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DeadMeat666

TB04R Build, AKA "Birthday Build 2020"

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This is the build thread for the TB04R that I received rather unexpectedly for my birthday not too long ago, and it wasn't even from a family member! Even though I believe there is another TB04R build on here somewhere, I'd like to express my opinions on this chassis build process, as I've been experiencing several "hmm, that's odd" moments and I felt like sharing them. This is a forum after all, so please feel free to comment on anything and everything, I welcome any questions you may have. Mind you at the time of writing, the build is NOT complete, just to manage your expectations. I will be adding to this thread as I progress.

Ok enough faffing around, on to the build:

This is what we'll be building. As a general rule I will be posting my commentary followed by a (pretty sizeable) picture.

So this is the box. Notice how this one doesn't say "high performance RC car" like many others. Instead it makes the bolder claim of "R/C 4WD Racing Car". How different is this from the TT02S, DF03, and M-chassis cars (among others) I've built so far? Quite a bit, as I have discovered. 

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Opening metal Bag A shows a surprising amount of aluminum bits, blue aluminum bits, and ptfe-coated bearings (already?!). I also see shims of several sizes in there. This is where I hopped online to look for hopups and found next to none, because there's so much included in the box! So this may turn out to be a pretty stock build lol.

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Here we are after Step 3, and the rear lower arms are built and mounted on the chassis, everything you see is carbon-reinforced plastic or aluminum. Surprisingly, there is a LITTLE back and forth slop in the arms, but I'm building this according to the manual; I'll address simple issues like this later, maybe. I ended up tapping the screw holes for the aluminum ball connectors, because I felt I was forcing them too much and the reinforced arms were VERY solid.

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This rear diff is TINY! The internal diff gears are so small that I can fit 3 of them on the tip of my index finger. In fact I almost dropped one into the rubbish bin as I was shaving off the flashing from it's little tiny edge! The diff went together quite nicely, and is buttery-smooth. Surprisingly (I'll be using this word alot) the diff fluid in the box is not very thick at all. The 3000 wt diff fluid in the M08 felt significantly thicker.

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THAT is a PTFE-coated bearing. None of that plebian "metal ball bearing" business that you find in high-end (but not top end) kits. All the supplied bearings had this kind of silvery carbon fibre-looking finish to the shields. I'm very impressed so far.

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Metal Bag B, and even more bling out the box. It's hard to believe that Tamiya would include SO much in a non-TRF kit. Not that I'm complaining of course. That motor plate is black aluminum. You can see CVDs (rear), blue suspension blocks, more bearings, blue turnbuckles, and aluminum center drive shaft, among other things.

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On to the motor/spur/center drive section. The center shaft is aluminum (of course), and was VERY fiddly to assemble, as the miter gear in the middle isn't held by anything except the other miter gear on the spur. Once in though it was very solid and smooth. So many shims! It's important to threadlock two small hex screws at the bottom of this assembly that hold the black aluminum motor plate to the housing, and also the grub screw that goes on the bare end of the center shaft and holds the 8 (or 9.8?)mm pin in position. There are several 8mm and 9.8mm long pins that look very much alike in this kit; be sure not to mix them up.

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Here we see the center driveshaft section bolted onto the chassis and covered, as well as the rear diff assembly in the chassis before I cover it up. Note the rear chassis stiffeners held down by EIGHT screws. Everything moves buttery smooth; I guess I was lucky that nothing tweaked too bad and the alignment is all pretty spot-on.

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And the rear diff cover is on. Yes, all the ball connectors on this kit are blue aluminum. Hopup-wise, this kit is absolutely astounding value for money.

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Here are the rear hubs. Carbon reinforced, because a. why not, and b. this kit doesn't WANT me to find a way to upgrade it! No shiny plastics anywhere btw.

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Here I am just making sure that this is the right spacer, and looky here! It seems like we discovered why there is some slop in these arms out of the box: The supposedly "3mm" spacers are actually 2.8mm! I will contact Tamiya and ask for my missing 0.2mm on each spacer. But for now let's move on.

IMG-20200831-210447.jpg

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Rear CVD's built. I'm sure many of you have built CVDs before, so no need to bore you with the details. Fun fact: there are no o-rings or pink cushions in the diff-side drive cups for this chassis, so one less thing to fall out as you're fiddling to install them. The white endcaps on the shafts ensure a VERY smooth but precise fit with the cups. They need a tiny bit of moly grease.

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Here we are assembling turnbuckle shafts the easy way. No turnbuckle thumbs! I don't know how I was doing this without that tool before, this is just SO much easier on the fingers.

