My FOX runner re built to be a runner at the vintage festival!

[MAD RACER]

Well I had some spare time & can't run any cars as the weather is not good.

So my Fox runner was in need of some attention . On the last run it had the re built tranny that let go ( left side drive shaft stripped out) So I tore it down for a freshened set of drive shafts from FMI (Fox Man Industries at Boondal) He splits the shafts of their spline with a jig that he made up & cleans them up and adds new drive boots from a Frog Re re. Then adds some Cera Grease into them and gives them a little polish up. A new rear shock tower made from alloy was added along with a motor/tranny case brace which I painted in black was all made up by FMI. A new set of custom rear arms were made by Rogue Element out of nylon which AP Mark ordered & sold to anyone. Weren't cheap but now the Fox is a good solid runner.

I added a Manta Ray rear wing bracket to the alloy shock tower. It all fitted up well. The wing I choose is of a Tamiya car but not sure what. It is made by *****. All painted up with some fresh re po decals. Other mods are a longer steering crank of a original Brat to increase steering throw for the tight corners & even ackerman (Both sides now turn the same) for the Castle Hill track. A new set of Wild One wheels were purchased when JRC had them cheap & bolted up with new re re oval blocks & ribs.

The Fox is one car I always wanted but was out of my reach so I bought a 2nd hand Brat & converted to a Frog

Cheers

M/R

[mtbkym01]

Wow, that looks phenomenal mate, absolutely love the rear wing, looking very racey indeed, top work as always

[matman]

Looks like a boomerang wing ?. I have a set of rogue elements rear arms as well .

Would be good if he stil made them .

Your fox looks great , I was lucky as i Still have my fox from the 80's .

How do you think it will run ?.

Hope they bring this out re re ....

[beefmuffin]

very nice. man i'd love a set of those Rogue Element arms. they look like the originals, which is great. i have hot trick lower arms on my current fox runner, which is cool and all, but i'm not sure how much i like the "hopped up" look on my really old-school vintage cars... even runners. still undecided on that.

i would be one happy mollusk if tamiya re-re'd the fox! but it's kind of hilarious how much the hoping and anticipating certain re-re's is like waiting for godot. i wonder how much tamiya pays attention to communities like this where their customers put their wish lists out into the world? it would be really cool if they did... but if they don't it's has some amusing religious parallels.

[ap6318]

Nice work MAD! I need to get to Boondall and run my fox with you one day soon. I have to try the FMI rear shaft rebuild as my boots are hard as a rock now.

Good news on the rear arms. Johann (Yogi-bear) and myself are looking at producing another run of arms in the near future. They will be made of the same material but may not be as perfect as the ones Chris (Rouge Elements) made for me. Saying this, because we are doing it locally the final price should come down to compensate.

I'll revive my Fox build thread when prototypes are ready.

[MAD RACER]

That's great news Mark.

We all miss you at Boondal hope to see you soon.

[OldSchoolRunner]

This looks really good!

OSR

[Jesse James]

Nice work mad!! This years plastic fantastic looks like its going to be a serious grudge match!

[matman]

Nice work MAD! I need to get to Boondall and run my fox with you one day soon. I have to try the FMI rear shaft rebuild as my boots are hard as a rock now.

Good news on the rear arms. Johann (Yogi-bear) and myself are looking at producing another run of arms in the near future. They will be made of the same material but may not be as perfect as the ones Chris (Rouge Elements) made for me. Saying this, because we are doing it locally the final price should come down to compensate.

I'll revive my Fox build thread when prototypes are ready.

Now that's some great news . So you can fine tune the arms ?. Where the shocksmount to the bottom , Needed some stuff removed to allow the shock to move . This time i will get in early . Thanks .

[mtbkym01]

Nice work MAD! I need to get to Boondall and run my fox with you one day soon. I have to try the FMI rear shaft rebuild as my boots are hard as a rock now.

Good news on the rear arms. Johann (Yogi-bear) and myself are looking at producing another run of arms in the near future. They will be made of the same material but may not be as perfect as the ones Chris (Rouge Elements) made for me. Saying this, because we are doing it locally the final price should come down to compensate.

I'll revive my Fox build thread when prototypes are ready.

