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BritCrawler

King Cab Restoration

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Hi, I have a King Cab I have rebuilt from the floor up. Superb truck, absolutely rapid with my Dynatech 01R onboard and a HPI Flux Motiv speedo, even on only 7.2V. The original shocks were about goosed so I've fitted some CPV alloy shocks (designed for a T-Maxx, if anyone is interested) that fitted the bill, with some fairly stiff springs. It handles really well now and doesn't keep popping the lower ball joints off.

I've just got it running absolutely right after it's second Diff rebuild and all I have left is 2 issues:

The front wheels are cracked and the tyres are perished and bald. I have replaced the rears with Traxxas Victory wheels and tyres which give hugely superior grip to the original tyres (lets face it tyres have moved on a touch in 15 years!!) but the front ones as-is are useless. I can't fit the Bearing Fit Traxxas wheels to the front because, although the Tamiya bearings are a perfect fit in the Traxxas wheels, the bearing spacing is much narrower on the Traxxas wheels so they leave a long length of the straight shaft stuck out so I can't fit the wheels. Does anyone have a suggestion as to how to fit the Traxxas wheels? I figured a 5mm ID, 6-8mm OD sleeve between the nut and the bearing face would do it.

I know it's probably sacrilege or something but frankly I want it to drive well and grip well and the Traxxas wheels/tyres work really well I tested them on another rig), it's gonna cost me very little if I can fit them and it'll get the truck closer to being great again!

The bodyshell is toast, pretty much. This truck was bashed extensively in it's previous life (and it's amazing how well the chassis, suspension and drivetrain have taken all that beating!!) and the torture took it's toll on the shell. The corners are ground out to holes, the bumpers are splitting off and the paint is... mainly absent from parts of the inside of the shell. Is it possible to source shells and decals for the truck anymore?

Many Thanks

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HPI makes a set of universal wheels that comes with all kinds of adaptors. I know this because have tires mounted on few sets of these and can use them on three different trucks I own. HPI part number 2105 and 2140 they make other styles and versions not just these black star ones but thoose are the ones I have sitting here now.

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The King Cab/Hilux were unusual as they used Tamiyas long front axles from their monster trucks. As you say any metal washers can be used to take up the extra play, just make sure whatever you use next to the bearing isn't as big as the outer edge of the bearing. Any decent hobby shop should sell short lengths of brass tube that you can cut down to length to use as spacers. An alternative would be to replace the front axles with the shorter Jato ones, although just by looking at the diagrams it's impossible to be sure the Jato axles will fit inside the King Cab knuckles. Looks like they do though, but it would need someone to try a pair to be certain.

For the body, if you want the original ebay or the TC traderooms are going to be the only sources. On ebay right now there is the sticker set and the roll bar, but no body. Most other shlls designed for stadium trucks should do the job. When looking for bodies I find Tower Hobbies useful as they usually measure all the bodies and include the dimensions on the product pages so you can see what will fit over your chassis.

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When needed, I used rubber O-rings (from oil shocks) for the fronts when I raced the Cab years ago.. Yep, very primitive :P

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Hi,

Regarding the body, you can get a nice replica from an australian shop on Ebay.

These are some pictures of my replica. regarding stickers, original ones perfectly fit with this body

5402080479f2a30a2843c8cb6d2f75e2.jpg

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78394935c630b5a37ac5ba04bfc84d51.jpg

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the shell wile e coyote refers to is made by frewer and sold on ebay australia by oz-rc if i remember rightly. the original shells are like rocking horse poo and are very expensive when they do come up. same as the hi lux racer shell. as terry said decals are easy to come by so the frewer shell is definitely a good option

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you are right, this shell costs me 35 euros delivered. Refering to original ones, to have compared both, I can tell you that the Hilux one is much more stronger. Nevertheless, I do own a hilux one NIB which costs me a year of salary :lol:

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Many thanks Terry, you made me think 'brass tube' and I found an old piece of aerial tube that fitted the bill perfectly. Got the front wheels mounted just fine.

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Got the front wheels mounted up and run like silk.

First shakedown test went well driving wise, but badly from a structural point of view. I have a big problem with the serrated nuts coming undone on the suspension and chassis. Do you folks think it'd be better to replace em with M3 nylocs?

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Hi,

I had the same trouble with my hilux runner, I replaced most of the flange nuts with nylocs which seems to have done the trick. I can now run it without it falling apart at every opportunity.

Merry Christmas

Stewart

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