Juhunio 6766 Posted December 22, 2021 I've spent the afternoon going through the box and working out what's what...looks like I gave myself some options which needed a bit of unpicking, but this is where I've got to: Option 1: Gear Diff. This would make it as per the R / Evo manuals 54398 FF03 A Parts (Gear Case / For Gear Differential / Carbon Reinforced) 54471 TA06 Steel Gear Differential Unit (Rear) 54602 TA06 Aluminium Gear Differential Cover (Blue) Option 2: Ball Diff. As per the Standard and Pro Manuals, but with Hop Up parts. I kinda love a ball diff, so haven't decided which way to go yet... 54288 FF03 A Parts (Gear Case / For Ball Differential / Carbon Reinforced) 54262 TRF201 Reinforced 52T Ball Differential Gear Set 54226 3/32" Tungsten Differential Balls (12) 54233 FF03 Aluminium Diff Joint Set Plastic / Chassis Parts: 54297 FF03 Lower Deck (Carbon Reinforced) 19005983 FF03 AA Parts 51419 FF03 B Parts 51332 FF03 C Parts (Front Upright) 53928 D Parts (Short Reversible Suspension Arms) Fingers crossed these ones work with standard 26mm rims unlike the 51104s I used on the TA04 51333 TRF416 E Parts (Rear Upright) 54031 TA05-IFS F Parts (Hub Carrier / 4o / Carbon Reinforced) 19115283 FF03 J Parts 54289 FF03 K Parts (Carbon Reinforced) 54290 FF03 M Parts (Carbon Reinforced) 16275076 FF03 Urethane Bumper Steering and Suspension 53993 TA05-IFS Aluminium Rocker Arm Set 53992 TA05-IFS Aluminium Rocker Nut 84361 FF03 Aluminium Front Upper Arm Mount 54235 FF03 Aluminium Racing Steering Set 54261 FF03 Carbon Steering Link 54137 TB03-D Aluminium Rear Upright 1o 54064 TB03 Aluminium Suspension Mount 1XD (x3) 54069 TB03 Aluminium Suspension Mount 1A 54067 TB03 Aluminium Suspension Mount 1XA (might be needed to correct the 1o toe from the aluminium rear uprights) 53709 Fluorine Coated Suspension Balls 53581 46mm Titanium Coated Suspension Shafts (x2) 53917 2.6mm Titanium Coated Suspension Shaft Set for Reversible Suspension 42216 44mm Double Cardan Joint Shaft 54183 M-Chassis Reinforced Freewheel Axle Set 54230 FF03 Stabiliser Set (Front & Rear) 42102 TRF Special Damper (Hard Black Coating) Other Blue Bits 54234 FF03 Aluminium Spur Gear Mount 54223 FF03 Aluminium Motor Plate 54344 Lightweight Idler Shaft 13458062 Battery Stopper 13458086 Battery Nut 53924 DF03 Heat Sink Bar Set Carbon Fibre Bits 54259 FF03 Carbon Motor Stay (L) 54264 FF03 Carbon Stiffeners (Rear) 54258 FF03 Carbon Damper Stay (Rear) 84410 TA06 / FF03 Carbon Servo Plate 13404009 FF03 Carbon Battery Plate XV01-031 Yeah Racing Carbon Bumper Support for XV01 / FF03 Bits and Bobs 84290 FF03-R Titanium Screw Set 13450248 FF03 Spur Gear Shaft 13404011 FF03 Counter Gear 53539 5.5mm Aluminium Spacer Set 19805645 3x0.7mm spacers 19804479 2.3mm o-ring 51000 4.6x4.7mm Flanged Tube 54249 3x32mm Aluminium Turnbuckles Shafts (Blue) 54248 3x23mm Aluminium Turnbuckles Shafts (Blue) 19805611 5x9mm Ball Connector 54075 TB03 Fluorine Coated Ball-head Kingpin Set All the bearings came out of the spares box, and I'm hoping that all the other necessary pins, screws, shafts, washers, connectors, adjusters and nuts are going to be in there too! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderDragonCy 7071 Posted December 22, 2021 Ooooo lovely. One of my favourite chassis with my all time favourite shell. I have been tinkering with FF03s for a while so hopefully I can help with parts advice. I did a custom 4 gear low profile transmission for mine. It all got a bit out of hand! As for body posts, look in the manual. There's an option to fit the front body posts in the over-the-axle position, and the rear body posts come with loads of spacers because of the different wheelbase options. You might yet fit the tamiya shell. One thing I will say is the overhang precludes fitting any kind of foam bumper. I put some self adhesive foam strip on the front of the bulkhead in front of the motor. You will also need to trim on the inboard foam bumper locating bosses on the plastic bumper as they foul the air dam on the front of the shell. