Man1c’s DT03 - Is dead!

[Man1c M0nk3y 563]

1 hour ago, OwainP said:

An idea for the decals to consider, if you are not sure that they will work with your colour choice would be a custom set from MCI Racing. You can change every colour and the quality is amazing. I would 100% recommend the company to anyone. 

Yeah I’ve seen them mentioned before. 

Mots not so much that I don’t like the included decals it’s just some of the colouring won’t work imo. I had a look on MCI’s site but they don’t have the Racing Fighter listed. 

Mare they able to do anything? I could probably scan them if needed. 

[Granddad Stinky 975]

Just an idea.....

I’m not a fan of plastering a car with decals. I usually pick out some that I like (Dt03) or cut around some shapes to eliminate a specific colour so that they fit in with my chosen base colour. (TT02B)

You could try that.... Thus...

 

All the yellow cut away.

[Man1c M0nk3y 563]

37 minutes ago, Granddad Stinky said:

Just an idea.....

I’m not a fan of plastering a car with decals. I usually pick out some that I like (Dt03) or cut around some shapes to eliminate a specific colour so that they fit in with my chosen base colour. (TT02B)

You could try that.... Thus...

 

All the yellow cut away.

That’s the plan. Selected decals out of the set. Just a couple I would like to use won’t ‘fit’. The plan is to carefully cut away those parts of possible. 

 

Also, that Plasma Edge looks great. Yours?

[Granddad Stinky 975]

Yes thanks, that’s mine. The decals were a result of a new X-Acto blade, a steel six inch rule and heaps of patience.

[Man1c M0nk3y 563]

Looks good @Granddad Stinky the patience paid off I’d say. Hopefully mine will!

Both yours then I take it? What’ve you done to the fighter? Can see some blue alloy parts poking out. 

Those front wheels look fatter than the kits too. What was involved in that beyond the wheel change. New hubs etc?

[Granddad Stinky 975]

Yeah, both mine. Don’t bother with the aluminium “upgrades”.

One trip into its roof and they look bad and bend. You can buy a sprue for approx £15 with both shock towers and a complete spare chassis.

Look here for the hex hub conversion.

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/82875-granddad-stinkys-dt-0302-hex-hub-conversion/&tab=comments#comment-671287

 

[Granddad Stinky 975]

 

All the photobucket photos have gone from my hex conversion thread but I can send you some photos and part numbers if you want to go that way.

 

[Man1c M0nk3y 563]

3 minutes ago, Granddad Stinky said:

 

All the photobucket photos have gone from my hex conversion thread but I can send you some photos and part numbers if you want to go that way.

 

Cheers. I’ll check the link out. PhotoBucket really have screwed so many forums and threads up with that move. Always used Flickr myself, hopefully they don’t get the same ideas. 

I’ll give you a shout if I fancy going that route at some point. Early days yet but good to know the options. 

[Granddad Stinky 975]

5 minutes ago, Man1c M0nk3y said:

Cheers. I’ll check the link out. PhotoBucket really have screwed so many forums and threads up with that move. Always used Flickr myself, hopefully they don’t get the same ideas. 

I’ll give you a shout if I fancy going that route at some point. Early days yet but good to know the options. 

No problem Matey. 👍

[TurnipJF 9181]

8 hours ago, Granddad Stinky said:

Yeah, both mine. Don’t bother with the aluminium “upgrades”.

+1 to the above. Alloy has its place, but suspension arms and buggy shock towers ain't it...

[Man1c M0nk3y 563]

So then the electrics arrived and the fun can continue. Back to the beginning almost in the instructions we go. Parts 5, 6, 7 & 8. 

Centred/neutralised the servo.

Time to get it installed...

As you can see that next piece of Tamiya blue bling is in use. The ‘Aluminium Servo Mount’ (54565). In my efforts to add more weight to the front to ‘balance’ things a little that was added. It increased weight marginally to 58g (+8g) over the kit mount and looks better doing it as well so win win!

A couple of differences with the alloy mount vs the kit plastic one, beyond material. The alloy mount is thinner than the plastic one so some 3mm spacers are used under the screw heads and secondly you use 4 screws to secure servo to mount vs 2 in the kit/plastic setup. I guess it’ll result in a tighter more secure and twist resistant (however minor) setup. 

