wtcc5's Stadium Truck garage: Tamiya Offroad Cup report

[wtcc5 5574]

Preface

This thread will cover a lot of (personal) emotional memories regarding this niche of our R/C world. For me the greatest class (together with classic FF Touring Cars). Already my second R/C car was a Stadium Truck (1993 or 1994) . Unfortunately it was a faulty design based on Kyoshos Outrage buggy: The Outrage ST. The handling was a big problem and it broke nearly every time I used it. One of my "worst" memories was, when I went driving with my friends on a natural BMX track and my ST broke from a small jump on the first battery of the day. The day was ruined. I think since then I got my attitude to choose proven, higher quality products, even though they are expensive (most of them).

I have no good picture of that chassis, only one were I used a Thunder Shot body on it (bottom left):

 

That was a glorious day. My father, his brother and I went on a gravel lot, build some jumps from the earth and ran battery after battery. Of course my car broke later  The bright yellow Traxxas of my father was the car that started our families Stadium Truck era.

 

 

He later build a double deck chassis for it. This chassis was tough. I cannot remember him having a part fail.

My uncle bought his Dyna Blaster just before this meet. I got it from him just two years ago, rebuild and run it. What a fabulous chassis. I can remember admiring it on our selfmade track that day. It was just OP:

This picture is from when I received it 2020. There is also a thread where I documented building, testing, running, developing and racing this car: 

 

Because of the poor performance and design of my Outrage ST, I decided to get the best car (pocket-) money could buy at that time (1996). My internet quest at that time (56K modem) revealed Team Associateds RC10T2 was the actual track dominator. You couldn't order from home at that time. So, I went to my local hobby shop and asked for a price. He told me something around 620 German Mark. I didn't have the money, so I started looking for a summer holiday job, found it, earned enough money and ordered the 7035 Racing Truck Kit:

 Just two months later it arrived in Germany. While building it, I broke the servo saver... another two months wait. These were tough times 

 

I ran the truck only a couple of times before, forgetting about the hobby for eight years. The truck went as my "precious" into the box and moved with me. After my graduation I worked in a small company and could convince the interns to do some lunch break racing (2009):

 

After that period was over, the truck received a Factory Team treatment and a new body:

 

In that exact state the car enjoys its existence on my upstairs shelf. It is the car, that is in my possession for the longest time: 28 years.

Just recently with the rerelease of the RC10T, all this came up in my mind again and got the urge to complete the RC10T line up, which will give this thread its right to be here in the builds section.

 

 

[ruebiracer 1173]

So great Kevin, brings back also my memories! And quite cool hair jobs at this time in your family.

I know that moments: kill a small part. wait, until the parents drive the next time to the bigger city, where the Hobbyshop is. Order, wait another bunch of weeks, wait again for driving km´s to the big town, and get the parts. But that formed our characters, and keeps you off doing silly bashing things like kids today, who drive cars into walls at full speed just to try it...

[guggles 269]

If you want to, I would highly recommend checking out the RC10GT build I just did. It reminds me alot of your T2. I can relate alot to your story as well, The first RC that I went racing with was a Losi XXXT Matt Francis. It was a lot of fun and I think I got third place in the novice class. Looking back I cant believe I was able to build the car and get it to finish a race. Then I got a Rc10gt rtr with my Dad on summer holiday. Had so much fun with that car and tried racing it but I was really inexperienced with nitro and struggled. Wish I would have gone full into the gas truck racing, but I was so much more comfortable with electric and then got a factory team T4 which I ran for a long time. 

I just got another RC10GT and am having a blast driving it. If you want to build one or have any questions feel free to ask. 

[Andreas W 2281]

Nice writeup as always when you let us look into your past. Cool hair and clothing as well. I had a similar hair to your father at that time. Actually had it until 2004 only longer (sort of a younger Stephan Weidner).

 

Looking forward to more good stories and of course projects. 

[wtcc5 5574]

Thanks for your words and stories guys!

Before I start with the (re-) build of a good deal I made for another AE truck, I want to post the result of my custom DF-01T build here. All pictures in the thread of it are gone, because of the bankruptcy of my ex-image-host. Luckily I could save all pictures for me.

