So, What Have You Done Today?

[Carmine A 1329]

@berman OOOOOH!!! 😁 The EXO Terra.... It had so much promise. Great looking Chassis, nice Suspension (SO good, it carried over to the Front Suspension on the Yeti.)  ONE FATAL FLAW. That Batry Box!! 😖😳

In the older World of NiMH.... It was a mere inconvenience wrestling that Battery in and out from beside the Gearbox, under the Interior Cockpit, and it only went in ONE WAY. 

Enter my Friend, Josh Theide....  Ready to Blast down the Street and try to beat my Wraith. Excited about his new Lipo Battery, still a bit of a novelty back then.  Did a bunch of wild Donuts in the Cul De Sac, and somehow kicked a sharp Pebble AT the Battery!! 

We saw a puff of smoke and thought we should get that Batry out of there. Wrangled with it for a minute to no avail.... 

He was about to pick up the Car and try to shake it loose. All of a sudden - BOOM!!!! 💣 🔥🔥🔥🔥

A GEYSER of Flames shot out of the side of the Battery! 5-8 FEET LONG! 😳😲  Some Genius poured Water on it!! (WE DIDN'T KNOW back then) 

A HUGE, noxious Cloud, more Flames and 5 minutes later... Finally stopped. We stood in disbelief at what we just saw.  The Aftermath was a gooey blob of Plastic, Axle Shafts, Motor and Motor Plate - that USED to be his nearly NEW EXO!!! 😖😭   You never forget something like that.

 

I took a good look at your Pictures again... With very few exceptions, there's NOTHING that looks like it could swap anywhere to the M03-6!! 😲 It's been 23 years since I had my M02. I'm thinking, Stabliser Bars are about MANDATORY with that setup. I'm not really sure anymore... I forgot a LOT. 

Those REALLY are SOMETHING!! 😎😁👌   THAT settles it. I must find, at some point Next year, a M01 and M02!!!  And then of course, M03, 4, 6, 7, and 8....  They're small - SHE won't notice! 😳

FORCED to pick just one... I'm as utterly fascinated with the M07, as I am by the FF-03.  But if I was to ever collect anything RC related, it would be the M series!! 

I could get used to sleeping in the CELLAR!!😜😢😄😂

[Badcrumble 1924]

Went looking for my partially completed M04 up in the loft.

Failed to find it but did stumble across my Porsche RSR bodyset in my old Focus RS WRC 01 box.

Got a few splinters.

Have to tackle the garage next <sigh>

[Wetman 311]

Got the snotwagon painted. 

[Wetman 311]

Forgot to post the picture

[Juhunio 1173]

Busy day today! Bear with me...

This week I treated myself to building my TA02SW 934 RSR. I've used eBay sourced deck plates and damper stays (cheers to @Superluminal for the recommendation!) to achieve the 230mm wheelbase needed for the shell to fit properly (rather than the 236 kit wheelbase) which has thrown up a few issues and workarounds along the way.

I might do a quick retrospective build thread with some of the key steps and solutions?

Anyway, today was the last tricky step, cutting the prop cups to get the prop shaft to fit, having read @ruebiracer doing the same

I pushed the brass collars off in the vice, and first measurement showed that yes, it was indeed 6mm that needed to be gained, through deepening the channel in the prop cups

I recently acquired a Dremel, so this was my first crack at using the cutting discs. I used a 420 cutting disc on quite a low speed, and cut an extra 3mm in each cup

But, that wasn't enough. The profile of the prop shaft meant I also needed to cut 2mm off one end of one of the prop cups

Which turned out pretty well! Here they are with the collars back on

It all fit together really nicely...

And the trimmed shell fits well too, also finished off using a Dremel sanding drum. What a great tool! 

It's been a bit of a nerve wracking build, knowing that this needed to be done right at the end! Seems to have worked out ok though

Better weather today meant I also took the opportunity to paint the shell this afternoon

Still loads to do, painting and installing the wing (though might leave it black??), stickering, installing light buckets and lights, sticking down the electrics, fine tuning the body position, but pretty delighted with the results so far.

Phew!

[ruebiracer 614]

5 minutes ago, Juhunio said:

Busy day today! Bear with me...

This week I treated myself to building my TA02SW 934 RSR. I've used eBay sourced deck plates and damper stays (cheers to @Superluminal for the recommendation!) to achieve the 230mm wheelbase needed for the shell to fit properly (rather than the 236 kit wheelbase) which has thrown up a few issues and workarounds along the way.