All ready to rock with servo saver installed (just the kit one for now).

And just because the scales were still out...

That’s with all screws installed. Another 4g’s!

Steering Rods now...

Pain in the bum this bit!

Had to call the trusty needle nose pliers into play and a rag to protect the rod. Don’t have calipers so it’s a case of ‘as close as I could’ with the measurements using a ruler and the instructions drawings. 

And in it all goes. 

What I have noticed (and as you can possibly make out in the above picture) though is that the buggy has slight Front ‘toe out’. 

Now what I don’t know, yet, is whether that’s by design or because I haven’t set the rods up correctly or something else is amiss. Like I say, it’s only a touch so could probably easily dial it out if it is wrong, but seeing as the rods are **** as near it 50mm as per instructions I’m leaning towards it being right.

What I need to figure out now is if it is indeed right, what the reasoning is and what the benefits of leaving versus adjustment...fun! 

Was going to leave it here, but couldn’t! 

In went the Switch (Part 23)...

Then the ESC, RX and battery. 

I’m happy (relieved!) to say it all worked first time. Quick blast outside the house and it’s fairly quick, imo, although I now need to learn my left and right 😂

It is pulling slightly to the right so will dial that out with the Transmitter (TX) settings.

Getting close now 😁

[ThunderDragonCy 7873]

Nathaneal at MCI will do anything you like. Scan the decals as hi red as you can and email.thrm to him. He'll be pleased you did if they aren't currently on the website.

[Man1c M0nk3y 563]

9 minutes ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

Nathaneal at MCI will do anything you like. Scan the decals as hi red as you can and email.thrm to him. He'll be pleased you did if they aren't currently on the website.

Interesting. Might do just that. Any idea roughly how long turnaround time might be?

[ThunderDragonCy 7873]

Depends how busy he is. 2-3weeks would be my guess 

[Man1c M0nk3y 563]

That’s not too bad then. Something to consider. 

[Man1c M0nk3y 563]

So a rare spare hour before work. I decided to have a crack at cutting out the body and spoiler seeing as though I have everything needed to get the buggy actually working now. 

Well what can I say. How much of a pain is it cutting the shell out?! Definitely a job for ‘proper’ scissors I guess and not small (although curved) nail scissors and fat fingers 😂

Anyway after much effort I had the parts done, only slightly unhappy with a little area at the front, reckon a needle nose file would have been useful there and a small area along the bottom edge of what would be the sill if you like. Probably not even be noticed unless being critical, but I know. 

Also do people sand the edges a bit to neaten them all up before painting?

Put the spoiler on to test fit, looking good. Put the body on, hmm, not so good 😕

Anyway, the not so good bit. 

IMO the nose if cut out as the instructions indicate is too long. To get it to sit ‘right’ it ended up hard against the back of the bumper and sagged slightly once the pin to secure was in.  The shell has two lines on the leading edge and the guide that came with the shell instructs you to cut the lower of the two. I’ve cut the higher one and have a slightly shorter nose but it sits nicer IMO with no sag

The money shot!..

The observant will notice the ‘Aluminium Battery Bar’ (54564) in there. I figured what the badword, I have the rest of them, plus I can tell myself it’s more front biased weight!

Anyway, I’ve an idea for paint. 

I really wanted to walk into an actual shop (how quaint!) and get an idea of what the colours I’ve chosen actually looked like first. However it seems around here there’s no shops left and the one that’s close enough doesn’t sell R/C so doesn’t have the paint. So I ended up ordering it online with the electrics. 

I’m hoping it works now as it’s not quite how I thought it would be going of the colour chart. The lid at least is much darker on one of the colours. Time will tell. Also as you may have seen in previous comments I still trying to work out the decals. 

Need to tidy the wiring up too. Spaghetti junction in there. Can anyone recommend any sort of covering for the wiring to help tidy it up and especially protect the wires from the motor which seem a bit exposed to my mind, was thinking braided sleeping or that spiral plastic stuff. 

As ever, thanks for reading. Slowly but surely getting there.

