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GooneyBird

CC01 49490 Pajero built by an on-road racer

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This is my first build-thread here, and I hope to pick up a few pointers along the way. I'm mostly an on-road guy, but since I sold my High Lift (too much car, it sat on the shelf far too much) I'd been wanting a car that could go with me on walks. Most people get a dog, I get an RC car. :D

Anyway, since building a CC01 is something you've all seen a million times I'll try to focus on the little touches I'm putting in. No 2 CCs are ever built quite the same, and that's what makes them interesting. Mine will be mostly stock, as I want to get a feeling for how this car works before going overboard on the aftermarket-scene for these off-roaders.

While I was waiting for parts to arrive, I started out with the body. I've done exactly one hard body before (my Hilux), but it never quite looked as I had hoped. Between then and now I have built a few plastic model kits, and so I hoped for a better outcome with the Mitsu. I've painted it two-tone, black on silver. It's not exactly a factory color (1:1 Pajero's were all-black, the silver underside was never available with that color), but hey, they're model cars and so we get to paint them as we please.

First color to go on, silver (I'm still amazed at how well and smooth the last wet coat went on). This is 3 coats, with 2000 grit wetsanding in between them:

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The next coat was metallic black. I masked off the silver parts and shot TS40 over it. Metallic is always a bit more difficult to get to lay down nice and smooth, so more wetsanding was required. The masking was removed, and the body was given one final wetsanding with 2000 grit before laying on 3 coats of clear. The end result still isn't as shiny as I'd like it to be, but for a runner it's most satisfactory:

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And now for the fun part; hand-painting the details! I chose to hand-paint the logo in the front grill, as the decal for it just seemed small and fiddly.

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And on that bombshell we've come to the part where we put the body aside and wait for the ordered parts to arrive.

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Looks great so far! Looking forward to seeing the chassis go together.

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Thanks to the magic of the internet, the parts just came in! I'll finish the body, don't worry, but I first want to sink my teeth into building a chassis which is almost older than I am.

Step one, and you can already see one of the parts I ordered. Instead of the usual silver can, I went with an RC4WD 55 turns motor. As I intend to take this car on trails with me, I wanted to slow it down quite a bit. The added torque is a nice bonus. Should this motor prove to be stupendously slow, I have a 20 teeth pinion ready and waiting. (Same mod gears as my TT and M05). I ran the motor in with a AA battery for about 15 minutes. The pitch never really changed, so either it's already run in at the factory or I'm doing it wrong. Either way I'm not out to win races with it, so it'll be fire.

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Step two: build front diff. Nice and easy, with a bit of grease to allow for smooth operation. I'll initially build the diff unlocked with just the rear locked. Should it prove to be necessary to lock the front as well I'll insert a fourth gear to lock it. For now, let's close it up and move along. (And yes, that is cat-themed kitchen paper. Get used to it. Want your own? Lidl has it)

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Step three: Assemble comically huge gears. These things look like they could move the space shuttle if need be. Seriously, these things are huge.  The little caps on the end kept falling off, so I put them into place with a bit of grease. Also visible, the Boom Racing rubber-sealed ball bearing set. This car is going to get wet, so I'm building it with rubber-sealed bearings throughout. I'll take the bit of extra drag the seals give in stride.

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Step four: Shove above-mentioned gears of comical size into even larger chassis. Most cars come as a combination of parts to be shoved together (M05), or a middle section where you attach both ends to (TT01). Some even come as a set of 2D plates that somehow turn 3D at some point (TRF419, TRF102). Having a ready-made chassis where you just sort of throw bits in to make it work is new to me.

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And then I noticed the mesh to be really tight between pinion and spur. The motor's attached with the right set of holes, but still there is basically 0 backlash, causing a great deal of binding and noisiness when running. Is this normal? Attaching the gearbox cover makes it slightly better, but it's still very tight in there. Any CC-owners care to weigh in on this?

Step five: Attach last of the huge gears and also some random suspension bits. I noticed the outdrive to have a lot of play. Adding a second E-clip from the parts bin helped. You can see the second clip right after where the shaft exits the holder. There was even a nice slot for it. Almost as if Tamiya intended it like that...

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And with the closing up of that we come to the end of day one of building. This will be a slow built I'm afraid, as I haven't got a lot of time to myself due to work, but stay tuned!

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I can't say I had any meshing issues with mine, but then I built it with the GPM alloy motor mount from the outset. I presume you have checked the motor mount for moulding flash that might be causing it to fit skew?

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I checked the motor mount last night, and it seems fine. I might open up the motor mount holes a bit to allow for more side-to-side movement of the motor, that might be just what it needs to run lightly and smoothly.