My DF-01T build is based on the TopForce Evo chassis. I used Dyna Blaster arms and the Stadium Blitzer body for it, as well as 78mm djc and custom parts for front hubs and damper towers. It came out very nice and I didn't have the guts to drive it up to now:

 

 

 

And a preview of the next truck (re-) build/restoration:

[wtcc5 5574]

When I saw this truck on Ebay, it looked worn and dirty. The price was nice and it was kind of out of the normal "Sunday-8pm" rhythm. So I put it on my watchlist. In the end, I got it for 117€ with box, some stickers and all electronics. When it arrived, I found nothing broken, very low wear of the transmission, all ball bearing and the carbon brace for the battery with new sticker  It was also then, when I realized that this is a full original FactoryTeam version... nice!

 

I completely disassembled it and didn't found any broken part except for the spur gear. Even all the bearings are fine:

You never see it good on the pictures, but this thing needed a cleaning badly.

The rear tires are worn and will be replaced. The previous owner used a bit much of thread glue and also used super glue to fix the slipper pads on the spur for easy installation.

 

...and everything clean again:

[wtcc5 5574]

Let's start a manual build then.

Steering rack first:

 

It then gets sandwiched between upper bridge and lower arm mount:

 

Which calls for the arm installation:

 

Skid plate and front shocktower:

 

And the turnbuckles:

Already six blue anodized parts went in the front section 

 

That was it for the front at the moment. Next is the laydown gearbox:

 

This box is so easy and nice to build! For the T4, the body mounts are integrated in the gearbox-shocktower-support:

 

...with the slipper:

Mjam!

 

 

 

[guggles 269]

nice score looks like its cleaning up nicely.

Id recommend a rpm or similar wide front bumper to protect the front end if you plan on much driving. T4's were pretty tough for their time but I broke quite a few castor blocks and arms racing. You probably will be fine if you drive carefully but might as well get some extra front end crash protection. 

Are you gonna get a new body for it? Also if you put the wheels and tires in a container and put a few teaspoons of acetone then let it soak you can then take the tires off the wheels. Make sure you wear gloves and did it in a well ventilated area away from any sparks or flames. 

[wtcc5 5574]

@guggles: Thanks for the great suggestions! Then I need to be careful and maybe print a bulkhead. At the moment it is not clear if I will run it in the coming weeks. Regarding the body: It is in a good condition, so I try to make it shelf worthy.

 

I continued with the rear suspension:

 

Super slim shocktower:

 

And now the gearbox gets slipped into its place:

 

Axles and hubs:

 

Rebuild of the shocks:

 

... and on the truck:

[wtcc5 5574]

This post is all about the electronics .

Installing the servo with more blue parts:

 

Then the motor:

 

The dust cover can be installed (finally):

 

...and the tasty LRP Sphere:

 

Now to something, that Tamiya knows too well: Carbon parts for plastic chassis 

 

Chassis rebuild nearly finished:

[wtcc5 5574]

Work on the body was next on my list. The previous owner did a solid job, using red Lexan color, backing it with white. The body was cut proper also. With the body only having minor scratches I didn't see the necessity to replace it. Metallic red is not really my favorite hue, but now that I have it, what to do?

We all know MCI. Nathaneal is a savior for us vintage enthusiasts. The quality of his products varies though. Most times there is little to nothing to complain. Then in between you get sheets with raggy edges and wrong colors. From one of those instances I got two Dyna Blaster decal sets that came without the ordered fluorescent yellow and red. I complained, but he said, he cannot do those colors (which was odd, because he prints them everyday). After some mails, I was fed up with his excuses, accepted that he send two sheets in the wrong colors instead of one correct and put both in my decal drawer.

You guess it, now it was time for one sheet to shine. I also completed the missing standard decals (side window) with leftovers of a AE GT2 sheet. In a last step the rear spoiler needed to become yellow without losing its sticker. My paint remover didn't work a bit. I was forced to sand the color down to paint it. The result is quite satisfying, especially compared to how the body arrived:

I also added some gold and black surfaces.

 

Then the parts for the repair arrived:

 

New spur gear and rear tires and, yes a bit of tuning: Blue battery strap thumbscrews.

 

Better:

 

Finished:

 

 

 

[guggles 269]

I like the decals! Looks like brand new.

[wtcc5 5574]

The rerelease of the T started the Truck-fire again that originated from the T2 of my teenage years. This brought me to buying the T4. In this row the T3 is missing. You know, I couldn't live with that :

This car wasn't as cheap as the T4, but it also wasn't driven once. So every part is practically new. Which is luck, because this is one of the Basic or Sport Kits that comes with bushings. What exactly, I don't know. My car has characteristics of both (bushings, gold shocks, the correct Reedy motor of the Sport Kit, no mechanical speed control though) and comes with the wheels of the Team Kit.

