Friday Thread

[87lc2 2395]

Leaving work in a few and should be home in time to get the mowing done before dark (just a few more weeks and that's done...).  After my daughter goes down hoping to finish up a new body I painted the other day for my Digger 12 truck, just needs decals and lights.  Also need to decal the new sponsor plates I cut for the chassis.  

Saturday - Supposed to be colder here, but hoping to wash and get a winter's coat of wax on my wife's car, other than that just hang out with the family.  The dog likes the cooler weather so I'm sure I'll be in the yard with he and my daughter for a good bit of the day.  Saturday night I hope to finish making some body mounts for my recently restored Juggernaut so I can drill the body and get to painting.  With the colder weather not sure when I'll actually get to paint it, but want to have it ready for a good day.  Going with an 89 Ford and will try to make a loose replica of one of my favorite Bigfoot trucks, the last version of Bigfoot 4.  I love #4 with it being the last (and probably best) leaf spring race truck ever made, and figured since the Jugg is a leaf spring truck why not?  

Sunday - Wife's birthday and we have the family coming over for a small party, should be a fun day.  I'm sure I'll be in the garage Sunday night working on smething RC related, just not sure yet...

[87lc2 2395]

1 hour ago, Mad Ax said:

 

My wife took herself off to Weymouth for a solo break this morning, and my daughter is on school holiday, so this morning I took her to a local woodland for a walk and a picnic.  Then took her over my parents for the weekend, so I now have the place to myself for a couple of days!

 

I lvoe my family, but a weekend alone would be great once in a while...enjoy!

[Frog Jumper 3416]

Tonight:  Mow some grass around the neighborhood entrance and pool area.  Later, I'll look at some magnetic mounts that came in the mail (from Azerbaijan of all places).

Tomorrow:  Take my son to swim and hit up the LHS while he's there.  Hang our with my 'rents for dinner.  Then late night by the fire at our neighbors house for our first Halloween Party of the season.

Sunday:  Hang-over recovery and maybe some late afternoon Dragon Driving.

Hoping to find some time in there to continue stripping PS paint off a body I messed up...

Terry

 

[Mad Ax 7689]

2 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

I lvoe my family, but a weekend alone would be great once in a while...enjoy!

I love my family, but sometimes I think I live for the days when they all clear off our for a bit :p 

[Willy iine 16813]

Saturday.. going to take my STI for a final drive of the season, clean her up, and hibernate the car until Spring.  May sound odd to some as she is AWD, but this car is modified so do not want to drive her in the salt in the winter, nor want to get my garage floor dirty.  I also own another current gen WRX Limited so will drive that through winter and she is parked outdoors so do not care.

Then will paint my comical Sand Scorcher body.

Sunday.. before sunrise, will pressure up the tires on my 2 cars parked outside as temp is coming down.   Then will continue on with the comical Sand Scorcher painting as it is now RC official season start for me.  

Oh yeah, will practice my cajon playing too in between RC-ing.. 

Have a good weekend everyone.  

[Re-Bugged 8995]

Well let’s see, grass needs cutting as we’ve had rain here, bins need emptying (recycle & general), veranda balustrades need fixing, laundry, etc, etc, not sure where to start and I’m home alone, so I think I’ll start by working on getting the Decals on the Alfa Giulia to finish it off before going back to work again tomorrow (Sunday)

Some finished photos, and a couple of laps of Postal Racing would be the cherry on the cake today 😁

 

[Wooders28 4372]

My monthly week off last week (which fell after the kids half term, sods law...😥), and had planned on getting down south to see my folks, but, play dates at a trampoline park, brought back tummy bugs, so illness swept through the house....🤮

Ended up decorating,  as you do..., but managed to pick up a goodie box from the club before the lurgy hit, (just used to be 'goodie bags' but the orders have got bigger of late..😬) , containing my eldests new motor / esc and drive belt (plus tyres, inserts, oil bag etc etc...) 

So the planets aligned last night, My youngest was ill and wanted a girly Disney film to watch with mummy cuddles , and my eldest wanted to play with cars, so off we went into the garage, to fit her new motor and esc 😀

 

The temp is at single figures in the evening now, so a bit nippy in the garage, but we had fun, swapped out the shock and diff oils, fitted the new drive belt, she got her hands a bit dirty but " that's what happens when you work on cars dad".

Finished the soldering ,once she'd gone to bed and after a bit of a faff, managed to get the esc calibrated (a 10bl120 esc, and just wouldn't calibrate full reverse on the Absima CR3P radio, ended up swapping the esc to Channel 1 and it calibrated no bother 🤷‍♂️), just need to get over to the track, and see how she handles the new set up (going to start on 60% throttle, and take it from there)

All in all, a nice night 🙂

 

[Mad Ax 7689]

It's Friday again, peeps!  What are we all up to?

Should be a fairly quiet one for me.  Working from home today, not caught up as much time as usual but will finish at 4pm which isn't so bad, gotta pop out for an hour after work to fetch my daughter from the mother-in-law - it's her first half term break so she's getting to see family that she hasn't seen since school started in September.

Tonight I'll try to finish my write-up of the Scaler Nats, and on that subject, I'll climb into my storage area to measure a Carisma Ford body for @87lc2.  After that I'll just enjoy the first night to myself since last weekend (been a bit of an unusual week with half-term, a night out with the wife and house visits from the wife's friend).  There's a distinct lack of light alcoholic beverages in my home so I'll have to do something about that on the way to fetch the child.

Saturday is usually a Daddy-Daughter day, but I've got us tickets to go to the National Arboretum to look at the leaves.  It's about an hour away, so a bit of driving.  Forecast is rain in the morning and dry in the afternoon, so fingers crossed our picnic isn't soggy!  Saturday evening is unplanned, so maybe get some time in the studio.

Sunday is Workshop Day - got a lot to do:

• make sure the hearse is running, and build a roof rack for it out of lolly sticks (popsicle sticks for my friends across the pond)
• unbox all the big rigs and make sure they're still running ready for my first truck meet since Jan 2020
• unbox the drift car and make sure it's still running ready for my first drift meet since Jan 2020
• continue work on the Ford tow truck

Clocks change in the early hours, so I get an extra hour, but I have to make sure I'm back in the house, cleaned and dressed and in my spooky make-up* ready for the neighbourhood kids to come pick their sweets off the top of the hearse, assuming I can make it run and finish the roof box.  Otherwise I'll just have some boring orange bucket with a skull-and-spider sticker on it.

Sunday is normally a studio night for me, but depending on what time the kids stop arriving (which will probably depend on how wet the weather is) I might just veg out on the sofa, stare at a film and eat all the leftover chocolate.

Have a great one, peeps  

*to be fair I don't it, I look creepy enough as it is

[87lc2 2395]

Took the day off today to spend some time with my daughter and do some last minute tuning/checks on my monster trucks for the race tomorrow, but looks like we're going to get rained out    I'll still make sure everything's ready to go but it's not looking good.

Other than that, just some leaves to clean up in the yard, a mysterious cooling leak to fix on my Impala, and need to finish trimming, mounting, and painting my Bigfoot 4 body for the Juggernaut.  Some other RC projects to work on, but nothing urgent at this point since winter is coming.  

[87lc2 2395]

Looks like the weather is breaking and the event is on for tomorrow.  Hope it's not too muddy (don't want to spend all Sunday cleaning trucks), but excited that we're still on.  Got a few last minute things done to the trucks (swapped rear axle on the Digger, finished setting up 4WS on the Chicken, and did some suspension tuning on the Bigfoot LMT), so ready to go.  

Lineup is as follows:

PA Mountain Monster > Retro class.  Really wanted to run the Juggernaut, but not done in time so this will have to do.  Actually a decent performing truck for being mostly stock.

Thunder Chicken > Sport Modified class.  Pretty much a stock SMT10 with front sway bar, 4-wheel steering, and 17t brushed setup as per class rules.

Grave Digger > Pro Modified Class.  I actually don't have a proper Pro Mod truck so this will have to do for now.  I'm way outclassed, but these races can be as much about staying on track and hitting jumps straight as power so still a shot.  It's a short wheelbase truck with front steer only and a 550 4900kv brushless setup that I'll run on 4S lipo.  