I might do a quick retrospective build thread with some of the key steps and solutions?

Anyway, today was the last tricky step, cutting the prop cups to get the prop shaft to fit, having read @ruebiracer doing the same

I pushed the brass collars off in the vice, and first measurement showed that yes, it was indeed 6mm that needed to be gained, through deepening the channel in the prop cups

I recently acquired a Dremel, so this was my first crack at using the cutting discs. I used a 420 cutting disc on quite a low speed, and cut an extra 3mm in each cup

But, that wasn't enough. The profile of the prop shaft meant I also needed to cut 2mm off one end of one of the prop cups

Which turned out pretty well! Here they are with the collars back on

It all fit together really nicely...

And the trimmed shell fits well too, also finished off using a Dremel sanding drum. What a great tool! 

It's been a bit of a nerve wracking build, knowing that this needed to be done right at the end! Seems to have worked out ok though

Better weather today meant I also took the opportunity to paint the shell this afternoon

Still loads to do, stickering, installing lights, sticking down the electrics, fine tuning the body position, but pretty delighted with the results so far.

Phew!

Top Job Juhunio! The prop ends look like original Tamiyas! With a Dremel and step for step like you did, there is not so much space to do anything wrong!

You just have to dare it! Great you did! Wheelbase looks spot on and the clor choice is really cool Oldschool! Keen on the end result now!

And glad, that my short description was a little help for you!

Kind regards,

Matthias

[Juhunio 1173]

9 minutes ago, ruebiracer said:

Top Job Juhunio! The prop ends look like original Tamiyas! With a Dremel and step for step like you did, there is not so much space to do anything wrong!

You just have to dare it! Great you did! Wheelbase looks spot on and the clor choice is really cool Oldschool! Keen on the end result now!

And glad, that my short description was a little help for you!

Kind regards,

Matthias

Cheers Matthias, thanks for the inspiration! All the best, Matt

[topforcein 1319]

brought a set of cb aerials for the 1/14 truck from tony a few weeks back and finally got round to fitting them the dahm little nuts that secure them are a propper pain to get on esp where i put them as you have to use your fingers to attach the little wretched things i ended up takeing the mirrors and window of to get a better access and then proceeded to break the roof light of  but worth the hassle in the end.

[burakol 236]

I don't know if I did something wrong... but I pulled the trigger on a 2017 Top Force... 

[ruebiracer 614]

2 hours ago, Juhunio said:

Cheers Matthias, thanks for the inspiration! All the best, Matt

With the wheelbase mod, it´s a great kit! You will have fun driving it gently!

[DeadMeat666 1165]

The 3mm 1050 rubber shielded ball bearings I ordered came in yesterday, so I went to work finishing up the DCJ install on the TT02S, you can just about make them out in the picture. While I was at it I also installed rubber shielded ball bearings in all axles instead of the stock metal shielded ones.

I also installed the TRF418 carbon reinforced rear hubs instead of the normal plastic TT02S bits. This is more for durability than performance or looks, since they're exactly the same shape/color.

Since the pair of "right" TB03 aluminum servo stays had also arrived a few days back, I put those in:

Lastly, I put in some TRF diff putty in the front gear diff (not a lot though), to see if this helps with acceleration off the line. The rear gear diff is open to prevent the car from swapping ends hopefully. 

I'll be charging up a lipo battery and taking this baby out for a spin tomorrow (finally)! It will give me a chance to see where I am handling-wise, and also I get to test the gyro I installed a while back.

[nowinaminute 1928]

Working on my Nikko truck again. Today's challenge: Fit 540 motors.

Turned out to be a little more work than expected. The rear was easy, motor just fits straight in the space previously occupied by the 380 motor and it's "cradle" indeed, Nikko themselves offered versions of the truck with a single 540 motor in the back. The mounting holes for the stock 380 and cradle are 25mm the same as used when directly mounting a 540 motor so it's really quite easy.

The front was a bit trickier though. Everything is pretty much the same as the back except when I went to put the motor in, the screw holes were offset about 2mm. I couldn't get my head around it at all. The stock front and rear motors and cradles are interchangeable front and rear so in theory, what can be done at the back can be done at the front but the "tunnel" moulded into the front gearbox that the motor recesses into is very slightly offset relative to the mounting holes for some reason. It doesn't matter with the stock system because the overall diameter of the 380 and it's cradle is about 2-3mm less than a 540. I even looked on a few forums and youtube videos of similar mods and they mentioned it too. In the end I just dremelled a little material away and then wrapped some sandpaper around the motor and used it like a sanding block to sand some more material away just in the area it was needed. After a few minutes there was enough wriggle room for the 540 to line up with the 25mm screw holes and after that it was as easy as it was at the back to get it mounted squarely with a nice mesh.

Still not sure why there's a slight offset at the front, especially considering the rear seems to have been deliberately engineered to take either 380 or 540 motors. The mounting system at the front is all but identical except for the 2-3mm discrepancy.

Oh well, it's done now and I have 540 motors which run cooler and deliver more torque too (maybe a little too much, need to turn the ABS on the flysky on so it doesn't front flip when braking!)

[rwordenjr 857]

Took the manta for a spin today 🥳

[xzenonuk 79]

35 minutes ago, nowinaminute said:

Working on my Nikko truck again. Today's challenge: Fit 540 motors.

Turned out to be a little more work than expected. The rear was easy, motor just fits straight in the space previously occupied by the 380 motor and it's "cradle" indeed, Nikko themselves offered versions of the truck with a single 540 motor in the back. The mounting holes for the stock 380 and cradle are 25mm the same as used when directly mounting a 540 motor so it's really quite easy.

The front was a bit trickier though. Everything is pretty much the same as the back except when I went to put the motor in, the screw holes were offset about 2mm. I couldn't get my head around it at all. The stock front and rear motors and cradles are interchangeable front and rear so in theory, what can be done at the back can be done at the front but the "tunnel" moulded into the front gearbox that the motor recesses into is very slightly offset relative to the mounting holes for some reason. It doesn't matter with the stock system because the overall diameter of the 380 and it's cradle is about 2-3mm less than a 540. I even looked on a few forums and youtube videos of similar mods and they mentioned it too. In the end I just dremelled a little material away and then wrapped some sandpaper around the motor and used it like a sanding block to sand some more material away just in the area it was needed. After a few minutes there was enough wriggle room for the 540 to line up with the 25mm screw holes and after that it was as easy as it was at the back to get it mounted squarely with a nice mesh.

Still not sure why there's a slight offset at the front, especially considering the rear seems to have been deliberately engineered to take either 380 or 540 motors. The mounting system at the front is all but identical except for the 2-3mm discrepancy.

Oh well, it's done now and I have 540 motors which run cooler and deliver more torque too (maybe a little too much, need to turn the ABS on the flysky on so it doesn't front flip when braking!)

wow that looks cracking for a nikko, looks really good and powerful

my lunch box with 2s lipo would deffo avoid that for fear of getting ran over, im super impressed

[berman 3239]

18 hours ago, Carmine A said:

@berman OOOOOH!!! 😁 The EXO Terra.... It had so much promise. Great looking Chassis, nice Suspension (SO good, it carried over to the Front Suspension on the Yeti.)  ONE FATAL FLAW. That Batry Box!! 😖😳

In the older World of NiMH.... It was a mere inconvenience wrestling that Battery in and out from beside the Gearbox, under the Interior Cockpit, and it only went in ONE WAY. 

Enter my Friend, Josh Theide....  Ready to Blast down the Street and try to beat my Wraith. Excited about his new Lipo Battery, still a bit of a novelty back then.  Did a bunch of wild Donuts in the Cul De Sac, and somehow kicked a sharp Pebble AT the Battery!! 

We saw a puff of smoke and thought we should get that Batry out of there. Wrangled with it for a minute to no avail.... 

He was about to pick up the Car and try to shake it loose. All of a sudden - BOOM!!!! 💣 🔥🔥🔥🔥

A GEYSER of Flames shot out of the side of the Battery! 5-8 FEET LONG! 😳😲  Some Genius poured Water on it!! (WE DIDN'T KNOW back then) 

A HUGE, noxious Cloud, more Flames and 5 minutes later... Finally stopped. We stood in disbelief at what we just saw.  The Aftermath was a gooey blob of Plastic, Axle Shafts, Motor and Motor Plate - that USED to be his nearly NEW EXO!!! 😖😭   You never forget something like that.

 

I took a good look at your Pictures again... With very few exceptions, there's NOTHING that looks like it could swap anywhere to the M03-6!! 😲 It's been 23 years since I had my M02. I'm thinking, Stabliser Bars are about MANDATORY with that setup. I'm not really sure anymore... I forgot a LOT. 

