FAV 2011

[Crash Cramer]

Well this is a three in one build for me. I have to blame this on both Steve Collins, aka SCollins and Dan Crowl aka TamiyaManDan for their egging on and help in this build.

It all started in the middle of 2016 I think when Steve sent me a FAV, it was a project he had on his mind, but then he decided he only really wanted the tires and wheels for something he had going, so the rest was to me and I had some old wheels and tires around, so I put it on the shelf. Then around October I think, I talked with Dan and he said he was bored and had an airbrush he wanted to figure out, so I asked him for some work on another shell, it turned out AWESOME. It matches another shell he shot for me, but that project is going to be posted when I have the right time and parts sorted out.

SOOO, now that the painted parts came back last week, I thought I would start on this build and I am actually finding some finishing parts and electrics as I want to drive this one a little bit, but since it is so brittle and such, I will keep it slow and steady I hope. I mean the guy's left arm broke off in transit from Dan and I popped the steering wheel trying to reattach same said arm. I am posting almost all the photos in black and white to show the paint job off as I have a surprise for you all when it is done and you can see it in COLOR, but there is a tease in color here and there.

So here are the first seven steps as shown in the build manual, it sure is nice to not have to dig all the electrics up immediately and get to build first.

 

Now the build begins with all the parts halfway laid out, this is the best I can do right now.

THIS GUY IS AWESOME, even though his arm was in a sling, that has been rectified, but his steering wheel will be fixed soon enough.

 

THIS GUN IS GREAT and detailed, oh man, I want to shoot it.

 

 

 

[Crash Cramer]

SO, used up all my space with those parts shots, let's get building.

STEP ONE

Step TWO

Step THREE

Step FOUR, IN COLOR!!!!!

 

AND, STEP FIVE, isn't that guy just soooooo coollll????

[Crash Cramer]

And here we have STEP SIX

 

And STEP SEVEN, all ready for that radio equipment now, so off to the building room aka the garage.

[chevelle]

9 hours ago, Crash Cramer said:

THIS GUY IS AWESOME, even though his arm was in a sling, that has been rectified, but his steering wheel will be fixed soon enough.

So you buffed it out then 

[chevelle]

I'm looking forward to seeing what you have done here  I cheated a little with my runner 

[Crash Cramer]

I WISH it buffed out that easy, I was trimming and such to get a better fit and there is still a gap that is bugging me when viewed from his other side. I think some gap filling CA might help or putty, but then I run the risk of it needing paint. What did you do to your runner, dump it in glitter or spackle??? That is an interesting texture you got going on there.

[chevelle]

 It's a stone effect spray paint, I could have softened the texture by clear coating it, But I like it 

 

[Crash Cramer]

On 1/14/2017 at 8:29 PM, chevelle said:

 It's a stone effect spray paint, I could have softened the texture by clear coating it, But I like it 

 

Ah yea, I remember that paint, well as long as you like it that is all that matters to any of us with this hobby addiction.

[Crash Cramer]

So, long weekend with my sister and niece visiting and where I couldn't get either of them to help me build the FAV, they did help my wife cook up a batch of sugar cookies, so, not a bad deal either way.

I did get to spend some VERY frustrating time with the FAV this weekend, but it was more a competition of wits and head scratching.

When last we left our hero, he was happy to build without breaking out the electrics first step, well now, that might have been a ploy by Tamiya to not dissuade the builder of the FAV re re, for when it came to step 8,9, and 10, it was all mutts poop, or doody caca as the Minions might put it. I didn't shoot a photo of me putting the steering rods on the servo, but you all get the just and I also found that my mobile device(a gen 1 iPad) would NOT look into Tamiyaclub, I was stumped and sunk until I could get back to the desktop computer in the guest room. I got access in the middle of the day after my eyes settled down from being dilated at the eye doctor, so, pretty much another day shot on building.

