My SRB build.

[Fixit]

New to the forum so first off........ Hello All.

Just inherited a box of parts which has been kicking around in my family for years, on closer inspection it turns out that there is the best part of two SRB's in there. Been watching some threads on here for a while now so I figure that an SRB build is a good time to sign up and share.

Decided to go for a modified runner build rather than a resto project, missing a few parts so I'm using some from the re-re for those but mostly vintage stuff which has polished up nicely, here's the start of my build.

I tapped a 5mm thread into the arms and drilled out the holes in the axle supports to 5mm, made new pins using a length of M5 stud with a short piece of 6mm nylon tube wound onto them to act as a bearing in the tube, the aluminium tubes have been replaced with stainless steel. The arms are thread locked onto the pins and now have a solid smooth movement.

Tapped an M5 thread through the rear of the arms and drilled out the gear casing to suit, uses a stainless fixing.

Solid stainless pins for the other end.

Coil over conversion uses 9mm brass pipe stiffeners as spring seats and springs from a TLT. The black stopper is a length of heat shrink that has an adhesive inside.

Brass seat cut to length and drilled for the grub screw and then soldered to the shock end.

Pleased with these.

Made a full length chassis stiffener.

More to follow soon.........

[Cooltoys]

Nice work on the shocks... Looking forward to more pics of the build..

I should make some coilovers too for my runner..

Welcome to the forums..

[pastimesteve]

Sheesh! That is incredibly impressive work so far. I have great admiration for builders like you who can fabricate all of this stuff. I can't do it to save my life.

Welcome, and looking forward to many more pictures of this build.

Steve

[Champ85]

Welcome to TC!

Love the unique and interesting work you have done. The front suspension arms were always a weak point of the SRB chassis, aggravated me to no end on my Super Champ by always getting loose. Glad to see some nice 'fixes' to make it stronger. The shocks look really cool, and the black and brass really go well together.

[Fixit]

Thanks for the comments, all opinions welcome..... good or bad.

If anyone is interested in how any of these mods are done then I will be happy to put together some tutorials........... just don't want to try and teach anyone to “suck eggs” if you know what I mean.

Got a few more parts to make and mod and then I should be able to get on with the assembly. I got two clean stock vintage motors out of that box of bits, plan on re-winding one to 19 turns and maybe install ball race bearings in there. Ordered the Kamtec baja body, have used Kamtec bodies before and really like there stuff, just a shame that they don't have the detail that Tamiya's injection moulded stuff has so I plan on 'adding' some detail to the baja body.

As for those shocks.... I'm well chuffed at how they turned out, was going to make some collars with grub screw to give me some spring adjustment, the black shrink stoppers where intended to be temporary but they feel real nice so I'm going to run it as is and see how it goes first.

Hopefully have some more done by the weekend so should have some more to post then.

Cheers....

[wildwillydriver]

Welcome to TC!

This will be a very intresting thread, thanks for sharing all this info and pics!

Bye

WWD

[skywhelp]

hello and welcome. fantastic first post! i love what you're doing with then shocks and front end.great shots. should be a very srb when done, will be keeping an eye on this one.

[Skottoman]

WELCOME! You obviously have done this type of thing before, and posted build threads. Your first post here is better than most of us do on a daily basis!

Excellent photos, and description. I will be watching this thread to see the continued build!

Again.... Welcome to TC. It's a great site.

Cheers,

Skottoman

[Fixit]

Cheers for the comments...

@Skottoman

Yeah, been into the hobby for 27 years and scratch building for 20 of those, as for the tidy post's..... I suffer from a little OCD and like to keep things tidy.

Made a bit more progress, built a rear guard today, used 6mm steel tube for the hoop and 2mm aluminium plate for the rest.

Drilled and tapped the hoop to fix the plate.

Short piece of 6mm tube drilled and tapped to fix the centre.

Now when it gets damaged I can replace it without replacing the hoop.

The front bumper will be made in the same way, need to get some assembly done now so I can cut and mount the body before I decide how its going to look.

[axemandavva]

This is some great work. I wouldn`t even know where to start with scratch building.

[axemandavva]

This is some great work. I wouldn`t even know where to start with scratch building.

[Leethal Driver]

Yep, to carry on a theme this is some really nice work. Would love to know how you get such a nice finish on stuff, my home made mods always look a bit untidy

[Cooltoys]

Nice work on the tube & rear plate.. By the way that is an early gearbox.

[Fixit]

Hope to get some assembly done today so should have some more results to post tomorrow.

