Kiwi Blackfoot Resto Mod

[Effigy3]

The new tires arived today so I thought I'd fit them to the wheels, went to remove the originals but didnt know that they were glued This is what happened when I tried to take them off...........lots of rubber left on the rim and its stuck fast! Any suggestions on removing it?? or will I have to buy new rims....

Ive tried boiling rims and tires in the past but never with any real sucess, ******

Nice work on getting those tires off the rims and cleaned up. Next time you might try soaking them in acetone instead. Use a sealed container like a new (unused) paint can. I haven't tried it yet but it should dissolve the glue and leave the rims in harmed. Of course any foam inserts will be toast but there's no foam in these tires to worry about. If you don't want to soak them in the acetone, you can also suspend them in the paint can above the liquid. Check every few hours but reports are you can safely leave them over night and wake up to easily removable tires. I can't vouch for this method with first hand experience but I've read so many accounts that this is the preferred method over boiling (chance to heat damage/warp the rim) or blades (chance to cut yourself).

[Scapelnz]

Nice work on getting those tires off the rims and cleaned up. Next time you might try soaking them in acetone instead. Use a sealed container like a new (unused) paint can. I haven't tried it yet but it should dissolve the glue and leave the rims in harmed. Of course any foam inserts will be toast but there's no foam in these tires to worry about. If you don't want to soak them in the acetone, you can also suspend them in the paint can above the liquid. Check every few hours but reports are you can safely leave them over night and wake up to easily removable tires. I can't vouch for this method with first hand experience but I've read so many accounts that this is the preferred method over boiling (chance to heat damage/warp the rim) or blades (chance to cut yourself).

Thanks Effigy! Like your self Ive read many great "How too" threads on TC. I was pretty careful not to over boil the wheels so just had the heat simmering as opposed to hard out boiling Cheers for the advice

[Scapelnz]

Got back late last night after a good week on the road itching to crack on with this build. Came home to a few parcels waiting for me on the bench. Now I,m only waiting for two more and I will have all the parts I need, still need my fiber-glass reinforced rear wheel hub adapters and a 2.5mm screw tap.

Off to the local home wares store to find a cheap pot big enough so I can do my first ever rit dye! I'm a little nervous if I'm honest but have read up lots and watched heaps of vids so will post pictures soon

[Scapelnz]

So the my Rit dying attempt was a total bust I did a ton of research and thought that I had all the information that I needed, I even brought a dish to do it in so not to damage any of our good pots etc. Feeling rather frustrated at the moment.

These were waiting for me when I arrived home so was excited to crack on with the dying.

Set every thing up as per instructions from dozens of different youtube vids. Boiled the water and then added the packet of dye, most people only use half but as I was using a large pan I put the lot in along with salt as per recommendations. Let the dye simmer for a while and then placed the parts in. Many people said 10min to 30min so I let them sit for 30min regularly stiring the water and moving the parts. Pretty much nothing happened to the chassis rails, they are the same color as they were when they went in and the red parts went a kinda slightly darker red. Not what I thought was going to happen at all. Have been over and over everything to check if I made a mistake but cant see where I went wrong

After the parts came out. Never mind I gave it a shot. Chassis will just have to be grey.

[berman]

How much water is in that tub? I would have three packets of dye in 2 litres of water easy.

[Scapelnz]

How much water is in that tub? I would have three packets of dye in 2 litres of water easy.

I thought about that also Neil, I'm going order some more dye (3 packs ) and see how that goes, Cheers

[Scapelnz]

After my dying fail I wanted to do some work on the BF as Im sick of looking at it and not doing anything with it so tonight I started to assemble the chassis.

Next was to try and center the new servo, pretty simple task and only required a couple of holes to be drilled. Its not perfectly centered but its pretty close.

Then to fit the new super blackfoot suspension uprights and madbull steering axles

Blackfoots have terrible slop in the front suspension so to help remove this I took some rubber fuel hose (new) and cut it to size, then placed it over the screws with a washer and fixed them to the radius arms. Nice and firm and no slop

I brought a front alloy shock mount which I tried to fit next but found that the chassis has protruding lines/guides that were stopping the new shock mount from sitting flush on the frame. Nothing that a little time with the dremmel cant fix

Once cut and cleaned up the shock mount bolted straight on and I was then able to fit the new Gmade aeration shocks. Because of the new shocks and alloy tower I needed to use Gmade alloy spacers and some longer screws but it all fits nicely together

One problem I ran into is I'm short a couple of suspension bolts from screw bag B, BB2, the two I have are a little to short so am now on the hunt for two of these.

