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wtcc5

wtcc5's FF-01 addiction

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Knuckles for sure, C-hubs I'm not sure. I would think so, but I'm not too familiar with the CC01. Knuckles and shafts are just TA02 items on all of those chassis (FF01, CC01, TA03)

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2 hours ago, Tizer said:

Knuckles for sure, C-hubs I'm not sure. I would think so, but I'm not too familiar with the CC01. Knuckles and shafts are just TA02 items on all of those chassis (FF01, CC01, TA03)

Ok I'll try to see my old CC01 parts if they fit the FF01. Because there's a site that sells the aluminum suspension CC-01 parts really cheap. I wish they sold that last year when I was rebuilding my CC-01.

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Dear FF-01 diary,

after the schoolyard racing with Quincy, my Runner was very dirty. As always, it made sense to disassemble nearly the whole car to clean everything with soap water and/or brake cleaner. Especially the ball bearings soak up so much dirt... It is always a miracle, that they come alive after cleaning with so much dust and dirt inside. Look at this ball-bearing-coffee:

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All the dirt removed:

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While assembling the Runner, I thought about the nice Hop Up 53226 (FWD Car Aluminium C-Hubs that I put on my Castrol Primera shelfqueen recently) and how positive it affects the handling. Unfortunately it is more rare than 53177 (FWD car heat sink). And expensive too. So I checked the design and found no obstacle to do a exact copy for a 3d-print. For the copper bushings I use ball bearings of the same size to make the steering smoother. The second print was a success. Even though I use the same geometry, the part is still rock solid. It is just standard PLA material:

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Caster, baby!

 

Also, I found so many spares in my FF-01 box, that I decided to build a fourth chassis. Nearly all parts are new undriven and just came out their package. Of course this will become another shelfqueen. As I documented a very similar build here already, just some overview and result pictures. You can for sure guess where this is heading...

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Thanks! The originals have. I copied them 1:1.

The Ebay parts do not have the increased caster and are therefore a useless tuning.

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LOVE THIS!

 

i recently got a bucket of old parts i hope to chean up to get my ff01 to this spec!

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I would be thrilled if I got or found a bucket of FF-03 scrap, that I could make a runner out of. 😁

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39 minutes ago, Carmine A said:

I would be thrilled if I got or found a bucket of FF-03 scrap, that I could make a runner out of. 😁

It’s a rather costly endeavour unless you already have lots of TA06 & XV01 spare parts. In my build log I built one out of a bundle of pre owned parts from this forum but it still cost me more than a stock FF03 kit (though I did end up with something more akin to R-spec)

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Somewhere on Ebay you can get an FF-03 in a bag for 90€, if I remember correctly.

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7 minutes ago, wtcc5 said:

Somewhere on Ebay you can get an FF-03 in a bag for 90€, if I remember correctly.

That’s the way to do it. There’s one on this very forum for €80 and I can’t believe it hasn’t sold yet!!

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1 hour ago, wtcc5 said:

Somewhere on Ebay you can get an FF-03 in a bag for 90€, if I remember correctly.

COOL!! I wonder if I can find something like that in the Colonies.... Or if they could ship economically all the way to Arizona.?  It's not anything I can do in the near to remote future. Definitely worth bearing in mind! 😉  Cheers 🍻

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Love this topic. The FF-01 is my favourite chassis and I concider myself very lucky to own a few rare FF-01's NIB.

Building and driving them is sadly not my goal. But watching you build and driving them is simply awesome!. 

Keep up the goog work!

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@koenc Thanks! I do not own NIB cars at all, but can imagine it being not easy sometimes. On one side they exist to be build and are very beautiful, but opening the packages will also take away the magic; and of course value (for yourself and money wise). It is mentally much easier to buy used cars or unloved shelfqueens and change their destiny.

 

Like, for example, the car @Quincy found on some site and sold me:

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If it were not for us addicts, this could have easily been trashed in a near future. I invested some work and around 100€ and it will become my "Upgraded Special" runner. This will become my third "Upgrade Special" car. And for the same reasons I mentioned earlier. I got two "Upgrade Special" shelfqueens I cannot run for reasons. This chassis has already scratches underneath, was run, needed some love and minor repairs.

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It will be a very cool runner soon. My intention is to get the genuine Tamiya experience. The guy who arranged the tuning parts and suggested the setup must have had a thought about it and I want to know how it felt/feels.

 

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It starts as always with a complete disassembly and a good cleaning:

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It is very impressive how shiny the parts become again if you clean them properly. Even the screws look like new after a bath in brake cleaner.

 

While I waited for the parts to upgrade the otherwise box stock chassis, I couldn't resist to start assembling:

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The car came with Sanwa 1301 servos and I will use one of it for the steering.

 

Luckily for me the parts arrived very fast and I could  proceed with the build:

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In the differential one pressure plate was missing. That is what I thought at first, but I just overlooked it. As I am not a fan of the microballs and plastic holder, I ordered the 53136 One Piece Ball Thrust Bearing and installed it.

