SRB Superlight - vintage restomod

[Mad Ax 10826]

2nd of July, and I began thinking again about rear wheel fitment.  Recap: this uses re-re axle shafts, Hornet drive flowers and HPI hex adapters.

And it leaves minimal thread for a wheel nut when using a modern rim

The other alternative is the ubiquitous 15mm hex extender, favourite of everyone who wants a wider stance and doesn't know what scrub radius means.  Also anyone who has tried to put big bore shocks or wider tyres on a vintage Tamiya.

These also leave minimal thread, but they come with barrel nuts.

The problem is, the barrel nuts are designed for regular axle stubs, not for SRB axles that don't have much thread on them...

[Mad Ax 10826]

The solution to the tricky wheelnut problem, I decided, was to leave it and pretend it didn't exist, and do something else instead.

Something else consisted of bending some brass rod into a U shape.

Clamping the rod onto the brass plate was a serious pain in the rear, as it kept either coming lose or slipping off when I tightened it up.

But we got there in the end, even if "there" meant "the place where the clamp is brazed to the plate and won't come off"

After that, I decided I was better off using the concrete floor of the yard to braze things on (with goggles on, as concrete can sometimes explode violently when heated)

[Mad Ax 10826]

I made a thing!

Back on the concrete, this time using to pieces of a well-known completely non-flammable building material to hold my brass U shape in place...

Completely brazed, having absolutely not set fire to anything whatsoever

I drew on some lines and did some bending, although as you will see later I should have taken care to work out where I needed the lines to be instead of just sort of guessing

Adding a kink to the underside to clear the SRB front suspension assembly

[Mad Ax 10826]

A Thing is Made

I was so pleased with my thing that I decided to make some holes in it

and then I polished it until it shone like all the gold in Gringotts

So - yes, it's true, the bottom of the nose cone does sort of touch the inside of the bumper a bit, but it's all bent and drilled so well by now that it's not really possible to bend it out any more

[Mad Ax 10826]

I sent these photos off to the event organisers, who approved the bumper for use on the basis that it could have been made back in the 80s, and indeed people were making boxart-style bumpers in the 80s for their Scorchers.  I did point out that a solid metal bumper could be a hazard to marshals, but nobody seemed bothered by that.  To be fair, it's a vintage ABS body, so after two laps it will be a moving collection of plastic razorblades anyway.

They did conveniently fail to spot the thing I was hoping they would fail to spot, that being, this adds a significant amount of weight to the front of the chassis, on top of the maximum allowance of 50g of self-adhesive wheel weights that I have already added (and which I may well have to remove, depending on how much it nosedives over jumps now).

[Mad Ax 10826]

Some new 12mm and 15mm hexes arrived this week.  The 12mm ones were still too narrow to get the modern wheels on and clear the shocks, so I went with the hideously wide 15mm jobs instead.  I had to cut the barrel nuts down by quite a lot to get them on, but they seem to fit tight.  Still, I expect I'll have to add a bit of threadlock to stop them spinning off on track.

Also note I have reverted to the old shocks on the rear - there were questionmarks over the legality of the new shock mounting plate I'd made, so I've reverted to a more conventional setup.  I'd love to keep the AE shocks on the back, but I can't get them to clear the wheels on compression.  I'll have to rebuild these shocks as the springs aren't quite right and I don't know what oil is in them, but otherwise, this car is now pretty much ready to hit the track.

In 2 weeks time, I will have completed my practice day, given the SRB Superlight some practice action, and will probably be sinking the last of my beverages before settling down for a cosy night's sleep in the van, listening to the gentle breeze in the grass, the distant hum of trains, and the chirping of crickets in the...  No, wait, who am I kidding, I'll be buried under a blanket with earplugs rammed in against the torrent of rain landing on the tin roof...

[Grumpy pants 5541]

Of the many enjoyable projects and threads you have produced over the years - this is my favourite… so far 👏🥳

[Mad Ax 10826]

Final pics!  These are from Wednesday night, when I'd finally got all the driver parts painted and glued into place.  Apart from potentially changing the rear springs and oil and adjusting the diff after its break-in time on the practice day, this car is done.

Which is just as well, as tomorrow I have to pack for my holiday and go to the hospital for a scan, so I don't have much time to finish the wet car (which is largely cosmetic now) or tidy up all the parts boxes or solder some charger connectors onto the leisure battery or get the Element 4Runner sorted out for our trip to the mountains.

So here's a final look at the livery.  Garage30 is a new design for this year - one thing I really like about Revival is that all Iconic members get assigned a number based on when they started racing, and that becomes the race number for Revival (instead of each car being assigned 1 to 10 per heat depending on where it seeds and then getting a new number for the finals after quali).  I really like this - there can't be any confusion since every driver has a unique number, it's fine if you enter 2 classes because you won't have 2 cars in the same class (unless you have undergone a mind patch*), and best of all, it means you can work in the car's number into your livery and not have to worry about printing 10 different number options for each number spot so you can add the right one on the day.

*bonus points for spotting the reference

I decided, then, that I would come up with a new livery based on the number 30, and here it is, in all its glory  

I even made a fairly convincing version of me, although you can't see the mullet because he has a helmet on

[Re-Bugged 11652]

Excellent stuff, I like that a lot 👍🏻

Enjoy the racing 😎

[Grumpy pants 5541]

@Busdriver I think Ol’ Mustard would suit window nets as well ⬆️

Again just keep the front windscreen 👌

[Busdriver 6531]

6 hours ago, Grumpy pants said:

@Busdriver I think Ol’ Mustard would suit window nets as well ⬆️

Again just keep the front windscreen 👌

👍