Sgt.Speirs 1240 Posted August 24, 2022 On 8/22/2022 at 5:44 PM, wtcc5 said: All the nice hop-ups that I found in this car: @wtcc5: Are these the „Touring Car Aluminum Front Hub Carrier“ (OP 53226) which increase the caster angle on FF01 chassis and decrease it on TA02 chassis (due to the different way of installation)? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted August 24, 2022 @Sgt.Speirs: Yes, that's them. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted December 14, 2022 Show must go on With a little help, I (got) stumbled over this gem: A used specimen this time. The front of the body is worn and cracked in the lower area. The bumper is also visibly hurt. The mirrors and wing have been painted yellow...very strange. Overall the condition pretty nice. The rare parts are all dirty but in a very good condition (like the heat sink). The wheels are scratched, but can be saved to look good again. The bottom has the usual scratches too. Nothing is broken cracked or worn. So that is nice. The tires are not to save. I will remove them and then work on the rims. I will need to paint them white as I don't think I can get rid of the yellowing: 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted December 16, 2022 The disassembly: This went very well. No damage found. The drivetrain looks very good. Not as worn as the body. I then went on to work on the tires: With the rubber that old, I needed to remove it. It was glued to the wheels. It came off easily on three tires. On one it was a nightmare to remove. It was the same for the next task, the fine cleaning. The original owner used a lot of crazy glue and a lot got on to the wheels too. I will paint the wheels in the next step. Now the question is: Should I remove the sticker or cover it and accept the yellowing below it? 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted December 19, 2022 Oh well, that decision can wait I started with cleaning everything first: Then I started the rebuild according to the manual, so differential first: The car had plastic bearings. I couldn't bring myself to install these again, so they were replaced by proper ball bearings. Building the front section came next: So far a nice experience. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderDragonCy 7779 Posted December 19, 2022 Lovely lovely lovely. Germany seems to have a surplus of nice FF01! Heatsink, camber links, lightweight kingpins. So nice! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
YoShImUrA53 33 Posted December 20, 2022 Nice score with that chassis condition and blue heat sink! Did you try to use acetone vapors (not by direct contact!) to release the CA glue more easily? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted December 22, 2022 @YoShImUrA53: No, I didn't. I don't have acetone at home and am not sure how these rims would take it. You know it... my favorite part of these builds: Front unit completed: Starting the rear: Up to now the wear on this chassis was hardly visible. Also the parts were in a solid condition. A wrong screw here and there, but nothing worth mentioning. One strange thing, at least I never saw this, is the damaged damper housing in the rear. The ride height clamp was glued to it also... I had to replace it: Rear unit completed also: 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted December 23, 2022 Time for the middle part: Tub, top deck and steering. Attaching the front: Then Body posts: ... and the rear added: In the end, I decided to save the stickers by masking them and then paint the wheels. After two coats of primer I went for three layers of white: New tires and hard sponge inserts: I was very glad to find original Tamiya Primera wheel decals in my stash: The completed set of wheels with the center section painted chrome: 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted December 30, 2022 Final stages for the chassis build. Tires attached: The completed chassis: 7 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted January 2, 2023 Next on the list is the restoring of the body. I thought about it long and hard and decided to give the color removal a try. I removed the body parts and gave both a taste of the Color Killer. The parts went into a bag for a short time. The yellow came of very fast… underneath it was pink The pink color luckily didn’t adhese well and I could chip it off with a hobby knife: The body worked too, but is much more work. I have 80% removed at the moment. 4 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted January 4, 2023 At that time I was fed up with working with paint remover and also wanted to have more fun with smaller hop-up-work. @Quincy once sold me FF01 drive shafts and I had some other nice hop ups left in my box for one full tuning project I started months ago. The motor was left over from my full tuning Castrol Primera as it received the Acto Power TRF. You may also remember I kept the rear anti-roll-bar from one hardcore tuning chassis I bought earlier. I reduced the complexity by installing ballstuds on the rear hubs for the stiffness turnbuckles. Unfortunately under load the stabilizer could touch them. I had a problem searching for the right length turnbuckles in the Tamiya portfolio. When I bought a used CR-01 (later more) I suddenly found them in the added spares box. I bend them a bit and now it works well. Then I installed the drive shafts: I love all the aluminum. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderDragonCy 7779 Posted January 5, 2023 @wtcc5Love the wheels and the Dyna Run and the vintage hope ups. Will you run this one? I am interested to know how much more mobile the rear end becomes with the anti roll bar. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted January 5, 2023 @ThunderDragonCy: I don’t know yet. Maybe I will build a stabilizer mount for my runner. I will let you know in several months I recognized, that there were some ball bearings missing. Not only in the steering, but also the larger ones in the front hubs: Then I installed the motor: A tough decision was to make. I had one last heat sink left nib… should I break it or not… 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sgt.Speirs 1240 Posted January 5, 2023 6 hours ago, wtcc5 said: A tough decision was to make. I had one last heat sink left nib… should I break it or not… Not…leave NIB 😊 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted January 6, 2023 You know I cannot do that So… lets do it: Looks so good 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TwistedxSlayer 1290 Posted January 7, 2023 Looking good mate. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted January 7, 2023 Now to the body for this chassis. One of the easier ones. I hoped to make it just with red, but it was too translucent, so I backed it with white and black near the wheelarches. The stickers were straight forward, nothing challenging: Not finished yet, just trying the body parts. The red is not good enough, so I will paint them: 13 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tizer 604 Posted January 12, 2023 Love the TOM'S Levin body! It's sad not a lot of people seem to like it compared to the Primera or others. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted January 14, 2023 I finally found time again to work on this car. As this car has a cockpit, it is a lot more work to do after the chassis is finished: I painted cockpit and body parts. As I am not one of the patient guys, the time needed for drying the color is no fun for me: So in between I took the time to work on some minor bits. I changed the soft springs in front for the hard blue ones... ... and attached the wheelstickers. I also came to the conclusion, that red wheelnuts suit the body better: And while the cockpit and helmet were drying, I could finish the body by mounting spoiler and mirrors: A last look inside before the cockpit will block the sight later: Vroom, vroom 11 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ruebiracer 1024 Posted January 15, 2023 Lovely outcome, very cool and different with the rare body! The vintage drive shafts did freeze me: 81DM original price!! Holy Moley! 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted January 22, 2023 I finished the cockpit today Nothing special, just what Tamiya suggests in the manual, except that I didn't have the cockpit decals (the Levin body set comes without them ). So I used the decals provided by the cockpit set and made the dark blue helmet theme myself with vinyl. I wished, I had Arai stickers at home... The finished body set and chassis: Close ups: 9 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kol__ 3377 Posted January 23, 2023 The car looks awesome mate! Nice work! Now are you gonna drive it?🤔 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Novamadcars 230 Posted January 23, 2023 Looking good. The ff01 was my first kit I built I will get one again oneday. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4690 Posted January 23, 2023 2 hours ago, Kol__ said: The car looks awesome mate! Nice work! Now are you gonna drive it?🤔 Thank you! I am afraid this will be a shelfqueen for the coming months, as I have a runner with this chassis already. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites