First Build Thread - DF03 Avant mk2

[Elbowloh 1128]

So decided, what the heck, do my first ever build thread for my Christmas present DF-03. It's the Avante Mk2, or should I say marmite Mk2 as many (although not all) of the original Avante lovers aren't too keen!

I've got a few hop ups, but not every thing I would like, but will press on and retro-fit things as they come.

          

Current parts / hop ups:

- 54993 TT02/DF-03 Damper Set (managed to get on the dreaded Amazon for about £62. Thought about some orange coloured GPM dampers as I was going to do an orange and blue colour scheme, but had doubts over the quality of the dampers, so stuck with the tamiyas

- Carson dragster 70A esc. Got one of these with my first kit (TT02) and it seemed to work, so sticking with it

- Super Stock BZ (staying brushed for this build)

- Tamiya DF03 53924 Heat sink bars

- Metal front diff outdrives to replace the rears

- Hardened steel main shaft gear

- Silicon nitride (Si3Ni4) ceramic 3mm diff ball bearings

- HPI nitro 3 front and rear arm braces (i've read they fit the DF03 with a bit of fettling). I know they're orange, but that fits in with the colour scheme.

- Cheapo tiankongrc servo. 20kg is overkill, will probably replace at some point. its waterproof and has metal gears. Plus its (kind of) tamiya blue.

Still waiting for:

- Rear gear box stiffener

- Yeah racing front universal joints

 

Also got a few more tools to help with the build:

- Tamiya Builders 8 (another Christmas gift)

- Yeah Racing Ball Joint tool

What with work and a 3 year old and a 1 year,  this is going to be a slow build i'd imagine, but will try to keep the thread updated with progress.

[Elbowloh 1128]

What is immediately apparent is that there are a lot more metal parts than my previous TT02 / Type S builds as standard. The metal parts bag is heavy!

Straight away, see there is a little leaflet announcing a spec change. tbh, don't know if the change to dual block tyres is a good or a bad thing.

First stab at doing the ball diff. Followed the kit instructions to give guidance in whether it was tight enough, think it was too tight to start, felt a bit "notchy" when spinning by hand, so I backed it off and started again. Feels much better now and the gear still doesn't spin when the two diff outdrives are "locked".

Into the diff casing and that's it  for now.

 

[Elbowloh 1128]

5 hours ago, Elbowloh said:

 

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[TwistedxSlayer 1290]

Where did you get the silicon diff balls from? I'm looking at options for the ball diff in my TB02 Build.

[Elbowloh 1128]

2 hours ago, TwistedxSlayer said:

Where did you get the silicon diff balls from? I'm looking at options for the ball diff in my TB02 Build.

Ebay. About £6 plus postage. Probably from China.

[Elbowloh 1128]

So, been continuing with the build for the last couple of evenings. Kids are in bed and the wife is asleep on the sofa, so i'm working by lamp light and my phone's torch! Not ideal, but it increased the challenge. It also explains why the photos are as they are.

So assembling the rest of the gear box, i miss out a shim on the prop joint initially (its hard to see on the diagram) and have to dissemble and re-assemble. I then get to putting the counter gear shaft, prop shaft and main shaft into the gear box. For the life of me the prop joint just will not go in. I pull up both the Marc Bryan and Rob Brennan build videos on youtube and they just go in to easily? I play around for literally 30 mins on this before I realise I've p ut an MR2 bearing on the shaft rather than an MR3 and have to reassemble the whole thing again.

Now onto fitting the motor.  I've put the little foam dust cover on, but may take it off. The DF03 is quite prone to over heating motors I gather due to the enclosed motor placing and lack of air flow over it, so the dust cover wont help with that. We'll see. Not sure if I have the gear meshing right (i tried the paper method). It feels kind of notchy when i turn a gear? Is that just the resistance of the motor?

Next mounted the rear gear box to the shock tower/damper stay and then the lower arms. I've fitted the rear pin brace from HPI. I've mounted it upside down (as it doesn't fit the other way) we'll see if that causes any issues. What it does do however is remove any slop from the lower arms. Its a good 3mm thick and fits in perfectly. Makes you wonder why a brace isn't included in the  kit as there is room for it in the assembly. Otherwise you'd have to fit a number of shims (which aren't included in the kit).

 

[bavee 1032]

Good build thread, thank you for posting!

18 minutes ago, Elbowloh said:

Now onto fitting the motor.  I've put the little foam dust cover on, but may take it off. The DF03 is quite prone to over heating motors I gather due to the enclosed motor placing and lack of air flow over it, so the dust cover wont help with that. We'll see. Not sure if I have the gear meshing right (i tried the paper method). It feels kind of notchy when i turn a gear? Is that just the resistance of the motor?

