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TurnipJF

Turnip builds the F104 Pro II

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This thread will deal with the assembly of the Tamiya F104 Pro II that I am building for a mate of mine.

The latest version of the F104 F1 chassis, it features a few design changes and a sprinkling of blue bling, along with a revised bodyshell and wing resembling a generic modern full-size F1 car. 

It is however quite different to that other high-end F104 with almost the same name - the F104V2 Pro. As the build progresses, we'll have a look at some of these differences. 

Anyway, on to the build:

First thing I noticed was that the box doesn't have its own box art. Rather, it is a generic box that has a separate piece of paper tucked in one side with a picture of the car on it. 

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The contents are packed efficiently, as one might expect with a compact box such as this:

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1 hour ago, TurnipJF said:

This thread work deal with the assembly of the Tamiya F104 Pro II that I am building for a mate of mine.

First thing I noticed was that the box doesn't have its own box art. Rather, it is a generic box that has a separate piece of paper tucked in one side with a picture of the car on it. 

2018-11-01_08-19-29

 

Tamiya have got really lazy when it comes to box art:(

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Looking forward to seeing this, love to have one of these but I think it’s about 14th on the list right now..... list keeps being rearranged by re releases and new releases... oh well! 

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The biggest advance over previous versions of the F104 (apart from the V2 Pro) becomes apparent in the first step, with the revised chassis plate and t-bar arrangement.

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The car's version 1 predecessors had a t-bar that was separate from the motor pod, which had a rather fragile plastic base. The joint between motor pod and t-bar was a common point of failure, with some racers going through two or three sets of motor pod plastics in a single race meet.

The revised chassis and t-bar arrangement goes back to one similar to that used on the far more reliable F103, with the the t-bar and the base of the motor pod being made of one contiguous piece of fiberglass. I foresee this car suffering far fewer race day failures as a result.

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Page one of the manual sees the motor pod and t-bar attached to the main chassis, along with a couple of other metal fittings that will later be used to secure the top deck and battery holders.

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It is important to build the motor pod on a flat surface (I used a glass cooker top) and to incrementally tighten the 8 screws that hold it together in order to ensure that the assembly goes together true, as a squiffy motor pod can lead to some odd handling.

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The motor pod is then fitted with the bearing holders in preparation for the installation of the rear axle and differential.

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By fitting different bearing holders and/or changing their orientation, one can adjust the height of the rear axle in relation to the motor pod, thus altering the car's ride height at the rear.

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The rear axle goes in next.

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The kit is supplied with a steel axle. Many people would consider upgrading this to a lighter carbon one, but personally I prefer steel. The extra mass doesn't do your rear grip any harm, plus it acts as a form of inertial damper which reduces wheel spin under acceleration and wheel lock up under braking.

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With the axle in place, the differential can be assembled.

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The kit is supplied with a 104 tooth and a 93 tooth spur gear in 0.4 module pitch. The instructions indicate that one should use the 104 tooth spur during assembly, however I know from experience with my F104V2 Pro (which uses the same diff and spur) that our track demands taller gearing, so I fitted the car with the 93 tooth spur.

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Up to this point, apart from the axle and diff, the F104V2 Pro and the F104 Pro II have been quite different, with no parts in common. However as we move to the front end, the cars' shared ancestry becomes more clear.

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The front arm moulding is shared with other narrow format F104 models including the F104V2 Pro, as well as the TRF102, which features the same front end, albeit in carbon reinforced plastic.

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There are still some differences though.

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The F104V2 Pro uses an alloy F1 part and fluorine coated alloy pivot balls, where the F104 Pro II uses a plastic F1 part and steel pivot balls. 

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I've skipped a few steps since the motor and servo are still on their way, and have proceeded to attach the top deck.

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The stock arrangement uses ordinary silver nuts at the two rearmost deck attachment points, however I don't think that these fit with the aesthetic of the rest of the chassis which uses nice neat black hex hardware, so I replaced them with black flanged nylocs.

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Unlike the F104V2 Pro which uses carbon fibre decks, the F104 Pro II uses fibreglass ones. We do however get to see some carbon fibre when installing the fiction damper assembly which uses a carbon fibre friction plate along with a blue anodized damper post. 

