TT02 (Blue and) White Special

[Juhunio 1171]

Sooooo...I know I said my next build would be a TT02RR, with a load of hop ups. 

But then I saw this TT02 White Special at a bargain price, and came across these lovely clear blue rims and mini-dampers, and thought it might be a good idea to build a more 'basic' TT02 first, to understand how it all fits together in its simplest form before having a crack at the RR

So here it is! My (Blue and) White Special. 

[Juhunio 1171]

So, the idea was to keep hop ups minimum, to get a sense of the chassis at its most basic. Straight out of the box the White Special comes fully ball-raced, with CVA oil filled dampers and a silver heat sink.

But beyond those included hop ups, I was amazed at how much of the basic kit is plastic! Prop cups, prop shaft, drive shafts, outdrives, steering assembly....all plastic. Having only built Re:Re buggies and a DF03 before, where pretty much all those elements are metal, it was a bit of a surprise. And makes it all feel less...mechanical, more toyish?

At a bear miniumum I wanted the key drive train components to be metal

So, having done a bit of research I worked out that the TT02R has the same arms and uprights. I picked up an R as Tamico's Deal of the Week recently that I plan to build with universals, so took the dogbones, axles and outdrives out of it to use here

I added an aluminium motor mount, prop shaft and prop cups, and had some low friction suspension balls in the parts box from an abandoned / sold on TT01E build, so they get used here too

Ignore the FRP battery plate in the pic, in the end I used a blue metallic one from a TT02D D-Parts tree 

[Juhunio 1171]

Last night I worked on the diffs, prop shaft and attaching all that to the chassis

The diffs were fun, worth taking plenty of time over. I found loads of really useful info on fit and shimming in nbTMMs thread and put most of it to good use 

Spur gear went together nicely

 

Then on with the prop shaft and front bevel. Straight away there was about 3mm of play fore and aft in the prop shaft (I could see daylight through it!), so I added a cut piece of urethane bushing to close that up. It ended up snug but not tight, so not pre-loading the bearings

[Juhunio 1171]

Next up were the diffs, all parts carefully trimmed and filed, and AW grease on spider, gear teeth and on the reverse where they rotate against the diff case

I put it all together 'dry' first, attached the bearings and outdrives, and could feel a good few mm of side to side play inside the diffs, meaning the gears were moving towards and away from the ring gear. @nbTMM suggests placing a 3mm washer behind each of the spider gears, which I did and it definitely takes all that play out. Top tip!

A lot more AW grease in the front than the back

Washers behind each spider gear

It's more of a squeeze to get the assembly into the diff case with the washers, but it goes!

All done

 

[Juhunio 1171]

Then when sitting the diffs into the chassis, again there was quite a bit of lateral movement, I could move the diff left and right between the bearings

So I added one 8mmID 0.2mm shim to each side, between the diff case and the bearing, which took all the play out while still allowing the assembly to fit comfortably in place. This was the same front and back

 

[Juhunio 1171]

Then the final step last night was to add the gearbox covers, attach the kit Torque Tuned motor to the aluminium motor mount, pair it with a 22 Tooth RW Racing steel pinion, set the mesh with the spur gear....

Slide on the nice silver heat sink and attach the motor cover

[Juhunio 1171]

Today started with attaching the front arms, which meant using the metal suspension balls and the driveshafts and axles from the TT02R. There is something quite cheap and flexy about the plastic used for the arms, compared to other kits. Still, it all fit! 

Fronts first, along with front bumper holder...

[Juhunio 1171]

Then the rears. I haven't actually got a shell for this yet, but the ones that I like seem to be 251mm wheelbase so I flipped the rear arms around to create the Short wheelbase

This does cause the drive shafts to run at quite a steep angle, which again is odd coming from kits where everything is pretty much straight...

On with the ball connectors, and as I've got a stock of these tarty blue ones in the parts box, may as well use them!

[Juhunio 1171]

Then it was time for the dampers, one of my favourite parts of the build. These went together really nicely, using medium weight blue damper oil to get the benefit of the clear blue cylinders and a nice stiff ride

They look awesome paired with the clear blue rims 

[Juhunio 1171]

Then the electronics went in, keeping it Tamiya with a TBLE-02S and then an Etronix low profile servo I had to hand. I've used them in my Boomerang and DF03 builds and they've been great

Then on with the blue TT02D battery plate, a blue TT01 bumper cut to fit, body posts and a tidy up of the wiring, it's pretty much there...

[Juhunio 1171]

One thing that is bugging me, is the steering link between the servo and the steering bridge not being straight. It has to angle forward quite a bit to connect. It just doesn't seem right. I've checked the manual and build at least 5 times but still convinced I've messed up somewhere 

[Juhunio 1171]

And that's it pretty much done. Obviously need to find a shell for it, but I'm pleased with it (apart from that steering link!). I'm happy with the tweaks to make the drive train all metal, and definitely think it feels more like a mechanical RC car now, less like a plastic toy.