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So last night I had a bit more time to myself again, and decided to get two things sorted; the steering and the headlights.

The Pajero comes with a set of very realistic headlights, but in all the pictures I see online the stark white-blue of the LEDs really give them away as a model. I knew I wanted LEDs, and I had a TLU01 left over, I started looking for more realistic options. Tamiya themselves make a set of "Halogen LEDs" (Yes, I realize how stupid that sounds), and a set was ordered. They claim to emulate the light of real halogen lights....

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... and they're not kidding! They are just as bright as the regular LEDs from Tamiya, but look far better in older cars!

To install them, Tamiya ships the kit with these flat metal plates and instructions for a set of light bulbs. A bit archaic. I have about a million of these little LED stoppers left over, gathering (small amounts of) dust, so instead of using these plates...

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.. I fabbed up this. I used a small 0.5mm spacer to take up the extra room the LED creates to the rear, and they fit beautifully!

 

Next up: steering. I have the GPM steering kit, but it came with exactly 0 instructions so a bit of ingenuity was required. In the end it went together well, with no slop to speak of.

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There was a bit of Dremeling required to make the drag link pass through the upright screw shaft, as well as clearance for the button head screws holding the drag link to the steering arms.

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All the 5mm ball connectors are replaced with aluminium 5mm low-friction ball connectors I removed from the TRFs. (After a while these develop a little play as they wear. No problem for a CC01, big huge issue for a TRF419) I plan on using 5mm low-friction cups to match these when making the turnbuckles for the steering. They always fit well with very little play. As the GPM steering kit is virtually play-free, this might turn out to be one of the best-handling CC01s out there! :D

 

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I sorely need to do this upgrade to my CC-01.

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I had a day off from work today, so after the usual odds and ends of the day (groceries, cleaning, taking the company van to the garage because it's developed a leak) I had the afternoon to myself. Put on some good tunes, and got cracking with...

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The front suspension! It was a little fiddly, I initialy had one of the arms backwards, but soon corrected my mistake. I sanded the seam between the two arms to make them fit a little tighter on the pin and reduce play. I could have shimmed them, but this seemed like a more elegant solution.

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At the same time I built the two steering arms and attached them to the pretty blue ball connectors on the drag link. I used Tamiya's excellent 5mm low friction cups for a snug and no-play fit. Since the arms aren't proper turnbuckles but rather threaded rod, I had to pre-tap the cups. 

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Which brings me to my first rear Whats that all about then?-moment with the CC01; Tamiya's.... dapper choice in colors. The whole chassis mostly consists of black, with the occasional dash of silver. When it came time to mold the front steering blocks, however, someone at Tamiya decided to throw all caution to the wind...

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BLUE! 

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Very blue! (Yes, I even color-coded my rubber sealed bearings with the rest of the chassis. :P) Color aside, they fit well, and combined with the alu ball connectors and low-friction cups make for an exceptionally play-free steering assembly.

Time to focus on the other end of the car, which up until now was looking quite empty. First order; build the differential. Because I'm locking it, it's more a glorified ring gear, but that's nit-picking. The diff builds up easily, with TT01-style internals. (I wonder if the included diff-lock bits also fit a TT01. If they do it's a cool and reversible way to lock the front diff of my cup racer)

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In the rear axle housing there is a lot of extra room for the diff case to slide around, pulling the crown gear in and out of alignment. This simply wouldn't do! What I did is I added two of the smaller bushings left over to the left of the bearing, along with a small spacer from my stash o'stuff. This stopped the diff moving to the right. On the left axle, I added an C-clip to stop the diff sliding the other direction and coming too close to the crown gear.

It's a simple and elegant solution, and can be made to work with Tamiya parts exclusively. I wonder why big T never changed this. I understand the Pajero was one of the first CC's out there, but the newer ones are exactly the same, with the same large amounts of play in the rear axle.

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(Sorry for the poor photo)

While the diff was now nicely situated and not going anywhere, this left the axles free to slide in and out of the diff. Two more spacers from the D-sprue fixed that nicely. (One was suggested to use by the manual, the other one wasn't.)

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Now all that was left for me to do was shim the crown gear itself. It still had a bit of play, affecting the backlash with the ring gear on the diff casing. A 0.3mm shim in front of the gear, behind the 850 bearing, was all it took to ensure a consistent mesh and a free-running rear axle.

This whole subassembly was then attached to the chassis in the usual way. It sits well and seems to have plenty of travel.

Every build session I like to end with the body. In this case, there were a few things left to do. The fog lights in the grill were still to be installed and wired up, the rear bumper and spare tire carrier had to be attached and with all the handling the body needed a good clean.