 

Here, in a nutshell is what was going on, the build manual assumes you are using the supplied ESC with the re re kit and where I don't know exactly what model they handed out, I was just going to use a TE101 that I had around here, I know folks love and hate them, but it was here and "free" so it was going to get used and I figured that most of the brushed esc's that Tamiya handed out were very similar in size and shape. Moving forward, the notes about attachment of part "A8" to the steering servo according to height, well, it was game on to figure out what was lost in translation. It took me digging up the original FAV build sheet to figure out they meant servo height should you stand the servo on its "bottom" and then measure from the servo mount holes to the end of all the servo saver bits for its "height" but they never showed me that in the build manual, just mentioned it, so I winged it with the spacing from eyeballing the servo arms and whether or not they were at a bad angle lined up with the steering uprights. That bit sorted, it was time to try and cram all the bits into the spaces and work with more electrical bits than the original had, or perhaps less in this case.

I say more or less due to the fact the ESC gets rid of the 4 cell battery pack for the RX and I am using a mid 90's aged RX, so it isn't quite as big as an original 1984 unit, but it isn't quite as tiny as say a 2011 unit. YEP, that is NOT a 2.4 GHz unit, regular radio, I am a hard convert and well, I still have more of these radios around that are still working, so I figure why not use them. The 7.2V is an old Radio Shack Ni-MH and it took a charge and spun the motor well, so it will go in here nicely.

Moving forward, but rather, back and forth, I was set to put the electrics in as close as the space they call for in the manual, that started out looking like this

I put my curls into the long wire leads to clean them up a bit and since they would not be seen, that was all I had done to them and wanted to keep it simple and get the screw holes clear to put the driver on top, well, that is where it went sideways. I could NOT get the driver and platform on in place and after several rips and tears and double sided tape cutting and such later, well, I was at my wits end and thought for certain the only way all these electrics would fit under here is if I cut the second servo's set of mounting tabs down flush with the bottom of the chassis. I began a fleabay search to see what was cheaper to buy, the parts tree with the driver platform or a new chassis bottom so I could then get one to replace what was about to be hacked up for the sake of mounting electrics.

 

THANKFULLY, just before the Dremel came out, I was thinking again about the orientation and the fact that there would be a "hood" to hide things, so I rearranged the electrics again and finally came up with this

I used the "tool box" behind the driver to actually hide the RX wire as I want something better looking than the tube shooting right out through the roof beside the driver. I know it is dificult at best to make out what I changed in the orientation, but let me spell it out, the RX got rotated 90degrees and is actually sitting in its spot wedged between chassis side and screw post, no servo tape used on that and the ESC, well thank fully the heat sink is now NOT buried under plastic that might warp and melt should I run this too long at one time and to be honest, it is using only about 10mm of servo tape on it as it is covering about 1/3 the servo mount for the original MSC and it sticks just fine.

If someone reading this, er, falling asleep to this post, remembers WHO and WHERE someone was yelling about the inferiority of Tamiya servo tape as well as others, well, let me share with you what I used and have used for about a decade as I just don't build as fast and furious as some folks, it is DUCK brand double sided tape and it is white in color and mine measures just about 20mm in width. As mentioned, it is nearly a 10 year or more old roll and my roll is made by DUCK/Manco in Avon Ohio, made in the USA. Sorry if you can't get this all over the planet, but let me tell you, this stuff is so sticky that you can barely get the backing paper off it and then when you stick it, it is stuck, I literally wanted to re-position after just a few seconds after application, well, it pulled some of the tap right off and left some on the chassis, so it had to be scraped off and started again. I didn't find the post asking folks what they use, so I hope we can pass this information along.

Photo size has limited post to this, so stay tuned, more posts coming.