I'll be on for some of these aswell if it goes ahead

[MetBoy]

Nice work MAD! I need to get to Boondall and run my fox with you one day soon. I have to try the FMI rear shaft rebuild as my boots are hard as a rock now.

Good news on the rear arms. Johann (Yogi-bear) and myself are looking at producing another run of arms in the near future. They will be made of the same material but may not be as perfect as the ones Chris (Rouge Elements) made for me. Saying this, because we are doing it locally the final price should come down to compensate.

I'll revive my Fox build thread when prototypes are ready.

My Fox project would thank you from the bottom of its MSC if this happens!!

Definitely would be counted in for a set!

C..

[yogi-bear]

My Fox project would thank you from the bottom of its MSC if this happens!!

Definitely would be counted in for a set!

C..

Well I'd better pull my finger out and get started. Looking at a set of fox arms Mark gave me to copy, I was worried I'd need a complex 3D cut setup as the arms are tapered and get thinner as the get to the outside. But looking at pics of the arms he had made up, they are a constant thickness, so that means just a 2D cut. The difficult bit is that given the thickness they need to be, I have to flip them over in my cnc machine. I'm hoping to draw up 2D files for the arms this weekend, and then I just have to nut out a way of positioning the material exactly once I flip them over, but I think I know what to do there. So to make sure I get this happening I am going to give myself about 4 to 5 weeks to produce a final product.regardsJohann

[BadWagon]

Yeah man that Fox is looking GREAT!

I'm tearing mine down for a rebuild after this last crash and carnage.

I'm going to try and JB weld or Epoxy in the rear arms to keep them from breaking, but I'm afraid I really need a set of aluminum or derlin arms. It would be really nice to have a full aluminum adjustable arms front and rear for the fox. I doubt anyone will make them to sell, but I'm hoping to call in a few favors and have a set cut.

Let us know how that bad boy runs!

[matman]

Yeah man that Fox is looking GREAT!

I'm tearing mine down for a rebuild after this last crash and carnage.

I'm going to try and JB weld or Epoxy in the rear arms to keep them from breaking, but I'm afraid I really need a set of aluminum or derlin arms. It would be really nice to have a full aluminum adjustable arms front and rear for the fox. I doubt anyone will make them to sell, but I'm hoping to call in a few favors and have a set cut.

Let us know how that bad boy runs!

I would never use aluminium on a fox , As they don't give & the rest of the fox will break .

The front C parts will always break & the stress on the D parts ( Gear box ) won't help as well.

I would like the front C parts in alloy ? Just to help .

[BadWagon]

I would never use aluminium on a fox , As they don't give & the rest of the fox will break .

The front C parts will always break & the stress on the D parts ( Gear box ) won't help as well.

I would like the front C parts in alloy ? Just to help .

Thanks for the the input bud.

However, I disagree. The weak points which are most common, are where the pins connect the arms to the chasis, and the rear arm shock mounts. Neither of those issues are due to stress which would transfer to the chassis. The pin joint is normally from over torquing the pins. The rear arm shock mounts don't have enough meat on them, and just break. All in all the arms are the biggest weak point of the Fox (IMO).

If you were to throw a brushless system in it and jump it into the neighbor's yard 10 feet and hit a tree at full speed... yes you'll crack some chassis or gearbox parts.

yes. I did that...

I do think the alloy arms would be a great improvement to a Fox runner. Especially if you're heavy on the throttle and like to get it airborne. I don't mean as a basher, but as a run hard and fast kinda buggy.

I'd love to give alloy arms a shot, that's for sure.

[matman]

Ok , i have been there & done that . Broke all the rest of the car .

Arms need give as all the stress goes into the pivot point .

So good luck with it .

[MAD RACER]

Gee I wonder If I will be running a new Re Re for the Festival now.

[matman]

Gee I wonder If I will be running a new Re Re for the Festival now.

Hay you could be , but i don't think it comes out till june or some thing ?

As you can beat up on it then ....

[BadWagon]

Mad Racer: I thought you were running Koyosho shocks on your Fox? Did ya switch it up?

[TA-Mark]

Well I'd better pull my finger out and get started. Looking at a set of fox arms Mark gave me to copy, I was worried I'd need a complex 3D cut setup as the arms are tapered and get thinner as the get to the outside. But looking at pics of the arms he had made up, they are a constant thickness, so that means just a 2D cut. The difficult bit is that given the thickness they need to be, I have to flip them over in my cnc machine. I'm hoping to draw up 2D files for the arms this weekend, and then I just have to nut out a way of positioning the material exactly once I flip them over, but I think I know what to do there. So to make sure I get this happening I am going to give myself about 4 to 5 weeks to produce a final product.regardsJohann

Why would you need to flip the part with a 2 1/2 axis profile cut? I've done profile cutting on mine through 20mm aluminium no hassles or full depth with a 1/8" endmill in timber (about 50mm). You should have an easy usable 70mm Z axis travel with the TS3040-H8.

There's a trick to flipping a part to do backface milling. I can get it to within 0.05mm (just noticable) with the jig I made up and some clever positioning of the part to the stock in the CAM software for each side. I learnt it from a youtube video where the guy was making rc chopper blades. Getting the tool zero'd again on the Z-axis between tool changes is the only hard bit I've found with this machine. No automatic tool changer or zero device makes it alot of guess work.

[BadWagon]

Are there anymore of the Rogue Element Arms around?

I'd love to pick up a set.

[MAD RACER]

I highly doubt there are any around.

AP Mark got 100 sets I think and sold them world wide. Funny thing is it took a long time like almost a yr to sell them all I think.

I guess on the bright side the Re Re will give plenty of new rear arms & other goodies for us Fox lovers :) :)

[yogi-bear]

Why would you need to flip the part with a 2 1/2 axis profile cut? I've done profile cutting on mine through 20mm aluminium no hassles or full depth with a 1/8" endmill in timber (about 50mm). You should have an easy usable 70mm Z axis travel with the TS3040-H8.

There's a trick to flipping a part to do backface milling. I can get it to within 0.05mm (just noticable) with the jig I made up and some clever positioning of the part to the stock in the CAM software for each side. I learnt it from a youtube video where the guy was making rc chopper blades. Getting the tool zero'd again on the Z-axis between tool changes is the only hard bit I've found with this machine. No automatic tool changer or zero device makes it alot of guess work.

Hi Mark,I just found your post, thanks for the useful info (pics of your setup would be great!!). From memory your cnc is the same as mine (but I only have the 200W motor version). Any chance of a link to that youtube video?

I was going to flip the cut for two reasons:

1) the drill bits I have aren't long enough to give me a good 10 mm cut. And I thought if I went to longer bits, that the end tip wobble might be too much. What tips have you been using? My machine will only accept up to about a 3 mm shank, which seems to limited the length of cutters I can find. Eventually I will upgrade the motor and electronics.:

2. I want to chamfer the edges, and make them symmetrical each side. To do this it seemed easier to make it so I flip, that way I only have one cut profile to deal with. But than means a special jig, which I figured would come in handy anyway.

Badwagon: haven't machined anything yet, and given that Tamiya is re-re-ing the Fox its unlikely it'll be worth the effort to make some arms as there will be spares aplenty soon. I still intend on having a go though, and if anyone is still interested I'd be happy to make a set. I intend on making some out of acetyl, but I've been chatting to some people on Tamiyabase, and will give some others plastics a try, namely nylon, polyethylene and polypropylene. More so out of self interest, than trying to make money on parts.

regards

Johann

[beefmuffin]

I guess on the bright side the Re Re will give plenty of new rear arms & other goodies for us Fox lovers

YAY FOR PARTS! i hope they are inter-compatible!

[yogi-bear]

YAY FOR PARTS! i hope they are inter-compatible!

I would say so given past experience with the wild one, hotshot etc. Plus as quote on the Tamiya blog website.

"58577 Nova Fox

The driving force of 80s off-road buggy boom revives as “Nova Fox”! Racing 2WD Buggy that was released in 1985 will be finally resurrected. Durable ABS resin monocoque chassis with built-in RC mechanism in the frame. Sealed gearbox, 4-wheel independent double wishbone suspension with rear drive dog-bones. One front, two rear CVA damper with sufficient travel. High drivability by front ribbed tires and rear oval blocks with gold plated wheels."

The pic on the site looks to be a dead ringer for almost completely identical re-release too, although I am sure like the others there are minor modifications and upgrades,regardsJohann