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silvertriple

Hirobo 44Bs and Zerda :-)

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The Racing Baja Body required a bit more of Surface modeling love...

I defined the body using this mode this time....
c3LUHeO.jpg

I used thicken command many time in order to make sure it would work
lADOVBC.jpg

At the end is here a new bodyshell :-)
5Mudcik.jpg

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I realized that I did not clean the Hirobo parts when I model them... I did not have the ultrasonic cleaner when I started this...
W4RohoQ.jpg

All the parts of the 3 cars are now in the bath, for a few hours...

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I received today a few bodyshells from TBG, including one for my 44B-Hilux and another one for  the second 44B chassis (on which I'm still hesitating about what i'm going to do in fine).

For the 44B Hilux, I may use a Kyosho Datsun Step Side... It's quite close in spirit from the Hilux bodyshell initially on the chassis.
y9Wb2Hq.jpg
B2LgUFs.jpg
3OEbpgs.jpg
I may have to review the front end, the roll cage, the mirrors, and the exhaust and the body mounts as well, but I already check and it goes around the radio box. I still have a doubt regarding the radiobox lid, as it may add a few millimeters on both side, but at least, this will make a good solution for this chassi, even if I have to do adapt a radio box lid for it... But at least, I have a solution now, awaiting for another one to come later (which I can't talk now).

For the LWB chassis, it may be either a Sand Scorcher bodyshell (lexan) or a Lancia 037 touring body (which maybe slightly too large to be in the spirit of the original 037 body going on the chassis, but as I don't have the original bodyshell to compare, I won't be able to say for sure, but at least it will be able to contain the radio box)...

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While awaiting my parts arriving for the Super Wheelie, I did something pending for quite a while : review the pulley belt cover for the 44B as per my friend Andy's tests...

The pulley belt cover required some room for the motor screws...
0tjNeOt.jpg

This is now done...
RBPSWjc.jpg

And I also take benefit or being in the file to review the boot to make it easier to print... My idea is to print it in halves and to fix this by a zip tie...
uSg6ANp.jpg

This will soon go on Cults3D...

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This Hirobo project is not finished, and today I got one more reason to trigger the rebuilt of my 44B chassis...

A few months back, I did a CAD model for a bodyshell for the 44B Hilux....
2S3jOEo.jpg

I believe the 210 mm wheelbase makes room to use the body on M chassis with some axles extensions for larger width...
8Yt6CeH.jpg

I still need to review the roll bar, especially the fog lights part as I believe they are out of dimensions (they should be bigger, at least, and maybe mobile to avoid breaking them too easily). Further on the bodyshell itself, there was some missing details...
Go7dzeI.jpg

And I believe I already mentioned in the past that I tried to create a mold in CAD...
dp9FnQS.jpg

I also added some details...
6aiX9E6.jpg
uw0AxuN.jpg
PHAXq7w.jpg

And I finally got a part printed for experimentation...
tUlgUU7.jpg

That was before Montluçon, in May. While there, I got the mold handed to my friend at Loisirs Creations RC for the experimentation...

Yesterday in La Vosgienne RC 2023, I met him, and he handed me some nice stuff...
ySIG2tS.jpg

Yes! It is a bodyshell... It's the first element out of the mold with a material that allows vacforming at low temperature. This will allow me to work out the accessory details and check the dimensions on a chassis... I think I have to build my 44B Hilux soon...

In the meantime, I did some picture comparison with the original damaged bodyshell...
CMYG7pC.jpg
i3ZGJiz.jpg
pBiKETd.jpg
YH3DdZs.jpg

What do you think?

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Now that I have a body shell for the Hilux, I think it is time to do something about those cars...

The parts of the Zerda and 44B were all together in one single heavy box. Luckily, I cleared some boxes recently : I took the time to separate boxes, one for the Zerda, and one for the 44Bs. The Zerda will be the last one to be rebuilt.

I will start by the 44B Hilux, and I'll print a Radio box cover for it, as it is the part I don't have... I need to check the screws as I may not have the exact number to build all the cars... But each things in its proper time.

In short, expect to see this thread moving on soon...

