wtcc5's FF-01 addiction

[wtcc5 5816]

This will be my first post and thread and it will be about a chassis that is so much fun even before I drove it.

I am really not sure what caused it, but somehow some weeks ago I had a strong urge to get and build a FF-01 chassis.

At first I couldn't find a decent car for two weeks, then a Opel Vectra box-stock-only-build-shelfqueen crossed my search:

 

 

 

In Germany we Tamiya Lovers are in a very good position. Modellbau-Seidel has a lot of old parts still in their shop and/or has information about replacement products (Tamiya of course). As I like to hop up my cars, I simultaneously ordered a lot of parts.

 

The first step then was to disassemble the car, check and clean all parts:

 

[wtcc5 5816]

The cleaned parts became shiny again 

 

 

The build could begin! As I didn't get the carbon hollow shafts at that time, I built my own:

 

 

Then it was time to build the gearbox and front-unit:

 

If someone has the aluminium pressure plates to sell, let me know 

 

The kit arms got replaced.

 

 

 

[Kevin_Mc 411]

Looking forward to this and any other wtcc bodies too

[ThunderDragonCy 8616]

Great to see you here @wtcc5

[wtcc5 5816]

Thanks guys!

 

After having the front unit ready, I couldn't resist to build the hop up dampers. By the way: I love the package design of these old hop ups!

 

Then I returned to the front unit. The suspension assembly was my next step:

[wtcc5 5816]

Completing the rear end:

 

Both ends ready for "marriage":

 

[ThunderDragonCy 8616]

@wtcc5 If this is going to be any kind runner, be careful with the 53163 springs. They are really soft. I made the mistake of buying these instead of 53440 when i first got into onroad racing. Even the stiffest blue springs are about half the stiffness of the soft red from a usual tamiya onroad set. The soft red from that 53163 set is more buggy springs. I now have the yellow ones on the front of my RR-03RA rally car, but that's the only place i can find for them. 

[wtcc5 5816]

Good advice! Thanks! I just packed in stiffer springs for todays maiden run, spoiler: with another FF-01 chassis. As this will be a shelfqueen... because, er, for reasons 

[wtcc5 5816]

Chassis time!

The frp chassis set is unavailable, but all the single parts are

(not all parts shown here)

I must have been a little excited and impatient, because I forgot to make pictures of the intermediate steps. Here now the car in its first full assembly:

 

[ThunderDragonCy 8616]

Fabulous

[wtcc5 5816]

Who knows me from other threads/forums knows, that I could not stop there. It is very hard to get some FF-01 hop ups in 2020. The carbon chassis plates is one of these hard to get items. I searched for months (for my TA-02) and didn't find one. What I found was a used one with nearly no scratch installed on a commonly used FF-01. I bought the car, took the plates and put them on my shelfqueen:

Unfortunately the previously installed electronics, must have pulled of some topdeck print...

 

Another hard to get item is the heat sink. Again with a deeper search I found a seller.

 

And while the last hop ups were added, I was lucky to find a real gem to complete this first build 

[wtcc5 5816]

You for sure recognized, that the wheels changed in the last pictures. This happened for a reason. I found a special body and these are the correct wheels for it:

 

This is how the body arrived. The previous owner wanted to restore it, but had no time. This was my luck. Luck, because I would have never got it, if it would have been assembled and painted well. Luck, because none of the previous owners drove it. Now I got the chance to give it a second life. And that was not easy.

The body was painted with the wrong colour and in the wrong colour. Some kind of TS colour was used. It didn't attach well to the Lexan and partly fell off. The body must have been painted with the h-parts already installed and stickers attached. Also it was painted with a brush. The colour was thick and also on and underneath some of the decals.

I removed all decals and bought a lot of paintkiller. It was a real mess, but at least it worked. I nearly got every old colour out. Unfortunately the colour made the Lexan underneath blind. I hoped to regain the absolut perfect clear Lexan. Well with an extra step I wet grinded the whole body with 1200er sanding paper. That worked very good and I am soooooo happy it did 

 

This was the hard part and took several days to accomplish. The more satisfying were the easy parts like painting and attaching the decals.

 

[wtcc5 5816]

And this was the result of the restoration:

 

Right now, I still cannot believe my luck 

[Kevin_Mc 411]

9 hours ago, wtcc5 said:

 

Beautiful!

