing special, just the TT-02, that then will be upgraded to a TT-02S. Most of the red parts (servo stays for example) were meant for this chassis. I just wish Tamiya would have made more red parts for the TT-02… I am not sure if I will buy some of the red Yeah Racing parts for it (motor mount, center drive shaft, steering assembly, …).

Type S ?

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17 minutes ago, wtcc5 said:

@svenb: Yes.

The chassis can be shortened just enough 👍

Bit of hacksawing

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And now an introduction to the TA03F-Pro David Jun Edition restore / rebuild

I won this as a rolling chassis in an eBay auction a few weeks ago for what felt like a pretty good price, around 50% of the cost of buying all the metal and carbon parts separately, let alone the rare plastic bits. At first glance it looked to be very lightly used and in amazing condition other than a few marks on the battery mounts (typically, the unobtainable J parts). Judging by the MST wheels and plastic tyres it looks like it was used as a drifter. 

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My plan is to completely dismantle it and clean it, then rebuild it with new plastics so I can ditch the self tapping screws and use machine screws throughout

The strip down went pretty well, although it did reveal a couple of severe cracks in the front gearbox, bumper mount and one of the front uprights. There is also a reasonable dent in the mini bumper, so looks like it's had a pretty hard front impact at some point. It hasn't been run often, but when it did, it crashed :lol:

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Not too much of a problem, the knuckles are cheap and easy to replace and the bumper mount and front gearbox both come on the A parts on the R-S re:re. I can live with the ding on the mini bumper, at least until a set of J Parts come up at a sensible price

Thankfully it doesn't look like the impact has transferred to anything else, as all the upright holders and universals are sound. In fact, everything else is pretty much spotless. All the heavy metal parts are perfect, the original build had only used a light coating of grease so they just need a gentle clean to be good as new

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The plates and belt are grand, a couple of very light marks on the underside of the lower deck. The belt is immaculate, and although the stabilisers are quite badly scratched it's not a bother as I'm going to use them as a template to make some new ones which will be primed and spray painted fluorescent yellow, with the yellow springs from the 53163 set to match 

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The ball diffs are immaculate, no scratches on the plates or flat spots on the balls. Counter shafts are flawless, and the one-way bearing is nice and smooth, so the gearbox and damper internals just need a bit of a deeper clean and they again will be good as new. So that left me with one pot for cleaning (left), one pot ready to rebuild (right)

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And a pile of tapping screws, o-rings and plastic bits for the bin. I'll be replacing all the screws with hex head machine screws and the servo mounts and hex hubs with aluminium parts

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Just a few Hop Ups and spares for this one, replacement body mounts and knuckles are in, as are the servo mounts, hex hubs and hardened diff outdrives.

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Based on the damage I found during the strip-down I'm going to give the urethane bumper a go to offer a bit of extra protection up front.

My first Tamiya servo will be fitted with a 51000 HT servo saver and I'm going to use the black plastic horn for once, trying to keep it blue-free and in line with the champagne-coloured dampers 

I've managed to find a set of OG A and B parts for a sensible price which are on their way, as is the 03F Carbon Battery Plate which will add a nice extra carbon finishing touch along with the stabiliser supports and steering bar.

I'm on the hunt for a 55065 1700SP Battery Pack which is shown in the marketing pictures for the chassis and does look great with the dampers. I doubt I'll find one, but you never know :ph34r:

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I got some Amazon vouchers for Christmas so decided to treat myself to an Ultrasonic Cleaner while it had an offer on, and some cleaning fluids

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Its first job was to clean up the parts from the David Jun break-down. For my first attempt I thought I would start with the least risky parts, the plastic gearbox bits and axles.

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I filled it with hot tap water and a bit of boiling water for a starting temp of 47o, added a glug of the 'watches and jewellery' cleaner which I assumed would be more gentle than the Carb / Engine cleaner, then set the water heater to 50o and gave it 20mins. This was the result...