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The complete radio box was already printed long time back by stevar from another forum who did not have any parts of the radiobox with his own 44B chassis. And it was perfectly adjusted in length and matching the profile of the rear gearbox parts... But that was not enough to validate the top of the radio box would match the bottom of the original radio box...
QOfG2hS.jpg

Therefore, I had to print one. I printed it on one of the sides, which was what the auto orientation proposed in the slicer (I tried other orientations, but there was a lot of support for all of them... I guess I will have to post process this properly :). 3 hours print on the X1C (On my Ender 5 plus, this would be around 10-12 hours, I suspect, if not more, with more chances of failures). I printed it in PETG, and did not even played with multimaterial for the supports, so it took a bot of time to remove the supports. But the good news is that it is working on the radio box as expected...
r1ooJKD.jpg

While at it, I'm thinking about what I want for my 44B and Zerda, I may need to do a full count of what I have as I'm sure I can go for 3 cars, and there will be a good basis for a 4th one...

And while thinking about this, I can already tell that I will printed tires for both Zerda and 44B (I have the CAD models already). I just need to order resin again...
S63qkuv.jpg
Y9PdrBX.jpg

I launched a print of the final version of the pulley cover (PETG) (did try in transparent flex resin and it did not work, I may need to try with transparent non flexible resine at some point) as well. Updates later...

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44B City/Vega radio box cover printed during night. There is some issues with the print, probably linked with the way it was on the bed, as right side is not as clean as the left side (but this can be addressed easily with sand paper...
owBZetq.jpg
OpoMHP4.jpg

It fits the radio box, but it may require an additional millimeter in length to be perfect...

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Hirobo 44B/Zerda Pulley cover printed as well...
Cpk0hTs.jpg

it matches the rear gearbox (it was already tested by Andy from tamiyabase, but it was missing some space for the motor screws, which is the modification)...
6FB9coU.jpg
8b2Jebr.jpg

Thinking about printing some gearbox, arms, knuckles and other chassis parts...

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Another Hilux 44B arrived today.... I saw it within a lot of pictures of someone selling a big lot of cars and contacted the guy few minutes after he published the listing. From the additional pics, I knew the bodyshell was nice, and that there is quite some work needed on the chassis...

Here is the car. The front body mount is broken, clearly, and the bumper is missing...
MZTMaHE.jpg

The red parts were painted in black. There is fair chance I can get them back in red, and they seems to be in proper state, but we will only know once we get the paint removed...
7qeN4Lg.jpg

The wheels are not original Hirobo wheels, the tires are the same we can find on Bandai/Monogram Interceptor RS. The front blocks are vanished, but they were similar at some point. The tires are mounted the wrong way (they are directional)... I'm not sure for the rims, but I have some suspicion the slots were not part of the original design...
IcbB7eA.jpg
2HCvbv5.jpg

The transmission/diffs are in good shape. The wheels are mounted with some Nichimo parts, apparently... 
I will probably start rebuilding the other one before getting this one in parts...

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Tonight, it is about to get ready for some builds...

Target is to do at least the 44B Hilux chassis soon, but I may also look into the LWB chassis as well... I did rebuild the diffs  and extracted the 44B parts (the Zerda did have different pivot balls than the original ones so it was different to identify where the pars are coming from when the pivot balls are still there)...
WtO5RuS.jpg

I've checked and it seems I have enough ball bearings for 2 cars, I may have to complete for the last one (some were damaged and the wheel axles will be replaced by a coulple of ball bearings with an additional part, like on the Bearcat SS...

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Early this afternoon, I decided I would go a for a double SWB/LWB build, and I started to put all the parts together for this...
Ie0Sbci.jpg

And two cars parts take a lot of space on the table... So I stopped to put the elements on the table and went to the build :)
mEViumM.jpg

First, I just added a bit of grease in the diffs (and also to make sure there was no issue in the two that I did not opened)...
5W7idZM.jpg

Then I added bearings and axis to the rear hubs and front knuckles (same principle than for the Bearcat SS, with a small printed part, and two ball bearings to get less wobble). The second car is going to be mounted on single ball bearings with the idea to allow the comparison between the two. 
089aQvc.jpg

Next, we get the knuckles installed in the front hubs...
3fKcam2.jpg

And it is time to get to the chassis and install the front part of the transmission... SWB on top, and LWB on bottom...
TrocIk9.jpg

The rear part is always quite crowded on a 44B (this is the same on the Zerda), and the path of the synchronous belt is quite complex...
IZbXOKK.jpg
rDLTIN8.jpg

And I did that on both cars... I will need to work on  some elements on the Zerda, as it seems some shafts needs to be shaved...
f4iw65M.jpg

Then I focused to add the radio box on the LWB
busChUx.jpg

And here is a check of the fittings of the radio box cover... With the front mount, it is actually almost ok (the pin is required to keep the box closed... I'm now sure that 1 mm more would be way too much...
4TSP941.jpg

I had to clear the table, so next steps will be later or tomorrow...

