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Hi Everyone, I new to the club so I thought I would post up some pics of the Clod I rebuilt from the ground up to see what you hardcore Tamiya fans think. :)

All parts have been updated to SuperClod Blue (wasn't a fan of the red plastic), new Tamiya body shell, new windows, new Tamiya chrome, new Tamiya Chrome wheels & new Clod rubber. New HPI GT dual battery/dual motor ESC, 2 new HPI GT550 motors (last pic was before the motor swap). I also has a polished aluminum center chassis brace & and polished aluminum susupension lift plates. Now running dual 7.2V 6 cell batteries and it has the Tamiya headlight kit on it as well. The body is painted in a custom base coat, clear coat pearl blue that I had done professionally at a buddies body shop (hard to see the pearl in the pics).

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I hope you all like what I did with it.

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Great looking Clod. How did you get on fitting the two 550 motors? I tried them in mine and space is tight.

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Very cool! The chrome looks amazing. All I'd say is get a chevy grill on there to finish her off :unsure:

Thanks for the complement. Actually have yet to run it outside as I built this for my son. Until he gets old enough to use it, it will be a shelf/show queen...LOL. I would love to put the Chevy grill back on it. My chevy grill is really beat up so I painted it black and silver. Doesn't look bad but I really wanted to have a shiney chrome grill to match the chassis and rest of the parts.

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Great looking Clod. How did you get on fitting the two 550 motors? I tried them in mine and space is tight.

They are a really tight fit. I found that the HPI motors seemed to have a slightly shorter shaft than the Traxxas Titan motors so it just fit (You can barely see the 550 motors in my 1st 2 pictures). I also bent the wire leads flatter to allow for more clearance. I really won't know if there will be a problem until the truck really gets run. At this time it has only been tested very lightly in my clean basement so no fast blasts or jumping.

If using Titan 550s you will likely need to either shave the inner ladder bars to clearance it or change to a 4-link bar set up (which is a bunch of work with a stock chassis).

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Excellent, would look great in a group photo with mine.

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Would love to....Our trucks look pretty similar..LOL I am not too far away from NY as I am in Ontario, Canada.

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Would love to....Our trucks look pretty similar..LOL I am not too far away from NY as I am in Ontario, Canada.

Really?, thats not too far. Im like 1 & 1/2 hours southwest of Niagara Falls, right in the very bottom left corner of the state, the PA line is 1 mile west or 3 miles south, depends on which way you want to head into Pennsylvania. Erie is only 20 miles East of me and I head out that way all the time.

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that it absolutely stunning, and makes me want a clod more than i already did! the paint is so deep, just looks amazing!

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They are a really tight fit. I found that the HPI motors seemed to have a slightly shorter shaft than the Traxxas Titan motors so it just fit (You can barely see the 550 motors in my 1st 2 pictures). I also bent the wire leads flatter to allow for more clearance. I really won't know if there will be a problem until the truck really gets run. At this time it has only been tested very lightly in my clean basement so no fast blasts or jumping.

If using Titan 550s you will likely need to either shave the inner ladder bars to clearance it or change to a 4-link bar set up (which is a bunch of work with a stock chassis).

I had to dremmel the inside of the ladder bars and space out the 4 ball ends from where they fit the chassis to fit the 550 HPI motors in. I ended up with about 3mm clearance. I also bent the wire leads up like you but I think that weakened them because on the first run the ladder bar just snapped off the motor wire terminal with the movement of the suspension. It was great fun with two batteries on 14.4v but be careful as it's almost undriveable with the stock suspension & more likely to flip & damage that lovely paint. I have now converted back to two standard 540 motors & an 8 cell 9.6 battery and four CVA shocks. it's much easier to drive now & still fairly quick.

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Really?, thats not too far. Im like 1 & 1/2 hours southwest of Niagara Falls, right in the very bottom left corner of the state, the PA line is 1 mile west or 3 miles south, depends on which way you want to head into Pennsylvania. Erie is only 20 miles East of me and I head out that way all the time.