 

Nothing special with the gearbox, except for the missing heat sink which will be added later:

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The three units right before the last steps:

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Front suspension completion:

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Interestingly I found a cracked c-hub and steering arm on the right side. I thought these parts were pretty strong...

 

Motor installation:

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Without pinion as I forgot to order one... Maybe I find a fitting one in my spare parts box.

 

Shock absorber build:

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The units attached:

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And with tires:

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The decal sheets:

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As this will be a runner, I am not willing to ruin an original Honda Accord body and decal set. The shown decals are from MCI. The body will be also a copy. Again (like my runner Mondeo) it will be a L&L body.

 

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ANOTHER fantastic example!! 👍👍  I shudder to think that some People would actually throw these away. 😲😲  But I suppose it happens. Can't wait to be able to save a couple of these in the future!!

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I found another "treasure" for my full-Hop-Up shelfqueen. A Dyna Run Super Touring Motor.

Getting triggered by stumbling over a fairly priced TA-02 with Acto Touring Special Motor, a Google search suddenly spit out all three needed replacement-part-units on the website of my favourite shop, to make a full motor. The price was fair, not a bargain, but like that I have two years of warranty for a motor that came out in 1996. Awesome! :D

It looks so good:

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@wtcc5 THAT thing really looks the business!!! 😊💯👍👍  The Motor was a choice find.

Question (opinion!) - I may not have many choices when I'm finally able to afford the "key" to open all that FF Goodness that I've been drooling over for a long while... 

If I HAD a choice between the FF-01 and FF-03 Chassis.... Which one would YOU choose??  Which is the better handling?  Which is less likely to self destruct Off Road? (Light Rallying activities) 

Which one has the best parts availability - stock and aftermarket? 

AND, which would be the CHEAPEST overall to overhaul and/or modify?? 😁 

I realise this isn't the easiest series of questions, but if you, or anyone has any insight, it would be greatly appreciated. 😉  At this point, I KNOW I'm going to at least get ONE, probably more!! This has to be Tamiya's most fascinating Chassis.

Cheers!! 🍻🍻

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1 hour ago, Carmine A said:

@wtcc5 THAT thing really looks the business!!! 😊💯👍👍  The Motor was a choice find.

Question (opinion!) - I may not have many choices when I'm finally able to afford the "key" to open all that FF Goodness that I've been drooling over for a long while... 

If I HAD a choice between the FF-01 and FF-03 Chassis.... Which one would YOU choose??  Which is the better handling?  Which is less likely to self destruct Off Road? (Light Rallying activities) 

Which one has the best parts availability - stock and aftermarket? 

AND, which would be the CHEAPEST overall to overhaul and/or modify?? 😁 

I realise this isn't the easiest series of questions, but if you, or anyone has any insight, it would be greatly appreciated. 😉  At this point, I KNOW I'm going to at least get ONE, probably more!! This has to be Tamiya's most fascinating Chassis.

Cheers!! 🍻🍻

Even though the FF-01 is close, the answer to all of these questions is: FF-03. It is new as affordable as a used FF-01, spare parts as well as Hop Ups are easy to get, it handles as well as the FF-01 and the parts are (for example the suspension) bulletproof.

And I would not like to see a FF-01 bashed as a rallyecar 😰

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44 minutes ago, wtcc5 said:

Even though the FF-01 is close, the answer to all of these questions is: FF-03. It is new as affordable as a used FF-01, spare parts as well as Hop Ups are easy to get, it handles as well as the FF-01 and the parts are (for example the suspension) bulletproof.

And I would not like to see a FF-01 bashed as a rallyecar 😰

Thanks!! Had a feeling. As much as I've been belligerent about Toys as Collector's Items with exorbitant prices..... 

I DO absolutely agree that some of these are precious, and getting scarce! 😞  I would NEVER beat up an old Porsche 959 or Blazing Blazer (HAD both😭), and if the FF-01 is getting that scarce, I would treat it with the same respect.

SO... FF-03 it is!! 😊  Also to note - I'm not talking about hardcore Rough Rallying. Just some jaunts down a dirt path.  For a Bred Rally Car, is there a better choice than the XV-01?? 

I REALLY want one or two FF Chassis Cars!! I'm not only extremely fascinated by them, they also perform, without the TRF PRICES!!!!  I'm no World Class Driver. I just want GOOD. 😉

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@Carmine A For a rally xar the XV01 is really hard to beat. An interesting option for you to consider is that an XV01 could be run fwd. The FF04 EVO is effectively the XV01 TC Pro front drivetrain and steering grafted onto a carbon chassis and bespoke rear bulkhead. If you took the belt and rear drivetrain out of my XV01 you would effectively have an FF04 Rally. 

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@ThunderDragonCy I couldn't agree more with you. I hope to be able to afford an XV-01 - AND a FF-03!! 😊  The FF Chassis Cars absolutely fascinate me. My dear Friend has both. 

