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jkyamog

Old DF02 (our first RC) getting some love after years of fun

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Our old DF02 got some new parts and broken bits fixed. Mainly it was my son who put them in and painted it, I helped him and encouraged him a bit.

Got some GPM shock towers, 17t kawada pinion, Yokomo rear wing and a blue bird servo.

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This is the RC that started me with this hobby. I always wanted to have a tamiya when I was a kid, so when my son was turning 9 I thought of getting one. The DF02 seem to be a good starter car, its cheap and seems to be a good basher. I then got a Boomerang to race my son, as he had the DF02.

Some photos 4 years ago of it while it was stock and still had its stock rear wing.

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First few upgrades, TRF shocks and DF03 wheels... Boomerang also had them.

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A few action shots as the years went by. By this time, we have upgraded the turn buckles, all CV, rear uprights, steering links, etc. It now drives differently from stock, can keep up with a DB01. Oh the rear wing was a cut out of an ice cream tub, a few years back the stock rear wing broke. I did not have much budget at that time, so we used an ice cream tub... so good it lasted for 3 years. We only changed this recently and the Yokomo wing was on the shelf for 2 years collecting dust. My son would not even want to throw the ice cream tub wing away even after he replace it with Yokomo wing.

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My son just recently replaced the front shock tower, then swapped his Stadium Blitzer wheels for my daughters GF01 (see on background). The photo below is the fatal jump, that wrecked DF02 pretty badly. Hopefully the lastest fixes will give us a few more years.

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A lot of folks don't like the DF-02 but I always have - a cheap and cheerful runner that can handle decent power without much fuss. Its a real belly-dragger unless you put taller wheels & tires on it, but I've flogged the Molly out of my DF-02 for years and have really enjoyed it. Good to see yours getting a nice refresh!

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Looks neat, although I am intrigued by the tiewraps on/near the front shock tower. What do they do?

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XV Pilot,

Wow very keen eye, this makes me think that you haven't owned a DF02. The DF02 is a pretty good basher, however 2 of its weakness that goes against each other. I will try to post some photos later so its clear, I am at work. I will try to describe as best as I can.

The first weakness is the stock ground clearance is low, I don't own a lot. But its the lowest among my buggies including 80s models: DB01, Boomerang and Hornet. You can hear the chassis slap on the video, this is already using TRF shocks. The first thing one would do is to make the wheels bigger, DF03 wheels is just about right. Or to some extreme my son put in a GF01 wheel, which made his newly replaced front shock tower only last 10 mins. The 2nd weakness is the front shock tower, the chassis slap hides this on stock wheels. However on big wheels the shock tower is too low and weak. So when the shocks bottoms out all the force is transfer to the place where the tie wraps are... where the top part of the shock tower and diff cover is very thin. I am not sure what the DF02 designer was thinking, as the top is way thinner than the bottom.

I put in tie wraps and also put the bottom shock position on the other most to hopefully make it last longer (in theory...). The droop is not so good, however the chassis will slap first before the shocks bottoms out on big GF01 wheels.

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Ah, I see.

As a matter of fact I do own a DF02. And while I have had the usual issues with the lower suspension arm mounts, I am still on my original shock towers, despite running standard size buggy wheels rather than the little stock items. (I would hesitate to run anything bigger though.)

I have always been told that it is good practice to have the chassis bottom out before the shocks reach full travel, otherwise the shock towers take a beating as you say. I learned this early on with a TL01B that I built for my father. I have thus been running my DF02 with the shocks set to allow this, and have had no shock tower troubles.

I actually rather like the low profile front tower on the DF02, as it is far less prone to rollover and collision damage compared to its predecessor. My first DF01 broke several of them, and I have a feeling the same will happen with my current DF01 when I start running it.

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Good to see another DF02 owner. What other things have you done with your DF02 to make last longer? What the usual issues with the lower suspension mounts?

I am thinking to buy another kit just for spares. The red metallic Avante Aero seems to be nice, I get a nice body for shelf life, a full set of spares, and a tble-02 esc. I plan to use the tble esc on the db01, so I need a pair for each db01. Seems buying a whole a whole kit is cheaper than spares? How do long time tamiya owners keep their cars running? But spares or kits?

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This is my one:

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I have tried to keep to hopups that improve reliability and/or performance, resisting the temptation to add bling. As such, the car runs the following:

Rubber sealed bearings

Tamiya alloy propshaft

Tamiya hardened turnbuckle set

Tamiya lightweight ball connectors

GPM lightweight dogbones

GPM alloy ballraced steering rack

GPM alloy motor mount

Ansmann alloy shocks with Tamiya seals

FTX Vantage wheels and tyres

CPV Racing lightweight alloy wheel nuts

CPV Racing clamping alloy wheel hexes

CPV Racing motor heatsink

RW Racing pinion

Reedy MVP 27t ROAR stock motor

Futaba waterproof ballraced servo

Spectrum RX with water-resistant PCB coating

The DF02 doesn't have a whole lot of plastic joining the lower suspension arm mounts to the tub. However it does have rather sturdy suspension arms. In a severe shunt, there is a chance that the mount might rip away from the tub, leaving the lower suspension arm intact. Obviously it is easier to replace a suspension arm than a tub, so we want the arm to break first.

In order to make sure this happens, a common mod is to flip the tub upside down and reinforce the suspension arm mounts by filling them with the strongest glue you can find. I did this with mine, and it works a charm. It comes out looking like this:

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Since doing this I have broken a couple of suspension arms, but the tub has remained intact.

This is how I try to keep my runners going - by upgrading parts that wear out, and adding reinforcement to vulnerable areas while trying to avoid passing the stresses onto other parts that are more difficult to replace. I then make sure I have spares of the "sacrificial" parts (usually hubs, axles, suspension arms and shock towers) by buying the necessary sprues/bags.

I find this better value than buying a second kit for spares, as while the kit would give a complete inventory of parts, there are some parts that might need replacing often, and others that might not need replacing for ages, yet the kit usually only features one of each part. I would rather buy several of the parts I often need.

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Wow nice DF02 did not realise that DF02 was yours, I saw it before and it's one of the better DF02. Same here we only upgrade not for bling, except probably the rear shock tower... As we where changing the front so I thought of getting one as well. I was thinking to change the propshaft, but the stock one seems to be still in good shape. Aside from the slack is there anything else that would improve? Square has a propshaft and joints.

Thanks for the suspension arm mounts tip, we will try is also. This will be helpful.

Good point about the spare and 2nd kit.

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My son broke the front shock tower on his DF-02 by clipping a 1:1 car tyre at an angle - hardly surprising it broke - replaced front and rear with alloy towers and its been fine since. Biggest issue we have is that the tyres seem to perish quite quickly if the buggies not used much original tyres and the Fastrax ones now fitted (don't really understand this , other cars stored on same shelf have been fine for years).

The low ground clearance is improved with the Df-03 style wheels and tyres, without compromising the suspension travel or dogbone angles.

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Late afternoon fun with the kids running their RC cars. DF02 being filmed by GF01 and F450 quad

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The TZ is a good match for the DF02, fast enough to be plenty of fun, but not so fast as to overstress the mechanicals or exceed the handling capabilities of the chassis. I have since put one in my DF02 too, and am very pleased with it.

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