Bigfoot 16 > Losi LMT Class.  Not much to say here, just a stock LMT with 4-wheel steer.  Have not raced the LMT yet so should be fun.  I've run it a good bit around the yard and its a nice truck.  Very heavy, but handles/jumps like a real MT which I like a lot.  Stock tires are heavy and not the greatest, but have to use stock tires in the spec class so they're staying.

 

Also found some time to mount and trim the 89 Ford body for my Bigfoot 4 Jugg.  With any luck I'll get her painted on Sunday. 

 

[Willy iine 16813]

Saturday.. this morning my older son and I spent 3 hours washing the white resin fence in the back yard and then cleaned up our screened patio in prep for winter.   Looks refreshed! 

This afternoon just doing some laundry and other misc house chores.  Looking forward to driving my new Billy's ClubBug I just got done building last night.  

 

Sunday.. I'm going to start the day by washing my daily driver (current gen WRX Limited) and run a quick claybar/polymer sealant application also in prep for winter.  

Then move my large floor mats and my snow thrower to the front of the garage and do a quick oil change and lube all mechanicals.   I'm going to wait filling the gas and test run until a bit later as I the gas tends to spoil in the bowl just under the carburator when not used for weeks.  I've had to take the thing apart in the past a few times for that and clogged carburator.  

After that, going to pull out my winter clothes for work as our office is opening twice a week starting next week.  I hope I don't have to travel for work this year..

Then rest of day going to plan my next RC build.  

 

[87lc2 2395]

7 hours ago, Willy iine said:

Saturday.. this morning my older son and I spent 3 hours washing the white resin fence in the back yard and then cleaned up our screened patio in prep for winter.   Looks refreshed! 

This afternoon just doing some laundry and other misc house chores.  Looking forward to driving my new Billy's ClubBug I just got done building last night.  

 

Sunday.. I'm going to start the day by washing my daily driver (current gen WRX Limited) and run a quick claybar/polymer sealant application also in prep for winter.  

Then move my large floor mats and my snow thrower to the front of the garage and do a quick oil change and lube all mechanicals.   I'm going to wait filling the gas and test run until a bit later as I the gas tends to spoil in the bowl just under the carburator when not used for weeks.  I've had to take the thing apart in the past a few times for that and clogged carburator.  

After that, going to pull out my winter clothes for work as our office is opening twice a week starting next week.  I hope I don't have to travel for work this year..

Then rest of day going to plan my next RC build.  

 

Sounds a lot like things I need to do in preparation for winter...running out of time.  On the snowblower front, I usually just store it full of fuel and stabilizer from one winter to the next and it always fires right up.  I think keeping the tanks full and adding stabilizer helps a lot with the crap ethanol laced fuel we have these days...

[87lc2 2395]

Monster truck race was an awesome time today.  There were about 30 solid axle trucks so we consolidated classes a bit and I ended up having to run multiple trucks on one class which was interesting.  I'll post some more pictures later, but here's one a guy was nice enough to send me of my SMT10 Digger in the class final...right before the left rear wheel came off on the next turn   

[Willy iine 16813]

1 hour ago, 87lc2 said:

Sounds a lot like things I need to do in preparation for winter...running out of time.  On the snowblower front, I usually just store it full of fuel and stabilizer from one winter to the next and it always fires right up.  I think keeping the tanks full and adding stabilizer helps a lot with the crap ethanol laced fuel we have these days...

Yeah, I always use Stabil in the jerry can and it’s fresh fuel, so when I pour it into the snow thrower it has Stabil mixed in the gas.   If I start it every 10 days or so there’s no issue.   I think there is a leak in that bowel somewhere.  

Looks like you had a fun day with your truck!  

[Wooders28 4372]

16 hours ago, Willy iine said:

I'm going to wait filling the gas and test run until a bit later as I the gas tends to spoil in the bowl just under the carburator when not used for weeks.

I worked in a Lawnmower repair place when I was 15 -16 , and 99% of the 'repairs' where fuel left in the carb over winter.