Yes, I think that would be due to the magnetic field in the motor.

Does this kit come with a steel pinion?

[Elbowloh 1128]

22 minutes ago, bavee said:

Good build thread, thank you for posting!

Yes, I think that would be due to the magnetic field in the motor.

Does this kit come with a steel pinion?

Thanks.

I think the motor pinion is alloy, as is the main shaft gear (which is made apparently of, and I quote, "the finest cheese".  I have an hardened steel main shaft gear (from RW Racing), but haven't fitted it, as I was going to save that for when the slipper clutch arrives).

[Elbowloh 1128]

Managed to find some time in the day to make some progress. Steering linkage assembled and attached to the chassis. The steering comes with brass bushings rather than bearings for the steering, but they're be fine for this application, so dropped them in. 

Front diff assembled (managed to use the right bearings this time), mounted to the chassis (along with the prop shaft) and suddenly its starting to look like a car.

Now for the front arms. Like the rears, there's a tiny e-clip that needs to be inserted in a tiny  little space. The first one goes in first time, but the second seems a lot trickier. Drop the clip 4 or 5 times when I'm trying to push it in. Arghhh. However, finally it goes in. Again I have an alloy HPI pin brace to plonk on and, again, it fits perfectly upside down and it takes up all the slop in the shaft. Yay!

I can see why some people break the chassis where the front diff attaches to the chassis. It looks and feels a bit flimsy. BITD there was a T-Bone racing bumper that you could add on that also strengthened this area, but I can't find one anywhere.

[Kol__ 3377]

Nice build thread @Elbowloh😎

I restored one of these recently and it was nice to work on, although there are design flaws namely with the front end where you mentioned and also where the arms attach to the front bulk head - hopefully those HPI braces will help with that, and if they were mounted the other way up, wouldn't the little tabs in the middle stick out the bottom of the chassis?

I think the pinion on this kit is steel, check with a magnetic screwdriver or whip the pinion off quickly and see if it sticks to be motor casing😉

Are you going box art with the body shell?

Oh and the kids in bed/wife asleep on the sofa in the evenings equals RC time is the same situation I have, must just be the age we're at as family men!😂

[bavee 1032]

1 hour ago, Kol__ said:

Oh and the kids in bed/wife asleep on the sofa in the evenings equals RC time is the same situation I have, must just be the age we're at as family men!😂

Indeed. Sounds familiar! 

[Elbowloh 1128]

4 hours ago, Kol__ said:

Nice build thread @Elbowloh😎

I restored one of these recently and it was nice to work on, although there are design flaws namely with the front end where you mentioned and also where the arms attach to the front bulk head - hopefully those HPI braces will help with that, and if they were mounted the other way up, wouldn't the little tabs in the middle stick out the bottom of the chassis?

I think the pinion on this kit is steel, check with a magnetic screwdriver or whip the pink off quickly and see if it sticks to be motor casing😉

Are you going box art with the body shell?

Oh and the kids in bed/wife asleep on the sofa in the evenings equals RC time is the same situation I have, must just be the age we're at as family men!😂

Ok, I'll check the pinion. 

I probably won't go box art. I have something in mind, it will still be blue, but with a twist I think. I won't do all the decals either, I think it's overkill!

Re. The braces, I think the tabs are supposed to be locator tabs that fit into a hole in the HPI bumpers, so yes they would foul the DF03 bumpers also.

[Elbowloh 1128]

All coming together  quicker than i thought with the evening working!

The Yeah Racing universals arrived today, on the  day I was going to be assembling the front drive train, so they popped straight in.

I then thought it was time to put the heat sink bars on. However, upon opening the packet, I discovered an alloy motor plate to take place of the cardboard one (better thermal conductivity i guess) so had to remove the motor to put the motor plate in. 

Then for the  heat sink bars themselves. The instructions say to put them all in internally, but the consensus is that there is little airflow there, so to mount them facing out. I've done that with two of them, but the third rubs right up against the gearbox cover, so I faced it inwards. looking at other peoples' builds, i'll need to trim the body more in that area to give the heat sink bars some room to breathe!

 

First of Tamiya blue on this build. I have the Dampers to add and that's it for the blue bits.  I might upgrade to the hard turnbuckles at a later date.

 

[Elbowloh 1128]

Built up and fitted the TT02b/DF03 shocks. 3 holes for the front and 2 for the back as per the instructions. The shocks came with medium/green 500 damp oil. Compared to the kit CVAs the springs are a bit softer, but the CVAs came with hard /900 damp oil?

 

Also, when building the 4th damper, I just couldn't get rid of air bubbles. Every time I depressed the shaft, more air came in. Had to disassemble, swap out the o-rings for new ones and jobs a good'un.