Thats all for now, until next time

[Scapelnz]

Managed to find a bit of spare time today so snuck into the garage and did some more work on the BF

Put the gear box back together with a new set of re re Frog/Brat transmission and pinon gears, also did the "oldfrogshots screw mod"

Unfortunately I was right into it and forgot to take any pics

Running super smooth! Next was the Frog/Brat Hop up universals which are awesome and went together super easy, also fitted the original boots for added dust and dirt protection

All fitted together nicely along with the new alloy uprights which will position the shocks in a more effective place. Need to fit some zip ties are the boot ends

Fitted the body mounts between the new alloy uprights, fits nicely.

Found a second hand under tray which is much bigger than the original, this should stop flexing and improve handling

Couldn't resist fitting the body and making sure everything lined up

Next task is building the rear shocks. Meant to say that ball bearings are being used through out

[Scapelnz]

Meant to post this before, post mounts using the alloy shock towers which are also rear swing arm supports

[Grumpy pants]

I'm really enjoying your build and thread.

The B.F looks great and the mods are really interesting too.

Keep up the good work!

[Scapelnz]

I'm really enjoying your build and thread.

The B.F looks great and the mods are really interesting too.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks Grumpy pants! I'm loving this build even though there have been a few frustrating moments

[Scapelnz]

I'm finding all sorts of excuses to sneak of to the garage and work on this truck, its highly addictive!! Assemble the rear shocks (which is pretty easy as Ive done a few now) and went to mount them on the chassis but ran into a problem with the rear swing arm. Because I have changed the shock position by using an alloy tower the rear shock now as to be mounted to the second hole on the swing arm which is fine after you drill it out to 3mm but the back of the hole does not finish straight, it has an angle on it so a bolt wont tighten correctly. I dremmeled the angle away so a bolt nut will finish flat but I don't have a long enough bolt to fit now. Back to the hardware store tomorrow. I hope the pictures explain it better

Until next time

[emory70]

I remember reading an article in RCCA back in the day about dying one of those chassis. The guy wrote that although he was able to get the color right, the boiling water warped the chassis.

I'm enjoying your build. I'm about to start a Monster Beetle build myself, and planning on using many of the hop ups you have.

[Scapelnz]

I remember reading an article in RCCA back in the day about dying one of those chassis. The guy wrote that although he was able to get the color right, the boiling water warped the chassis.

I'm enjoying your build. I'm about to start a Monster Beetle build myself, and planning on using many of the hop ups you have.

Thanks Emory, Looking forward to your beetle build seeing how you get on

[Scapelnz]

Finding 3mm bolts and nuts longer than 25mm was harder than I thought and I came up empty handed. Fortunately I had a few spare motor mount bolts which are 3mm x 30mm and fitted perfect after a quick dremmel

.

Next I thought I would have a go at mounting the brushless motor. If I'm being honest this has been bugging me for some time and I wasn't to sure whether I would run this on such an old vehicle so Ive ordered a sport tuned just in case. As it turns out with the new suspension position,mounting a motor was going to be some what of a challenge! The motor that came with the truck was an old "Race prep" with the orange bell end from the early 90's. I was thinking of replacing with a hobby wing 21T brushless but there's no way that is going to fit with the new suspension setup

Quite a difference in size!

I mounted the Hobby wing to see if it had any chance of fitting, The shock is directly in the way

So that wasnt going to work! I mounted the new alloy motor mount to the old Race Prep motor and put it into postion. This fit much better but the next problem was that it was striking the rear swing arm when the shock was compressed.

Time to use the Dremmell again and sort the clearance issues, This hasn't affected the strength of the arm and there is no flex what so ever

Under full compression of the shock there is plenty of clearance

I would love some advice on what brushed modded motors are shorter than the normal silver can as I have a feeling the sport tuned might be a tight fit, fingers crossed

[Scapelnz]

Even though I'm still waiting on the threaded rod for the new steering set up and the rear wheel adapters I thought Id fit the wheels and see how the suspension was going to work just for a laugh, I'm pretty happy with it and its a hundred times better than standard

Couldn't resist a cheeky "crawler" pose

While the wheels were in place I fitted the body and came across another problem involving the new rear suspension setup The body was binding on the shocks, only by the smallest amount but still a problem none the less.