@Cooltoys

Yep, pretty sure that's a Mk1 gearbox and its got original internals too (with ball bearings fitted). I've got parts from Mk1 and Mk2 SRB's, trying to use as many vintage parts as possible.

@Leethal Driver

Getting a tidy finish to stuff like aluminium plate really ain't that hard, everything is hand made using hand tools and home made tools......... no fancy CNC equipment here, keeping it 'old skool' . I use a simple jig to cut, file and fold the aluminium plate which is nothing more than two lengths of steel flat bar and a vice, the rest is down to a good saw and files and practice. When I do the front bumper I will get some more detailed pics of the process to show you how its done.

Cheers....

[Fixit]

Didn't get time to do much assembly yesterday, got the rear arms, axles and front shocks fitted.......... but I did make a start on a rear shock mount mod.

Two holes drilled and tapped on the side for bolts through the pipe clamp, tapped through for the shock bolt. Need to make a decent spacer for it.

The front end is starting to look good.

Need to get the rear mount finished and re-wind the motor to finish the rear end, waiting on some new bearing plates before I can finish the front end........ getting there.

[Skottoman]

Great work! Your skills at making a quality thread with excellent photos is on par with your ability to scratch build parts.

Very nice. It's people like you that make this thread enjoyable for someone who's been in the hobby for many years.

Really like the rear skid plate into rear cage design. I've never seen that before.

Cheers,

Skottoman

[Fixit]

Its been a while but... I have the time for RC again!

Started the thread for this build an age ago, life has been getting in the way for the last 18 months and as a result I've not had the time for RC. Any way...(sob story over) at long last I've got time on my hands so I can crack on with some of my projects... like this one!

Since the last post I've re-wound the stock motor and made some very nice rear shock top mounts using polymorph (shiny pics to follow soon), watch this space for updates. They may be a little slow as I've been distracted by a blackfoot body street truck project, I should have enough done to get a build thread up by the weekend.

Its good to be back!

[SRB Bloke]

Some nice work on this so far, excited to hear you're ready to start the thread again

[OldSchoolRunner]

That is some really quality workmanship! Welcome to the forum!

OSR

[Fixit]

Decided to strip the chassis and get some holes in all that aluminium to reduce the weight, what with all the metal upgrade parts its starting to get a little heavy.

Couldn't resist finishing the rear shock mounts first....

Made these using polymorph, great stuff for making small parts like these. They where easy to make, dissolve the polymorph granules in hot water and they turn to a putty type material which was then pressed into a mould made from plastic card. It cools quickly and has very similar properties to nylon when set.

[Fixit]

Welcome back to world's slowest build thread! It's been a year plus since my last update, seems that every time I say “found time for RC again” something else comes along to slow me down. But hey... better to finish a thread slowly than not finish it at all?

Anyway, whining over here's some progress...

Was going to drill some holes in the metal work and knock some weight of it but after working out how much I'd save it hardly seemed worth it, so moving on. Machined up the holes in the front arms to take the re-re knuckle bearings, as this is a runner I wanted to be able to source parts when needed so making re-re parts fit the vintage stuff is a must.

Next a steering servo mod, cut a hole through the front mech box and mounted the servo in there. The SRB now has a modern servo saver and direct to servo steering, this should reduce the 'slop' and make the steering more responsive.

As its running on coil over's and modified arms I wanted to stiffen the chassis to get the suspension working as it should. I used the four outer holes through the chassis and the original rear mech box mount point to pin the whole lot together, made some spacers for the job which also give me a little more clearance for the servo saver.

At last, a rolling chassis.

Next, get the sparks in and get it running....

[THE SMOOTHEE]

Nice man. Looking forward to seeing you continue. Some great skills being displayed here.

I feel better knowing that life gets in the way for others as well as me. Keep it coming bro, as time allows.

[SteveU30]

Awesome thread my man, I love stuff like this where the original is made better through tasteful and well engineered mods. Keep up the good work!

[Toykid]

Awesome thread my man, I love stuff like this where the original is made better through tasteful and well engineered mods. Keep up the good work!

Ditto what Steve said!

[Fixit]

Thanks for the comments, it's been more of an evolution than a build.

And now... it's a runner!

Been out for a test run and I'm very pleased with the result, all the mods have been worth while. Wasn't expecting too much from the re-wound stock motor but, oh my word! it's spot on. All in it's a nicely balanced SRB, perfect power to weight and handles like a dream.