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Today, I learned that DT-03 CVA dampers can fit the Avante - original parts command significant money, so I was wondering if I could find a modern damper that was well-priced and easy to obtain, to fit:

11kfpmr.jpg

The DT-03 dampers fit, using some spacers provided to limit the travel. Still, it was imperfect, with changes to both front and rear suspension geometry. Though perhaps not readily apparent in photos, in person both front and rear suspension sit taller than stock:

9suk3d.jpg

Slight camber changes are induced, too, but in the photo it is exaggerated due to no wheel nut on the left in the picture. The front dampers even needed slight compression to fit properly; the larger bodies dictated some of the position on the chassis.

I got creative with parts-bin screws, nuts, and bushings to get the components attached:

11uhnhi.jpg

I do not intend to use the shock tower braces as I will likely not be seeing big air with the Avante, and I do frequently remove the body.

1epdt.jpg

These dampers are definitely softer than stock, even with harder aftermarket oil. They are definitely not as smooth as the originals and the rears have near-zero rebound without the springs; however they do their job of, well, dampening shocks. It is under that pretence - as well as being of new parts, unlike my current dampers - that they are present.

The visual effect is curious: I personally believe the black shocks, despite looking more "utilitarian" than the tapered anodized gold shocks, match the car's colour scheme better. But as an Avante with black plastic shocks, now I keep thinking of the Avante 2001. In that sense, perhaps black plastic dampers on an Avante are not as out-of-place as I thought it would be...

2gwdfo1.jpg

What I am really excited for is driving impressions, but I am not sure when I will get those. In the meantime, despite some frustrations in building the dampers, a simple task turned out to be quite enjoyable :)

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So when the damper has the spring removed, are you looking for a decent rebound of the shock shaft under it's own steam from being released at full compression?

I love the shock action on my DT03 with these shocks... but maybe I am easily pleased as it is a cheap n cheerful buggy... as long as it doesn't bounce a few times before settling I'm happy.

 

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1 hour ago, Jason1145 said:

So when the damper has the spring removed, are you looking for a decent rebound of the shock shaft under it's own steam from being released at full compression?

I love the shock action on my DT03 with these shocks... but maybe I am easily pleased as it is a cheap n cheerful buggy... as long as it doesn't bounce a few times before settling I'm happy.

 

I was, but once everything was fully assembled it made sense. I think my expectations were different because of the stock dampers, which proved easy to build this way; however once the springs were on and the car did not bounce when the suspension was tested, I was satisfied.

Thinking about it in the way of the original Tamiya Frog promotional video, touting the advantages of its oil-filled dampers against a friction-type unit, I definitely had the effect on the right as opposed to the left:

1256zh3.jpg

"Convincing, isn't it?"

I did have the pogo-stick dampers and they actually would have fit, but even I drew the line at that for a regular Avante...

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On 2/13/2017 at 11:03 PM, Rb4276 said:

Good luck if the gears hold up. My tt02b ms lasted a few battery packs with a reedy radon 17t and hpi 15t  before it started clicking. Since i did the metal gears no issues and it is a fun buggy

Thanks, so far so good, went through a 5000mah 2s pack last night with my son and all was good. The conservative ESC settings are certainly helping. I tried 3s briefly (because fast) and sure enough especially on braking, it was skipping teeth - and of course with stock motor mount you are stuck with the mesh they set - which is great until you go using 3s - bad idea anyway on this car.  So quickly back to 2S. As long as i can get through say 10 packs without hearing any signs of slippage on the 2s, i'll be OK with that. 

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Had to do some errands downtown today and thought about checking the hobby store there (website: ja.cl).

Here's some pictures for you guys so you can have a glimpse at how things are here in the 3rd world.  Nice prices, huh? The Globeliner with the Fuel tank trailer for mere $1560 USD Oh!, and how about the Mini XB for little over $400 USD! You guys have it so cheap up there where you are! :D

One thing I LOVED is the 1:6 Harley Davidson FHC Classic kit. What a beauty! Obviously way, WAY out of budget. So a few fuzzy pictures is all I got for myself today :)

0PGS1LH.jpgç

aEOnF3e.jpg

1iPp9Em.jpg

You all have a good Thursday! :)

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Well, I started YESTERDAY now, but can say that after some tweaking of the electrics(steering servo mostly) and then laboring far too long on adjustable upper arms and finding screws and bits and pieces, my TL-01 Toyota is done. I have some decals I am looking to cover the ugly holes and I REALLY thought a 35T motor would be a bit slower in close quarters in the house to test drive but it isn't, so real driving feel will come with the daybreak as it is now well into 2 am here. This was to be my "simple spruce up" to a chassis that has collected dust in the garage for years, but as you read in my post after sleep, it didn't really turn out that simple. Oh well, can say another done.

