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Mesohornet

Newbie Mini M-03 Build Advice

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I'm taking delivery this week of a Mini Cooper Racing m-03 kit, and can't wait to get stuck into the build. Can anyone point me in the right direction as to the tools required for the job, plus anything else I should be wary of; I'm totally green on this so any advice would be much appreciated!!

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Welcome!

I think I just used a philips screw driver, knife and small pliers for the basic build.

I'd also see if you can get ball bearings for it before building it.

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Welcome!

I think I just used a philips screw driver, knife and small pliers for the basic build.

I'd also see if you can get ball bearings for it before building it.

Thanks! I should be okay for those things. What about the ball bearings, do they not come included in the kit as standard?

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Hi good luck on your build, I believe the kit only comes with the plastic ones which do wear down i put them in my TT-01 & where fine for the standard motor for a while until i put in a faster motor which melted them but if you can get the ball bearing before you build as you'll probaly end up striping it down to put them in which is a right pain. Anyways good to see your properly building the Mini not just getting and XB ( Expert Built ) One. Nice One.

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Hi good luck on your build, I believe the kit only comes with the plastic ones which do wear down i put them in my TT-01 & where fine for the standard motor for a while until i put in a faster motor which melted them but if you can get the ball bearing before you build as you'll probaly end up striping it down to put them in which is a right pain. Anyways good to see your properly building the Mini not just getting and XB ( Expert Built ) One. Nice One.

Thanks Chris, that makes sense to me now. I'll try & get my hands on a set of those. Are the tamiya ones the way to go , or does anyone know of any third party manufacturers making these?

Cheers

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Have a look on Ebay.co.uk there's a few diffrent 'types' of bearings around from 5 to 50 personally i would stick with Tamiya ones. At least you know they will all be there & the right size too.

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A simple explaination of bearing choice; the ones with rubber shields are good for external spots (like on the hubs) because the rubber will help to keep dust and dirt out of them, and the metal shielded are fine for internals as they get smothered with grease.

You ought to get a complete non-Tamiya set that'll be fine for a newbie build for less than a tenner.

Have excellent fun building your Mini; its everso easy, the Tamiya instructions are spot on. :blink:

There's lots of bolt-on hop-ups available as you get used to driving your new little beastie.

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the rover mini cooper racing was the first brand new kit i ever built. Built it on Christmas day a few years ago for my little brother!

nothing to difficult with the build, just make sure you do the self tapping screws properly. You should gently screw them in a little, then back off, then screw in a little further, then back off again - repeat until the screw is tight! Otherwise you'll get a rubbish thread that doesnt hold as well, and the screw will really heat up as you turn it.

I didn't add ball bearings during the build which was bit of a pain. But after a year of light use the plastic ones had held up ok. There is no excuse not to fit them though as they are so cheap nowdays and really help with performance and the durability of the car.

Other hop ups i can recommend are the quick release battery holder, anti roll bars and the tamiya CV joint set for the drive up front - they replace the stock drive shafts with excellent CV joints that last forever.

They are great little cars and are really quick straight out of the box!

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Also there are loads of clubs that have a mini heats for racing. Go along, it's what the mini was built for and so much fun (no where near as serious as the touring car boys!)

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Also, a set of the CVA oil shocks would be a good upgrade, they'll take some of the uncontrollable bounce out of the handling/ride.

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Try and fit the bearing kit with the build, as you have to take apart alot of the car to get at the gearbox.

Oh and don't worry about mad motors in it, a black can is more than enough, understeer galore!

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Noooooooooo!!!! I'm on nightshift, so am only out of bed. There it was lying on the doormat, a Royal Mail delivery card!!! My Mini is stuck in the depot until tomorrow, another day of waiting!! ;)

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Oh and don't worry about mad motors in it, a black can is more than enough, understeer galore!

Oops, my 13x3 has just been ordered lol.

Noooooooooo!!!! I'm on nightshift, so am only out of bed. There it was lying on the doormat, a Royal Mail delivery card!!! My Mini is stuck in the depot until tomorrow, another day of waiting!! ;)

Gutted for you.

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Right, here's the parts that I've identified for the M03 chassis, mainly via ebay, that I can add to the standard kit. Can anyone with experience tell me how each part affects the performance/handling of the car, and how essential the part is in the initial build. ie. Can it be added later easily?

1. Ball bearing set (6.75 on ebay, British seller, what do you think??)

2. TA03 ball diff

3. M03 front & rear stabiliser

4. Toe in rear upright

5. Quick release battery holder

I'm having some trouble sourcing the cva oil filled shocks, I was wondering could someone point me in the right direction with a link. If anyone can think of anything else worth getting, let me know!

Cheers ;)

Mark

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I'd get the bearings, silly not to. 1GBP per bearing is about the going right for metal shielded ones. The diff would be nice on the first build, but then you won't know the benefit. Its not hard to split the gearbox. Only a pain if you have taped your reciever and ESC over the join. I use velcro now and split it around the join. I used my car on the beach whilst on holiday, silly I know, and have had to spent the last two weeks since, rebuilding and cleaning, including a gearbox rebuild, its pretty simple.

The rest are just bolt one stuff, fit any time.

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1. Ball bearing set (6.75 on ebay, British seller, what do you think??) yes, definitely. Soak them in WD40 overnight before fitting

2. TA03 ball diff -no, you really wont notice the difference

3. M03 front & rear stabiliser -only if racing, and even then you can retro fit it anytime really easily

4. Toe in rear upright -ditto

5. Quick release battery holder i found them to be "wobble-y" as the screws thread the plastic fairly easily, and it's not a difficult job to use the standard fittings

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