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The carbon fibre was of course edge-sealed with cyanoacrylate prior to installation.

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The build gets some more "race cred" with the addition of a TRF damper. 

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It is built with a 3-hole piston, standard yellow oil and soft (red dot) spring.

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A Savöx digital servo is shorn of its mounting lugs and installed up front along with a high torque servo saver and blue alloy turnbuckles. 

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I was careful to keep the anodising on the turnbuckles blemish-free by putting a piece of cardboard between them and the jaws of the shifting spanner I used to hold them during assembly.

The front uprights are the same black carbon reinforced items that we see on the F104V2 Pro. 

2018-11-04_11-49-49

(Coincidentally these fit many other models too, including the humble Grasshopper. A suitable upgrade for the Black Edition one perhaps?)

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On 11/4/2018 at 1:32 AM, speedy_w_beans said:

Looking good.  Any predictions for how well this chassis will perform?

An interesting question that, and one which we might be able to answer by looking at how it compares to some other similar chassis from Tamiya.

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Here we have the F104 Pro II in the centre, flanked by a mildly hopped up F103 on the left and a full-house F104V2 Pro Black Edition on the right.

The rear end has a lot in common with the F103, featuring a fibreglass t-bar and friction damper which affect both pitch and roll along with a single oil-filled coilover shock which only affects pitch damping. Rear end setup will therefore follow the same pattern as for the F103, where you set the roll behaviour as close as possible to the way you want it by means of adjusting the t-bar and friction damper, then fine tune the pitch behaviour by fiddling with the shock.

The middle portion of the chassis is made up of a twin deck fibreglass arrangement much like that on the F103 when fitted with the optional full length upper deck, however it uses a longitudinal battery position like the F104V2 Pro.

The front end is virtually identical to that fitted to the F104V2 Pro, where you set camber by means of changing the orientation of the F1 part, and change the spring rates by swapping out the tiny springs that sit at the base of the kingpins.

In terms of dimensions, the car has the same track width and wheelbase as the F104V2 Pro, as well as the same battery orientation and general equipment layout, so will therefore very likely have much the same weight distribution. The chassis is made of fiberglass rather than carbon fibre, however the full length upper deck gives it similar levels of stiffness albeit at a slight weight penalty. Thus, all else being equal, I suspect it's handling will have a lot in common with that of the F104V2 pro, perhaps just not quite as nimble due to being a little heavier.

Also, due to the simpler rear end arrangement with fewer adjustment options, it might be a case of having to adjust one's driving to suit the car, rather than being able to set the car to suit one's driving.

That said, with tyre choice having such a huge role to play in the behaviour of pan style chassis such as these, if you fitted the 3 cars with the same sets of tyres, all but the most attuned drivers would probably be hard pressed to tell any difference between them. Unless of course you are on a very high grip surface, in which case the extra width of the venerable F103 would probably let it out-corner both of the more modern narrow format cars.

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The shell is trimmed and painted metallic green in preparation for a set of Caterham decals from the the-border.com in the Netherlands.

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We opted for the integrated sidepod option, as while not as pretty as the separate sidepods and barge boards, it gives a stronger and lighter shell with more room for the electronics. 

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 Applied some decals last night:

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Applying the decals was rather fun, as they were designed for the 2014 Caterham CT-05. The decal placement was therefore a bit of an exercise in imagination. I tried to think what a Caterham livery would have looked like had they not ceased racing after 2014 and instead gone on to build a car for the 2017 season, retaining most of their 2014 sponsors.

The driver's helmet is being painted by a friend of ours, who is quite skilled with the airbrush. Each of my mate's drivers has a backstory. The chap who is due to drive this car hails from Mexico, where his family is into the wrestling scene. Rather than becoming a luchador, this chap decided to become a racing driver instead, but still stays true to his family's roots by having a helmet painted to look like a luchador's máscara.

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

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Apart from fitting the driver's head and a set of foam tyres when they arrive, the bulk of this build is done.

The project is not complete though, as the electronics used in this car were taken from my mate's HPI Formula 10. He does not wish to retire the HPI, but rather to keep it as a T car. I will therefore be fitting it with a set of basic electronics so that it is still a runner, just not as well specced as this car.

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