Juhunio's Bits-A-Builds WIP: TA04-TRF Ford Mondeo BTCC

[ThunderDragonCy]

Ooof! That is BEAUTIFUL. I never got my ta04 handling quite to my liking, but I loved owning it. Really lovely chassis series.

[Juhunio]

Next task...another complicated looking stickering job to finish the FF03-RRR Alfa. As per the Audi V8, I finished the chassis build and painted the body but never got around to stickering it...

So, that's the job...looks like 110 stickers, again with many that intersect over contoured surfaces 

Fingers crossed!

[ThunderDragonCy]

@Juhunio Ooof! FF03 are such a pretty chassis, and I am a big fan of the 155 DTM. Lovely lovely lovely.

[njmlondon]

Such a good looking chassis! Good luck with those decals! Looks complex.

[Juhunio]

Aaaaaand...it's done. I reckon this one took about 14 hours all in . Now, 50 year old me has gained some patience and skills down through the years and I found this nigh on impossible to get it spot on. Close enough to look at, but I know where the mistakes are. God knows what 14 year old me would have made of it...a right mess, probably 

Anyway...

I was particularly pleased that the OZ Racing stickers fit on the non-Tamiya (Ride) rims, despite them being seriously fiddly!

[Juhunio]

So that's another bits-a-build complete...an (almost) fully hopped-up FF03-R with a vintage Alfa 155 V6 body shell and Ride rims

[Sgt.Speirs]

Brilliant job! These Martini bodies (Lancia, Alfa) are always a challenge…

[Juhunio]

11 hours ago, Sgt.Speirs said:

Brilliant job! These Martini bodies (Lancia, Alfa) are always a challenge…

Thank you 

[ChrisRx718]

Very cool 

I'm not a fan of the Audi V8 body personally, your TA04 would be a much more deserving base for the upcoming IMSA Audi bodyshell though... Just planting that seed in your thoughts... 

[Juhunio]

4 hours ago, ChrisRx718 said:

Very cool 

I'm not a fan of the Audi V8 body personally, your TA04 would be a much more deserving base for the upcoming IMSA Audi bodyshell though... Just planting that seed in your thoughts... 

Interesting! I'm completely the other way...I think the V8 looks great now it's all finished and stickered up, the proportions look right and the front and rear light fittings work really well. That new IMSA body, on the other hand, looks a bit weird and plasticky to me. Hey ho, different strokes and all that 

[Nicadraus]

On 1/31/2025 at 2:28 AM, Juhunio said:

So that's another bits-a-build complete...an (almost) fully hopped-up FF03-R with a vintage Alfa 155 V6 body shell and Ride rims

Beautiful! Love seeing nice builds like this. 

Please share your FF-03R here:

 

[Juhunio]

A bit of a work-lull is never a great thing, but anyone who's self-employed will know that these things happen and the key thing is to not panic in the quiet times. Rather, to use them as an opportunity to switch-focus and do something different with your time. In my case....

Time for another bits-a-build!!

This one features another variant on the TA04 theme that has previously been flogged to death keenly explored in this thread. In this instance, a TA04-R Tuned(ish).

Why the (ish)?

Well, having been around the houses with the various TA04 chassis options, one thing I've learned is that while the SSG chassis plates in the R Tuned and TRF are lovely(ish), they don't allow you to attach front body posts over the wheels. You can only have front body posts mounted to the bumper, which is probably fine for intended racing purposes but a bit of a hindrance if you're trying to find homes for pre-drilled old-school body shells.

Like this one

I think at some point earlier in this thread I had this earmarked for a TA04-R build, but that ended up underneath an Audi R8 shell instead. So the R390 needed a home. I've had the box of bits for about 4 years, in truth it was a collection of parts I didn't need that I tried to sell as a job lot. It didn't include everything you'd need to build a complete TA04 so was a bit of a hard sell and, unsurprisingly, there were no takers. In the end I decided it might be better if I turned it into something myself, so I kept an eye out for the remaining parts and ended up with everything needed for a hi-spec TA04. 

Anyway, back to the (ish).

While the SSG plates limit where you can put your front body posts, the carbon fibre plates do not. They include space for body posts over the wheels, and you can still mount posts to the bumper if that's your preference. So they offer the best of both worlds. On top of that, the SSG stuff is a bit of a, shall we say, acquired taste, whereas the carbon fibre plates are a bit easier on the eye.

So, in order to accommodate the R390 shell and be a bit less of an oddball, my TA04-R Tuned(ish) will be built with carbon fibre plates instead of SSG.

Over and above the already high spec of the R-Tuned, it will also have a few additional upgrades:

• 53478 TA04 Aluminium Racing Steering Set
• 50879 TA04 Ball Differential Cups (all steel, no separate plastic diff plate)
• 53479 TA04 Low Friction Suspension Shaft Set (the kit used the standard steel shafts)
• 53598 Fluorine Coated Ball Connectors and 53599 Fluorine Coated Ball Connector Nuts because I had a load of them and they're black(ish) so will look cool
• 19803319 Top Force carbon fibre battery straps, which are a perfect fit on the TA04 and necessary to complete the look as Tamiya only made TA04 battery straps out of SSG, not standard cf
• 53569 Clamp Type Aluminium Wheel Hubs (6mm)
• 54237 M05 Low Friction King Pins, which have a hex-head so I'll be able to make it an all-hex-build due to....
• Hex head screws throughout

I think that's enough background, time to make some sense out of this box-o'-gubbins 

 

 

[JimBear]

2 hours ago, Juhunio said:

TA04-R Tuned(ish)

Say what? Tuna fish?

(just joking, really enjoy your build shenanigans!)