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Here's the rear driveline in place. Interesting that the droop settings as per the manual make the arms stick straight out of the chassis, level with the ground. And that's before the car is inevitably dropped a few mm from it's own weight later when it has wheels and electrics installed. 

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On to the front arms, which are a lot like the rear arms. The manual tells you to use additional shims (one on each side) if needed. These are BB13 on the manual below. You will need them. The front arms are just perfect with them on.

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Front lower arms installed in the chassis. Nothing out of the ordinary here. Except all the bling of course.

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And here is metal Bag C. The bling just keeps on coming. EVERYTHING is top-notch. This chassis seems to be a carbon midsection away from being a TRF kit. More bearings, more turnbuckles, and an aluminum spool instead of a diff; interesting.

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The steering rack is assembled. Those black pieces are aluminum by the way, I kid you not. The manual tells me to threadlock aluminum ball connectors to the aluminum steering bridge. So I do that, even though I'm scratching my head about it. Isn't alu on alu supposed to be bad?

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Here is the steering rack installed in the chassis. There are a total of SIX ball bearings used in this rack, and as you imagine, it is sensational. 

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The spool assembly begins (and ends rather quickly afterwards, it's not that complex lol.) Note that there are only four holes that you can use for the screws to fix the gear onto the aluminum spool. Those holes are ever so slightly bigger than the rest, if you look closely. The screws will not fit properly if you use the wrong holes!

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Front spool done and installed in the chassis. There is a little bit of side-to-side slop, surprisingly. I'll address that later I guess.

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Front diff section closed off. It looks identical to the rear like this tbh. 

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Front brace (stiffener) in place. I found something weird on the manual. It says to cut off(?) a portion of the IFS mount (not used in the TB04R btw) "if the wheels come in direct contact", but it seems this piece already comes with that portion missing anyway, so I don't need to cut anything. Yay.

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This is where I am with the chassis so far, at step 19. This thread will continue as I continue the build. Thanks for watching!

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Oh man! I'm drooling right now... :o

Quality build and parts. The reason why I want a TB-04R badly. The DCJ, CVD, TRF stuff, spool, aluminum goodies, carbon fiber shock towers, carbon reinforced plastic, etc, etc. Saves you from buying those tiny pieces separately. Plus the shaft driven chassis with a side motor layout is just so sexy. Can't wait to see it finished.

It's still in my wish list. Someday... B)

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Thanks for posting. This is really interesting for me to compare to my TB03R. That steering layout it so nice. I wish there was a way to retrofit it to the 03!

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1 hour ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

Thanks for posting. This is really interesting for me to compare to my TB03R. That steering layout it so nice. I wish there was a way to retrofit it to the 03!

I took another look at both, and sadly I don't think there is an easy way to do so. The TB04R's rack rides on pins that are secured by tiny bearings top and bottom that slot into indentations on the chassis, and then clamped down with the top chassis stiffener. It's all very quality; I can literally move the rack by blowing on it, and yet it has very little slop.

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I'm pretty sure I'm JEALOUS!! 😜  To say that is a "Nice bit of Kit" would be a GROSS understatement!!! Then you described the Steering Rack - something I've been trying to perfect for Decades - seems to be sitting RIGHT IN THAT BOX!! 😁

I am just a bit surprised by the FRONT Spool. I would think that would cause some serious understeer... But seeing what I've seen so far, it's hard to argue. 

And... Happy belated Birthday 🎂

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Day 3 begins... (I'm doing my best to put in one post for each day I progress)

The building of the double cardan joint shafts commences, so I line up the main bits to organize the build. It's important to remember what goes on the left side and what goes on the right side, because the c-hubs and the DCJ circle clips are directional.

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I built up the first side except fo the c-hub. These DCJ's assemble pretty much like those in any Tamiya touring car or M chassis that has DCJ's. 3mm 1050 bearing on the inside of the hub and 4mm on the outside, with a single shim on the end of the axle. Notice how black aluminum clamping hexes are included in the kit. It's almost as if the color of some aluminum bits was changed to black only to differentiate this kit from a TRF 418, which has pretty much otherwise identical front and rear suspension assemblies. Naughty!

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Both sides done and ready to install onto the chassis. Note the flourine-coated aluminum kingpin/ball connector. The c-hubs are very free-moving, and probably have 0.1mm of slop in any direction, which is acceptable to me.

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And the front transmission and hub assembly is now on the chassis. Everything came together quite smoothly, and no shims or spacers were needed (or provided) in the area with the outer pin secures the lower arms to the c-hubs, which is unlike the rear, where a 0.5mm silver shim was required as per the manual.

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Front upper turnbuckle arms built and installed. I used a digital caliper to measure all the turnbuckle lengths and other tolerances to ensure that everything is up to spec and symmetrical left-to-right as well. I was also careful to orient all the turnbuckles in the same direction so that adjusting them is easier later on. 

