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Effigy3

TRF 201 Item #42167

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On another note, you could give JPGs a try instead of PNG files if you like your build thread loading faster and less traffic consuming, especially on mobile devices.

PNG should be the best format for web images. If the images are loading slowly, I may have the DPI too high. I've reduced the dimensions down from what the digital camera takes to 800X600 in an effort to keep the images reasonably sized. I just checked one of the images and it's about 650K so that's not very big at all. It's possible that my image server was running slowly. I pay $120/year for the server and I use it for all the images and videos for the college classes I teach so I think it's pretty robust. I'm sorry if the images are loading poorly for you. :(

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Step 19: Attaching front damper stay. Not many parts but a few screws are needed. I know I must be getting close to done because my screw tubs are nearly empty! I need the chassis, the front shock tower, front skid plate, turnbuckles, and nose piece. Let's get started.

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Aaaaand I have a problem. I need four 12mm counter sunk screws and four 10mm dome head head screws for this step. I only have 2 of the 10mm dome heads and none of the 12mm counter sunk screws. :o I wonder how this is going to work out...

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Lubing nose piece preparing to tap some threads.

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Tap, tap, tapping.

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While I'm on the tapping trail I figured I'd tap the threads for the ball connectors on the shock tower but I ran into another problem. <_< That's not exactly straight...

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Look at how close this ball connector is to the shock tower! How am I ever going to get this in straight?

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Well, I got all worried for nothing. I'm so glad I bought the TRF hex drivers! It worked like a champ, even without pre-cut threads.

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Once the ball connectors were on, I moved up to the 23mm screws which are where the front shocks will mount. A little bit of AG thread lock.

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Once the shock towers were all finished it was time to mate it up to the nose piece.

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So this is when the problem of missing screws first impacts the build. I need four 10mm screws but I only have two. So I decided to install two 8mm screws in the top holes (for now). My thinking is that it'll be easier to replace the screws in the top holes than the bottom. Thus I forge ahead.

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Tapping threads into the chassis for the nose piece mount points.

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Tapping threads into the nose piece where the screws which hold it to the chassis will anchor.

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Nose piece fits neatly onto the steering block and covers the steering linkage and servo saver.

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8mm screws hold the nose piece down here.

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Flip the chassis over, place the skid plate and use 12mm counter sunk screws to hold it in place. This is where the build-stopper occurred. Remember when I said I only had 8mm counter sunk screws? Yeah, they don't reach to the nose piece to screw in. It's not even close. :wacko:

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So step 19 is stalled. I placed an order for some replacement screws. The way shipping works it didn't make any sense to order just a few screws so I ordered up:

RC TRF201 Alum Rear Sus Mount - 3.0/Front (Item# 54242)

RC TRF201 Alum Rear Sus Mount - 3.0/Rear (Item# 54243)

RC TRF201 Aluminum Motor Plate (Item# 54276)

RC Rein 52T Ball Diff Gear Set - TRF201 (Item# 54262)

This is what I have now:

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I can build the shocks but then I'm in a holding pattern waiting for my Tamiya order to arrive and for the weather to clear up some so I can paint the body.

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Eek, does that mean you've used the longer screws in places which are designed to take an 8mm screw?

Loving the build though bud. I have experienced the slow loading images over the last 24 hours too, but had no problem prior to that. Is it possible there was some scheduled maintenance on your server?

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It does seem a little strange you're missing so many screws; out of the many Tamiya kits I've built I can't remember one with missing parts. I can remember some of my early builds accidentally swapping 10 mm and 12 mm screws and having to go on the hunt for them by disassembling the car, but almost all the time Tamiya ships a complete kit with good parts. One hint is if you have quite a few spare screws in a size you no longer need for the rest of the build.

If you're using the calipers to check fastener length, note that the measurement changes depending on the screw style. From the end of the screw shaft you measure to just under the button head, but over the top of the countersunk head (https://www.boltdepot.com/fastener-information/measuring/Measure-Length.aspx).

It's good to see you ordered the gear set and motor plate to go with the front arms.

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Eek, does that mean you've used the longer screws in places which are designed to take an 8mm screw?

Loving the build though bud. I have experienced the slow loading images over the last 24 hours too, but had no problem prior to that. Is it possible there was some scheduled maintenance on your server?

