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GooneyBird

Project Rally Bug / Street Scorcher

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Here's an idea that's been going through my mind a couple of times: I love the look of the Sand Scorcher. IMHO it's one of the most scale bodies that Tamiya have ever done. And while I'd love to get an SRB, it seems that every affordable SRB slips from my fingers, and new is great, but expensive. Also, I don't need yet another chassis to abuse and to adore.

And that's why I'm going to build something out of a TT01E. 

Why a TT, I hear you ask? First and formost, I have one not doing anything. It's been last year's Tamiya Cup-runner, but started to wear down severly. I was offered a basically-brand-new TT01E for peanuts, and transferred all the go-faster stuff to the new car, leaving this poor chassis in the back of the workshop up on some stands. 

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Until today. @Fuijo had a spare Scorcher shell I could use to kick this project underway, so back onto the work bench my old TT went, and I plopped the VW body on just to see what needed to be done.

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Well, the wheelbase is off, but I already figured that out. The good news is that the body fits on the chassis without interference from the main bath tub. Also good news is that the wheelbase is less off than I thought it would be. 

However...

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The front and rear bumper supports need to get lobbed off. In the front it just might work with the nose cone on, but the one in the rear sticks out too far to be of any use. 

First issue: wheelbase. Tamiya gives you two options to build the car, the 'normal' 257mm and short wheelbase. Short being about 251mm, and designed with the Porsche 911 and Capri and such in mind. 

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Converting is simply a matter of flipping the arms. On the left = regular wheelbase, and on the right is short wheelbase.

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This gets us in the ballpark, but not quite.... 

This is where I had a bit of a change of mind. What if, instead of going for a slammed street look, I lifted the car up and turned it into a rally bug? The distance from the wheels to the wheel arches would disguise the wheelbase being off (by about 5mm, I think), and while it would impact its on-road performance it would turn the car into an all-road plaything. 

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Excellent!

 

What I'll try next time I can find some time in my schedule:

- See if I can cut away the bumpstops on the chassis to allow the arms to hang down further.
- Figure out a way to attach the body
- dig into my spare parts pile to make this car a complete runner again.

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A promising project! I find it interesting that the 251 mm wheelbase looks so odd in this guise, as I seem to recall the SRBs having a 250 mm wheelbase, and the ORV-type Sand Scorchers that appear use a wheelbase of 248 mm - close enough to look the part.

Looking forward to its progression! We could all use all-road RC cars, if you ask me.

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Hi Goonybird - like you, I've always loved the Sand Scorcher body, but could never afford an SRB version (even after the re-re in 2010) - so built my own around a Brat/Frog OHV chassis.

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In that regard, a couple of suggestions that might help:

 

First of all, if you cut some of the leading (and the front) and trailing (and the rear) edges of the wheel-arches away, it will help to hid the chassis/body wheelbase disparity a little better* - note the OHV chassis is approximately 250mm, and mine is a little longer (255mm) due to fitting the SRB front suspension and wanting to keep enough space for the front-mounted spare wheel - the docked arches also help to give it a slightly more aggressive stance which might suit the 'Rally' look better?

edit. *Or if you particularly like the original rear lamps/arches, then if you just lined up the rear wheels central in the arches and trimmed the front arches perhaps?

My other suggestion would be to retain your rear bumper bracket for now, as it might be a good place to mount a replica engine, such as the 3D printed one that ToyKid makes?

Hope that helps... Looking forward to how this progresses!

Jenny xx

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I had a bit of a think about the wheelbase issue whole at work today (I mean, what else am I supposed to do there!?) and I came up with the following solution. 

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I have enough rear carriers since they come on the same sprue as the steering knuckles, and they tend to break more often than the rears, so a pair was easily sacrificed.

i Dremelled a 4mm notch into one side of the carrier at the height of the pin. This had the effect of moving the whole thing forward by that much. The resulting gap was filled with a spacer.

the wheelbase is still off, but not nearly as bad as it was. I measured it, and the car now has a 246mm wheelbase, which is actually closer to a (LWB - 239mm) M-chassis than a regular touring car (257mm).

having improved the wheelbase I then set out to find a way to mount the body, it turns out that the original body mount hole in the front trunk lid is right above the TT's Shock tower. This gave me an idea:


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The blue holders are body post mounts I purchased for the TRF at some point, but never used. However, they'll serve as perfect braces for a scrap bit of frp to hold a single front body post.  

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Wow! You've started already. An interesting project, that I'm rather looking forward to see tearing around the track. :)

The wheelbase issue doesn't seem that bad, and I thought actually looks almost better than standard in the final picture of your first post. So I thought I'd check.

Measuring the wheelbase of a standard rere SRB seems to come to 253mm. Like your pic where you jack the body up a little, it looks fine......

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But if I compress the suspension, it looks (at least to me) rather less fine........

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So I think you're doing better than that already. I don't know if the vintage Scorcher is different, but maybe it just looks that way because the torsion bars were much

stiffer and so the suspension didn't compress as much.