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On to the stabilizer bars. The front and rear bars are similar (but not the same) in shape. The manual helpfully provides full-size outlines so you can tell them apart. Here's a picture of the front stabilizer overlaid on the picture of it in the manual.

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27.0mm it is! I'm typically somewhat lazy with the measurement of rods and turnbuckles, but this is an "R" and deserves a little extra care, don't you agree? :) 

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I found that attaching all the little bits onto the stabilizer bars easier when the bar was outside the chassis, and then clipping the final lower left and right ball connectors last after installation. 

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This is the whole chassis so far, with all arms/hubs/stabilizers installed. From this angle it's a spitting image of it's big brother the TRF418, with which it shares virtually everything but the carbon chassis plates and the belt drive. I really like the look honestly.

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With the end of this chapter we see the end of metal Bag C (which is now empty). See you again next episode when we see what's inside Bag D! Looks to be some interesting bits by the looks of it :) 

IMG-20200901-235258.jpg

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Day 4:

Out go the items in metal Bag D, and here we have The shock bits, a black (?) aluminum motor spacer which I didn't know came with this kit, the pinion, the carbon shock towers and mounts, and some blue ballends that accept screws into them (smart move). Those TRF shock shaft pliers come REALLY handy when assembling shocks, especially when they're as small as these.

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Here I've laid out one of the shocks with all the pieces that go into assembling it. Pretty straighforward, if you've assembled an aluminum shock before, they're all pretty much the same from what I've seen. I'm a little let down by the plastic bottom spring retainers, but then again perhaps I'm being TOO picky :lol:. You don't get shocks this nice outside the TRF kits lol.

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Here is the partial assembly of the shocks. I learned the hard way that the bottom end cups should not be overtightened or else they turn oval and get really stiff on the ball ends, restricting suspension movement, so watch out for this. As soon as you feel some resistance while screwing those in, stop. Also WARNING: this kit comes with precisely eight(8) little e-clips for the shock pistons, so if one goes flying, YOU NEED TO FIND IT. Or have spares :D

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The shocks are filled with 50 wt oil that I had lying around, because the shock oil that comes in the kit seemed a little soft so I didn't use that. I really like the quality of these shocks; they tick all the boxes: titanium coated shafts, aluminum (top) spring retainers with o-rings, knurled shock caps top and bottom for good grip while tightening, and a very original color!

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Rear shock tower assembled and shocks installed. They were a snap, literally lol. Ever so slightly compressed at the droop level that the manual specifies. Same with the fronts

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Speaking of the fronts, the front shock tower is also assembled and the shocks are in. We now have fully working suspension!

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I skipped the motor for now, since it doesn't exist yet (still waiting for it to arrive), but I put in the central transmission cover and the motor bracket as placeholders for now.

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What's left of metal Bag D is that surprize black aluminum motor spacer (seriously, why BLACK?), and a 25t 0.6mod pinion, which upon closer inspection appears to be made of hardened aluminum, which is always a welcome sight. But it also means that I CAN'T EVEN UPGRADE THE PINION! This build is a hopup shopaholic's nightmare :lol:

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...And that's the end of today's episode. Bag D is done, so I'm done for today. It may be a little while before I can meaningfully continue, since I'm waiting on electronics, which is the penultimate part of this build (the body remains). I should really start on the body in the meantime. If I do, I'll post the progress of that on here. Thanks for watching!

IMG-20200903-012438.jpg

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"Also WARNING: this kit comes with precisely eight(8) little e-clips for the shock pistons, so if one goes flying, YOU NEED TO FIND IT. Or have spares :D

And that's why I ALWAYS HAVE spares on hand!! My Arthritic Gorilla Hands are bad enough with bigger e-clips... My Friend, Aaron recently showed me an E-Clip Tool, that is very narrow and holds the E-Clip securely, going in perfectly every time!! IMG_20200902_170456.thumb.jpg.b64222f3dc9b4cd3bace0d452bcd7c7c.jpgIMG_20200902_170610.thumb.jpg.d2902d7a7f9fcd7e4910508236e24ba0.jpg

They can be found on Amazon, pretty cheap. As soon as I can afford one, I'M GETTING ONE!! 😁

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I'm liking this build. I almost got one of these instead of my TA07 a few years ago. Would've been a heap cheaper as there is nothing to upgrade...or is there? You could always swap to 48p gears so you have more ratios available and then can buy new bits!

My FF04 Evo came with 7 e-clips, I wasn't impressed. Luckily I had some spares.

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I am impressed with this kit.

