So, What Have You Done Today?

[SupraChrgd82]

I indulged in another retro hobby by prepping parts to rebuild this ol’ girl.

[Tumbi]

9 hours ago, Willy iine said:

So the paint fully cured.. so handed the impact driver to Willy.   

Love it! Another great master piece

[Tumbi]

Today I gave my Avante BE some alloy knuckles and made him a bit wider.

Love this overengineered Classic

[Frankster]

50 minutes ago, Tumbi said:

Today I gave my Avante BE some alloy knuckles and made him a bit wider.

Love this overengineered Classic

Is this a custom part with longer universals?   Looks interesting.  How much wider is the car now?

[Tumbi]

20 minutes ago, Frankster said:

Is this a custom part with longer universals?   Looks interesting.  How much wider is the car now?

Sorry for not beeing precise…

i just mounted 7mm Hex instead of original (i guess it was 4mm).

 

[Tumbi]

Had to choose my toy for a short trip to the local Pumptrack… Wanted to test the Avante…

so went there full of joy and happynessand anxiety not to scratch it!

but the Pumptrack was too dirty and still wet for my testrun 😞

[Tumbi]

Sorry - double post again… Probabbly  some results ftom my break 🤪

[Frankster]

2 hours ago, Tumbi said:

Sorry for not beeing precise…

i just mounted 7mm Hex instead of original (i guess it was 4mm).

 

😅ahhh.  I am not familiar with the hub design.  I am sure you can pull an extra 2g’s now

[Frankster]

took my basher out.  When I changed to wider blitzer tires the car felt sluggish on the silver can.  Now with 12T brushless on regular NiMh batteries this thing rip (and the tires have not been glued on yet).  In high traction grass it pops a wheelie.  
 

Unfortunately when I gun the throttle, full steering does nothing for the first few seconds

[Saito2]

While, now patiently, awaiting my Optima Mid, I saw Tower had the Turbo Optima back in stock. This gold beauty tempted me for a moment but then I remembered I already have its competitor from Tamiya, the mighty Bigwig! As an experienced RC enthusiast, I wanted to tame the power of the 8.4v Gold Power battery and step into the world of 8.4v racing...to tame this power to open up new worlds of excitement (well, that's what the promo video said anyway). The Bigwig seems to be a polarizing buggy but I like it a great deal. Honestly, run with its intended 8.4v pack the buggy does begin to live up to its "Bigpig" nickname. I can only imagine the slower/weaker standard servos of the day added to this ponderous feel.

With ample, but lighter, 7.2 power and a modern servo, all this fades away and it becomes a great buggy. Its big, wide tub chassis and oddly plasticy nature are forgotten once the trigger is squeezed and I can begin to see this was Tamiya's shot at the ultimate iteration of the Hotshot line. Standing still, the rack and pinion steering system's lock seems terrible and one would expect wide turning circles but somehow it doesn't add up once in motion. The buggy turns plenty sharp enough and finally without the dreaded bump steer that plagues my Hotshots or the constant jamming my Boomerang suffered (mulch running surfaces were admittedly terrible for this). 

Here's the view Tamiya likely hoped the Turbo Optimas would see of the Bigwig. Whether there's truth to it or not, there is something special about Tamiya's 10th anniversary wonder.

[Willy iine]

3 hours ago, Tumbi said:

Had to choose my toy for a short trip to the local Pumptrack… Wanted to test the Avante…

so went there full of joy and happynessand anxiety not to scratch it!

but the Pumptrack was too dirty and still wet for my testrun 😞

Nice collection.  BTW, where did you get those swivel neck hex wrenches?  Or is are those the sliding type?  

[Willy iine]

Making a mess..  

Wish me hope please.. 

So I ended up teaching my younger son how to do an oil change on a 4 banger ICE  (whole house generator) so took a bit longer than expected.. he's taking intro to automotive class in HS, so thought it'd be good to be ahead of the game.. I mean what kind of guy doesn't know how to do an oil change on a car, right?  Oh wait, it is 2022..    JK..

 

Anyway got done shaping the hose attachments for Willy's shop vac, so will do the brush painting next.   I need to finish this today so that I can start my Optima MID build tomorrow..

