wtcc5's FF-01 addiction

[compass 133]

i wish tamiya would come with a not overengineerd FF chassis.  i like simpel chassis .  and offcourse the older sedan bodys. 

[compass 133]

i Found a team C nissan  primera calsonic body. I just had to buy it. 
Since i don't have a tamiya FF chassis it will probably end up on my TT02.  Which i drive very often lately.  I used to race in different high end classes. (touring car stock 13,5 (xray T4), Formula 1 (xray x1 2021) , fronti (mugen mtc2 fwd)), but i think that modern touringcar classes are over the top these days. ( or i am getting to old for this  haha)

[PoD2k2 82]

Well what a read this was. Thank you!

I have had a genuine Tamiya Mondeo shell for years, I think my friend and I bought the last 2 in the UK at the time and we got them from a little model shop on the South Coast, she eventually sold hers so it could be used to make replica bodies to a shop in Chesterfield I think it was. At the time I had a MK1 Mondeo Saloon road car which I used to lavish way too much money on so I just painted the car and had it looking like my road car. The shell then just sat in it's box for the last 10-12 years until I found it in the loft on my TB01 chassis. The TB01 is now sat with the correct Focus re-pop shell on it so I found a cheap fixer upper FF01 chassis on Flea Bay for it. I then thought I best get to stickering it up (I hate it with a passion). Chassis should arrive by the end of the week but here is the shell. 

 

[PoD2k2 82]

....aaand just like that I have bought a carbon fibre TA02 chassis 

Down the rabbit hole I go....!

[wtcc5 4873]

This is great guys! Keep on building, racing and shelfing these beauties!

[wtcc5 4873]

I haven’t done anything FF-01 related for a long time. But reserved something special for the calm days. The (maybe) last build will be the first FF-01 released in 1993:

 

For me it will also be a very special build, as I never build a FF-01 from the box:

 

[wtcc5 4873]

Lets begin!

As it is the tradition, I start with the nice wheels:

 

The tires get inserts to reduce the stress for the rubber on the shelf:

 

Unfortunately, these tires or wheels do not get any stickers:

 

On to the manual build. A setup information sheet was added to make the owner aware of how the position of the rear hubs influences the handling:

 

Then it starts conventional with the front gear housing and shocktower:

 

Love the blister package:

 

The new parts are all so shiny:

 

Balldifferential:

 

Closing the gearbox/front section:

 

 

[wtcc5 4873]

Finishing the front section. First inserting the gears and closing the gearbox:

 

Then completing the suspension with hubs and axles:

 

Now on to the rear, that is much simpler:

 

 

Shock build:

 

[futureworks 864]

On 8/2/2023 at 10:07 PM, wtcc5 said:

A setup information sheet was added to make the owner aware of how the position of the rear hubs influences the handling:

I’ve never seen that sheet before. I can just about make out what it says from the image, but any chance you could do me a good scan of it? PM me if you can. Here’s a pic of my last ff01 project as well - love the FF01!

[Carmine A 2046]

As much as I love my FF03... I would love a FF01, just for the cool factor! 😎 

[wtcc5 4873]

@futureworks: That is a very nice specimen 

@Carmine A: ... and I thought you got yourself one already... 

 

Back to my build. Time for the motor to go into the front section:

 

The next chapter features the tub and the installation of the servo:

In this case I only install a vintage servo and no esc.

 

Before all units get connected, the steering rack needs to be build:

 

[Carmine A 2046]

@wtcc5 I've wanted one for a long time, but money got really tight.  😞

Looking GREAT!!

[futureworks 864]

2 hours ago, wtcc5 said:

That is a very nice specimen 

Thanks. I have another in the pipeline https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?id=16836&cid=139798&t=811202330800

[wtcc5 4873]

Chassis completion today 

 

Steering rack added to the tub chassis:

 

Front section attached:

 

Rear section, too:

 

Tires added:

 

And body posts:

 

There it is 

 

 

[Carmine A 2046]

Time to resurrect another FF thread!! Purely for personal insanity! 😜 

I've decided I want a FF-01 enough, to go full crazy stupid! 5 years ago, I built my M-05... COMPLETELY piecemeal!! 😮 But it worked, and still performs great... 

But of course, FF and M are two completely different animals. But WHY NOT? Piecemeal a FF-01!?  @wtcc5 you gave me this insane bug... and I thank you, sir! I don't think I can do THIS alone though. First question, since I realize you have tinkered with many... what's the dogbone length? I'm sure most FF-01 metal parts aren't available anymore.  Oh, and do any gear diffs fit?

There will be Blue aluminininium... but  3Racing and Yeah Racing (I'm really that poor! 😞)

I downloaded a manual, all I need to start is the A, B, C, D, and E trees. Everything else looks universal, or easily aftermarket replaced.  .... unless someone is willing to give up a beater FF-01 chassis? But I'm not pushing that issue.... 

Bearings are easy, hardware, like everything I do, will be Hex Head. I've stocked up on PLENTY of that.  Shocks, Chinesium... Same with wheels and tyres. This won't have any original collector value, just a fun ride, that I missed out on in the 90's, when I was sled pulling Clods.

Body... Team Blue Groove, unless the Royal Mail stops charging a 200% premium to ship to the western US. 

When all is said and done, I'm sure it will cost more than buying a kit. (Piecemeal M-05 cost $285 total!! But not all at once) But in bite size chunks, this will be possible. It's purely a passion driven project, nothing to do with overall value. (Which will be completely unrealistic!!) 😮

Hopefully, I can save enough to at least get the ball rolling...