[Crash Cramer]

SO, I mentioned some head scratching, well, in my search of the VINTAGE FAV manual, I noticed something interesting, they have you wire up the MSC in the car, which meant you could use a 6v or 7.2v connector, since the FAV came out originally in 1984, Tamiya hadn't been using its now iconic "dummy proof" connector with a locking tab, it was using 6v square hard case batteries as well as the 7.2v "stick" that we still recognize today. That being a step, it was enlightening to me to route the battery wires through the bottom of the chassis instead of hanging out the side. Now, I don't know how well this will fare on running the car, but it sure looks better IMHO and so the past can teach us a thing or two, have a look and decide for yourself. OH, BTW, here is your COLOR shot for today, at least one.

As you can see, this battery fits, but it has a pretty long lead and those leads were supposed to exit the car on the left, thus the curved battery plate end shown, but, I swapped it around to interface with the male battery clip and it tucks into the void that it was originally intended for, near the rubber covered switch. I really want to understand what Tamiya was thinking back then, they had a HUGE hole in the bottom of the chassis but included a rubber switch cover and spacer which I have to admit, gave me a small fit to get into the space and it really hampers a quick use of the switch, but perhaps that is the thing they were going for, to put a damper on the switch running over something and quickly shutting the car off. Not a good design, but I am no engineer. It would have made more sense to me if Tamiya had included a bung for the giant hole in the chassis to keep dirt and debris out of the electrics which you can plainly see in this shot. Because I have given you a color shot, you can see just how little servo tape I used, it is white and it covers one of the adjustable holes for the MSC servo mounting points. Other tell tale signs of a re re are the now NO RUBBISH symbols emblazoned on the re re parts, in this case, the full bottom chassis bit. I can also see by my color photo, that I have missed a spot or two on my attempt to have a fully black bottom of the chassis, so some touch up paint is in order, I was looking to get a monotone color on the bottom as in a street car, but I didn't get that full affect, but that is easily fixed and well, lets be honest, if the suspension doesn't work well enough to keep the chassis bottom from scraping, I will likely either have to paint it every time I go out, or give up on the monotone color of the bottom.

Moving onto STEP 12

Simply put, motor wires routed, tool box mounted and the bits attached behind the driver to mount the gearbox to.

STEPS 13 and 14,

Either I didn't take as many photos as I thought, or I forgot in the midst of my brain coming back online after struggling for well over an hour of trying the electrics and not fitting the driver platform all the way down till I was able to sort out a better orientation for the electrics. I have rambled on about that too long, but it was VERY FRUSTRATING and the images in the build manual were not helping at all. You can see I left the cage black, like the nerf bars, I figured they were of a flexible enough plastic as to make the paint possibly come off and well, they are the damageable parts, so they can be had quick enough should I scar them up and then the black plastic would show through anyway if I were that bad a driver as to scrape and scar them up, plus Dan said it would be easiest to leave them the molded color too.

I swore I took a photo of STEP 15, but it is not here and I am not taking it apart to show the mounting of the cage, so onto STEP 16

I really hope Pinto Power can persuade MIP to build a ball diff for this car, but I have the gears in place and they should suit me well, for the small use I will give it.

If you look in the background, you can see my ancient roll of servo tape/double sided tape. Took a note from Pinto's playbook and elected to put very little ceramic grease on the teeth and used my favorite gear diff grease, electric/dielectric or even spark plug grease as it is called at the auto shops. I like the thickness of it and it is clear and so, a little dab will do ya.

STEP 17

The tape was to hold the drive cup into the gearbox until final assembly, same story on the gearbox as color goes, black and such, for ease.

[Crash Cramer]

So, here we find ourselves at STEP 18, pretty straightforward, putting the trans package into the rear cage.

With a trans, you need some output shafts, so here we are, left and right as per STEP 19

I did find that I had enough rubber sealed bearings at hand and not all over the place, so I elected to use them both in the gearbox as well as all the rotating axles and shafts. Step 20 finds us finishing the cage off with its last stabilizer shaft for structure as well as attaching the rear swing axles or whatever you would like to call them since they articulate at one pivot end.

