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First Tamiya Truck: Grand Hauler - Advice welcomed!

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On 6/5/2020 at 7:17 PM, yogi-bear said:

I use a trade supplier like Action Aluminium, they can be much cheaper than bunnings and they quite often have an off cut shelf. There is also capral aluminium, both have Melbourne offices.

What size are you after?

Bunnings actually has an awesome selection, can't believe it! The measurments of the frame channel is 20x7mm - my thinking is that would be about right, however Bunnings was out of the 20x20mm aluminium channel so got the 16x16x1.6 - will see how it looks. 

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UPDATES!

Dual tanks are IN!!!! They make a MASSIVE difference to the look of the rig. I also worked out more and more details. It's a classic case of "until you actually do it, you don't know".

So, for those who are coming here from the future to do this and can use my pain and frustration to their advantage:

  1. 20x20x1.6mm aluminium channel is "basically" perfect. By basically I mean that the actual frame of the truck is a little bit bigger, like maybe 1mm. So while that's close enough, what I learnt the hard way was that if you screw down the fuel tanks from the bottom first, leaving the small 1mm gap at the top then screw the top down, it snaps that plastic!!!! Yep, boy I was not happy. Mine just cracked but I caught it before it was totally written off. Screw down from the top first then the bottom snug it up. Don't go too hard. OR do what I should have done and shim it.
  2. Use an M3 tap to make the holes. It's perfect for the Tamiya screws.
  3. The channel runs the whole length from the front wheel to the back fender.
  4. I used primer then Tamiya Matt Black. It's marginally off, to the anal retentive should have used semi-gloss probably. It's a little light the matt... The photos make it look worse than IRL. Hard to pick IRL.
  5. Now the interesting part - You can't keep the exhaust stacks the way they come stock. You have to cut the plastic housing at the part at the bottom where the stainless pipe hits and "flip" that bit around. I've tried to glue them twice now with 2 part epoxy but both times haven't gotten it right as you have to have them aligned perfectly so that when the pipe is in place it's seamless. I have to work out a method to get it correct. I'll update when I nail that!

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I messed up the holes a few times. Also, every time I take a photo of this truck outside in good light I cringe about the orange peel. I'm so *******ed off about it.

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Don’t beat yourself up to much it’s looking great IMO 👍🏻

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18 hours ago, JNSD1 said:

UPDATES!

Dual tanks are IN!!!! They make a MASSIVE difference to the look of the rig. I also worked out more and more details. It's a classic case of "until you actually do it, you don't know".

So, for those who are coming here from the future to do this and can use my pain and frustration to their advantage:

  1. 20x20x1.6mm aluminium channel is "basically" perfect. By basically I mean that the actual frame of the truck is a little bit bigger, like maybe 1mm. So while that's close enough, what I learnt the hard way was that if you screw down the fuel tanks from the bottom first, leaving the small 1mm gap at the top then screw the top down, it snaps that plastic!!!! Yep, boy I was not happy. Mine just cracked but I caught it before it was totally written off. Screw down from the top first then the bottom snug it up. Don't go too hard. OR do what I should have done and shim it.
  2. Use an M3 tap to make the holes. It's perfect for the Tamiya screws.
  3. The channel runs the whole length from the front wheel to the back fender.
  4. I used primer then Tamiya Matt Black. It's marginally off, to the anal retentive should have used semi-gloss probably. It's a little light the matt... The photos make it look worse than IRL. Hard to pick IRL.
  5. Now the interesting part - You can't keep the exhaust stacks the way they come stock. You have to cut the plastic housing at the part at the bottom where the stainless pipe hits and "flip" that bit around. I've tried to glue them twice now with 2 part epoxy but both times haven't gotten it right as you have to have them aligned perfectly so that when the pipe is in place it's seamless. I have to work out a method to get it correct. I'll update when I nail that!