[kalsh 48]

Fantastic job there fella. I have quite a few of these chassis’s stored away for a rainy day to restore with some of the goodies you have used. Parts pop up from time to time all over the world however postage costs have gone crazy given Covid-19 unfortunately. 

[wtcc5 5816]

Thank you I am instantly envious just imagining the treasures you must have collected

 

I added this build to my showroom:

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=135902&id=45144

If anyone sees a hop up missing and has one for sale, don't be shy and pm me

[wtcc5 5816]

We Tamiya fans know the struggle. At first you don't get the car/hop up you so badly want and then suddenly you have two

This is what happened while I was hopping up the Primera chassis. With the carbon chassis came a second FF-01. What I really like is, that this chassis was already used and has some scratches. This way I have no bad conscience driving it. And that was the intention in the first place owning a FF-01. Now that all the good expensive parts went onto the Primera, the goal for the "runner" were to use hop up parts I have laying around from other projects (my TT02KR/FF03 and TT02 conversions...) and/or use (still) available parts. This was the result after the first cleaning, rebuilding and parts searching in my mancave:

 

Just assembling and rebuilding the runner was already so much fun, that I couldn't resist to do more:

[Kevin_Mc 411]

what's the planned shell for this one? 

[wtcc5 5816]

Now here is the list of parts and Hop Ups I added to the runner. If you have a FF-01 chassis, you can tune it easily with these Tamiya parts as they are available:

42102 TRF Special Damper

50705 TA03 Knuckle Arm - if you prefer black over blue

53163 On-Road Tuned Spring Set - good for Mabushi and Sports Tuned can

53831 DT-02 Aluminium Motor Heat Sink - fits in the little space between damper and gearbox

54090 TB03 Aluminium Servo Stay (Right) - two are needed, brings the servo more to the front so you can put rx & esc behind it

54214 Titanium Hex Head Screw For M-05 Motor Mount - replaces the standard motor mount screws

54343 M-Chassis Lightweight Freewheel Axle - replaces the heavy steel rear axles, not recommended if you crash often

54578 06 Module Hard Coated Aluminium Pinion Gear (25T)

54608 CC-01 Assembly Universal Shaft

 

For the tub chassis to plate chassis replacement you need:

9118018 J-Parts of 84431 - if you want to use the frp or cf chassis plates

9804959 steering post for frp chassis

9804967 3x25mm tapping screw

9805631 Rosette Washer

9805745 M3x25mm countersunk screw

50578 3x10mm tapping screw

50581 3x12mm tapping screw

51633 3x16mm tapping screw

Then choose between the frp plates (4025040 & 4025041), the carbon plates (53195) if you get them or just go for the Yeah Racing plates (YR-TA02-S01).

 

To have turnbuckles for camberlinks and steering, you need:

54868 Open Face 5mm Reinforced Adjusters - 2x

53642 5mm Aluminium Ball Connector (Blue)

54247 3x18mm Aluminium Turnbuckle Shaft - 2x

54250 3x42mm Aluminium Turnbuckle Shaft - for the steering bridge

 

To have the 53098 4wd Stainless Steel Suspension Shaft Hop Up you need:

9804984 axle 3x33mm

9805683 axle 3x25.3mm

13485043 axle 3x48.5mm - 2x

9804360 axle 3x41mm - this is no official Hop Up, but you can have stainless steel suspension shafts in front also with these

 

To have the 53165 Fwd Touring Car Hollow Carbon Gear Shaft Set replaced, just buy a carbon tube with 5mm diameter and 1mm wall thickness (approximatly 4€/1m) and cut a 19mm and a 30mm piece.

 

This is my runner:

Don't use the middle pair of the topdeck screws for an untweaked chassis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wtcc5 5816]

18 minutes ago, Kevin_Mc said:

what's the planned shell for this one? 

Ford Mondeo

https://landlmodels.co.uk/collections/10th-touring-car-bodies/products/ford-mondeo

A Tamiya copy just to have no regrets.