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This morning, started by adding the radio box on the Hilux chassis.
nvgxnxH.jpg

Next was a quick print installation (it was done yesterday, as I have only 2 of those parts for 3 cars). The profile matches the gearboxes walls around and it fits perfectly...
FV7qljB.jpg

Here is the 2 chassis in their current state. They were more or less like that at some point within their original boxe (that I don't have).
enWfrHH.jpg

I had to do some room in the storage boxes, I decided to assemble the wheels as they take more room in parts than when assembled... Did I already tell you how much I love those 44B wheels? They are really nice, and for me among the top 3 in terms of look with the Marui Samurai and the Kyosho Javelin (that being said, I'm not able to sort 1, 2, 3 :-) )
squHeb1.jpg

I sorted the remaiing parts. I have still some missing elements to complete the 3 cars, as I forgot a few things when doing the inventory:
- A pulley 18T for the Zerda (CT-23) : it was missing on one of the cars, and I have some other pulleys but not this one. That being said, I have an aluminium 18T pulley, but I don't think it will last long... 
- On shaft side, it is good, I'm just missing 3 spacers (2 for the roller pulleys, and one for the 18T pulley shaft) - But I suspect I can definitely sort this with my 3D printer, so it is ok)
- An upper arm for one of the 44B. I check and it was missing when I got the car. I will have to find a solution for this (pivot balls are 4.8mm if I'm not wrong, but I'll check this).

And I search the servo saver of the Hilux for quite long, to discover at the end it was never removed from the servo, which was still in the project box with the Zerda parts :-). One hour lost because of this :lol:

At the end, I won't be able to build more than a complete chassis right now.
It will be 44B Hilux as I need it to show up the bodyshell...

Transmission is set in place... The motor is a torque tuned, and this car is likely to run at some point...
3Tmj3iN.jpg

The fitting of the pulley cover is good. I'll decide later if it goes on the Zerda or the 44B Hilux (or both, but in this case I need to reprint one)
aFrw3m7.jpg

It is now time to fit the arms...
Phkn9Kh.jpg

And very soon we have the hubs and upper arms in place...
hD0lkSx.jpg

I have shocks (they are not originals, at least for this car), but they are supposed to go on 3mm screws. I print will solve this.
mRUJB0h.jpg

And it works as expected. Shocks are in place. I change the orientation of the rear shocks plate to increase the clearance. On the front I used a longer screw and a nut to increase the clearance: I'm likely to create a brace for the front (probably combined with the front body mount), to make this a bit more stronger, as I suspect it would break otherwise ...
And yes, electronic is already in place. I will also have to do something to prevent the servo to move (but I know already what I'll do for this...
hiWrhAi.jpg

I did used my hammer to make the part fixing the bumper more plane...
0BmXThI.jpg

I will now have to do some prints :
body mounts, bumper, and some other stuff...

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After the nozzle change, the quality of the prints is back to usual... Printed a 44B Hilux Bumper and its winch...
ly6SffD.jpg

Aso printed a part to lock the steering servo in place, which makes the direction more precise. As matter of fact, fixing servo with double face adhesive tape is so 1983-1984 I needed to do something (if I provide this part, it will have to be a step file, so peple can modify it to suit any servo)...
KRWqQ6M.jpg

Had to put the bodyshell on the chassis to see...
Q0bcbdt.jpg
OqnsX5k.jpg
ggIBHmM.jpg

Next :
- Work on the body accessories to make them easy to print
- Trim the white bodyshell and install accessories, eventually think about adding windows to it (not sure I can do something for this, but if someone has an idea, please talk :lol: )
- Order some stickers at mciracing to see if they fit my body
- Paint the white body (not sure yet for the color)

Hopefully, I'll be able to have the car in a very presentable very soon :-)
 

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I'm missing an upper arm for the 44B Long Wheel base chassis... As far as I know, there is only one piece missing for the Zerda and it is the 18T MXL pulley. 