I've been comparing it to the TB Evo 4 build that I am doing and it's very interesting to see the big differences between the kits. Biggest one being the change of motor from longitudinal on the Evo 4 to lateral on this one.

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Just a small update to this thread for those that are following and may be wondering why I've paused:

I took out the body to start work on it and it turned out to be pretty complex; it came with a 22 page manual, for the BODY. I'm now waiting on a set of gundam markers to score the cut lines so I don't mess it up.

On the electronics front, I'm also waiting on those in the post. They should be arriving shortly.

There are also a few tiny hop-ups I've decided to go with. 

Once any of this stuff arrives we will proceed!

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Unpause! But then pause until more stuff arrives, and I finish working on the ridiculously complicated body :lol:

After a previously failed attempt at soldering the esc and motor, I was met with what I'd like to consider some success in doing so, especially taking into account that this is literally my first time. I TRIED to keep the amount of solder to a minimum in order to prevent the solder from increasing resistance, and here is the chassis with the electronics (minus the reciever - hasn't arrived yet!) installed for your viewing pleasure:

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I could've done more to stagger the wire lengths so they lay relatively flat on the motor, but that didn't pan out how I'd like. Again this is my first, so be gentle! :D

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3 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

@DeadMeat666 Great solder job. I have been doing it ages and couldn't have done better. 

I 100% agree with that!! 👍👍  Very clean Soldering. Now, if you really felt OCD about how the Wires sit.... It appears that a "C" Wire just 4-5mm longer would have all 3 sitting flat and pretty!! 😉 

But it's some good looking Wiring, no matter what!

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It's alive! 

IMG_20200930_224414.jpg

 

Just a short update:

I swapped out the black hex screws along the top of the whole chassis to titanium-coated hex screws for no reason in particular other than aesthetics (?) Still unsure if I'll keep it this way; I would like feedback.

I installed the receiver and powered it up for the first time ever. The servo was off-center so I adjusted it, and please no giggles regarding the huge battery plug lol. I'll get around to swapping out the connector on the battery for a Deans at some point.

Discovered that the esc is still working after I soldered it up, so that's the good news. The bad news is the SkyRC esc cannot be programed unless I have a program box or module (didn't know that!) So it's set on blinky with no reverse as default. 

TB04's are noisy little critters aren't they? I'm assuming it's all the shaft-drive action going on, along with the metal DB02 miter gears I put in the center gear box. Everything runs very smoothly though, and the PowerHD R12 servo is impressively quick, so I'm happy.

 

Next thing is the body. I'll be honest, I'm dreading the bodywork. It's not my favorite part of the build, and this body in particular is NOT EASY by any stretch. 2 BIG sheets of stickers, plenty of plastic accessories (for a touring body), and 22 pages of manual. 

Thanks for tuning in!

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NICE!! That's one sweet High Performance machine!!! 👍👍👏👏👏👏👏 Can't wait to build one of my own. Never had a PREMIUM Car before, can't wait!! 

Body shouldn't be that bad..... SHOULD it??

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Very nice car and body. Have one on my TRF419XR, Just beautiful looking but you can clearly feel the difference once you have built it. You can't beat Tamiya but that's complaining on a high level :-)

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15 minutes ago, lowspot said:

...... You can't beat Tamiya but that's complaining on a high level :-)

I don't know.... I've got a pretty BIG Hammer!!!!🔨

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@DeadMeat666 That looks suuuuuper nice. Bit hard to tell on the screws as the photo is a little grainy, but if you like them then go with it. Ti coating always looks trick. 

I expect the noise will settle a bit with some running in. My TB03 is smooth and not that noisy (although more than my TA06 was), but you have that centre gearbox going on there. Did you double check the shimming on the diffs during assembly? Mine needed quite a lot on the bevel gear side bearing to get them nice without being tight. If they are a little loose the kickback will be noisy. 

I had a couple of escs that needed programme boxes. One of the reqsons i end up buying hobbywings now is that you can program them using the button on the switch and coating beeps. It's a bit long winded, but means i never need a box. Might be worth considering for future esc purchases. 

Body looks ace. Good luck with it! 

 

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On 10/1/2020 at 9:27 AM, ThunderDragonCy said:

I had a couple of escs that needed programme boxes. 

That's sorted now, I got the program box for the skyrc esc, so all well and good.

I FINALLY(!!!!) started on the body, if one can consider putting two holes in it as "starting" :lol:. At least they turned out to be spot-on with the positioning, having learned a few lessons from past mistakes and some good advice from the helpful group that is TC. Here are the first pics of the test fitting:

IMG-20201113-231815.jpg

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Hopefully the process won't take absolute ages, and we can all see the finished product before the year is up lol.

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