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cavalier

FF01 front suspension mounts

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Hey, I'm new to the club but a long time Tamiya enthusiast. Currently in the middle of an FF01 rebuild and noticed my front shock tower is crack on the screw hole the fixes the top of the dampers in place. Been searching for a while and can't find a replacement anywhere. Did anyone ever make aluminium/carbon upgrades for this part and rear? 

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Very common, Not sure if there are any upgrades floating around anymore, but there are a couple of solutions.

I found the easily solution was to use some CA to bond up the crack, and then (carefully) drill it out with a 3mm bit and use a long 3mm machine screw and nut ilo the threaded screw. I do that with almost all of my newer Tamiya kits when I build them to prevent stress cracks wherever I can. On a long post like that, I'll actually trim off the cracked portion and use a spacer behind the shock to take further stress off the plastic. 

Alternately, you can find some tube material that just fits over the plastic and trim and glue it on to reinforce the area. 

Either/or will solve it, the stock part is not dead - just needs a little love. :)  

 

 

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Here's what I did to mine.

I first reinforced the part with cable tie and super glue. Then I used long screws inserted from the back coming out in front and screwed the ball head but onto it.

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Hope this helps. If you have access to a 3D printer, redesigning a new one would be nice.

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I kinda feel like this front shock tower is a poor design. The mounting of the shock so far out makes it like a lever that will eventually weaken/break the plastic. Maybe there's an aluminum replacement out there?

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I'm sure in the past I've seen an aluminium replacement for the rear tower but the rear one is unlikely to get stressed so probably a waste of time other than to make it look cool. Seems to be a gap in the market for a better front mount though. At least now I know it's not a total write off and I can modify it a bit :D

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On 10/1/2022 at 5:04 AM, cavalier said:

I'm sure in the past I've seen an aluminium replacement for the rear tower but the rear one is unlikely to get stressed so probably a waste of time other than to make it look cool.

Actually the rear is just as brittle as the front. If Tamiya used another type of plastic or a carbon-reinforced ones, then those parts would have not suffered the same flaws.

I also reinforced my rear shock tower with carbon fiber 2mm board because that part also cracked and broke.

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The CF shock tower reinforcement...

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What I did was used 53640 ball nuts and used long screw from back to front.  That worked pretty well. Or you can get FF01 kit from shapeways. You will need to order the carbon bits from fiberlite to work with the shapeways kit.

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On 10/19/2022 at 8:13 PM, GMballistic said:

This - but I would also suggest using a plate front and back to spread the load on the remaining part of the mount, preferably going all the way across to the other side like Nicadraus'. 

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When I picked mine up, it also had cracked shock mounts.

I stopped by my home store and picked up an aluminum rod 1/4".

Cut to length then drilled and taped to the 3mm

It made for a nice project.

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