I have one in aluminium, but I believe it is to soft, as I can mark the surface easily with a screwdriver. In the meantime, that should allow me to complete the Zerda, at least, awaiting I find one of proper quality to do the job...
9lQwaxW.jpg

Beside the front gearbox wall, the build is quite similar to a 44B build...
F8NcBSW.jpg

With the same complexity for the belt path than the 44B, with a little twist...
gNzCUmN.jpg

The twist is that the chassis is so flexible than pushing down on the pulley that acts for the tension of the belt make the nose of the chassis going up...
And the fact of having the pulley cover in place doesn't really change anything to this... I put the motor which was in the car initially as a placeholder. The overall intention is to run this car, and I may put a different motor than this one... No clue yet.
XoLBA5X.jpg

The rear belt cover works also on the Zerda, and I found back an original part, so it won't be used for this car...
7I47ozG.jpg

The overal target was to have one single picture for a publication later on cults3D... The pulley belt cover is in place with the rubber boot on the upper arm (reused the one that came with the car)...
TDK19W5.jpg

All arms are in place... There is very little room for the front split pins...
54Ydrzc.jpg

Added the shock towers, and the bumper. I will need to find a servo for this car in my parts bin...
olGIOJO.jpg

Basically, it misses a few things :
- steering servo and servo saver, and for this I need to keep in mind that the servo may collide with the radio plate, which is not going to ease my life...
- definitive motor and esc
- radio plate - which is theorically supposed to offer more rigidity to the chassis, but I have my doubts :-)
- shocks - I've not decided what I do for this. I have 2 set of rear 44B original shocks in new state, some damaged zerda shocks, but I may opt for some Kyosho shocks (which may require me to work out some limiter for the range)...
- roll cage it will be black, although I would have prefered a red one...
- wheels : I have some tamiya tires that should work with the Zerda original rims (but I also have the intention to print Zerda tires at some point :-) )

Had to clear the table for some other activities, and therefore stopped at this stage... Lot of activities ongoing, and I also need to work on the Hilux bodyshell :-)

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There was a bot of work to trim the Hilux custom bodyshell, for which there is still a lot of work...

But here is a preview...
JrXrxbP.jpg
rBkpiYA.jpg
Yre5gy8.jpg
JLp18pf.jpg

I've checked in my parts and I have everything to complete the Zerda, so it may be next, before I get back to the 44B Hilux bodyshell...

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The Zerda got its steering servo installed. The motor has been replaced by a Tamiya Torque Tuned, which is going to be largely enough to invoke belt skips with the high flexibility of this chassis...
8hAfSrr.jpg

For the shocks, I have plenty of options, and I just need to decide which one I'm going to use...

I don't plan to use the original tires and rims to run the car (I do have to clean the rims, however). I'll use some Tamiya Off Roader tires (thunder shot): they are very close in spirit from the original tires, and the inside diameter is slightly larger. I will print custom rims within the same design than Zerda original rims and with a different diameter and some rings to avoid gluing tires on the rims...
O3YYlIJ.jpg
i6aeCPM.jpg

The custom rims are currently printing...

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Rims are printed... As usual, I went for a dual color schema, and it is likely the tires are going to get replaced by printed at some point (run out of resin, I have to reorder some).
CYbPfxV.jpg

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Some work on Zerda and 44B for today... And it is clearly slow, because I will not be able to complete that right now as I'm missing some self tapping screws (they are incoming, but it is slower than expected).

Shocks. FOr the Zerda, I decided to reuse some of the Hirobo shocks I have and went for some cleaning using ultrasons...
The Two Zerda Fronts were black, while the others are aluminium (44B). As the black anodization was not good on the 2 front shocks I decided to remove the anodization and used my dremel for this. Beside ultrasonic cleaner and this, there was nothing much I could do, as the o-rings are sealed...
toelYys.jpg

Back on 44B, in my search for 44B rod ends, I found some cheap aluminium ones that could fit. Unfortuntaley, there is too much play involved with those rod ends: That would probably do the job for a shelf car if you don't mind the non ISO build, but for a runner, it's not good...
UVpFVwO.jpg

Then, I remembered that I had a few additional shocks that will be of no use as damaged, but the rod ends are the same than the upper arms on 44B. That will solve one of my problems... I cut a M3x30 screw  to replace the 24mm missing rod, and I was able to put the arms on the 44B. Shock wise, the set up is planned to be the same as the other 44B. I will need to find rods for the steering (they were missing, but I think I have somewhere what I need to solve this).
Es9AU4S.jpg
 

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Back to Zerda this afternoon... I decided to move forward to see where I could go with the remaining self tapping screws. As said, I'm missing some...