Now STEP 21 is just one more fuzzy step for me, it has a lost in translation point in the fact they don't go to much detail as to what pinion gear you would choose to do what, if you skip a step or more ahead, you see that it is for L and H, assumingly, LOW and HIGH speed running. I surely wish someone at Tamiya could have worked out the gear ratios and placed them into step 21 for us to make up our minds on how to go about which we gear we would want. Oh well, I used the kit supplied 15T as I think I want to keep the speeds low and I hear ya already GET RID OF THAT ALU GEAR, but it was here, included, cheap and at hand and I don't run my cars all that much if at all, if for some reason I fall absolutely in love with running the FAV, then I will be bound to order some steel gears and get me one for it, but I could change my mind on which gear to run, so this way, I doubt I will wear anything out just that fast. I did my level best to get the required 16mm spacing on the pinion gear onto the shaft distance, funny, but this could be the FIRST car I ever built that didn't ask for or include a motor spacer washer made of that mystery material. I suppose Tamiya didn't think they needed it after all these years and perhaps the plastic gearbox will not melt??? You tell me, but I swear I installed one on a Fox build per the manual and they are a close set of cousins this FAV and such???

[Crash Cramer]

Now that I have endured your folks ridicule of the use of the alu gear, let's get to the final few steps I have done up to this point.

STEP 22 with two photos as I thought it was very cool to see the actual gear mesh since Tamiya has put a cap over the gearbox inspection hole, I have the first half of the step with the motor installed but not the cap.

So, here it is all covered up with the finned cap, nice touch from Tamiya and Dan elected to paint it, even though it would be bolted to the black trans case, I think mostly because it was attached to another tree he painted every piece of, very cool Dan, thanks again, I can't thank you enough, it looks great and I can't wait to showcase your other work you have done for me on a hardbody. SOOOOON

Now moving to STEP 23, we have the bouncy shocks to build for the rear as well as the rear lights, but thanks again to Dan for painting, they were already put together and painted up, sorry, NO COLOR SHOT for you guys just yet, in due time, I am almost done with this build.

 

Now for the last step I have accomplished, STEP 24

 

Tidy rear end and the end of our story for now. It is a rainy day today and looks like the rest of the week, I had begun painting a lexan body over the weekend, but that will have to wait now until better conditions. I found my wheels since as I said, SCollins had wanted to build this, but in the end, just decided it was a good investment to use the wheels and tires for another project and thus gifted me the remainder of the kit, I am still eternally grateful Steve, please don't read anything but happy into this fact. I had some wheels around here that I finally got a full set of and thought they will suit this thing very nicely PLUS allow me to use "standard" 2 inch front and rear tires when/if I should wear out the rubber in a quick manner. That is where my next brick wall has come into play. I have the wheels, but I have to source up my wheel spacers to put the rears onto the car, so for now, only have fronts with bearings installed and some tires, but then in my search for the spacers, I have found a different pattern front tire set, so now I am thinking it will go out for a vote on what combination will eventually grace this beast.

The brick wall is once again, my big collection of stuff in the garage of spares and bits and even though they are bins and labeled somewhat haphazardly, they are not going to be easy to find. I started with my few boxes close at hand, and turned up nothing, now I have to move onto the other 20 or so bins about the size of a sweater box and see if I get lucky. WISH ME LUCK, but in the end, I have seen on the ole bay that I could get what I am after in either regular Tamiya plastic or ALU, so I will see what I find and when I give up, I will order them from across the pond.

[acprc]

Looking good, coming along nicely.

[Crash Cramer]

So SPOILER ALERT, I found the parts I was looking for and was able to finish this gem up.

That takes us up to STEP 25, well except that I was going with aftermarket 2 inch "standard" wheels and tires, so nevermind.

ONTO STEP 26, wheel spacer found from some package I have had around here literally over 10 years, believe they are from a set of Super Hornet wheels

So, since they were here and I didn't have to wait for them to come over from Hong Kong or the like, I was able to put the wheels on and this is the first photo.