Give them a blast with an airline, strip and clean the carb, remove blade reel and knife, paint ,sharpen , refit and set up, then charge them a pretty penny for what took me less than an hour!! 😀

I'm guess it'll be worse now, with alcohol mixed in with the fuel.

[Willy iine 16813]

1 minute ago, Wooders28 said:

I worked in a Lawnmower repair place when I was 15 -16 , and 99% of the 'repairs' where fuel left in the carb over winter.

Give them a blast with an airline, strip and clean the carb, remove blade reel and knife, paint ,sharpen , refit and set up, then charge them a pretty penny for what took me less than an hour!! 😀

I'm guess it'll be worse now, with alcohol mixed in with the fuel.

I believe it.  But I run the engine until dry at the end of winter season.  Anyway I know how to fix it, I’ve been using this snow thrower for years.  It’s just one of those kinks on this particular engine and to keep my work the least as possible, I prefer to not pour gas in there until snow is forecasted. 

[mongoose1983 3333]

On 10/30/2021 at 12:07 AM, 87lc2 said:

Looks like the weather is breaking and the event is on for tomorrow.  [...]

Nice trucks there!

Do you think you can share some picture of the black "Mountain" truck behind?

[87lc2 2395]

Thanks @mongoose1983    Sure, here are a few.  It's a work in progress at the moment.  Currently an original SCX10 chassis that I'm planning on coverting to leaf springs when I have the time.  Basically a mini 2.2 monster truck.  

[Mad Ax 7689]

It's Friday again, peeps!  What are you doing this weekend?

It's another Away event for me, maybe the last one of the year, depending on how things work out.  Finishing work in 90 mins, then jumping in the van to drive down to Bournemouth - might get stuck in some traffic but hopefully less than 2 hour journey.  Gotta stop for fuel before I leave town, I should have done that earlier this week but I've been really disorganised, I've had family staying over for a few days so the usual "free night to get stuff done" has been spent "entertaining" - i.e. putting on Netflix and staring at it for 3 hours.

After checking into my hotel, unloading some stuff and putting the big rig NiMHs on charge, I'll head off for a spot of drifting with the RMX 2.0S.  I've never really got the hang of RC drifting, so I've asked one of the regulars if they can give me some pointers and hopefully see if I'm doing something wrong.  First drifting session since Jan 2020 so could be a learning curve anyway.  I got the car down off the storage space on Tuesday and found the turnbuckles have gone rusty, hopefully nothing else has suffered too bad from the damp.  The diff had completely backed off and needed setting again, but I don't have any suitable carpet to run it on, so I might find some other problems when I get there.

Gonna treat myself to a nasty takeaway on the way back to the hotel, sink a few beers and work on some fiction before bed.

Tomorrow I'll get up before dawn for a walk along the beach - gotta make the most of being by the coast - then head off to a big rig meet, stopping somewhere en route for breakfast.  First truck meet since Jan 2020 also, if the drifter has suffered from rust I hate to think what might have happened to the rigs, fingers crossed the expensive electrics are OK.  Superbly disorganised, NiMHs are still not charged, one is actually still taped to the chassis rails of the pole trailer from when I was working on it during lockdown last year.  It's probably still got enough charge to operate the remote legs.  Probably have to find some AA and AAA batteries from somewhere to replace the ones in the other truck, I doubt they've enjoyed being left in place for nearly 2 years.  I guess I never thought it would be this long before I went to another truck meet!

Gotta be back home in time to put my daughter to bed on Saturday, no plans for the eve, depends on how I feel when I get in.

Sunday is Daddy/Daughter day, no plans again, might take her for a walk in the woods, might do some driving lessons on the Outback Mini-X, might just curl up all day and watch Disney films.  Studio night on Sunday, probably spend most of it packing the rigs back into storage!

Anybody got anything fun going on?

[87lc2 2395]

You always have such interesting weekends planned @Mad Ax, love reading this thread every week.  Hope all goes well with the big rigs & drifter, both areas of RC that I haven't gotten into...yet.