First the radio plate... It adds somewhat rigidity to the flex chassis, and the room around the servo saver is really really tight, as expected...
ciYULfd.jpg

You may notice I replaced the printed part by a genuine pulley belt cover : the reason is that holes were already in place on the center belt cover, and they are not in good position, and therefore the pulley is rubbing against my printed part. I may review the design for this reason (and it makes it a bit unrealistic to put the file on Cults3D as it works only if the holes are in the right position (and they were user's activity)...

Next I trimed the driver, and I still need to work out the holes position for the driver and the radio plate...
ZBBjK8f.jpg

To finish the build, I need to remove the paint from the 3 remaining parts of the roll cage... I've put them with the rims in the magic sauce (aka Glanzer)
6vSyST4.jpg

And additionally, I'm thinking that Zerda was probably thought at the same time than the 44B chassis... The Pulley Belt cover option with the Zerda manual page is a possible hint, and a second one is the cut in the rear shock tower that really makes sense only in the case of the Zerda (I can't help thinking about those details when building a car, sorry for this :-) )...
yy7glI3.jpg

We'll have to wait the magic sauce bath to finish in order to finish this car. Still to be done :
- ESC, RX
- Shocks
- Wheels
- driver figure position and paint

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Focus is back on the 44B chassis...

First, I decided to do a support super easy to print... Tires are now 1 mm over the ground...
opOcmxS.jpg

Next  I review the roll bar. The target is to have something that can be used when running (with search lights in a very Marui way). I may do another version more in line with the original one...
qjEt2Xh.jpg

This being done, I prepared some cluster for nice MJF prints...
ifojOIe.jpg

I printed some parts in PLA to be able to check it is good and also to be able to show the bodyshell the way it is... Here is. I need to do some paint next, because here it is too white...
flboHRF.jpg
1DirWLG.jpg
tFLO0jT.jpg
FOCv7B0.jpg
qVPVqro.jpg
j4mGrV7.jpg

The bodyshell maybe a bit large for a M-chassis, but I'm quite sure it is definitely an option, with extended arms...

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This morning I completed the Zerda...
DZnKWNe.jpg
QIf5om3.jpg
BujurHK.jpg
xBYILU7.jpg
hEQ4cI5.jpg
HpkSuBZ.jpg

I did a quick run in the living room to set the trims... Clearly the servo saver is touching the upper deck. Similarly to the 44B, the steering angle might not be enough, and it is missing some symmetry (an ackerman would help). The chassis flex is clearly visible when you go from front to back on the remote. It might require to be run tighter to aboid belt skips, and then it would plague the autonomy and life span of the belt... Not sure I'll run this car a lot. Any case, I'll still need to take care of driver's paintjob, but that will be for later...

I may work on the 44B LWB this afternoon, but that might require me to find a specific set of parts I have in one of the box below a pile of boxes behind another pile of box under the desk which is currently not accessible because there is two piles of boxes before it. And I also need to retrieve the Lancia 037 (non 44B) bodyshell that was planned for this chassis (I may need to reorganize this at some point :-) ).

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I was full of hope to be able to close the rebuild of the 44B LWB chassis today when starting the afternoon... First, I went to battle with the boxes to extract the two parts I needed for this...
FAMJBpU.jpg

When I received the 037 touring bodyshell from TBG, I did not notice there was a wing with it... And additional parts as well, which I'm not sure where it is supposed to go...
GBrmXwe.jpg

With enlarged arches for the wheels, that should do the job, awaiting I find a 44B City or I decide to buy a 44B Vega bodyshell repro... But at least, this 037 body would be in the spirit of the rare Hirobo Lancia 44B...
LikvGwC.jpg

I was having some motivation. But them something happened : I still need to mount a motor in this car. And unfortately, the 3 motors I have at hand currently are slightly too large for the right of the gearbox, and it is even worse than on the Zerda, where it was not a new part.
That broke a bit my motivation, I will need to source a 540 silver can urgently...

In the meantime, the 44B Hilux custom bodyshell went for some silver paint... More later or tomorrow...

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The 44B Hilux paint is done. Silver, then some darker vinyls for the windows and some black lining around the front window...
JyBkWEb.jpg
7C4vQlg.jpg
WTswZkB.jpg
zzIfCes.jpg
HPx9025.jpg

I'll have to check original stickers next, they would arrive at some point within the week...

In the meantime, I took some pictures next to the Zerda...
xBWM8k9.jpg
DTufJdW.jpg
atekwgH.jpg
euQD1hp.jpg

Considering the starting points for both cars, the result is not bad...

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