 

I like your solution to the front body post problem. Looking good so far.

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Funny enough it looks to be a little off in front with the suspension fully raised, but then when you smash it down the front wheel actually ends up roughly where it needs to be, but the rear wheel's the culprit.

I'll snap a few pics ASAP with the wheelbase at its current length. It looks pretty much spot on. I need to hacksaw the scrap FRP a bit as it fouls on the front wings quite badly, but other than that I can start to position the body where I want it to be and think about the rear. 

One downside, I have to enlarge the hole in the front trunklid. I know it's a re-re, but it feels like sacrilege drilling into a pristine and virgin body. This will only get worse as I'm sure I need to poke a few holes in it at some point for the rear body mount, unless I can fab up something ingenious with the two existing holes for the SRB's roll bar clip.

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After much mucking about, I think I've got the wheelbase issue sorted:

IMG_0054.jpg

Aww yes... :D
Ideally I'd like to move the body back a bit, but currently the (as of now installed) nose cone is hitting the front shocks. I'd have to notch it a bit for clearance, at which point I'll probably have a heart attack due to dremmeling in a virgin Sand Scorcher-body. (Just opening the package gave me mild anxiety attacks. Why do I not have an issue with building and racing the beejesus out of 400 euro of TRF, but opening a Re-Re bodyset breaks my brain?)


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As you can see here, a bit of further clearance is required for the front shocks. I took off the bumper-mount plates. I'll need to put them back on before I can drive it, as those things hold in the diffs and driveshafts. I'll see if I can modify it a bit so it acts as a front bumper, or possibly a front bumper attachment point.


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Mean stance with the black wheels.


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As you can see here, front track is a bit on the wide side. I think these are +2 wheels, so getting a set of 0 offset wheels should tuck them in a bit. Also, it still has the 6mm wheel hexes i need to get the TT01 anywhere near 190mm for racing, so going with a 4mm wheel hex should give me some room as well. 
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In the rear I've got the opposite problem, but this is nothing that a pair of decently offset rims can't fix. They make wide rear ends for TT's, should all else fail. Not sure on tire/wheel choice, so making sure that 0 offset or +2 offset wheels fit the shell well would really broaden my options.

Anyway, before I can make the front body post (and subsequently, fab up something to mount the body in the rear) I need to notch the nose cone for clearance. O.o *gulp!*

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Looks good!

Remember that Tamiya appeared to have trouble getting rid of all their Buggy Champ bodies (at least, that is the theory for all those special chrome editions), and a check online seemed to indicate a lot of Sand Scorcher shells ;) Cut away!

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I love me-time while the wife is gaming. Made a bit of progress, the front body post is in. I had a bit of a difficult time trying to mark out where it needed to go, until my wife, clearly disturbed by my fettling about, put a bit of blue-tack at the end of a thin screwdriver and made a nice blue dot where the post needed to go. 

And believe it or not, it's absoletely spot on! Right in the center, and the wheelbase is perfect. I took off the front shocks to have a bit more room to move about, and moved the thing back a bit. 

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That blue post is just temporary. It's the thinnest one I could find in my stash. The current stance is the one I'm going with, it will drop a bit when under its own weight. (Which I can't mock up since I still need to butcher the body to make the shocks fit)

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I love the blu-tack solution to the body post. Made me laugh, - Engineer's Blue (tack). Heh heh!

That body fits really well now. Looking really good.

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Well, I did it. I notched the nose a bit to clear the front shocks. I think it hurt me more than the body shell. I think I need to lay down for a while now....

Or not, since that brings us to our next problem: the rear body mount. I've decided that, after notching the nose, I'll try to keep the modifications to the body to a minimum. This included the rear body post. When I installed the stock Sand Scorcher mount, that weird clip-thing, I had a plan. 

What if I were to make basically a large roll hoop out of a U-bracket, screw that to the chassis, and use that as a rear mount? A good plan in theory, except I can't find anything that fits.... I tried to 'click' in many things to determine the correct diameter, and after finding out that one of those ubigious IKEA wrenches fit quite snugly into the clip I'm now on the hunt for something. 

What I'm thinking is:
- FInd someone who can bend and weld steel tubing.
- Befriend that person, possibly bribe him with tasty treats or the promise of cuddle sessions with my cat
- Find some steel round bar with an outer diameter of roughly exactly 5.5mm, and a small metal plate
- Get my new friend to bend that bar to the specifications I very scientifically jutted down on a notepad, and weld it to the plate
- Deliver treats and/or cat to new friend
- Bolt that whole assembly to the TT01
- Figure out I'd forgotten something simple and obvious, and possibly repeat this whole process including said step

I'm currently at step 1. Anyone here wants some chocolate or a cat?

:P

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The standard Scorcher roll-bar is 6mm diameter and is quite a tight fit, I guess to stop the body sliding from side to side.