And I'm loving the blue and white combo; all white just looked too cheap, but the blue bits and bobs break it up nicely and represent my lifelong love of blue and white!

It is definitely a more simple, daresay even lower quality, build experience compared to Bigwig, Boomerang and DF03, but it was a really useful exercise to see how a basic TC chassis goes together before I move on to the progressively more complex TC/Rally builds I've got waiting for me:

• TT02R
• TT02RR
• TA02S (another Tamico deal of the week!!)
• XV01
• TA02SW RSR 934 with 230mm carbon plates
• TA05MS (Vaillant Porsche RSR)

So quite a quick and simple build thread really, a little refresher; a bit like a sorbet course in a gourmet meal! On to the next course....

[gregdogghurst 145]

15 hours ago, Juhunio said:

One thing that is bugging me, is the steering link between the servo and the steering bridge not being straight. It has to angle forward quite a bit to connect. It just doesn't seem right. I've checked the manual and build at least 5 times but still convinced I've messed up somewhere 

Is it possible to put spacers in to move the servo forward? Or some shims/spacers under the servo horn

[ChrisRx718 2516]

Looks very odd in pictures when black plastics seem so familiar!

Just a quick word of warning on the transparent dampers - they shouldn't be attached by means of ball connectors like other dampers, because the transparent plastic isn't as flexible. They should be fixed with flanged tubes and screws or step screws. The lack of flex will likely result in them cracking / splitting. See M-03R instruction manual:

 

[Juhunio 1171]

40 minutes ago, ChrisRx718 said:

Looks very odd in pictures when black plastics seem so familiar!

Just a quick word of warning on the transparent dampers - they shouldn't be attached by means of ball connectors like other dampers, because the transparent plastic isn't as flexible. They should be fixed with flanged tubes and screws or step screws. The lack of flex will likely result in them cracking / splitting. See M-03R instruction manual:

 

That's awesome advice, thank you. I would never have seen that one coming

Blimey, those MB13 flange tubes are expensive!!! Step screws it is (50582).....

[Juhunio 1171]

1 hour ago, gregdogghurst said:

Is it possible to put spacers in to move the servo forward? Or some shims/spacers under the servo horn

Yup, spacers behind the servo horn would work. So would a Hi-Torque servo saver apparently. It just seems weird that it would be designed this way 

[Mark_C 196]

the 02R manual says to put a rubber o-ring in the prop cups, hence the slack. I guess they don't want the ball of the prop rubbing in the cup

[Juhunio 1171]

7 minutes ago, Mark_C said:

the 02R manual says to put a rubber o-ring in the prop cups, hence the slack. I guess they don't want the ball of the prop rubbing in the cup

Yup, the cups / shaft come with one o-ring between them, which I put in the front cup, and there was still enough slack to warrant a bushing in the rear!!

[Mark_C 196]

really, hmmm I will go check my 02R!

[Juhunio 1171]

A few updates along the way...

I had some blue turnbuckles and connectors in the spares box, so made some rods for the steering

Thanks to the tip above from @ChrisRx718 I added some flanged tubes and threaded screws to mount the dampers. I'd also ordered too many sets of YR upper / lower aluminium suspension mounts so had a spare set, which I also added

 

[Juhunio 1171]

Then onto the shell. I decided to go for the 911 GT3 VIP shell that comes with a TT01 kit, but paint it in road car style rather than with all the racing livery

This was my first touring car shell to cut out, and it's fair to say they are much less forgiving than buggy shells! 

Wheel arches are obviously tough, but I found the hardest part the long, straight sills and front / rear lines. Having initially massacred them with usually trusty scissors, in the end I pressed them onto a cutting mat and used a metal ruler and hobby knife to cut a straight(er) line.

Far from perfect, but for a first try it worked well enough in the end

[Juhunio 1171]

Next challenge was to get the track width right. The GT3 uses the 'wide' track setting on TT01/TT02, but having ditched the plastic outdrives / axles, this wasn't an option. I also have the added problem of using med/narrow wheels rather than standard width

But I found a close enough solution - some thick hex hubs off ebay...

And some 50808 long axles for the rear, which give you a good bit extra over the standard 50823. 

In the end it was standard axles with 8mm hex hubs on the front, and the longer axles with 11mm hex hubs on the rear. Again, it's not perfect, but all things considered, I'm pretty happy

[Juhunio 1171]

And that's it for now, waiting for paint (for what seems like forever!) and some slightly custom decals from MCI

[ChrisRx718 2516]

Looking good. What colour do you have planned for it? Seems like it should either be white or blue? 

Cutting out bodyshells is by far my least favourite part of a build. Especially if the bodyshell is discontinued / expensive!

[Superluminal 1545]

Or decals on a transparent body