Those REALLY are SOMETHING!! 😎😁👌   THAT settles it. I must find, at some point Next year, a M01 and M02!!!  And then of course, M03, 4, 6, 7, and 8....  They're small - SHE won't notice! 😳

FORCED to pick just one... I'm as utterly fascinated with the M07, as I am by the FF-03.  But if I was to ever collect anything RC related, it would be the M series!! 

I could get used to sleeping in the CELLAR!!😜😢😄😂

Never had an issue with the battery in mine, 3s was a bit of a struggle but it didn't bother me, the +/- 14 screws to dismantle the cage from the chassis was a mission so tried not to do that too often. I had a brilliant run with mine, had a few vanquish parts and some other bits, went really well. My LHS did me a trade with a half finished 1/14 tractor. He still has my old Exo, would love to get it back! Would link a YouTube vid but it's not really Tamiya related. 

 

10 hours ago, Badcrumble said:

Went looking for my partially completed M04 up in the loft.

Failed to find it but did stumble across my Porsche RSR bodyset in my old Focus RS WRC 01 box.

Got a few splinters.

Have to tackle the garage next <sigh>

Hope you find it! I am a bit like that with stuff. I found a box with 3 used technipower motors, a sport tuned, some silver cans (one a 4 vent Johnson), and some Technigold tools etc last week, now I can't find it! 🙄

 

Went and got these today, would be more stuff but forgot my m-chassis parts 'List' 🙄 lack of sleep and too much coffee makes my short term memory worse than normal. 🙄 at least I wore pants today.

 

[Jonathon Gillham 3168]

55 minutes ago, berman said:

Hope you find it! I am a bit like that with stuff. I found a box with 3 used technipower motors, a sport tuned, some silver cans (one a 4 vent Johnson), and some Technigold tools etc last week, now I can't find it! 🙄

 

Went and got these today, would be more stuff but forgot my m-chassis parts 'List' 🙄 lack of sleep and too much coffee makes my short term memory worse than normal. 🙄 at least I wore pants today.

 

Haha, the pants comment is funny in lockdown.  I had a zoom call last night and forgot I had an old worn out t-shirt on - the pants wouldn't have mattered so much for that.

Whats the UGT 24T motor like?  Much different to a Super Stock?

Had the same thing today, found some parts trees (TT02B parts, have the steering bits on them) which I knew I had but couldn't find.  They were in the Monster Beetle box (of course!), luckily (or not) I had to get the manual out to check how long the replacement steering rod needed to be.  Thought it had a bit too much toe-out, a banana shaped steering rod will do that.  Anyway, can now get one of the TT02B's working again, they haven't had any love for months.

[berman 3239]

1 hour ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

Haha, the pants comment is funny in lockdown.  I had a zoom call last night and forgot I had an old worn out t-shirt on - the pants wouldn't have mattered so much for that.

Whats the UGT 24T motor like?  Much different to a Super Stock?

Had the same thing today, found some parts trees (TT02B parts, have the steering bits on them) which I knew I had but couldn't find.  They were in the Monster Beetle box (of course!), luckily (or not) I had to get the manual out to check how long the replacement steering rod needed to be.  Thought it had a bit too much toe-out, a banana shaped steering rod will do that.  Anyway, can now get one of the TT02B's working again, they haven't had any love for months.

Oh no I dont do video calls at all, stuff that. 

It's is a 1K more rpm than a sport tuned, and similar torque as the TZ/BZ/RZ. I am chucking it in the M08. My LHS got two (normally buy extra for stock) and was thinking as I was walking out the door I should have grabbed the other for one of the others (or when the M07 arrives). Won't know unless I compare it against something though.

Looks pretty though! 😄

[Carmine A 1329]

3 hours ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

.....Had the same thing today, found some parts trees (TT02B parts, have the steering bits on them) which I knew I had but couldn't find.  They were in the Monster Beetle box (of course!), luckily (or not) I had to get the manual out to check how long the replacement steering rod needed to be.  Thought it had a bit too much toe-out, a banana shaped steering rod will do that.  Anyway, can now get one of the TT02B's working again, they haven't had any love for months.