I am about 2 hours northeast of Niagara Falls....I thought you were closer to the boarder..LOL. Who knows maybe someday we will get a bunch of us together for an RC meet in Niagara...won't be this summer though as I am off to Europe next week for most of the summer ;)

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I had to dremmel the inside of the ladder bars and space out the 4 ball ends from where they fit the chassis to fit the 550 HPI motors in. I ended up with about 3mm clearance. I also bent the wire leads up like you but I think that weakened them because on the first run the ladder bar just snapped off the motor wire terminal with the movement of the suspension. It was great fun with two batteries on 14.4v but be careful as it's almost undriveable with the stock suspension & more likely to flip & damage that lovely paint. I have now converted back to two standard 540 motors & an 8 cell 9.6 battery and four CVA shocks. it's much easier to drive now & still fairly quick.

Probably good advice Griggy, no worries about the body though, I plan on getting a new Proline 2007 Chevy silverado lexan body to actually run the truck with (sticking with the Chevy truck theme). This body is strickly going to be used for when it is on display as I just have too much time and money into it to use it for bashing. ;)

I still have the 2 original 540 motors that are in good shape (but I have them listed in a Clod parts lot I have posted in another section here), but I just wanted the nice self cooled 550 motors in there to add more of a custom touch to the truck.

I didn't have as tight of a fit as you did with the 550s for some reason??? Not sure why though. I think you are right about the shocks. May go with 8 oil filled GP savage shocks with 8 HPI blue springs if the stockers don't work. I just liked the way the stock ones looked but again the truck has never really be run so perhaps my opinion will change and I will sell off those too...LOL.

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If you do run it you definately need to change the standard shocks for some oil filled units. Since doing mine the handling has transformed & it no longer makes that clattering noise that Clodbusters do when the standard shocks are bouncing around on the springs.

They are great trucks, you will have loads of fun with it.

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Fab - smart Clod refurb.

I've recently swapped all my Bullhead shocks for the period CVA upgrades. Luckily its all still yellow plastic so it still looks the same. Its a lot less squeaky creaky! I know the standard shocks yellow (Bullhead) and red/blue (Clod) are rubbish performance, but I love the old brightly coloured plastic-ness of them.

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Fab - smart Clod refurb.

I've recently swapped all my Bullhead shocks for the period CVA upgrades. Luckily its all still yellow plastic so it still looks the same. Its a lot less squeaky creaky! I know the standard shocks yellow (Bullhead) and red/blue (Clod) are rubbish performance, but I love the old brightly coloured plastic-ness of them.

Thanks for the nice comment. Would anyone know what would be the "best" not too expensive shock to replace these with. Would like to stick with 8 if possible to retain the stock look. I was thinking of HPI GP savage or HPI e-savage (little shorter) shocks but not sure if either of those are too long.

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If you search for "Maxx shocks" on Evilbay, you can find E/T-Maxx shocks very cheap. I got 4 shipped for about $11USD and they work great on my Clod. :rolleyes:

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that is stunning i realy want a clod, one day, love the blue aswell, top build, now go get it dirty lol,

paul

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Quality

Thanks for all the nice comments guys...Sorry for the super late reply. I have been super busy since the summer and only now am I starting to turn my attention to RC again. Since I posted, the Clod has still not been run...LOL...sitting under a cover and propped up on a stand. This weekend, it will be getting 4 new t-maxx shocks & then I may actually test it out inside for a bit.

To answer some of the questions earlier in this thread...not an ESP chassis, it is a stock chrome chassis with an ESP aluminum suspension lift (which I polished) and ESP aluminum chassis brace. I was thinking of converting the ladder bars to a crawford performance 4 link aluminum set up but I have not had the heart to dremel the chrome chassis.... :lol:

I am toying with the idea of building another Clod strictly for bashing...time will tell.

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