These are hollow, took a bit of hope injection to get it to fuse to a slim box shape.  

Final update for today..  I will do a proper photo shoot when the non-slit wire loom arrives and I have the hose coiled up on the stand.   But for today, this is how it looks.   

Edited October 8, 2022 by Willy iine

[technics]

4 hours ago, Frankster said:

took my basher out.  When I changed to wider blitzer tires the car felt sluggish on the silver can.  Now with 12T brushless on regular NiMh batteries this thing rip (and the tires have not been glued on yet).  In high traction grass it pops a wheelie.  
 

Unfortunately when I gun the throttle, full steering does nothing for the first few seconds

Pop in a lipo! 😃

[Tumbi]

4 hours ago, Willy iine said:

Nice collection.  BTW, where did you get those swivel neck hex wrenches?  Or is are those the sliding type?  

Thank you! They‘re Bike-Tools from „Park-Tools“. 

[Mark_McQ]

Got a resin printer this week so I decided to fix an issue that's been plauging me on my Axial SMT10. Keep losing the front shock cups because I'm using soft springs, so I designed my own ones that will stay in place.

 

[Tumbi]

4 hours ago, Willy iine said:

Nice collection.  BTW, where did you get those swivel neck hex wrenches?  Or is are those the sliding type?  

Thank you! They‘re Bike-Tools from „Park-Tools“. 

[Willy iine]

2 hours ago, Tumbi said:

Thank you! They‘re Bike-Tools from „Park-Tools“. 

Thanks for the info.  That looks really convenient.  I'm going to get me a set for the garage!   

[Frankster]

5 hours ago, technics said:

Pop in a lipo! 😃

I need a wheelie bar first 😝.  Overall need to cautious on lipo as I wants kids to be able to charge and use batteries without me.  May wait for a few years when they can learn to properly take care of lipos

[Frankster]

Public Service Announcement 📣 

MCI Racing has a 20% off sale
 

https://mciracing.ca/?syclid=cd10irrt1i3tk1oqfrf0&utm_campaign=emailmarketing_144691429592&utm_medium=email&utm_source=shopify_email

[Frankster]

3 hours ago, Mark_McQ said:

Got a resin printer this week so I decided to fix an issue that's been plauging me on my Axial SMT10. Keep losing the front shock cups because I'm using soft springs, so I designed my own ones that will stay in place.

 

Would your design work on stock Tamiya buggies?   My son’s TT-02B keeps losing these. The front bumper is too soft and pushed into the retainer cups on impact.  Together with his friend, they have lost about 7 cups.

 

Do you mind sharing the design and I can get it printed locally   

[alvinlwh]

Went to the Tamiya showroom in Singapore to meet up with fellow forum member @OoALEJOoO

And made a "few" purchase. 

There are some that I had never seen in the UK (not that I had been RCing that long). 

Unfortunately, there is only so much I can bring back with me (on top of everything else!). 

[OoALEJOoO]

47 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

Went to the Tamiya showroom in Singapore to meet up with fellow forum member @OoALEJOoO

It was great meeting you at the shop today brother!

[alvinlwh]

2 minutes ago, OoALEJOoO said:

It was great meeting you at the shop today brother!

Same here. Amazing how two people from two different continents met on a third continent thanks to this forum. 

BTW, enjoy your F104, I am just reading the instructions. 😁

 

[moffman]

23 hours ago, Frankster said:

Is this a custom part with longer universals?   Looks interesting.  How much wider is the car now?

I put alloy front and rear knuckles on my avante black special I don't know if they are the same as the knuckles I got which are from yeah racing and quite expensive and look no different from the original plastic ones which was a bit annoying because the price of them you want some sort of inscription on them like a logo or something to signify they are upgrades or even a choice of different colours?

[Willy iine]

12 minutes ago, moffman said:

I put alloy front and rear knuckles on my avante black special I don't know if they are the same as the knuckles I got which are from yeah racing and quite expensive and look no different from the original plastic ones which was a bit annoying because the price of them you want some sort of inscription on them like a logo or something to signify they are upgrades or even a choice of different colours?

I get you completely!  But its sometimes good not to have bling and keep the focus on the entire car.(?)     A logo would be nice however.. but engraving adds to cost I suppose, for a part one can’t see..