THANKS!! 😁  You've inadvertently just reminded me that I need to search again, for TT-02B Arms, Shock Towers, Dogbones and assorted other Bits... For dirt cheap or FREE. 😊

I've had a near complete TT-02 for almost 4 years, that I decided would be better for me as a Buggy.

I wanted it to be a Rally Car for the longest time... But realized that it's just not practical for the area I live in. 

..... And I haven't had a 4WD Buggy in YEARS. 😞

[Jonathon Gillham 3168]

4 minutes ago, Carmine A said:

THANKS!! 😁  You've inadvertently just reminded me that I need to search again, for TT-02B Arms, Shock Towers, Dogbones and assorted other Bits... For dirt cheap or FREE. 😊

I've had a near complete TT-02 for almost 4 years, that I decided would be better for me as a Buggy.

I wanted it to be a Rally Car for the longest time... But realized that it's just not practical for the area I live in. 

..... And I haven't had a 4WD Buggy in YEARS. 😞

I have a couple of TT02B buggies which I keep for my sons friends to use (and abuse). They have so many bodged repairs and 'upgrades' that they won't qualify for the local clubs TT02B class. I looked at converting them to onroad but it was cheaper to buy new kits! As much as I go on about the TT02 being very basic and don't spend any money on them,they havebeen excellent cars for us, 3 years of abuse and still (almost) going strong! Even the kit ESC has lasted.

Good luck with yours

[Carmine A 1329]

6 minutes ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

I have a couple of TT02B buggies which I keep for my sons friends to use (and abuse). They have so many bodged repairs and 'upgrades' that they won't qualify for the local clubs TT02B class. I looked at converting them to onroad but it was cheaper to buy new kits! As much as I go on about the TT02 being very basic and don't spend any money on them,they havebeen excellent cars for us, 3 years of abuse and still (almost) going strong! Even the kit ESC has lasted.

Good luck with yours

Thanks. 😊  I've already fitted enough strengthening parts to make it a better Buggy! 👍👍

I guess I need to make a List... I'm still not sure WHAT all I'll need to convert it, except the obvious bits - Shock Towers, Shocks, Lower Arms (I can MAKE Upper Turnbuckles), Dogbones...

If someone had a TT-02B - with a CRACKED Chassis or something, that they didn't want... That would give me everything to get going. 😁  Then I can upgrade as cash allows.

[Bennett Ironman 100]

Finally swapped out the plastic rear upper wishbones replaced with the 'hop Up' Turnbuckle set...much cleaner look plus whilst I was in their swapped out the GPM racing Alloy dogbone drive shafts really didn't like them 😬 probably end up with 'ball diff' set up in the future 😳 oh dogbones are now on eBay 

[DarkSonic 73]

Converted the TBLE-02S ESC to LiPo cut-off voltage. Changed the 33kOhm to 47kOhm. So i got a cut-off voltage of 6.4 Volts. 
Needs some good equipment, but is much nicer than putting in an additional resistor.

[nowinaminute 1928]

17 hours ago, xzenonuk said:

17 hours ago, nowinaminute said:

 

wow that looks cracking for a nikko, looks really good and powerful

my lunch box with 2s lipo would deffo avoid that for fear of getting ran over, im super impressed

I have a real soft spot for their high end stuff. They were a bit unique among the toy brands in that the top range models were more or less built to hobby grade standards in terms of design and materials, just happened to have RTR style electronics. They even sold spares and upgrades at the height of the RC golden age.

Some were even sold as hobby grades (Traxxas Cat, Traxxas Spirit and Graupner Fun Racer for example are all manufactured by Nikko and based on their F10 buggy)

They made some really interesting stuff and some of it is really well suited to converting to hobby grade. Even a lot of the more toy grade stuff was really well made. The little Turbo Panther has a metal spur gear and metal steering knuckles for example.

[tamiya_1971 301]

Finally finished the dang lime green Blackfoot body strip down, repainted and added the MCI Blackfoot decals. All the parts were cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner. Not perfect by any means, tried to fill in some bad spots on the body, some success, but still some flaws.  @Xeostar gearbox strengthener installed. It has the original manual speed control and some CRP parts.

 

 

 

[Superluminal 1545]

On 8/17/2020 at 10:22 PM, Superluminal said:

Added the decals on a mercedes gtr bodyshell.

Gojng to add some micron tape panel lines later to represent the front and rear clam shells but had to stop as got toothache and cant concentrate.

 

Finished it off tonight - will join the nissan r390 on my TT02 type-s