Nothing too interesting on the home front this weekend, still need to find a warm enough day to get a winter's coat of wax on my wife's car, maybe tomorrow.  Wife is going out with friends Saturday afternoon/evening so will have my daughter all to myself.  Being just over 1 there's not much we can really do, but I enjoy spending time with her since she seems to learn something new almost every day.  She really cracks me up. 

Sunday is the last RC Monster Truck event of the year, excited for this one.  Classes are pretty simple this time; Retro Clod, Solid Axle Brushed, and Solid Axle Brushless.  Will be running a truck in each class with the exception of brushless, will run 2 in that class.  Hoping for another succesful weekend and have all the trucks ready to go so not much prep work to do this week.  Will be racing my TXT-2 chassis/Clod axle Excaliber truck for the first time ever.  I built this years ago and was never a fan of how the suspension worked on the truck, but ended up removing the foam from the tires this week and it seems a bit better having the tires help with suspension duty.  We'll see how it goes.  If it's still not sorted I might part out the truck and start fresh.  

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

[Superluminal 3472]

Nothing much exciting this week. My hot water heater in the loft has stopped working. Every morning I want a shower its a game of roulette on whether the water is 8 degrees or 80 degrees. Have bought a new immersion heater to fit but the drain tap on the cyliner is seized so will need to think of an idea how im going to syphon the water out of it.

[87lc2 2395]

17 minutes ago, Superluminal said:

Nothing much exciting this week. My hot water heater in the loft has stopped working. Every morning I want a shower its a game of roulette on whether the water is 8 degrees or 80 degrees. Have bought a new immersion heater to fit but the drain tap on the cyliner is seized so will need to think of an idea how im going to syphon the water out of it.

That's no fun, good luck on removing the water and getting it fixed.  

[Willy iine 16813]

For me, taking it REAL SLOW this weekend as last weekend's house chores + washing the fence with my son + washing my daily driver/clay/sealant + getting stuff prepared for winter kicked me in the butt.  In addition to that, my work week has been super busy this week so haven't really rested well.  Like for example, this post I started typing 4 hours ago, but kept getting side tracked by works calls and calls and more calls and emails and calls.. oh wait, another call..  

 

Saturday.. besides doing some laundry and just taking it easy in my RC room relaxing,  I'm expecting my Egress to come in so looking forward to that.  I plan on driving my GF01's around my makeshift track at home and maybe start on sanding the Sand Scorcher body.  I want to finish the body before I work on the chassis..  not sure why, I just do.    Will play my cajon again for some short sessions (just me and whatever's playing on Spotify) and stream a movie or something in the evening.  

Sunday.. no big plans (which is good), will probably continue working on the SS body and drive my GF01's some more.. and play things by ear.  Maybe I'll take my bike (commuter bicycle called Tern Verge X11) out for a quick spin for the first time in 2021..  I don't like pedaling so I should get an e-bike for total laziness. 

Which reminds me, just before covid, I was about to buy a new Honda Ruckus just for screwing around (mods) and riding around my neighborhood as I have all sorts of 25mph residential streets..  I realized in my state I needed a motorcycle license to ride even though it's a 49cc engine scooter.  Anyway, I was about to buy one and take it to my local DMV to get my license only for covid to shut-down the facility for like 6months.   So I never bought one.  And I guess it worked in my favor because I can get an e-bike instead and ride that without a motorcycle license..  kill 2 birds with one stone, kind of.

 

Have a good weekend everyone! 

[mongoose1983 3333]

On 11/2/2021 at 8:20 AM, 87lc2 said:

Thanks @mongoose1983    Sure, here are a few.  It's a work in progress at the moment.  Currently an original SCX10 chassis that I'm planning on coverting to leaf springs when I have the time.  Basically a mini 2.2 monster truck.  

 

THANK YOU, I am loving it!!  It's shiny black but reminds me a bit of the orig Chandler-made High roller monster truck.

[Wooders28 4372]

Not much exciting this weekend..

I'm 12hr dayshift, although, with my 4yr old testing positive on Monday, it's got to be only a matter of time before the rest of the house follows ⏳😷🤒