That was my first thought as well. I've been very careful about using the outlines on the manual to match up the screws and in the cases where I wasn't sure I did measure them out. Even if I measured just the threads and not the head on the countersunk screws, that wouldn't account for a 4mm discrepancy. I just measured the heads on the countersunk screws and they are 2mm thick. Just to be 100% sure I referenced the manual and pulled every 8mm countersunk screw. They are all correctly installed using 8mm screws. Yay me, but I'm still short some screws. Not to worry though. They're on order now. I'd be more cranky if it weren't so rainy here. If I had a fully painted body and only needed to finish the chassis build I'd be more in a yank to finish up the chassis. I'm enjoying the build process, and I'm learning a lot about high end buggies so there's no real rush.

I did notice that the pics were delayed coming up for me yesterday as well. I just chalked it up to slow download speeds on my end but I guess my server was running slowly. Hopefully they've sorted out any issues or have completed any maintenance.

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It does seem a little strange you're missing so many screws; out of the many Tamiya kits I've built I can't remember one with missing parts. I can remember some of my early builds accidentally swapping 10 mm and 12 mm screws and having to go on the hunt for them by disassembling the car, but almost all the time Tamiya ships a complete kit with good parts. One hint is if you have quite a few spare screws in a size you no longer need for the rest of the build.

It's good to see you ordered the gear set and motor plate to go with the front arms.

I've never had a shortage of screws before. Not that I've built a ton of kits but this will be my 6th car...

With so many 8mm countersunk screws left over I really thought I had accidentally substituted out 12mm for 8mm. As hard as that mistake would be to make. I mean a 10mm for a 8mm? Sure, but 12mm for an 8mm? And 4 times at that? I'm being too careful to make that big of a mistake.

I had to boost the order to make the shipping charge worth while so I got the motor plate and the rear suspension hop-ups. I would have eventually gotten them but this missing screws pushed the time table up a bit. "But honey, I can't finish the build. I'm missing screws. Oh gee willikers, would you look at that? The shipping is more than the parts, I have to order more." It totally worked. ;)

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Good thing they were missing then! :)

I know, right? Mr. T is looking out for me. :D

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Good to see the build going strong, even if there are issues with those missing screws.

About the picture format, just one last note: From my point of view, 600 kB is plenty when there are so many pictures stuffed into one thread. Page 1 of this thread alone has around 50 pics, which would be roughly 30 MB in total, and if viewed from a mobile phone while not having contact to WiFi means quite a fraction of monthly traffic gets used up in the process (e.g. my phone has 300 MB per month).

I can't wait to see your TRF201 finished and ready for racing. :)

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Good to see the build going strong, even if there are issues with those missing screws.

About the picture format, just one last note: From my point of view, 600 kB is plenty when there are so many pictures stuffed into one thread. Page 1 of this thread alone has around 50 pics, which would be roughly 30 MB in total, and if viewed from a mobile phone while not having contact to WiFi means quite a fraction of monthly traffic gets used up in the process (e.g. my phone has 300 MB per month).

I can't wait to see your TRF201 finished and ready for racing. :)

Good point. They do add up don't they? I'll see what I can do about sizing them down some in my image editor.

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Your build looks to be going great, I forgot how involved these TRF's are :)

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Your build looks to be going great, I forgot how involved these TRF's are :)

Thank you for the compliment. You aren't kidding about how involved this build is. I'm having so much fun but wow there's a lot to it.

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Why do they have us build this contraption instead of just using a ball head with threads built-in?

Because it is supposed to act as a stud not a screw. But you made it a screw by applying thread lock and screwing it in.

You are supposed to screw in the stud - which doesn't need to be tight, and then tighten on the nut. The difference is if you overtighten a screw (or a ball stud) you will strip the plastic inside the (now) threaded hole. This doesn't happen with a stud and nut arrangement. You can torque down the nut and the thread won't turn in the hole. Hence it can't strip.

Same thing is done for high performance engines, head studs vs screws.

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Because it is supposed to act as a stud not a screw. But you made it a screw by applying thread lock and screwing it in.

You are supposed to screw in the stud - which doesn't need to be tight, and then tighten on the nut. The difference is if you overtighten a screw (or a ball stud) you will strip the plastic inside the (now) threaded hole. This doesn't happen with a stud and nut arrangement. You can torque down the nut and the thread won't turn in the hole. Hence it can't strip.

Same thing is done for high performance engines, head studs vs screws.

I had no idea! Thank you so much for clearing this up. Now that it's been explained to me, it makes good sense. Should I leave well enough alone, or disassemble it and build it correctly?

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Just leave it if it is firm. If it comes loose, then redo without the thread lock.

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I love the engineering lessons that keep popping up on TC. :)

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Talk about a windfall of parts! :o All of this arrived today.

