I bought my first roller - 4x4x4 Build Thread

[Kingfisher 1171]

Last year, I bough the WT01 Amarok for my girlfriend. She never built it, and it sat in the box for almost a year. Then, I collected parts to give it the wider stance hoping this would get her interest going. We recently started building it, and decided to follow @Nitomor's 4x4x4 build. So, then I priced all of the extra parts we would need. While doing so, I came across a "roller" on eBay that had all of the parts we needed at a much cheaper price than buying all of the parts individually. So, I got the roller, and when it arrived, it was in much better condition then I was expecting. The tires appeared to have never been used, and the only dust I could find was on the gearbox. Other than some peeling stickers, there isn't a single scratch on the body. 

I contacted the seller and asked what the story was behind it. They said that it was a shelfer that has never been ran outside, and has only been ran indoors on carpet for 2mins. Their Wild Willy needed a gearbox, and so they borrowed the gearbox out of it before selling it. It's even fitted with bearings. So, now the 4x4x4 project will have an alternate identity as an Amarok and a Mud Blaster II.

 

If you haven't seen Nitomor's build, then go to this thread:

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/78102-wt01-4x4x4-project/&tab=comments#comment-608618

 

Pics of our roller Mud Blaster II:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nitomor 2118]

That looks absolutely fantastic in yellow with the matching wheels, congrats on the purchase, looks a really good buy. I look forward to what you do with it, enjoy  

Thanks for the kudos

 

cheers and good luck

Nito

[wolfdogstinkus 1715]

These are fun trucks.

6x6    hopefully soon to be FPV

[Juggular 4660]

I like your photos with hazy background.  Makes the subjects pop out.  

That's a lucky haul for you.  I even feel lucky just looking at your find.  I'll be looking forward to your build, Kingfisher.  

 

 

[ALEXKYRIAK 1033]

Kingfisher, it looks a beauty, mate.

 a ) because of the seductive photography (nice skills...!), b ) I love the loud colour scheme (turned up to 11), and c ) (I might be wrong, but) because the body shell looks slightly lower than normal and gives the car a really nice proportion / composition. Is this stock for the Mud Blaster II?

Very nice acquisition, nice one

 

[Kingfisher 1171]

16 hours ago, Nitomor said:

That looks absolutely fantastic in yellow with the matching wheels, congrats on the purchase, looks a really good buy. I look forward to what you do with it, enjoy  

Thanks for the kudos

 

cheers and good luck

Nito

Thanks. I originally found your 4x4x4 build thread when I first started here and didn't even know what a WT01 was. Recently, while searching for info about the Amarok Custom Lift, I came across a blog post you had written (don't remember the website), and remembered that I had seen that info posted here. I've since read your build thread twice before deciding to go forward with this. Thank you for detailing the build.

I'll fix the peeling stickers on the Brat body, and I may start stripping it down today. For fun, we fitted it with a motor, servo, and electronics last night and took it for a run around the back yard. Once I get closer to completing the 4x4x4 build, I may have a few questions to bother you with. 

15 hours ago, Juggular said:

I like your photos with hazy background.  Makes the subjects pop out.  

That's a lucky haul for you.  I even feel lucky just looking at your find.  I'll be looking forward to your build, Kingfisher.  

Thanks. I agree that it is a lucky haul. The description to the eBay listing didn't have any info and just said "due to the nature of the hobby, all sales are final". I was expecting a lump of useable, but beat up parts. I was surprised when I saw how good of condition it really is in.

 If you have a DSLR, the hazy background is easy to do. Use a wide angle lens, get really close to the car, and shoot with the aperture wide open. 

14 hours ago, ALEXKYRIAK said:

Kingfisher, it looks a beauty, mate.

 a ) because of the seductive photography (nice skills...!), b ) I love the loud colour scheme (turned up to 11), and c ) (I might be wrong, but) because the body shell looks slightly lower than normal and gives the car a really nice proportion / composition. Is this stock for the Mud Blaster II?

Very nice acquisition, nice one

 

a ) Thank you.

b ) Yeah, the yellow really pops on this one. It's not a color I would have thought to use, but now that I see how it looks, I really like it.

c ) You are correct. There's no pins supporting the body on the posts, so it's slid all of the way down below the holes for the pins. 

[Nitomor 2118]

1 hour ago, Kingfisher said:

I may have a few questions to bother you with. 

No worries, ask away whatever. I'm subscribed to this thread now anyway , can't get enough of WT's! I love what everyone does to them, so many differing interpretations.

[Kingfisher 1171]

Started taking apart the Mud Blaster today. I found out that I was wrong about it having bearings. The seller included an opened bag of plastic bushings with the car, so I was led to think the car had bearings. The auction didn't say anything about bushings or bearings, so it was all assuming on my part, and I can't fault them for that. I guess they just had extra bushings they wanted to get rid of, and gave them to me. 

I opened the gearbox to swap out the bushings for bearings. It's either never been greased and has collected dirt, was greased with some sort of dry lube, or had the tiniest amount of grease on the gears and that has collected dirt. Whatever the gunk is, it's sticky like gum. The plastic bushings also put some wear on the shafts. I've cleaned up the metal shafts and the wear is pretty visible. I'm going to put bearings on the shafts, and use them as placeholders while I continue the build. Once the new shafts arrive, i'll swap them back out.

Any suggestions on what to use to clean up the plastic gears? I've got 1:1 automotive cleaners and household cleaners, but don't know if they'll hurt the plastic in the long term.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nobbi1977 1769]

Start out with a toothbrush and dish soap and hot water. I use 99% isopropyl alcohol some times as it cuts through most things.