Now, we get into ANOTHER sticking point with me on this build, the 50 cal gun and its mount, quite interesting, reminiscent of the floppy antennae say from a Hummer and other old cars, it is a spring with a screw through it., interesting

The parts looked good and I was all ready to bolt the bonnet or hood on and well, we have a problem, check out this gap with the screw snugged up the entire way.

So, MORE DIGGING into some plastic sort bins and such for some plastic washers that came from a misc box from the hardware store years ago that I found, one was already ID 5mm, but the thinner of the two needed coaxing, so I brought out my trusty 5mm drill bit and by hand enlarged the hole.

WOOO COLOR SHOT. LOL

Now, I thought I would get out of this with one or the other washer in place, but it turns out it needed BOTH sandwiched onto the screw to sufficiently snug up the gun to where it wasn't just flopping around and bouncy like Tigger's tail on a normal day. Even with both in place, there is still a very simple and easy left/right movement with the gun, but not near as much bounce forward and such. I might have to add another in the future after running the car and seeing what condition the gun stays in while putting it through its paces.

[Crash Cramer]

We are in the home stretch now, I have just a few more photos to show here and will be typing up a post on the showroom soon with FULL COLOR photos there for all to see.
The manual states that STEP 28 is the decoration with the decals, well, as I have said before, Dan did such an amazing job with the paint, there is very little need if any for decals, so I will just pose the car as it is shown in STEP 28 for all to see. You might notice I went and changed the front tires, I found and liked the sidewall on a pair of Fox/Wild One tires better suited the rather large sidewall on the WHO KNOWS WHO MADE THEM after market tires on the rear in the same pattern as the RR/ Ranger/etc.

 

Now on STEP 29, you actually bolt the hood/bonnet/whatever onto the car, so this calls for a FRONTAL SHOT in my book.

 

Now onto the FINAL STEP, STEP 30, since you saw how I tucked the battery in very long ago, we need to make sure that latch doesn't come loose while driving, soo, they included some 6mm small snap pins and I will use them here as instructed.

 

Hope you enjoyed my build, sorry a couple steps were not covered in more detail, but to be honest, if we have built at least one car in the past, we get the just and I hope noone feels left out.

 

I wish I could report a very happy and fun day of driving it, but, it was pretty rainy all day and somewhat chilly(in the 60's), but I did go for a simple trim check and maiden go in the garage. I didn't hit anything but the car didn't travel 3 feet before I heard all sorts of crackling and spitting of BBs in the differential. After cussing a bit, I grabbed the car and took off the inspection plate to see if I had a loose pinion, no such luck, so now, after typing all this and sharing the photos, I have to pull the trans off and see what step I messed up on in the gear department. If worse comes to worse, I had a couple dozen vintage diff gears as well as one or two counter gears, so I am not all that worried on the repair, I am just starting to doubt my abilities or perhaps, like Pinto Power has a faulty Willy's Wheeler, I have a faulty FAV????? WHO KNOWS??

[Grastens]

Hope you can get the bugs sorted! Nice work on this FAV - the wheels are a neat find.

[Crash Cramer]

Eureka, I have found the issue with the gearbox on my FAV, but now I have less than 1mb to upload allowed, so sorry no photos. I can admit to being the person responsible for the error, not Tamiya and not the instructions, but I did have some testing moments there.

Suffice it to say, I had wondered how it was that I had a spare ball bearing in my parts pile, but since there were a few spare screws and such and I did dig up these bearings from my spares bins, I could have thought I counted incorrectly.

Step 17 is where I messed up. I got the shim and 5x8 bearing in the right place, but I totally forgot to insert the 5x11 bearing into the gearbox half or if I did, it fell out completely, but I feel after wedging the bearing in there today, that was not the case. I guess I concentrated a little too hard on the scotch tape part of the outdrive shaft instead of the bearings in both gearbox halves.