So, What Have You Done Today?

[Kowalski86]

I did some tweaking and took the old clunker out...by "clunker" I mean I'm surprised that this thing is still going!

 

[tim.senecal]

Winter weather has finally hit, i can't do anything with the model boats i am working on, so i got bored.

[Willy iine]

For me, modified the barrel nut, spacers, and wide hex hub to make my wide offset spacer for the VW Bus.   Turned out as planned, drives well as expected with the much wider stance.  Looks appropriate too.  

Will paint the body later in the week.   Please check out my Stories on Instagram for pictures if interested.  #pretend_RC_shop.  

[Ferruz]

9 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

It depends on how far you want to take it really. Back in the day, they were considered to be competitive with nothing more than bearings and a steel pinion. However that was back when Grasshopper-esque skinny track rods and sloppy servo savers were the norm. The first updates I would consider would be a high torque servo saver, 3mm track rods and 5mm ball connectors to get rid of steering slop.

Something else to help the steering would be some softer front springs. The standard ones are rock hard and pretty much lock out the front suspension. Probably good for beginners as this promotes understeer, but as a more experienced driver you may prefer something a bit more compliant.

And apart from some shims to take the play out of the front wheels, that is all I did to the front end.

The rear is another matter entirely. It is perfectly usable with nothing more than the aforementioned bearings and steel pinion for an old-school feel, or you can bring it right up to the spec of the latest F104 Pro II and beyond. What sort of experience are you looking for from the car?

Thank you @TurnipJF for the advice. I fully agree on the steering situation, I haven't done all the homework yet and didn't know about the Grasshopper-esque rods. How long should the 3mm rods -or turnbuckles- be? I have some Kyosho ones somewhere NIP that I'd be happy to use, or else I'll just get some more along with a HT servo saver. Good call on the pinion too, I always forget that part! Do you happen to remember how many teeth the stock one has? I'll get a steel one for sure, along with softer front springs.

As for the experience I'm looking for, like I said it's my first solely-on-road car, so I'd be happy to start from an almost- stock situation and take it from there. Things like sloppy steering and cheesy pinion are better addressed right away, along with whatever other major kinks the car may have (which, judging by what you tell me, doesn't seem to be the case), but that's about it for now. I'll gladly take your advice on those parts, and see how it drives like that. Thank you.

I am very curious about building an on road track chassis... and a Group C shell 😍 ...one which, I realize, is a sleek but neutral silhouette and therefore could look pretty in almost every livery I can think of. I am doing a lot of thinking in that department. 

As for today, lots of tinkering but no action: weather was horrible, and I was dead tired anyway. 

The day started with some unusual bench mates on the table together 

then I moved on to fight yet another battle in my lifelong war against slop on my Manta Ray. So much to do, I can't believe I drove her so hard for so long without proper maintenance on those parts 😅

This time I shimmed up both front and rear suspensions with washers and teflon tape, and went on to replace more ball ends and ball connectors. Feels much better now, slop is fully gone on the rear end and barely there on the front. An in-house livingroom/corridor test showed the car running straight as an arrow from a standstill (I have a long corridor and patient neighbors). I can't even remember the last time I saw the car running straight on full throttle from a standstill. Result! 

Once again, during the tinkering I was thinking how surprising it is -to me, al least- that plastic wins over metal when they rub together. Looking at my ball connectors, the plastic ends are barely slightly loose (and could be squeezed back in with a lighter and some pinching in case of emergency) but the ball ends are very much eroded! Ha. Live and learn 🤔

[nel33]

15 hours ago, Grumpy pants said:

What 1.1 are you fixing up? 