URL]IMG_2921_zpsbhx2x7md.jpg

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1 hour ago, Grumpy pants said:

I renewed my T.C membership 😊

How? 

I've looked and can't find any membership info.

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I got an auto email reminder from Chris.

It comes up each year when the subscription has just expired. 

£15 and I use PayPal which is a doddle.

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I released magic smoke from a servo today, in trying to answer my own question, so I ripped the circuit board out of it and another that went bad on me and made two servo winches.....now to fit them.

 

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2 hours ago, BigAl69002 said:

I released magic smoke from a servo today, in trying to answer my own question, so I ripped the circuit board out of it and another that went bad on me and made two servo winches.....now to fit them.

 

OOOOOOOH Magic smoke, I can't wait to see the wenches....er WINCHES, yea, that is what I said. ;)

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10 hours ago, Crash Cramer said:

Well, I started YESTERDAY now, but can say that after some tweaking of the electrics(steering servo mostly) and then laboring far too long on adjustable upper arms and finding screws and bits and pieces, my TL-01 Toyota is done. I have some decals I am looking to cover the ugly holes and I REALLY thought a 35T motor would be a bit slower in close quarters in the house to test drive but it isn't, so real driving feel will come with the daybreak as it is now well into 2 am here. This was to be my "simple spruce up" to a chassis that has collected dust in the garage for years, but as you read in my post after sleep, it didn't really turn out that simple. Oh well, can say another done.

URL]IMG_2921_zpsbhx2x7md.jpg

 

Have you done a build thread on this? Would like to know a bit more and get some other pics!

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DOH, I shoulda coulda woulda, but to be honest, I figured it didn't warrant it that much. I had no manual and I know that for the first year of owning the chassis I was still trying to figure out WHAT I had since it was just a buy from eBay with little knowledge other than it was Tamiya. I have had it here for years. I have to say, where it is a "modern" kit by most regards compared to the HotShot or the likes of what I have built, even newer than the TA01 or DF01, whatever they call the Manta Ray, I liked it's simplicity in only a few oddball screws thrown in here and there. I live for and loved the old days when the screws were just a couple type to put the whole car together, nowadays, it seems you have to have trifocal glasses and see the threads are tapping or machine and then in each step you use amost 5 different screws to make something come together. All in all, a real fast and simple build IF, you stay the course of bog standard. I make things MUCH harder than they need to be and add things to muck it up. For example, I had some misc bits here from the M03 chassis that some bits are shared with, so I used them here, I didn't put the stainless steel suspension rods on even though you can buy them everyday of the week, but I did use a rear sway bar(instructions apparantly only want you to choose front or rear as they don't include enough special bits to build them both on one car, a shame really, as well as the adjustable upper arms which are only adjustable if you have the nimble fingers to get them pryed off and then twist them as the gap between the plastic ball ends is so small, no regular "nutted" adjuster rod will work, so just a gimick if you ask me. Other than stock, the ONLY real changes I made from following the manuals found online for the Stadium Raider and the Ferrari road car were standard front body mounts and modified "lay down" rear body mounts as I think the body of the FJ40 are too high for the normal rear body posts, AND the other change was to put semi off-road Hummer tires onto the wheels. Shocks are simple CVA with whatever they were built with, I literally just cleaned the dirt off them and didn't bother opening them up to see what was inside as far as oil or piston and the springs were already on and seemed to work well along with a smallish shock spacer on all four to start and then took them off the fronts as it didn't seem to need it.