[wtcc5 4873]

@Carmine A: Great! Looking forward to see your build. Still, I would go for a used chassis if possible and then spent all the money on upgrades if possible.

[Carmine A 2046]

25 minutes ago, wtcc5 said:

@Carmine A: Great! Looking forward to see your build. Still, I would go for a used chassis if possible and then spent all the money on upgrades if possible.

I agree with you......

But in 8 months, I haven't found a single used FF-01 chassis in the US. At least without being able to check every newspaper and yard sale in the country  😞  Getting a used chassis to start from, for me and my budget, might require a miracle. 

[Carmine A 2046]

.... You're RIGHT! 😮

Did part tree shopping. A tree, $36.00. B tree, $29.00. C tree, $45.00! D tree, $39.00...... And I forgot the tub is separate..... $90.00 - $130.00!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭 

I did find an A parts bag for $9.95, and B bag for $7.95... but it looks mostly like PLASTIC bushings! 

I could buy a very used FF-01 with a cracked Mondeo body.... for $500.00!!!!! 

I'm really going to have to hope that someone doesn't want a beater chassis...

[Sogogi 3217]

Dang. All these ff chassis threads make me want more of it. (Hence just won an japan auction for nib ff01 kit for $100.. (exclude shipping)

 

[Carmine A 2046]

@Sogogi .... Yeah, the shipping. 😞 Congrats though! I hope you enjoy it. 

[wtcc5 4873]

FF-01 is back on my R/C menu 

I am working on the Idemitsu Civic body and have another project in the pipeline:

 

A Peugeot 406ST body with wheels and tires arrived together with another Tom‘s Exiv body set.

The Former was released 1998 on the TL-01 chassis. I never understood why Tamiya chose the TL-01 over the FF-01 for this fwd car.

To right this wrong, I will add this body on a FF-01 chassis to my fwd collection. As there is no yellow body color in the FF-01 collection so far, this will be a beautiful addition 

[wtcc5 4873]

While working on the Idemitsu Civic, I saw, that I don't have enough of the colors needed, at home. So this "project" is at a standstill for now. 

 

I don't want to be bored on my free time, so I started the Peugeot 406 build. I have one fine chassis already cleaned and rebuild. It was stored in a box with the rear axles "stolen" for another car. While searching for another set of axles (wasn't lucky), I went through all of my FF-01 stuff and found more Hop-Ups than expected:

That just gave more motivation to start right away 

 

Tradition:

 

Weight saving and friction reduction in the gearbox:

 

A bit out of the normal build order, I fiddled with the dampers next.

I have to be honest, the light pale pink is an awful color for Hop-Up damper housing. And having these, just shows, that I tried to avoid this color. This time, I didn't want to spent another 45€ for TRF414M2 damper cylinder and decided for a mix. I have lightly scratched cylinder caps in grey. The mix with the pink still looked awful.I had no choice, but to paint the damper cylinder. After several coats of primer, I used TS-17 silver:

For the front damper I also painted the blue hard white Tamiya spring. Then those sat to dry for several hours.

 

In the meantime, I continued with the build. A good friend always gets Anti-Wear grease from me. Some weeks ago, he surprised me with a used, but good condition black Sports Tuned motor. It got new cables first:

 

Then, I switched to the front suspension. I removed the shock tower... :

 

... and replaced the camber links:

 

The front suspension was upgraded with aluminum C-hubs, lightweight hub screws, ball bearings and pins:

 

 

[Pylon80 2622]

Light pink is certainly awful for a shirt  but for dampers I like it! It's got the "retro hop-up" looks.

But I must ask... which paint did you use on the springs? I have attempted to paint springs twice; once with PS and no primer (peeled off under my nails) and once with Tamiya enamel and still no primer (paint never dried even after 6 months...no clue why).

 

 

[wtcc5 4873]

@Pylon80: The perfect path would be to remove the color from the springs and then use Tamiya Surface Primer followed by their TS-color. That’s how make it with arb wire.

The color used by Tamiya for springs isn’t easy removable. So I just sprayed  several coats of TS color after roughing the surface with 3000 sandpaper and then washing the springs.

 

Motor and heat sink installation 

 

Now onto the rear. The camber links were exchanged also. I installed brass ballstuds for dampers and links. For the style, the black hubs were replaced with blue versions. Unfortunately I ran out of 1150 ball bearings, so the kit standard plastic rings will stay some more days. The rear axles were nowhere to be found. From a build, I had  50823 wheel axles left. I cut the outdrive portion off with a grinder and was left with the standard FF-01 rear wheel axle (I think this is how I will upcycle these leftover axles in the future)   For now the pin screws will stay also:

I dig the blue! Better than I imagined.

 

With the damper cylinder still drying, the chassis upgrade came next. I cheated a bit with the topdeck. What you see is the Yeah Racing version I used on my runner before. I removed the TRF stickers and replaced them with the Tamiya graphic. The Tamiya topdeck stays in the box:

 

The installation differs a bit from the TA-02, so TC had to provide the original manual:

 

Before adding front and rear FF-01 units, the damper have to be installed. This is the result of my styling effort:

 

Again I was short on parts. For now I had to install the dampers without oil and bladders:

 

 

[Sgt.Speirs 1253]

5 hours ago, wtcc5 said:

...
The rear axles were nowhere to be found. From a build, I had  50823 wheel axles left. I cut the outdrive portion off with a grinder and was left with the standard FF-01 rear wheel axle (I think this is how I will upcycle these leftover axles in the future)  
...

I used for my FF01 the out drives with p/n 54183. Are there any differences compared with the original ones (p/n 9805468) respectively p/n 9805502?

And otherwise, as always, great work!