I've definitely decided that my FF-03 will be On-Road ONLY. The XV-01 was DESIGNED to get dirty!! 😲💯  Just GETTING one in my current situation is close to impossible. That's all I'm allowed to say on that subject.... 

I'll have one or three at SOME point. 😉

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It is time to do a serious comparison: Tamiya body set vs. aftermarket "copy" body sets

 

Some words before I start:

In the next few minutes, I will use the word "copy" or "replica" for the shown products of the companies L&L and MCI. This could be interpreted as a negative thing. It is not, at least not only! There are two sides. Of course western corporate culture tries to convince us that copies are a bad thing, because they (could) lose money. They argue with bad quality. Especially China is their focus. And while some people still believe that China (and other asian countries) could only produce bad quality, we know, that this isn't true anymore.

The aftermarket products shown here are made in Canada and Wales and are a good thing, because we hobbists have no other choice, if we want to relive our childhood. So the comparison I do here should be read with an open mind.

 

The items I compare:

Tamiya 50733 Body Part Set Honda Accord JACCS vs. L&L models TC095 Accord with MCI JACCS Honda Accord Decals

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The Tamiya body set is of course out of production for 20 years. With a little luck you can get it on Ebay for 200€ or get the body, additional parts and decals sheet seperately. The aftermarket items are easy to get online for fair prices.

 

What you get:

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Tamiya: Body, decal sheets for livery and masking, injection molded plastic wing and mirrors, installation hardware: clips, screws and o-rings.

 

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L&L: Body, a small decal sheet with incomplete decals (not shown here), window mask, deep drawn wing, aluminium wing bases, installation hardware: nuts and srews.

MCI: Three decal sheets with the livery.

 

Pros and cons:

It seems that Tamiya and L&L have different approaches here. Tamiya aims for a scale look and a low skill painting effort combined with a high skill decal attaching process. L&L omits the mirrors and gives us a lighter wing with black painted alumium bases. Their decal sheet consists only of the sponsor logos and color surface edges and therefore requires a high painting skill and a low decal skill. The initial costs are coming up by having to buy three colors more than for the Tamiya body set. Their body set is more suited for the "racer" and "basher" playing outside, as the finished body would be more resistant to scratches because it has less decals and is colored from the inside by paint and not from the outside by decals. If you use the MCI decl set then this advantage is gone and you will save the money for the colors.

 

Body accuracy and deep draw plastic quality:

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Not easy to see, but I tried to capture the differences in pictures. The fine details and edges are sharper with the Tamiya body. Especially the body panel lines are often invisible on the L&L body. The edges are more round. Also the body has a fine structure, non perfect surfaces generating the light to break, while Tamiya made a near perfect job having perfect flat surfaces.

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This round is definetly won by Tamiya. If it bothers you is another thing. After painting and applying all the decals, these differences will be nearly invisible even on the shelf. So at this point my opinion is: If it is not the aim to make a collectors car, these differences do not matter. You will not see or feel a difference running the car or having it on a shelf.

P.S.:The weight is nearly the same.

 

The additional body parts:

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One thing I miss buying L&L shells are the mirrors. I would really like them to add these to their products like Tamiya does. At least we get the wing and these cool looking, but not original wing bases. Luckily Tamiya still offers most of these parts.

 

The decals:

It is MCI vs. Tamiya now. MCI really does a brilliant job offering so many decal sets and also allows us to customize them. The comparison here is like David vs. Goliath. A small business vs. a worldwide giant in RC and plastic modelling. That is definetly an unfair comparison. I will still do it, but keep in mind which advantage Tamiya has here.

Tamiya:

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MCI:

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One of the first things to recognize are the edges of the print. Not always, but often the MCI printer cannot make them sharp. Especially the window decals and lights are affected. It is maybe just a black color problem, too. All other colors seem to be fine along their edges.

 

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The colors differ too. This decal set is very demanding with its bright colors. MCI is maybe limited here. The orange and the green are pretty close to Tamiyas print. The red is unfortunately much darker. Also while Tamiya makes a difference between bright orange and normal orange, MCI just uses the bright bright orange, even for the Total sponsor decals. Therefore no orange is used for the taillights...

Another big Tamiya advantage is the thickness of the decals. Tamiyas decals are are a lot thinner which results in a more beautiful and maybe lighter body. MCI and others have to overlay their decals with another film to make the color resistant against brake cleaner. I don't know what type of color Tamiya uses...

 

Conclusion:

There is no winner here if you want to use the body to have fun with friends on a track or parking lot. The differences are small, partly non-visible. As a collector only original Tamiya products should be your choice, but for a runner these are much too precious if they are out of production. So having a chance to get  a replica and have fun with it without being afraid to shatter a 200€ body set is a win. I for myself am happy that we have the choice and will use it.

 

Both body sets will be used. The Tamiya parts will be for my shelfqueen FF01 Honda Accord and the other one for my runner. So I double my joy :D

 

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