The bushings are terrible. I thought at first the car has gear damage, because only the slipper allowed a movement of the tires. You can see it has new rear tires (ProLine Gladiator). The rear of the car is covered with an oil film. Some of the metal parts are corroded, so I guess the previous owner stopped this process, like you would try to conserve a gun.

The battery brace was replaced with a skillfully shaped carbon plate. I like that!

Another thing I am not fully consent with, is the body paint. It was colored with a brush in a skilled manner, but you see it. I call it "Art-car". The livery design itself is cool and fitting.

 

In the next posts I will cover the rebuild/cleaning/mild tuning of this "boy".

[guggles 269]

Very cool, those proline gladiator tires are also sweet. Not the best for racing on our local tracks but get really good traction bashing on dirt and pretty much never wear out.

I too also have a stadium truck garage that is growing. Ill have to show you my updates when I get to them. 

You know I kind of like that paint job on the T3 body, its pretty fitting for the late 90s and even though you can see the brush marks it gives it some charm I think. Just be glad it came with a body! Not sure if J concepts repoped the T3 shells, might wanna look into it. 

[wtcc5 5574]

@guggles: Yes, please show your trucks  I also could add another 100-bucks-truck to my collection. And I find it easier to find spares for the T3 than for it  I could get one last JConcepts T3 body in a german shop. But you are right. The design is cool and the brush art of a certain quality.

 

I started to disassemble the T3:

 

You can also see, that the Gladiator tires went into the box in favor for the classic HoleShots. The difference between the oily and cleaned parts is hardly visible in the picture, but the oil film in the soap water told the story:

The tub on the right looks like a StarWars warship 

 

The assembly went fast and was fun. As per manual, front first:

 

All the bushings will leave the car. Unfortunately I forgot the small bearings for the steering and will add them later:

 

A nice simple solution for the steering posts and -arms, which get attached between chassis and this upper plate: 

 

I really like the "kingpin" hub-link style. Seems to be modern, light, simple and allows for a longer arm. It must've had disadvantages on track though, because it was changed with the next truck generation:

 

Front finished without shocks:

[wtcc5 5574]

On to the rear now.

It starts with the lower plate, arm mounts, arms and hubs:

 

This unit then gets attached to the battleship-style-tub:

 

Giving the gearbox ball bearings was very satisfying regarding the resistance the bushings had:

 

Interesting in all these builds is how much design changes went into the slipper configuration. Seems to be different on every truck:

Here it hides behind the spur gear like it does on the T and T2, but the plates and slipper pads look different every time .

 

Now, after installing the gearbox on the chassis, the preparation for the rear shock tower takes place with this connector:

 

But before... axles and camber links:

On this shot, you can clearly see the corrosion that happened on link and cardan. Both parts were cleaned before. I polished the cardan with 3000 grit sand paper. Thinking about replacing the turnbuckles, but AE only has silver ones to offer... 

The shock tower:

 

[wtcc5 5574]

The Basic Kit T3 misses the popular FT blue. Up to now it was only black and grey parts. With the gold shocks and colored springs finally it gets lively:

This time I didn't rebuild the shocks, as they have no air inside and also never saw dirt.

 

Onto the final steps now.

Steering servo installation :

 

The motor was cleaned and looks like new:

Fluorescent colors are just my thing 

 

Dust cover added:

 

The battery brace received a little sanding to correct its shape and received a sticker for full effect:

 

Then the truck got tires:

 

I am not finished, yet. I ordered the wrong ball bearing size for the rear hubs and wait for the steering bearings and a rear spoiler.

[wtcc5 5574]

Everything arrived.

 

The front is very easy and fast back in parts. Only six screws:

Bearings only for the right side 

 

Next on were the rear hub bearings... Unfortunately I ordered the wrong bearings... again  This inch stuff  I checked to order the right ones and found it is a problem to get them in Europe. Therefore the version with flange is easy to get and cheap. And I have it at home. I had to get rid of those flanges... Angle grinder for the win!

Tadaaah 

 

The wing is for the JConcepts Illuzion truck body (T4.1), but looks like the one for the T. I used one more Reedy sticker and kept it clear:

 

[wtcc5 5574]

*** Please see the decision finding topic at the end of this post ***

 

Thanks for all the likes  Glad to see so many still have love for these machines.