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Interesting construction with a metal bracket. Tamiya never suggests tinting the lenses, and in the past I've had some horrible results painting lenses, so I left them clear. The manual calls for yellow lights to be installed, but I figured the 1:10 owner of my Pajero had installed Xenon/HID-lights in them at some point, and so I installed white LEDs (again, left over from something else. I think they served as headlights for my 12h endurance Subaru-body)

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The difference in color between the white "HID" fog lights and the yellow "halogen" lights is quite big, as you can see. I think it looks very good, and quite realistic as many off-roaders I see running around have aftermarket HID lights coupled with the stock halogen bulbs in the headlights.

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The spare tire cover and rear bumper were quickly and easily installed. I left the Mitsubishi-decals off the cover, as I have other plans for it. (Something with naked ladies, spears, polar bears and fantasy-themed woods I think. ;) ) The little decal for the tow hitch receiver is also left off, in its place a piece of black tape. I might build an actual tow hitch for it at some point, and it would be a shame to ruin the orignal Tamiya decal. (And I'm kinda planing on going a 0 decal-look with this. Maybe some aftermarket decals from my stash, but no included decal. I like the clean look)

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To do on the body: 
- license plates (either Japanese or Dutch plates. Don't know yet..)
- something corny for the spare tire cover
- sort out wiring so I can easily access the TLU01 without removing the body

Stay tuned! Next time we're building shocks! (Shocking!)

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Very smart looking. I too much prefer the look of those halogen white bulbs, but think the pricing is absurd. The led unit itself is just a warm white led - like we get on Christmas trees. I recently bought 30 pre-wired leds, some wire, heatshrink and the TLU01 connector plugs for less than it cost to buy just one tamiya branded pair!

Unfortunately work and raising kids has so far hindered any assembly of the bits though! 

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21 minutes ago, ChrisRx718 said:

Very smart looking. I too much prefer the look of those halogen white bulbs, but think the pricing is absurd. The led unit itself is just a warm white led - like we get on Christmas trees. I recently bought 30 pre-wired leds, some wire, heatshrink and the TLU01 connector plugs for less than it cost to buy just one tamiya branded pair!

Unfortunately work and raising kids has so far hindered any assembly of the bits though! 

Thanks! Tamiya's LEDs can be stupendously expensive. However, Banzai sells them for decent prices, roughly similar to building a pair yourself, but without the satisfaction of burning your fingers. ;)

Small update: it now sports a set of Japanese license plates, registered in (where else?) Shizuoka.

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They're printed on regular paper, stuck to a piece of black cardboard stock to act as reinforcement and give the illusion of a plastic license plate frame. This whole thing is then glued to the body using regular paper glue (Pritt stick, for you Europeans). I realize this whole thing is going to self-annihilate the moment it hits water, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

 

 

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Today I spent a little time doing my least favorite thing of any car; building shocks. The shocks themselves are simple Tamiya CVAs, but they work well and have proven themselves in other cars. Building them is simple and straightforward. 

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You're supposed to attach the lower end with a step screw and a washer. I replaced the lower eyelets with ones from the spare box which will accept a 5mm ball connector. The stock ones are straight and can only be grabbed by a screw. This gives a little play, especially as they wear down and cause a rattling sound when running on uneven ground. The ball connectors keep things nice and smooth  

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Stock on the left, parts bin special on the right. 

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Unfortunately this only works on the front. If I install this on the rear the whole link cantilevers and the rear axle ends up hitting the shock base and pushing it upwards when the spring compresses. For now I'm leaving it stock, maybe one day I'll figure out an aftermarket fix for this. 

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How about following phiber_optik's example and slotting the lower rear links so that the shock can mount centrally like so:

Mid Shock.jpg

 

You can see more about it in his CC-01 Unimog 425 build thread here:

 

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I saw that solution too, and really liked it. The one thing I'm wondering about this is how one would take into account the twisting of the link when it flexes. Now, the slack in the step screw allows for this, but if I mount the bottom of the shock rigidly to the link, there's no way for it to have any give torsionally.

Maybe if I thread a screw all the way through, and then attach one of those ball-nuts-without-nut to the bottom of the shock eyelet.... What are those called?

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Hey, 

One of the little ball socket buts would be a great idea, there is enough movement between the cut section to allow the shock to move, for mine, I just put a thin bolt and nut all the way through the trailing arm and a small piece of fuel tubing between the bolt and the lower eyelet, allowing some flex and no rattling.

Enjoying you build so far, very precise, love it!

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A piece of fuel tubing is probably a better idea, since I don't have any of those ball socket things anymore. (Hey hey, low budget all the way!) Should I ever come across some I'll add them in.