2011 ford fiesta green. had the driver door in a hit and run when i had it parked several years ago. i wasnt in the car, had to park it there as entrance to underground parking was blocked and forgot i didnt bring the car inside... the driver had a large vehicle/tight spot and used my driver car door and front tire area as a physical sign/barrier they reversed a bit too much. didnt catch the "kind person" ever and repair was covered by insurance. the very edge of the folded door skin wasnt fully painted by body shop after 1st repair i didnt catch it and it started rusting. door skin replaced a few years later and another few years that 2nd door skin started rusting again...

washed the car door today, a bit of scotchbrite... to remove some white light scratch marks. not the best choice of surface to remove it from the door. will try to buff it out a bit later on. next step is to clean up the rust areas/cracked paint on the door and touch up the cleaned spots. will likely try and get color matched spray from auto store (green colored car). still have some driver door frame rust i need to remove and clean. will require some slightly better sanding tools other than a dremel, rust convert, primer and paint. its a project and i have a few things i still need to buy...

[Honza]

Over the weekend, I was working on a cad model of XV-01 gearbox for my next project. Today, I tried to print the diff cover to check dimensions. I think it turned out great

 

Even though it's just a replica of a stock part, it's still awesome to see your designs materialize, even after years of owning a 3D printer

[Elbowloh]

Finished off the M05 Pro Chassis. 

Still need to tidy up some wiring and the body.

Additions to the Pro kit, that already includes bearings, CVAs (clear!), allow servo horn and some blue spacers, I've added titanium hex screws, YR alloy steering arm, YR alloy motor heatsink/counterweight, and ebay special alloy motor mount.

These are the kit wheels, I think might add TC wheels to go with the Golf Mk2 body.

 

[Elbowloh]

1 hour ago, Elbowloh said:

Finished off the M05 Pro Chassis. 

Still need to tidy up some wiring and the body.

Additions to the Pro kit, that already includes bearings, CVAs (clear!), allow servo horn and some blue spacers, I've added titanium hex screws, YR alloy steering arm, YR alloy motor heatsink/counterweight, and ebay special alloy motor mount.

These are the kit wheels, I think might add TC wheels to go with the Golf Mk2 body.

 

Just had a test run on the drive and road outside for a few mins.

Jeez, this thing is fun with just a silver can and 2s lipo. Its so nimble and turns on a sixpence. Its a blast!

Think I have something now that will be good for postal racing.

[TurnipJF]

13 hours ago, Ferruz said:

I haven't done all the homework yet and didn't know about the Grasshopper-esque rods. How long should the 3mm rods -or turnbuckles- be? I have some Kyosho ones somewhere NIP that I'd be happy to use, or else I'll just get some more along with a HT servo saver. Good call on the pinion too, I always forget that part! Do you happen to remember how many teeth the stock one has? I'll get a steel one for sure, along with softer front springs.

The track rods are asymmetrical right-to-left. 52mm eye-to-eye and 71mm eye-to-eye respectively, or thereabouts depending on your toe settings. 

The stock pinion is 14t 0.6 mod.

[IXLR8]

On 12/9/2023 at 11:14 AM, Grumpy pants said:

Very nice! 👏

Thank you!!

I just wish my 20 year old Olympus digital camera would actually focus.

It's old and nearly blind -- like me. 

The Ranger is interesting and it was fun to restore.  It's now the oldest RC in my collection.

Old camera, old truck, old man.  "OLD"  

 

[Sogogi]

Love 2wd cars… ff-03 looks much better than i thought. Cannot wait to run when the weather gets better…

[Pylon80]

First time trying a pre-painted body and I'm really impressed with the quality. Knowing where to drill the holes was a bit tricky 😅 I got a little creative finding the center and it all worked out very nicely in the end.

Mister OCD is happy.

 

 

[Elbowloh]

Also did my neatest ever soldering jon on fitting a deans connector to my esc (only learned to solder a few months back). Was so pleased, until I realised I soldered the wires the wrong way round...

[toyolien]

4 minutes ago, Elbowloh said:

Also did my neatest ever soldering jon on fitting a deans connector to my esc (only learned to solder a few months back). Was so pleased, until I realised I soldered the wires the wrong way round...

That's my trick. As well as beautifully soldering the wires on then spotting the two bits of heatshrink on the bench 😟

[ChrisRx718]

@Pylon80, what a coincidence that we've both just gone down this same route. I've been debating whether to drill mine or put it on magnets. Mine is going on an XV-01. I think they've applied one of the bonnet stickers upside down on mine, so keen to see what orientation it is on yours.