50028158486_8fb3443713_c.jpg

50028422307_443fef2720_c.jpg

50028159051_ae4405451b_c.jpg

50028425342_e54f56c11f_c.jpg

50028159011_291edef2db_c.jpg

50027625088_6052e649f7_c.jpg

I messed up the holes a few times. Also, every time I take a photo of this truck outside in good light I cringe about the orange peel. I'm so *******ed off about it.

it fargin happens, i seem to get fish eyes too often, i swear i clean the bodies with dawn soap, rinse well, sometimes i use Scotch Brite pads, good clean micro fiber towels and there's always one in the crowd @#$%^&*! rackem frackem diddledeedodadshimbermetimbers makes me so angry sometimes.

when i painted my HM 65' Cobra (i was not paying someone $8-15K to paint my car) well i had painted 1/4 panels and various other car parts through out time.

i heard this some odd years ago it's considered a 20/20 paint job, looks good from 20 feet away at 20 MPH, i was laughn' so hard when i heard that, besides if someone or something scratches it i won't give a darn.

besides all you have to do is wet sand it and re-shoot (three years into that car for my youngest son and myself project of the century) and still it chaps my hide

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On 5/17/2020 at 11:52 AM, JNSD1 said:

The Nichia were supposed to pump out 28 lumens!

This might be a silly question but did you just wire the LEDs into a Tamiya light kit or did you wire them straight to a BEC or other power source using inline resistors?

I only ask because the voltage and amp draw can vary quite a lot for the higher performing LEDs so if you just attatched them to a Tamiya light kit they might have been under driven.

For example, I have some cheap generic 5mm LEDs from ebay that state a 3.2v forward voltage and 30ma max but the Nichia hit maximum brightness at 70ma/3.7v so if you had a supply voltage safe for the 3.2v LED then the 3.7v LED would not get to max brightness.

I honestly don't know how much difference it would make but the Nichia I have tried are certainly very bright although I agree they have a wide angle and are somewhat diffuse.

Also, what model Cree did you try?

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11 hours ago, nowinaminute said:

This might be a silly question but did you just wire the LEDs into a Tamiya light kit or did you wire them straight to a BEC or other power source using inline resistors?

I only ask because the voltage and amp draw can vary quite a lot for the higher performing LEDs so if you just attatched them to a Tamiya light kit they might have been under driven.

For example, I have some cheap generic 5mm LEDs from ebay that state a 3.2v forward voltage and 30ma max but the Nichia hit maximum brightness at 70ma/3.7v so if you had a supply voltage safe for the 3.2v LED then the 3.7v LED would not get to max brightness.

I honestly don't know how much difference it would make but the Nichia I have tried are certainly very bright although I agree they have a wide angle and are somewhat diffuse.

Also, what model Cree did you try?

No a silly question at all. I did just wire the LED's into the existing MFC-03 unit without any thought to drivers or amp draw. Now that you've mentioned it you may well be right! I was actually pretty disappointed and also surprised that they wern't far better, but this may be the reason. I think I want to have them on a separate power supplly and switch them from the transmitter with a manual switch, that would fix it. Just got to find the motivation to finish it all off now, got all the bits basically, just lacking the inspiration!

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54 minutes ago, JNSD1 said:

No a silly question at all. I did just wire the LED's into the existing MFC-03 unit without any thought to drivers or amp draw. Now that you've mentioned it you may well be right! I was actually pretty disappointed and also surprised that they wern't far better, but this may be the reason. I think I want to have them on a separate power supplly and switch them from the transmitter with a manual switch, that would fix it. Just got to find the motivation to finish it all off now, got all the bits basically, just lacking the inspiration!

The differences might not have that much of an effect for all I know but it may be worth bearing in mind. I guess it depends what voltage is coming out of the Tamiya unit and whether small differences such as 3.4v instead of 3.7v make a significant difference.

I do know the Nichia put out a ton more light at 3.7v compared to running on 3v worth of alkaline batteries but the difference from 3.3v or 3.4v might not be as drastic.

The Nichia definitely has a more diffused beam though so even though it's total output in lumens is possibly the best of any 5mm LED, the Cree ones have a brighter "hot spot" which is of course preferable for RC use. Even if you could yield an improvement from the Nichia, it probably wouldn't  be able to match concentrated brightness of the cree. I think the Nichia has a 70 degree beam and the Cree is only 15, a big difference. The Nichia is more suited to interior lighting and display use and the Cree is more optimised for things like torches. Sometimes it's nice to combine some of each.

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