 

After building it up, I can't say as I know ALL the pitfalls for buying a used TL-01 chassis, but the main one would be the chassis halves themselves, LOTs of screw holes that could be stripped out due to the hardish plastic and amount of self tappers into that material on high stress areas(read shocks) as well as the fact that a good smash to either end would allow cracking and perhaps separating of the halves at the gearboxes which is exactly what mine had to necessitate a new chassis AND new gears as they were toast. I did only have one bumper with my buy, so perhaps someone didn't put them both on and there we have the failure, but in recent posts I have seen some sort of FRP plate that seems to be made to help reinforce the area and I don't know its part number, but it could be of use to folks. Nothing more to report to warrant a full build post really, the steering is bog standard and a little less than perfect as the travel isn't great from lock to lock, but with the tires I have chosen, I am glad I have an adjustable travel to keep the tires from digging into the largish front bumper and I swear I must have given it every try this morning on concrete and a little dirt to flip it over and it stood its ground and no damage.....YET, so perhaps the limited steering travel HELPED me save it??? Nice driver and a tad fast, but I am sure I can keep up with it. 35t HPI Motor with the 23T pinion giving it the lowest ratio per the build manuals I saw, something under 7:1. I am running bearings on the whole thing and perhaps that was my favorite part, THEY ARE ALL THE SAME, no fussing around with two or three sizes and I used my normal gear diff grease, Dielectric grease for auto electrics, thick, goopy and seems to work. Ceramic grease lightly coated the gear teeth.

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Instead of picking up my M03 mess from the floor, I went and had brunch and gave my FJ40 a run quickly to assess its prowess, not too bad for a bad driver. :) I know the wife will get after me, so no more playing, time to get to work. For the record, this MESS is 4ft by 8ft, just the right size to put on top of a sheet of plywood, just like a train setup.

IMG_2935_zpssqw43g3t.jpg

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39 minutes ago, Crash Cramer said:

Instead of picking up my M03 mess from the floor, I went and had brunch and gave my FJ40 a run quickly to assess its prowess, not too bad for a bad driver. :) I know the wife will get after me, so no more playing, time to get to work. For the record, this MESS is 4ft by 8ft, just the right size to put on top of a sheet of plywood, just like a train setup.

IMG_2935_zpssqw43g3t.jpg

I hope you don't have a hyper doggy that'll come tearing n skidding across that work area on the floor, kudos for the Union Jack roofs.

 

What I did today... got schooled first hand in how weak the c hubs are on the DT02 - like a few of you warned me. Time to find my aluminium hop ups which I saw arrive last week.

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I DO have a hyper doggie, but Murray runs a little sideways at times and he is overly aware of his surroundings, this has been out most of a week like this untouuched, a new chewy toy,

IMG_2245_zpsfg51wdwb.jpg

 

ABOUT 10 minutes later

IMG_2250_zpso8jjbbns.jpg

 

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I finished this off. Had a go at recreating the cover of the RC Line-Up catalogue with my 934. Original catalogue (scanned) on the left, mine on the right.

934-rc-line-up-both.jpg

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18 hours ago, Tamiyabigstuff said:

How much was the Harley ?

Over 200 bucks. And Ohhh that kit box looks absolutely brilliant!

18 hours ago, Crash Cramer said:

Well, I started YESTERDAY now, but can say that after some tweaking of the electrics(steering servo mostly) and then laboring far too long on adjustable upper arms and finding screws and bits and pieces, my TL-01 Toyota is done. I have some decals I am looking to cover the ugly holes and I REALLY thought a 35T motor would be a bit slower in close quarters in the house to test drive but it isn't, so real driving feel will come with the daybreak as it is now well into 2 am here. This was to be my "simple spruce up" to a chassis that has collected dust in the garage for years, but as you read in my post after sleep, it didn't really turn out that simple. Oh well, can say another done.

URL]IMG_2921_zpsbhx2x7md.jpg

A side photo of this custom Land Cruiser would be awesome. Nice, nice work you've done on that one, Chris ;)

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3 hours ago, Crash Cramer said:

MMMMM Sexy, yours is better

Think you meant to PM this to someone.....

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2 hours ago, iluvmud said:

Think you meant to PM this to someone.....

Nope, it was meant for Truck Norris and it just so happens my comment started the new page. I really hate 'wasting' space with GIANT photos and one line of text, but I can see that it could be out of context on some things. ;)

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