It's a bit wider than the Tamiya body and I could do with pushing the wheels out to fill the arches, but the XV-01 doesn't have much width left on the CVD axles... I'm worried some thin lock nuts will just loosen... 

[Pylon80]

58 minutes ago, Elbowloh said:

Also did my neatest ever soldering jon on fitting a deans connector to my esc (only learned to solder a few months back). Was so pleased, until I realised I soldered the wires the wrong way round...

That is typical  The other one that happens to me all the time is making the absolute best solder joint, only to realize that you forgot to slip on a piece of shrink tube... and so you have to de-solder and redo it.

Edit: what @toyolien said!

[Pylon80]

58 minutes ago, ChrisRx718 said:

@Pylon80, what a coincidence that we've both just gone down this same route. I've been debating whether to drill mine or put it on magnets. Mine is going on an XV-01. I think they've applied one of the bonnet stickers upside down on mine, so keen to see what orientation it is on yours.

It's a bit wider than the Tamiya body and I could do with pushing the wheels out to fill the arches, but the XV-01 doesn't have much width left on the CVD axles... I'm worried some thin lock nuts will just loosen... 

Ha you recognized the Delta body

It is extremely wide indeed. I needed new drive axles and 10mm hexes to make it look good. On an XV-01 you could use either TG10 wide axles, or the more expensive WR-02  universals. You can also mitigate your wheel fitment with low profile nuts but for some reason I can't find them anywhere these days; the brand was Luminier I think. These would buy you 1.5mm more threads.

Talking about the bonnet stickers mine gets bonus point for the "Rally De Portugal 1975" sticker! The folks at Killerbody must have a sense of humor.

[technics]

Family photo for a longer term project. + Big step forward outlined on the build thread!  ( second photo is a 3d rendering of scan data of the original bodyset lexan hehe )

 

 

[technics]

22 hours ago, Elbowloh said:

Just had a test run on the drive and road outside for a few mins.

Jeez, this thing is fun with just a silver can and 2s lipo. Its so nimble and turns on a sixpence. Its a blast!

Think I have something now that will be good for postal racing.

Completely agree, stock motors with lipos. All you need unless your at an airstrip 😁 simple out of the box fun. M05, M05, TA02

[JimBear]

3 hours ago, technics said:

Family photo for a longer term project. + Big step forward outlined on the build thread!  ( second photo is a 3d rendering of scan data of the original bodyset lexan hehe )

If I could be as orderly and work with even half of that forethought ... really. I have too much of a monkey mind - "ooh shiny!".

[alvinlwh]

.

[Pylon80]

First time entering the Postal Racing in a very long time for me!

I absolutely love that body and the gold wheels are not nearly as out of place as I thought they would be.

[Elbowloh]

27 minutes ago, Pylon80 said:

First time entering the Postal Racing in a very long time for me!

I absolutely love that body and the gold wheels are not nearly as out of place as I thought they would be.

That surface looks extremely smooth too!

[Elbowloh]

I have made another Buyee purchase. A CC02 Merc G500, unbuilt apart from the wheels/tyres, they've thrown in an aftermarket set of new wheels and tyres, a set of bearings and some new PS5 paint, all for the princely sum of £102. 

Wowsers.

Just waiting to what shipping will cost. I'm in no rush, so even if it goes overland, I might do that to keep cost down!

[Pylon80]

29 minutes ago, Elbowloh said:

That surface looks extremely smooth too!

Very smooth, yes but dusty. As you can probably see from the top of the picture it is a basketball court. There is a guy who seems to tend to the park full time and he has this ride-on sweeping machine that looks like a Zamboni  if you are familiar with ice rinks! The days immediately after has has swept the courts, grip is not bad at all. Then within 24 hours the desert dust comes back and it gets slippery again. I go through a lot of motor fans  as they tend to chew themselves very quickly in the dust.