[wtcc5]

3 hours ago, Juhunio said:

What a lovely box content  Have fun!

[ThunderDragonCy]

Aaaaandddddd.....he's back in the game! Following with interest @Juhunio

[Juhunio]

TA04 builds get you straight into it, with ball diffs being the first step. All pretty standard stuff, the only upgrade here over the kit spec being the 50879 diff joint cups which are a single piece on each side. The kit uses a 2-piece diff joint, a steel cup with a separate plastic plate, but I'm not having that...

They go together super easy, once you apply enough pressure to the spring to allow the screw to bite into the lock nut. Tighten them to a good hand-tightness then back them off a half turn, check there's no slippage and the jobs a good-'un

[Juhunio]

Then onto the rear gear case and, as I'm determined to use hex-head machine screws throughout, time to break out the thread-tapper. The first screw used in the manual is the 21mm self tapper which connects the two halves of the gearbox, I'm using a 22mm hex screw instead. You also attach the  belt-runner to the inside of the gearbox in this step, built of a 2.5mm spacer and 730 bearing. It's a neat little thing, but this is the last time you'll ever see it!

The bearings (and that 2.5mm spacer, phew!!) are all original vintage Tamiya parts from the TA04 bearing kit, a mix of blue and black rubber seals

[Juhunio]

Parts for the rest of the rear-end. The low friction shaft set is actually an upgrade over the kit-spec which just used the standard steel parts, and the carbon damper mount is used in place of the SSG part

After taking this picture I realised i didn't need the arms. The R-Tuned uses the racing stabiliser set (53611) for the front end which includes a set of the TA04 hardened suspension arms (53427), so I used those 

This is also the time to make up the four universal shafts, all straightforward enough to source and build. I built them dry (no AW grease) as it's never going to run anyway!

[Juhunio]

After breaking out the first of the fluorine coated ball connectors and ball nuts for an overall black(ish) look with a few flashes of silver, the final step to complete the rear section is to attach the bulkhead beam and aluminium motor heat sink, both pictured here

Except, not quite!

The bulkhead beam is not the bulkhead beam. That part (3455545) proved absolutely impossible to find. I managed to track one down for my earlier TA04-R build but could not find another one for this project. So, I improvised a bit...

It's made up of a 15mm threaded rod with a 5mm OD and two countersunk washers that are 2.5mm deep. The rod slightly cushions inside the washers to create a nice looking finish that fits well and, visually, almost passes for the real thing 

Putting it together outside the chassis was easy. Putting it together between the two halves of the gear case, threading the screws through the gear case from the outside then threading the washers on from the inside, on both sides, then getting the rod to sit in between the washers securely enough to get the screws in, all with about 0.5mm tolerance on each side, was an absolute nightmare. But, after about an hour of trying and failing and some dockyard language, I got there

With the adjustable upper arms in place and the rear universals fitted, that's the rear section complete! I went for the yellow stabiliser rod to match the damper springs specified in the build manual.

These TA04 aluminium heat sinks are such beautifully machined things 

[ThunderDragonCy]

Love those heat sinks. Really wanted one when I had a TA04

[Juhunio]

Moving on to the front end, which is based around the front racing stabiliser set which includes the hardened suspension arms and a neat set of blue aluminium mounting blocks and a carbon fibre mounting plate which attach to the top of the upper deck to secure the front stabiliser arm. Those little blue blocks will be the only trace of blue on this build 

The rest of it is pretty standard fare, other than the carbon fibre front damper mount and the M05 low friction kingpins which are a perfect replacement for the kit king pins and have a hex-head fitting, which pleases me 

All done...pretty straightforward really! The stabiliser arm goes on later...

[Juhunio]

Then it's time to start attaching the gear casings to the lower deck, which is when it all starts to take a bit more shape. The fluorine coated steering posts are kit-standard 

Assembling the spur gear is all pretty straightforward, the kit recommends a 120T spur with a 44T pinion but I have a 45T pinion spare so I'll be going with that, it'll be close enough to the ballpark range for the Sport Tuned motor I'll be fitting later on. Again, the aluminium spur mount is kit standard spec

Lining up the centre pulleys and threading the two belts over them while leaving the grub screw hole in the pulley stopper pointing north and aligned over the flat section of the centre shaft is a bit of a fiddle, but no huge stress

 

[Juhunio]

Next step is one to savour, as it involved assembling one of the hardest of all the parts to find, the aluminium steering set 

Like the heat sink, the arms are beautifully made and super smooth on their internal bearings. This is the third set I've included in my builds and it still strikes me as a little strange that Tamiya didn't include or offer a carbon fibre steering link, you still have to break out the plastic K parts to use the K10 part for that, which leaves the plastic arms completely redundant 🤷🏻‍♂️

They look beautiful when they're installed though

[TwistedxSlayer]

Absolutely love another quality build from yourself :-)

[Juhunio]

The final pieces of the carbon fibre conversion are the top deck and mounting plate for the front racing stabilisers, which are connected via two blue aluminium blocks. These are the exact same shape, size and form as the short aluminium servo stays, with the addition of two extra threaded holes drilled into them to receive the mounting plate screws. The battery mount posts also get attached now...

And with the front and rear gear cases screwed down and all the belts attached, it's beginning to look like a car! At this point I also decided to include a set of aluminium clamp wheel hubs because, despite the high spec, the kit still just used the plastic parts attached with a pin

Those funky little blue mounting blocks and cf mounting plate for the front stabilisers

Top tip...the manual leaves this until later on, but it is much much easier to attach the belt tensioner to the upper deck if you do it now, before you attach the upper deck to the chassis. I attached both the tension pulleys at this point, but forgot to take a photo until after I had attached the rear dampers. Ignore that