[Man1c M0nk3y 563]

So it was a nice, albeit frosty morning here and the kids wanted to hit the park so was perfect excuse to take the buggy and give it a proper run. 

Car ran great, imo, although the pulling re-occurred but to the left this time 🙄. I’m surmising that part of the issue might be the tyres, I can see them deforming, so will be fitting the inserts (was going to wait and get a few runs in first) and possibly that the servo isn’t sitting neutral properly. More playing to be done. Definitely better than initially though. 

Need to get a wiggle on with the paint now!

[Baddon 860]

Just had the BDII to the BMX track and kids park in the heavy Frost. Like you big fun with kids chasing after it.

[Man1c M0nk3y 563]

17 minutes ago, Baddon said:

Just had the BDII to the BMX track and kids park in the heavy Frost. Like you big fun with kids chasing after it.

Was great fun and exactly what I’d hoped. More than fast enough for the kids too at the moment. 

[TurnipJF 9181]

Brilliant job on the shell trimming! And brave too. I chickened out on mine and got an experienced mate to trim it for me...

[Man1c M0nk3y 563]

1 hour ago, TurnipJF said:

Brilliant job on the shell trimming! And brave too. I chickened out on mine and got an experienced mate to trim it for me...

I’m critical of it myself. A couple of areas I feel I was sloppy. It’s all a learning experience though. I will definitely get ‘proper’ scissors next time mind. 

[Jonathon Gillham 4605]

It may be too late but you asked about whether you sand the rough parts of the shell.  I only found out recently at the first race meet with my touring car - you sand the rough edges.  The shells will split starting with the rough bits/small knicks from cutting around curves.  So I have a new shell on the way.  The advice from another racer was to get a dremel out and sand it all smooth (bear in mind this is a touring car so the wheel arches require the dremel since they're curved, that shell looks pretty straight) and if you get a crack or split drill a small hole at the end of it and it won't keep splitting.

You've done a great job on cutting that shell, and you will be the only one who notices any imperfections.

[Man1c M0nk3y 563]

Thanks @Jonathon Gillham I guess it natural to be overall critical of your own work.  

I haven’t painted it yet. Been far too busy plus need to find a big box as a ‘spray booth’. 

I will pick up some wet and dry and smooth the edges first. 

[Biz73 603]

20 hours ago, Man1c M0nk3y said:

I’m critical of it myself. A couple of areas I feel I was sloppy. It’s all a learning experience though. I will definitely get ‘proper’ scissors next time mind. 

The proper scissors do help, but I found that nose area to be difficult even with them. I used to look at my cars and immediately start picking apart the mistakes, until I recently came to the conclusion that if they were perfect, I wouldn't want to run them. Now I am perfectly fine with the "mistakes". It took 3 years and 11 cars to get to this point, but it has changed how I look at them

[Man1c M0nk3y 563]

I’m thinking the nose area would be best approached with some files if going for ‘perfect’.  I’m not disappointed or anything just feel a couple of areas could have been better. It’s going to get abused anyway so whatever!

———

So as I mentioned yesterday I’m still getting some wandering/pulling and think some of the blame might lie with the tyres as I could see them deforming at times. Now I built it up without inserts as I wanted to run it a few times and get a feel first, however I’ve decided to put them in now. 

What a battle!

I’ve used Schumacher U6738 on the front and U6734 on the rear  Both ‘Medium’ firmness.

Tyres do feel better in hand, however won’t get a chance to test yet as body is off for painting, when I have the time.

Whilst doing this I whipped the servo out again to check it was neutral/central. With it at neutral and with the servo saver on its slightly to the right. Moving the saver just puts it slightly to the left. I guess it can’t be anything else without rebuilding.  Trimmed it using the TX whilst out of the car and noticed that this time I used less trim than when I trimmed it with it in the car.

I also noticed whilst reattaching the front wheels (paying more attention now!) that there is slight side to side play, maybe 1-2mm. Thanks to the lovely people here it seems that that’s not an issue as such and shimming is the way forward, so will be ordering some shims ASAP and hopefully I will have a truer tracking buggy at the end of it all.

Also making progress tidying the wiring up as best as possible and I am currently waiting for some braided sleeving to protect the motor wires a bit. They feel too exposed to me.