Hard to see in the photo but at the top of the shock. I hate having to dremmel an old body but I had no choice

After a few times remounting the body and re grinding I finally got it so it wasn't binding and the suspension was working freely

[Scapelnz]

Not a lot happening this weekend, once again I'm at the mercy of Mr Postman, in fact I,m starting to think that some orders might have been misplaced? Anyway we must press on. Fitted the new High torque steering servo this morning. Was super easy as usual and tomorrow I think I'll start on the custom home made steering setup Fingers crossed it comes together okay as It will be my first attempt at doing this

[Snappy1]

I am really enjoying this thread, love the hop ups.

I just measured all the mod motors I have here, shortest I have is the Trinity mod motor, but they are approx the same length as a silver can

How do those shocks feel? they certainly look the goods...

[Scapelnz]

I am really enjoying this thread, love the hop ups.

I just measured all the mod motors I have here, shortest I have is the Trinity mod motor, but they are approx the same length as a silver can

How do those shocks feel? they certainly look the goods...

Thanks snappy I'm a big fan of Gmade shocks and to be honest lots of their parts that they make. The aeration shocks are smooth and fluid and are easy to adjust without having to remove the shocks from your truck/car. They a high quality product and I've never had any issues with them

Thanks for the motor info, I'm pretty sure the sport tuned will fit, just gotta wait until it arrives until I can find out

[Scapelnz]

Restoring and modding an old Tamiya can be frustrating especially when the guy doing it stuffs up an order and doesn't order enough parts for the job The swivel links and threaded rod for the steering setup arrived this morning but I didn't order enough links.

Fortunately its a hobby store a few hours from me so they are sending me a couple more as they now have stock and should be with me by tomorrow.

I have a day of today so what better to do than work on the BF even if it is only doing one of the steering arms.

First job was to some how remove the brass balls from the steering arms, This proved a lot harder than I thought it would be. These things are in tight! I was trying so hard the balls snapped of each one. In the end I cut them off with the dremmel and drill the rest out.

I then measured the length for the rod and cut it to suit. Once cut it was just a matter of putting it all together

Super strong and the swivels work well

I will play around with positioning when the links arrive but looking good so far

[mongoose1983]

How on earth did I miss this!?

Great truck and work done to it, Andy!

I love the Black Foot, must be one of the most exciting Tamiyas to run ever!!!

[Scapelnz]

How on earth did I miss this!?

Great truck and work done to it, Andy!

I love the Black Foot, must be one of the most exciting Tamiyas to run ever!!!

Thanks Mongoose!! I still have clear memories of my uncles blackfoot bouncing over the empty section next door back in 1987 and wondering if id ever be lucky enough to own one my self

[Scapelnz]

The swivel ball links arrived along with the sport tuned motor yesterday so made some progress last night

The the threaded rod to the right length and fitted the ball links

As mentioned before I didn't like position of the links on the servo saver so I re positioned them underneath the saver, this worked much better and meant there was more swivel in the links If your wondering why there's masking tape on the servo saver its because I didnt want the springs popping out each time I removed it while I was playing around with the steering, works a treat!!

With the links on the under side of the servo saver the next problem was that the bolts were hitting the servo screws each time the servo tried to move, cut those down and problem solved

Once bolts were trimmed there was heaps of clearance.

There's not a lot more to do now, just waiting on parts. Been in touch with CRP and according to them my new hub adapters were delivered two weeks ago, I don't have them so I'm guessing we can say that they are lost in the mail And my new tamiya esc should be here in a couple of days but wont mean much with out the hub adapters so will have to bite the bullet and order another set

Anyway here's a pic of the "almost" completed chassis and one with the body mounted

I'm hanging out to run this!! Must be patient

[Scapelnz]

Looks like a skipped a section, Mounting the sport tuned motor

The motor is longer than the one I had originally on the BF, once the old motor had been removed I realized that the sport tuned wasn't going to work with the alloy motor mount has there just wasn't the room and the pinion gear wasn't going to reach also. The motor then fitted well but was still binding on the rear shock

Just cleared when extended but when compressed.................

it hooked on to the motor (as above) and wouldn't extend. To solve this I repositioned the shock on one of the many mounting holes on the alloy shock tower, this meant I lost a small amount of travel but the shocks still work fine with more than enough travel. I couldn't see any other way of fixing the problem

[Scapelnz]

Well its official.......my hub adapters and ESC are lost and theres not much chance of seeing them Knowing my luck I'll order new ones and the original orders will arrive Anyway I'll order the parts tonight and keep my fingers crossed.

I fitted a wheelie bar which I intended to use when the BF was going to be brushless, now that its running a sport tuned I'm pretty sure it wont be needed but I think it looks cool anyway