[Kevin_Mc 411]

I have the same plan 

[ruebiracer 1222]

6 hours ago, wtcc5 said:

Now here is the list of parts and Hop Ups I added to the runner. If you have a FF-01 chassis, you can tune it easily with these Tamiya parts as they are available:

42102 TRF Special Damper

50705 TA03 Knuckle Arm - if you prefer black over blue

53163 On-Road Tuned Spring Set - good for Mabushi and Sports Tuned can

53831 DT-02 Aluminium Motor Heat Sink - fits in the little space between damper and gearbox

54090 TB03 Aluminium Servo Stay (Right) - two are needed, brings the servo more to the front so you can put rx & esc behind it

54214 Titanium Hex Head Screw For M-05 Motor Mount - replaces the standard motor mount screws

54343 M-Chassis Lightweight Freewheel Axle - replaces the heavy steel rear axles, not recommended if you crash often

54578 06 Module Hard Coated Aluminium Pinion Gear (25T)

54608 CC-01 Assembly Universal Shaft

 

For the tub chassis to plate chassis replacement you need:

9118018 J-Parts of 84431 - if you want to use the frp or cf chassis plates

9804959 steering post for frp chassis

9804967 3x25mm tapping screw

9805631 Rosette Washer

9805745 M3x25mm countersunk screw

50578 3x10mm tapping screw

50581 3x12mm tapping screw

51633 3x16mm tapping screw

Then choose between the frp plates (4025040 & 4025041), the carbon plates (53195) if you get them or just go for the Yeah Racing plates (YR-TA02-S01).

 

To have turnbuckles for camberlinks and steering, you need:

54868 Open Face 5mm Reinforced Adjusters - 2x

53642 5mm Aluminium Ball Connector (Blue)

54247 3x18mm Aluminium Turnbuckle Shaft - 2x

54250 3x42mm Aluminium Turnbuckle Shaft - for the steering bridge

 

To have the 53098 4wd Stainless Steel Suspension Shaft Hop Up you need:

9804984 axle 3x33mm

9805683 axle 3x25.3mm

13485043 axle 3x48.5mm - 2x

9804360 axle 3x41mm - this is no official Hop Up, but you can have stainless steel suspension shafts in front also with these

 

To have the 53165 Fwd Touring Car Hollow Carbon Gear Shaft Set replaced, just buy a carbon tube with 5mm diameter and 1mm wall thickness (approximatly 4€/1m) and cut a 19mm and a 30mm piece.

 

This is my runner:

Don't use the middle pair of the topdeck screws for an untweaked chassis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topwork Kevin,

nice and clean from every angle! Would love to test it. Been years ago, since I drove a FF01. Never with a plate chassis, though.

Did you use the Yeah racing carbon chassis, or is this another Tamiya you got with new stickers?

Any plans on the bumper solution?

Will be cool with the Mondeo shell and sat nice beneath the Nissan.

Kind regards,

Matthias

[wtcc5 5816]

Yes, this is the Yeah Racing cf chassis. I improved the look, by cutting the square hole in the topdeck and adding stickers to it.

Like this the car looks like a early 2000s version.

The bumper is a difficult topic. There is nearly no space between shell and motorcover to add a shock absorbing foam piece.

As of now, I have a carbon brace In mind to save the plastic and body.

[wtcc5 5816]

How much does this car weight?



I am impressed. I thought it would be heavier. The body will add around 130gr. At least that is the weight of my Honda Civic VTEC.


And to protect the car, three layers of vinyl will separate the chassisplate from the asphalt, in case ...


 

 

The iconic Honda Civic body will have the honor to be the lid of choice for the maiden run:



That is the weight...


...and that the car.


Fear the mighty VTEC

Why the Civic you might ask. Well the awesome shop in the UK (it is really awesome! L&L models) unfortunately made a mistake and send a Toyota Celica rallye body instead of my wished Mondeo. And it didn't arrive, yet...

[wtcc5 5816]

Sunday was a great day! The sun was shining, the asphalt was clean and the cars of my friend and me ran great!

Some last preparations:


"Our" "track" drawn with chalk on a schoolyard:


The F1 fan couldn't resist to add a main sponsor:


The rides:


The "box":


My chassis after a few runs:


The fights were great! My friend had the Sport Tuned can installed and it had visibly more punch compared to my Mabushi box stock can. We had a lot of side-by-side-battles as I had to hold him off. Overall our laptimes were pretty similar. I was a little bit faster in the slow sections. The balance of the FF-01 is near perfect. After we had cleaned the driving line (after the video was made ), the car had good steering and a planted rear. Impressive what Tamiya managed to engineer at that time.

Here a short video of my friend VTECing around the circuit:
https://youtu.be/pw_2jay_-BQ