I have some 6mm brass tubing and some 6.35mm (probably an imperial size) aluminium tubing if either would be helpful.

You can keep the cat thanks, the 3/4 of one I have already is more than enough! :)

 

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2 hours ago, Fuijo said:

The standard Scorcher roll-bar is 6mm diameter and is quite a tight fit, I guess to stop the body sliding from side to side.

I have some 6mm brass tubing and some 6.35mm (probably an imperial size) aluminium tubing if either would be helpful.

You can keep the cat thanks, the 3/4 of one I have already is more than enough! :)

 

Thanks for the offer! I've thought of a slightly different way to do this (last night while in bed, obviously). I have a threaded bar of the correct diameter. Originally I thought about mounting that to the chassis directly, but that required very long support trusses, possibly causing a wobbly body. (And no-one wants a wobbly bug, even if it's a fun word to say).

What I'm thinking about instead is mounting the bar between two servo posts, then mount the servo posts to an FRP platform. That platform then acts like a rear parcel shelf for the car (granted, with two body posts sticking out of it), and can probably be mounted to the top deck of the TT with a bit of engineering. This way I gain a scale parcel shelf (to mount accessoires on), and because it's now braced with that FRP plate it might be less wobbly.

If this doesn't work I'll gladly take you up on your offer. In fact, if it doesn't work I'll bring the bug to the track this Sunday, see if you can work out something.

At any rate, expect pictures!

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Have you looked at the way the Monster Beetle shell is fitted? Personally I'd be seeing if a pair of those body mounts would screw to the TT chassis sides.

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Long time no updates, sorry about that. 

I received my magnetic body mount set the other day, and had a few moments to spare tonight. As the VW Beetle simply has no straight panels anywhere I couldn't simply glue in the magnets and call it a night. 

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The great thing about doing it like this is that the body remains 100% compatible with an original Sand Scorcher, and an original body just needs the plate with magnets to work on my car. 

And because I don't need access to the rear body posts any more I might go and hunt for a full set of glass. @Fuijotold me something about original Monster Beetle glass that might work...hmm. Options options options. 

I love simple and elegant fixes like this, especially if they retain full backwards compatibility. :)

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Nice work on the rear mounts. Hopefully you'll shorten those posts 😃

If you need a full set of scorcher glass PM me 

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Of course I'll shorten those posts. I just need to figure out what look I'm going for, and choose my wheel-and-tire package accordingly. This determines the height of the body.

Excellent! Tinted glass or non-tinted?

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Sounds like your getting close to that 'Rally or Street Scorcher' moment. 

Ive only got clear at the moment 

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Clear is okay with me! I'll send you a PM with my details.

Yep, getting to that point where I've got to decide what to do. I've looked at several cars, both RC and real-life, and I like the modified stock Beetle look best. So a short road map of this car:

- Find decent street wheels and tires with 'normal' threads.
- Set the ride height to be a little higher than stock Beetle, but not by much.
- Figure out what to do for a front bumper
- Paint the body two-tone, with a cream white side panel and gray or possibly silver body. Couple of small decals on it, maybe open up the sunroof.

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That's an interesting arrangement. I've not seen the magnetic body-mounts before. How stable/rigid is it?

Is there any chance of a photo of the whole car with the shell mounted up?

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No problem.

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The body mounts are really rigid. The magnets click on quite precisely, and keep the body mounted well. I can lift the car by the body easily, and even shake it up and down without them letting go. Of course there's still a bit of body wobble, but that's to be expected with the long body posts. I'll fab up some sort of a brace for that at some point, but it's not as bad as some other cars I've seen.

As you can see I've also spaced out the rear wheels a bit. They now sit flush with the arches. The front wheels are still sticking out a bit, despite having 4mm thin wheel hexes on them. I'm not sure I can go any more narrow with the hexes as the rims are almost touching the steering hubs already. 

I've also figured out the look I want to go for. It's going to be a street car, in two-tone, but not a show car. Something like this (sorry for the profanity on the side of the car):
bug1.jpg

I'll try to fab up something of a front bumper, or maybe use the stock TT front diff plate holder thingy as a bumper.

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Oooh, that looks cool. I like it.

The wheels don't look a million miles away from Brat or Ranger XLT wheels, although with a road tyre on the front. Even Buggy Champ wheels if the front tyre was just a little wider.

The arches look much closer to the vintage Scorcher shape. Are you going to have a go at replicating them? I have loads of styrene sheet and section along with the liquid poly

if you fancy giving it a go.

Any ideas what you might do about a bumper? And can it be just a cosmetic bumber, or will it need to protect the car on the track?

 

After seeing that picture I can't wait to see what you come up with. :)

 

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Nice project. A 4x4 Bug is great fun. I built mine on a shorten TL01 chassis but ended up running it RWD 😉. If there's any slight wheel misalignment you can raise the rear body mount and fit larger tyres to absorb it. The Duratrax VW engine looks great in these and fills any gap nicely! 

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