  • Duratrax shock stand (thank you Nobbi1977 for the inspiration from your DT-03 Frogalike build thread)
  • Two bags of the screws I was short in the kit
  • A Futaba S9405 servo
  • Castle Mamba Max Pro ESC with field programming card and Castle link cable
  • 17.5 Trinity D3.5 motor
  • The fore and aft bits for the rear suspension arm mount hop-up
  • Motor plate hop-up
  • Reinforced differential gears

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After a few surprises that resulted in forced part orders I decided to just go all in and build this car right from the get-go. Tomorrow is my daughters birthday and it's also a race day. Mom and daughter are heading north to Dallas for the day which leaves me and my son to head south to Austin to race. We'll have a family dinner at which time she'll open gifts. One of which is a Pink Neo Scorcher. I really want this build done before starting in on that. We'll see if I can hold out on that decision.

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That stand is a bit posher than mine, but then so is the build :-p

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That stand is a bit posher than mine, but then so is the build :-p

I"m not sure I'd call 2 pieces of plastic and an aluminum rod "posh" but it's what was available to buy. :)

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Well, we finally got a day without rain so it's high time I paint the body!

Masking it up using mini-flame pre-cut vinyl masks:

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Partway through the painting process. This is Duratrax metallic red on the rear, and silver streak on the accent flames.

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Florescent yellow on the nose and two coats of white backer. I used some "chrome" TRF stickers and one color Tamiya sticker on the tip of the nose. I chose to leave the windows clear because I've found that I don't like that I must remove the body on my sons racer just to check on things. Clear windows mean I can take a quick peek with the body still on.

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The wing will be metallic red as well. No pics of it yet as I'm still applying the liquid mask to the top of it so I can paint the underside.

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This is one of the nicer racing bodyshell paintjobs I've seen so far! And it complements the TRF201 shape very well.

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Thanks guys. :D I'm working on the shocks now. OMG they are intricate! It's taken me hours to get to the point where I can add oil. It's a good thing I really enjoy the building process because this kit sure is the scenic route to a buggy.

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Step 19: Attaching front damper stay (continued). With all the parts finally here I am able to continue the build. One goes the front skid plate / bumper.

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It's not much, but having the proper length screws makes all the difference in the world. This concludes step 19.

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Step 20: Damper assembly. Wow, there are a lot of parts in C bag! These dampers are the most complex I've ever built. :o

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These are all the bits laid out. Again, having the proper tool for the job really makes all the difference. I invested in a pair of Team Associated shock shaft pliers and the Tamiya E-Ring Tool (2mm) (ITEM# 74032). Both investments were totally worth it!

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I used the tops off my little plastic tubs to hold the various rubber o-rings, each in their own little pool of damper oil.

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After putting the rubber seals on the top part of the damper reservoir, and threading up the preload adjustment nut I placed the reservoirs into the shock building stand.

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The e-ring tool makes quick work of putting the clips onto the damper shafts.

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It's even totally flush on one side so you can get the clips onto the ends when there is like no room at all.

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Two front and two rear shafts built up. It's important to note that there is a small little shim between the lower e-clip and the piston. Also, the piston disk for the rears is marked "4" where as the piston disk for the front is marked "3". They appear identical so if you build this too, pay careful attention. I had to "unbuild" the rear shafts when I realized I had forgotten the spacer. :o

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A rubber o-ring for the reservoir lower cap. There are 3 different types of black, rubber o-rings for building these dampers. They are different circumferences and thicknesses so you have to be careful when choosing to pick the right one.

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I'm not sure why these aren't brass or bling-blue aluminum. Not only do you have to smooth out any plastic nub left over from trimming it from the sprue but they all have this little flat spot on them.

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I used my fine file to smooth it off. With my luck though, that flat spot probably has some racer engineering purpose that I just ruined. :blink:

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Using the (not for shock shaft) HobbiCo soft jaw pliers to snap those little guys into the damper eye socket. Sorry, I have no clue what that bit on the end of the shock shaft is called. It's just "X1" in the manual.

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Screwing the end onto the shock shaft.

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Look at how smooth and perfect the shock shaft pliers left the metal of the shock shaft. Soooo much nicer and way easier to use than anything I have used in the past.

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Step 21: Damper oil.

After filling the damper reservoirs up with the included "Soft" (Yellow) oil, I slowly worked the piston to release any trapped air. Hello there tiny bubbles. Some had more than others.

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Putting the cap on. The manual calls for an air pressure adjuster screw to be installed but the caps are sealed unless drilled out. I left them as-is, with no screw. If I'm mistaken in this could someone please let me know? Thanks.

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