They feel very, very smooth in action.

Hit the first snag with the HPI pin braces. The rear one stops me being able to fit the rear bumper. Looks like I might need to fit some 4 or 5 mm spacers and some long screws to fit the bumper over the brace.

[Elbowloh 1128]

Finished the rest of the build. Still need to do the rear bumper and awaiting the rear gearbox stiffener from the Netherlands. 

There's also another part on the way, but not sure it it will fit until it arrives!

This is a temporary wiring arrangement until the other parts arrive and to test that everything is working, which I'm pleased to say it is. I've rin the servo wires though the battery compartment so there is no chance of rubbing against the prop shaft or steering.

[Elbowloh 1128]

So,I had a failed experiment with a carbon topdeck bought from HK, but it didn't fit. Oh well.

No worries, I had a new part to fit today. Its a 3Racing Rear Suspension Stiffener. These are incredibly hard to get, but found one in a online hobbyshop in the Netherlands (albeit had to buy via email and bank transfer). Comes with a couple of blue riser blocks to lift the part over the top of the prop shaft. Not suite the "right" blue, but pretty enough. 

Next up, tidy up the wiring. There was a lot of spare motor wire and power wire, so much that its almost impossible to put the (now cut) body on, especially without the wires being cut up by the prop shaft.

Now, i've not soldered anything since secondary school, even having done engineering at uni that included having to do modules on electrical engineering!

Took the plunge and got to work. At first i thought about soldering directly to the pins on the Superstock, but honestly the solder wouldn't melt! So I cut the wires, took a chunk out and soldered the two ends together (having watched a few YT vids on how to do so). Then wrapped in heatshrink. Obviously hadn't done that before either, but its turned out ok (albeit the heatshrink is slightly burned in some areas). I also removed the foam dust cover from the Super Stock BZ as i'm worried about it stopping heat being dissipated as it's really enclosed.

I bought some battery wire terminals also so cut back the power wires from the ESC and fitted a new plug. Much better now. Fired it up and it all works. Phew.

Next up, masking and painting the body.

[bavee 1032]

Wishing you good luck doing the paint job!

[OldSchoolRC1 983]

Underrated kit imo, it's like a modern TA02 design. Love the look of the body and the overall stance, it's a great looking buggy! 

Only issue I have with mine is some of the decals are lifting quite a bit. Never run it, but the complicated curves are taking a toll. Really wishing I had taken to time to paint some spots ilo using decals.  

Looking forward to seeing the finished buggy!

[Elbowloh 1128]

Had a go at painting the body today and did not go perfectly!

Took great care with cleaning and keying the body, masking everything neatly , warming the paint, shaking/mixing well, very light mist coats, but it still failed a bit.

So it's 2 coats of PS38 Translucent Blue, 1 coat of PS12 Silver, another coat of blue, another of silver and backed in white (when i did the stripe).

Then the white stripe PS1, 3 coats, backed in silver. T

The window stickers are used here as masks and will come off soon. This is also with the protection layer still on the shell.

There is some bubbling of the white in the nose section and some blue misting got into the white tail section even though it was masked off completely!

I'm just going to do the decals and see if it hides some of the mess. This is a runner rather than a shelf-queen, so not too much of a problem, but a bit disappointing.

[Elbowloh 1128]

Actually looks much better with mask and film removed.

[Aerobert 2136]

I think it looks great. I like your paitlnt scheme.

For me my painting results are always a bit disappointing as my imagination of the result almost every time differs from the actual result. But when the stickers are on it gets a completely different touch. 

[Elbowloh 1128]

10 minutes ago, Aerobert said:

I think it looks great. I like your paitlnt scheme.

For me my painting results are always a bit disappointing as my imagination of the result almost every time differs from the actual result. But when the stickers are on it gets a completely different touch. 

Thanks @Aerobert. Tbh, this is only the second body I've painted and the first was a disaster!

 

Yes, will be much better with some decals!

[Superluminal 3750]

Looks really good! Thats a tough shell to mask and paint with lots of corners and edges to get into.

 

Wish there was more hop up support for the DF03 - I know they are about a million years old but its still regularly in Tamiya's line up of current models that havent been completely discontinued.

[Fish Slice 35]

Looks good that, don't be too critical of your handiwork there. 👍

[Seanster43 222]

Just been reading this from the start. Been a nice build. Got a BZ motor in my 201 they are really good. That Carson Speedo you mentioned looks similar to the Hobbywings are they any good as looking to stay brushed for another build with the BZ motor. Well done with the shell, it looks ace, nice colour combo Looking forward to seeing it on the chassis. 👍🏻