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Feeling confident, I then added the metal diff parts and this time used the Carb / Engine cleaner 

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Again, pretty happy. Nice and clean, and no damage

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So then went for the biggies, the dampers and other rare aluminium parts, back to the Watches / Jewellery cleaner for those and they turned out great

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Other than a bit of minor discolouration to the cream gear parts, that's everything nice and clean and ready to rebuild, once the new A and B parts arrive :)

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The new black A and B parts for the DJ restoration arrived :D

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In less-good news, I thought I had found a physical build manual in stock but it turned out to be an inventory error. Boooooooo!

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I've been down a TA-03 parts rabbit hole for the last couple of days and found a few good bits and bobs. They won't all necessarily suit these builds, and what with ending up with grey A, B and L parts by mistake, there may well be a 3rd build in this thread :ph34r:

So rather than constant shopping and procrastination, I thought I would make a start on the R-S last night

Gathering together everything I would need to build the front gearbox; suspension shafts replacing screw pins, turnbuckles and adjusters replacing upper arms

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As always, I'll be using hex machine screws instead of the kit self-tappers, so the thread-tapper gets another workout. And I've got a full bearing set to replace all the plastic and brass bushings. So as per usual that leaves behind a pile of unwanted hardware. I have bags and bags of unused Tamiya screws!

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Using these MST turnbuckles for the upper arms because I couldn't find the Tamiya red ones in anything less than 23mm. The MST ones scratch very easily, I had to throw the first one in the bin and be much more careful. In fact, these look scratched too but rest assured they are not, it's just reflection

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And the front gearbox is done, with the red ball adjusters and 15T pulley. 

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Kit standard gear diff in the front with hardened outdrives. My plan is to put a ball diff in the rear and switch the pinion to 04 mod. 

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On 12/30/2021 at 10:16 AM, Juhunio said:

I've got the rear body mount support plate on the way, and am still on the look out for the pink / purple lightweight drive shafts, but not holding out too much hope.

@Juhunio I have a set of the purple drive shafts, new unused but loose. You are welcome to them if still needed. 👍 

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30 minutes ago, futureworks said:

@Juhunio I have a set of the purple drive shafts, new unused but loose. You are welcome to them if still needed. 👍 

That would be amazing, thank you! I'll drop you a PM 

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5 hours ago, GermanTA03Guy said:

Juhunio, good job on finding the red parts. Especially the pulley. How did you manage?.. And nice photo of the front gearbox. 

Thanks man 👍 I just got lucky with the pulleys; I was awake very early to watch the cricket (🙄) and happened to refresh my eBay saved searches at just the right time and they popped up under my TA03 search. Pure fluke 🤷🏻‍♂️ 

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Little more progress on the front end tonight, building the uprights which meant breaking out the GPM kingpins 

To be honest, they don’t really fit…the step is too long. I test fitted a 53157 on the other side to demonstrate 

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It’s annoying, but I don’t think it’s a huge issue. Maybe I will keep an eye out for the red Tamiya king pins after all 🧐

I cracked on regardless, and the front gearbox is done 

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Another point worth sharing….I initially bought some red hexes off eBay, from a seller called Blacksmith Products. They were rubbish! Despite being a clamp-style hub, the clamp screw made no difference to the fit whatsoever and when tightened up to its tightest of tightnesses, it still fell of the axle! Total junk, thankfully still within the return window. A few weeks back I ordered some 3mm blue anodised lock nuts from the same seller and they were rubbish too, they wouldn’t fit inside a 5mm box wrench without stripping the blue anodising. I returned those too, and won’t be buying anything from them again. I’m not usually one to throw shade on others, but I would recommend avoiding that seller.

Happily, I had another set of red hexes that I’d completely forgotten about! They came attached to an M03 Mini Cooper I restored a couple of years ago and were in the spares pots. They’re excellent quality; if they’re not Tamiya (which is unlikely) then they’re the best quality aftermarket hubs I’ve come across 😃

 

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