On Monday I went to the track in Laupheim and had a strange, but in the end satisfying day. First I ran the Fox conversion for twenty seconds, then after a bad landing the fan mount broke the slipper screw and it was game over for this car that day. I switched to the Dyna Blaster and had blast of a day:

After some setup changes, I could improve my last years time by 1.5 seconds  A 25.09s lap was the best that day. Unfortunately it came with a hard to drive setup, so I reverted to the previous settings and will be able to stay in the mid 25s if I hit all marks. I need a bit more rear end to make the 25s a common laptime. The key is to jump over or on the second jump of the triple-jump-arrangement. And for this I need to take the previous corner full throttle. At the moment this only works with a near perfect line through the two previous corners. For this line my rear is a tad too nervous. I will need to think of how get more rear grip.

On Tuesday I rebuild the car, exchanged the worn 3D-print of the steering rack and redesigned the fan mount (just a small Lexan sheet):

 

It was also time to replace the body. Up to now I ran the box original 1997 body the car came with. It now has cracks everywhere. I wanted to replace it last year, but then found, I could get away with cosmetics. That isn't the case anymore and yesterday I started to make a new one from a Team Bluegroove replica and (wrong color) MCI sticker:

I would prefer building shocks and maintaining balldiffs over masking 

 

Tried a slightly different color combination to work with the non-flourescent sticker colors.

 

The chrome sticker sheet is not part of the MCI offering, so I made these myself from vinyl:

 

Then yesterday evening, after having worked on the body nine hours, I thought: "This was too much work to destroy it slowly on the track." I decided to make another one, that includes less effort... Yeah, right? 

 

Please help me decide which body to use for the Tamico Offroad Cup and which one will go on the shelf:

 

So now I have these two (the wings are untrimmed, the shelf body will have its wing cut ):

 

With chassis:

 

You understand my dilemma, right?!

 

 

 

 

 

[Sgt.Speirs 1373]

1 hour ago, wtcc5 said:

For the shelf, I would prefer a body which looks similar to box art (body on the left side).

And the body on the right side which looks more like racing I would use for the Tamico Offroad Cup.

PS: I would need also some chrome vinyl sticker for my TOC body 😉

[ThunderDragonCy 8127]

Agreed. I think the grey/yellow body looks better, so shelf that. Run the red body at the races

[Andreas W 2281]

I would for starters say that it would have been most correct to run the blue body ,since blue is the color you have been running. It would be a nice deviation from the previous color,  but still a red (ehm... blue) line. 

 

When I now read how many hours you have put into it then I agree with the others. The red body it is - even though that is probably owing you, let's say, 7 hours . 

[guggles 269]

I just love the box stock paint and stickers of the Dyna Blaster, just looks choice. I think its one of the best box arts and definitely one of the best stadium truck paint schemes.

Also didn't really notice this until now but the front end is giving me serious Mercedes W124 feelings. Am I just seeing things haha. 

Probably looks more like some obscure to me Japanese sedan from the 80s, but its giving W124 vibes to me.

 

Also @wtcc5 come over to the dark side with me and get some nitro stadium trucks too, I know you want too. You cant have all electric trucks now. (I just got some nitro motors from Germany today so it made me think of you) Heres my latest one I got in need of rescue:

 

 

[wtcc5 5574]

Then it is settled. Blue for the shelf and red for the track!

@guggles: Glad, you had the W124 vibes too seeing that grille  I think I have to disappoint you: Gas trucks or lets say all gas R\C cars just don’t „click“ with me. I never thought about it, but there must be a reason, there are none in my collection… Maybe the noise, exhaust fumes, heat, oil… I am not a fan. In 1:1 cars I love a 5/6/8/10/12 cylinder motor revving sound, though. Maybe a good thing. So you can have more  Still looking forward to your „revive“ threads 

[wtcc5 5574]

Another little restoration project arrived some weeks ago:

A T4.1 with electronics  This generation seems to be unloved right now, because this specimen came with three tire sets, manual, tools, some spares and a little used body for 130€.

 

In comparison to the previous rebuild T4, this truck was used a lot. It has no real broken parts, but you see the wear in the drivetrain. Unfortunately, in Europe spare parts are hard to get 

While disassembling this machine, it revealed some strange use of the slipper:

Also the inner pressure plate touched the motor mount plate, because the owner forgot to use the spacer on the top shaft...

 

All parts:

 

And cleaned: