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Thommo

4WD Brat

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At the start of the year I picked up a couple of donar TA02's to go with a pc Brat shell and Top Force arms that I already had. I still had to buy both gear cases and a chassis tub new so mostly this is new built from parts. I also had a TZ motor with alloy motor mount and an alloy propshaft ready to go. The wheel base of the TA02T when fitted with Top Force / Manta Ray arms is 254mm and the Brat body is 251mm so close enough.

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Only m3 threaded screws are used and all threads tapped first. Next a 16t 06 mod metric stell pinion is fitted to the TZ with alloy mount. Standard TA02 gear set with rubber shield Tamiya bearings. The CVA's are built to 70mm to suit the longer arms of the Top Force. Top Force dogbones used for the rear and also an extra 850 bearing in the cenre of each hub. The extra 850 fits in between the 1150 wheel axle bearings nicely and better supports the axle. The top links came from spares. The front assembly gets all the same with threaded screws and bearings. TA01 or DF01 front uprights and king pins are important here and are needed to suit the Top Force universal shafts. The front uprights also have the extra 850 bearing in the centre of each hub. A good trick with alloy propshafts is to load them up with anti wear grease and then shrinkwrap a boot over each joint.

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Here is the completed chassis with electrics, wheels and body mounts.

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A mock up of the body fitted, prior to painting.

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Masked the bumpers, back cover and windows and then painted black, red then backed wit silver, windows clear. I fitted some rally blocks on Celica wheels to see how it would look as a rally Brat.

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Finally all stickered up and ready for action. Not quite finished as I'm still waiting 6 weeks for a Lunchbox bumper from JR. Here is some pics anyways, hope you like it!

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Thanks for checking out my Brat. :D

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That looks brilliant! Nice idea with the prop shaft boot too, I am going to have to borrow that one.

Will there be some action shots?

C..

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Thanks Mate. I'm still waiting on that front bumper and a bit too scared just yet. A run at our next local meet and some action shots to come for sure!

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Thanks Mate. I'm still waiting on that front bumper and a bit too scared just yet. A run at our next local meet and some action shots to come for sure!

& when is this going to happen ? Looks great M8 . Just think on the next meet , Fox's & maybe Egress ??. WOOHOO!! ..

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Nice looking 4WD Brat! Do you want to use other wheels? The Rally wheels are looking a tad to small. The buggy wheels are the right size, but aren't the nicest looking in combination with this bodyshell. TeamCRP offers wheel adaptors to mount classic Brat rear wheels on regular wheel axles, but this will extend the overall width.

I may borrow your alloy propshaft cover idea for my TT-01 if you don't mind. :) I assume these alloy joints are very prone to wear, aren't they?

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Rc4wd sunraysia's Thommo would look great on this :) Are they 12mm hex?

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Thanks all and you guys are spot on, Im not too sure about wheels and tyres. I will take another look at rc4wd but I'm not sure what tyres would suit and not be so big that they foul on the body.

Matman, next meet soon Mate I hope. The Perth thread has been very quiet over winter.

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That looks excellent, and I'll bet it runs great too. Another one of those "why didn't Tamiya make one like that?" cars.

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Thanks all and you guys are spot on, Im not too sure about wheels and tyres. I will take another look at rc4wd but I'm not sure what tyres would suit and not be so big that they foul on the body.

Matman, next meet soon Mate I hope. The Perth thread has been very quiet over winter.

I would have like to of had a run in winter , as it's alot cooler & i have time off as work is slow at the moment .

But oh well i'm happy to wait :P ..

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I should change the wheels for something more scaler imho.

Anyway great job.

Max

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This is my first attempt at a rally or on-road car. I swapped out the wide arms for TA02 front arms and hubs and the rear arms, CVA dampers and springs are all from a TA02T. I wish I had thought of this set up in the first place, would have saved some mucking around. It's on the right track now and looking more scale with these wheels.

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Those wheels look sooo much better. Nice looking truck. I've got a similar project on the go but it's slow progress trying to find parts on a budget. Watch this space.

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Looks great mate! I always wondered why Tamiya didnt design the Brat as 4wd in the first place!

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Looks great indeed! I´m curious to know what it would look like on a set of HPI Classic rims. :)

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It looks absolutely great, so please don't get me wrong, but I think it would look even better with slightly larger tires with a higher profile. I would understand if you don't want "real" off-road tires on it, but what about the Cayenne tires? Just that little bit larger diameter and higher tire wall that would look suitably old school on the Brat and fill the wheel arches, but still with a "mild" and not too aggressive thread pattern:

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I thought that would depend on the amount of suspension travel the 4WD Brat has, or at least I picture those tires fouling the body...

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Yep, I have thought of those tyres too. Now that they come with the Landfreeder they should be easier to get.

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So in the end this is a Subaru Brat on a stock TA02T?

The same except the front end steering and suspension is TA02. The difference is that the TA02T uses TA01 type front end. I actually used a TA02T to mock up the body position first. Either way, the wheelbase is 255mm. The 251mm TT02 chassis would actually work even better and be much cheaper if you wanted to build one from scratch.

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Well here's the only action pic with the wide track I could find.  Nearly 4 years later but hey ho...

On 8/25/2013 at 1:17 PM, Thommo said:

Thanks Mate. I'm still waiting on that front bumper and a bit too scared just yet. A run at our next local meet and some action shots to come for sure!

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  • Like 3

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