How did you cut that slot? Dremel or just a sharp knife?

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5 hours ago, phiber_optik said:

Just with a sharp knife, it was actually very easily cut, mind your fingers :)

I find fingers to be annoying and in the way of my knife often....

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image.jpeg

And another simple modification has been done. On the right the stock setup, and on the left phiber-optik's solution. Very elegant and it further eliminates any play. This is one of those things that make me wonder why Tamiya didn't incorporate it into their original design. 

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I have a problem, and I need a little help...

Tonight I threw on the wheels and body posts. I couldn't resist and mounted the body, and that's where the trouble started. Firstly, it's really difficult to get it to go past the front body clamp. You have to really use your thumbs to get it to 'pop' in, is this normal?

Second thing I noticed is that the tires rub on the wheel wells, both front and rear. On compression the outside of the thread snag the lip. This might have something to do with the third problem:

image.jpegimage.jpegThe body isn't centered over the chassis. It seems to sit too far forward, and this is what seems to cause the tires to snag the lips.

image.jpegimage.jpegHere you can see the position of the wheels on compression. Both front and rear on both sides hit the body. 

I checked and double-checked, and the body posts are mounted correctly. The front holder is the right way up, and all the little molding tabs are cleanly shaven off. I even tried opening the hole a little further, but that's not it either. What am I doing wrong? I've seen other people online who opened up the wells, but they did that to allow for far bigger tires. I'm running the stock wheels and tires, and this should simply work...

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Yep, that's "character" for you!

It looks OK when static, but under compression it does look off. I have adjustable metal links on the rear suspension which I've adjusted to 'pull' the rear axle nearer to the centre of the arch. It's not ideal though - but certainly less noticeable as like many others I have also fitted bigger wheels. 

 

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I found mine also rubbed with the stock wheels, and it started life as an XB RTR, so I guess that is just how they are designed. However if you are careful you can gently shave the arches and keep a stock factory look.

 

You will probably also find rubbing under the front bumper at full steering lock. This area can be trimmed significantly without hurting the looks, so butnit with a dremel and all will be well.

 

The body does need a good bit of thumb work to pop over the front mounting lip. This is normal. It alarmed me at first as I thought I might crack the plastic if I did it too often, but here I am 5 years in and no cracks have appeared. 

 

I found a rubber O-ring over each rear body post pulled the shell backwards a little, which helped very slightly.

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Yesterday I Dremmeled away a bit of the wheel arches to allow for further clearance. It worked, for complete freedom of motion I'd have to hack more off, but I'd like to retain the stock look as much as possible. 

 

In in the meantime I also worked on getting the electronics sorted. It's not pretty enough to show, but it has run a few cautious laps around the living room.  I'll clean it up further and show you guys how I installed everything  

 

Obligatory flex shot:image.jpeg

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It lives! I tidied up the electronics, and couldn't resist a quick run. I personally think it looks better with the little bull bar on, as opposed to most people, so for now it's staying on. 

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It runs really well! The first 10 minutes it sounded a bit rough, but as the battery progressed it started sounding better and better. Run times on this thing are epic! I think I must have puddled around in the garden for a good 30 minutes, and the (very old 3300 mAh NiMH) battery wasn't even close to giving up. Since this picture was taken it's gotten a bit dirtier. I'm surprised at how capable it is even on the stock tires. It climbs through weeds and over undulations in the ground like it's nothing. I'm sure a well-driven true crawler will absolutely have this thing for lunch, but for what is essentially a stock soft-reader I'm quite impressed.

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The chassis layout currently. I might change a few things around in the coming period, but for now this works. The battery and servo are where they should be, I got ahold of a receiver box for a TT02 and mounted that on the two mounting points on the back normally reserved for the resistor for the MSC. It looks good, fits in there quite snug, and aside from the too-modern font on the word Tamiya, looks like it belongs in there.

image.jpegBehind that is the ESC, sideways with the motor wires and battery wires running underneath the receiver box. The on/off-switch wouldn't make it all the way to the original spot, but being waterproof I simply stuck on on the back. With the body on you can just about reach it. 

image.jpegView from the front to the rear. The servo is temporary until I get a decent waterproof one. The extra wire coming from the battery leads goes to the TLU01 mounted on the roof of the body for power to the lights.

 

Still to do:
- Work on a cool way to operate the lights without having to take the body off
- Waterproof servo
- Possibly home-build the link extension set to allow for more flex
- Tow bar and car trailer for the TRF
- Drive it literally everywhere. :D

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Brilliant, love it. 

I put a Bruder trailer behind my Unimog (see thread) and it was near perfect scale, might be worth while looking to see if they make a car trailer :)

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