 

I would open the diff and check as well

[Kingfisher 1171]

3 minutes ago, Nobbi1977 said:

Start out with a toothbrush and dish soap and hot water. I use 99% isopropyl alcohol some times as it cuts through most things.

 

I would open the diff and check as well

I just opened it. It's got a paste of ground metal, so I assume it was greased at one time. Thanks.

[Jason1145 3984]

You also got a free wheelie bar fitted on there... should come in handy when you try to put this on the speed run thread... looks like it might be from a Honda City Turbo.

[Nitomor 2118]

Looks like the Wild Willy saw some action. Gear condition all looks good, as it should since they are strong as! From memory you can get hollow shafts for the gearbox as a hop up, marginal weight reduction  !

Check the gearbox casing is all ok, no cracks and mates well together. I’m surprised to see the gears that dirty inside, makes me wonder how well the gearbox halves are mated. Although it’s not a ‘sealed’ gearbox as such, it is good at keeping muck out.

Edit, here are the lightweight shafts...

[Kingfisher 1171]

10 hours ago, Nitomor said:

Looks like the Wild Willy saw some action. Gear condition all looks good, as it should since they are strong as! From memory you can get hollow shafts for the gearbox as a hop up, marginal weight reduction  !

Check the gearbox casing is all ok, no cracks and mates well together. I’m surprised to see the gears that dirty inside, makes me wonder how well the gearbox halves are mated. Although it’s not a ‘sealed’ gearbox as such, it is good at keeping muck out.

Edit, here are the lightweight shafts...

 

The seller was correct. Only the gearbox saw some action. Everything else was spotless when I took it apart. The gearbox case mates together just as good as any other gearbox. No visible gaps or cracks. @Nobbi1977's suggestion to use dish soap and hot water worked great. 

 

 

Diff cleaned up and rebuilt. Gearbox going back together, now with bearings.

 

 

The pieces on the right were in the gearbox when I got it and show a little wear. The pieces on the left, I had as spares and will be using those. I'll keep the worn ones as backups.

 

 

I got these when I collected parts to give it the wider track. They say "Camber Set" on the package, though I don't see any difference compared to the Tamiya parts. These may get swapped out for some turnbuckles in the future. Just blue bling for now.

 

 

There were no instructions with the blue upper arms, and I couldn't find the instructions online. Any idea what the holes are in the center? They're even threaded as you can see in the next pic where I inserted a screw to show.

 

 

Front complete:

 

 

(driver figure in the background is something my girlfriend is working on to go in her Lunchbox)

 

I moved on to the rear and realized that I only have enough control arms for one side of the rear. Apparently, there are 3 lengths of arms for the WT01's? The short ones from the Amarok, a longer arm which I am using, and then an even longer arm which I don't have dogbones to fit. I didn't pay close enough attention when disassembling it to notice, but on the Mud Blaster, are the front arms longer than the rear to accommodate the dummy gearbox? I'm a bit confused as to where the longest arms came from.  -I reread @Nitomor's thread and figured this out. 

The reason why I only have suspension arms to fit one side is because I thought I planned ahead and acquired Part# 0005688 B-Parts, which has the suspension arms. I didn't realize at the time of ordering that it only had one side. So, I will need another sprue of B-Parts for the missing suspension arm. Either way, didn't stop me for now. I just left the Amarok bits in place and continued on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this point, I need a few more parts to continue:

• Suspension arms for the other side.
• Pick out a pair of matching servos.
• Pick out a pair of motors (currently using silver cans as place holders) I have two TBLE-02S ESC's, though whichever motors I choose may come with ESC's.
• Screws to mount the second motor. I looked through my screw collection, and surprisingly, I didn't have any.
• Another 18T pinion, though I do have a pair of 20T steel pinions.
• The longer damper stays (I already have the oil shocks for them)
• Sticker set to fix the peeling stickers on the Mud Blaster shell.

 

 

[Kingfisher 1171]

21 hours ago, Jason1145 said:

You also got a free wheelie bar fitted on there... should come in handy when you try to put this on the speed run thread... looks like it might be from a Honda City Turbo.

They had the gearbox in a Wild Willy, so it could be from there. 

[Nobbi1977 1769]

I think the screw hole in the middle of the arms is if you use suspension towers with short shocks. Caustic soda and warm water takes the blue right off if you want.

Nice car in yellow that. 

[Kingfisher 1171]

Update and very near completion.

 

New shafts and quick release battery holder.

 

 

 

All four suspension arms now match. 

 

 

While waiting on other parts to arrive, I crudely set it up with an ESC and worked out the steering on my radio. Wheel alignment hasn't been adjusted at this point.

 

 

 

Fast forward a month, and here's where it's at.

• Twin silver cans. 
• Quicrun 860 Dual Brushed ESC.
• 2S Lipo
• Tamiya CVA shocks. The front springs are too soft, and cause the front of the car to sag badly. I do not have any more firm springs at the moment, and will be getting those next.
• Tall shock mounts.
• Savox digital metal gear servos.

 

 

 

 

Crab:

 

 

4 wheel steering

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once I finish the stickers on the Amarok shell, i'll trim the body posts. I also have this JConcepts Ford F250 shell that I will be mounting on this chassis.

 

[attme 1]

Looks good Glad you got It from me ,It has a good home now !!!

[Kingfisher 1171]

On 4/8/2018 at 5:20 PM, attme said:

Looks good Glad you got It from me ,It has a good home now !!!

Thanks, and thank you again for the Brat. Glad you got to see what became of it.