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted December 22, 2021 2 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said: Ooooo lovely. One of my favourite chassis with my all time favourite shell. I have been tinkering with FF03s for a while so hopefully I can help with parts advice. I did a custom 4 gear low profile transmission for mine. It all got a bit out of hand! As for body posts, look in the manual. There's an option to fit the front body posts in the over-the-axle position, and the rear body posts come with loads of spacers because of the different wheelbase options. You might yet fit the tamiya shell. Cheers Cy! Will definitely be looking for advice….where do you stand on ball or gear diff, have you tried both? It’s gonna be ages until I need to commit to either shell so plenty of time for body post experimentation 👍 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderDragonCy 7071 Posted December 23, 2021 12 hours ago, Juhunio said: Cheers Cy! Will definitely be looking for advice….where do you stand on ball or gear diff, have you tried both? It’s gonna be ages until I need to commit to either shell so plenty of time for body post experimentation 👍 I have only ever run the gear diff as it came with one. I run a ball diff in my FF01 and it's fine. The gear diff is more fit and forget which I like. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted December 23, 2021 Parts list now complete...there are two further parts I would love but have never been able to get hold of: 84376 FF03 Aluminium Bumper Mount. Looks like there may be stock on a couple of eBay equivalents in India, Taiwan and Korea, but I can't see a way to trade with them 54368 FF03 Coated Aluminium Counter / Spur Gear Shaft. There's a site with stock in Canada but they don't ship to the UK, cos Brexit Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderDragonCy 7071 Posted December 23, 2021 1 hour ago, Juhunio said: Parts list now complete...there are two further parts I would love but have never been able to get hold of: 84376 FF03 Aluminium Bumper Mount. Looks like there may be stock on a couple of eBay equivalents in India, Taiwan and Korea, but I've can't see a way to trade with them 54368 FF03 Coated Aluminium Counter / Spur Gear Shaft. There's a site with stock in Canada but they don't ship to the UK, cos Brexit RC Mart have the lightweight counter gear on it's own. 42222. They also have the lightweight idler shaft 54344, the carbon rear stiffeners and a few other nice bits. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted December 23, 2021 1 minute ago, ThunderDragonCy said: RC Mart have the lightweight counter gear on it's own. 42222. It's sold out unfortunately Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderDragonCy 7071 Posted December 23, 2021 2 minutes ago, Juhunio said: It's sold out unfortunately Boo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nicadraus 5610 Posted December 24, 2021 On 12/23/2021 at 1:33 AM, Juhunio said: I've spent the afternoon going through the box and working out what's what...looks like I gave myself some options which needed a bit of unpicking, but this is where I've got to: Option 1: Gear Diff. This would make it as per the R / Evo manuals 54398 FF03 A Parts (Gear Case / For Gear Differential / Carbon Reinforced) 54471 TA06 Steel Gear Differential Unit (Rear) 54602 TA06 Aluminium Gear Differential Cover (Blue) Option 2: Ball Diff. As per the Standard and Pro Manuals, but with Hop Up parts. I kinda love a ball diff, so haven't decided which way to go yet... 54288 FF03 A Parts (Gear Case / For Ball Differential / Carbon Reinforced) 54262 TRF201 Reinforced 52T Ball Differential Gear Set 54226 3/32" Tungsten Differential Balls (12) 54233 FF03 Aluminium Diff Joint Set I have both set ups in my two FF-03 cars. The Pro-R uses the gear diff with steel gears and aluminum cover with 50k oil while the RR uses Yeah Racing FF03-069BU - Aluminum Ball differential Joint set with AWG (anti wear grease). Both perform very well for their respective set ups. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted February 4, 2022 Blimey, I had to go way back to Page 5 to find this thread! It's been a while... Still waiting on a couple of parts for the FF03, so I went back and finally finished the TA04-SS Audi TT which started this whole thread off, applying the sticker set created by Nathaneal at MCI Nice to get that restoration finished...pretty much box-stock with ball bearings throughout, adjustable upper arms and tie rods, aluminium hex hubs and blue wheel nuts! 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted February 7, 2022 Skipping back again....bored waiting for screws for the TA03s!! While browsing Japanese auction sites, I happened to come across a TA04 SSG lower deck and Racing Front One Way at decent prices, so thought.... Why not go full TRF on it? This is where I left it And these are the new goodies I wanted to lower the ride height a bit hence the 1mm Down Damper Retainers, the TRF also has that Centre One Way Pulley and the spacers are to replace the kit silver ones on the rear damper mounts Having found another cheap set of TB Evo III aluminium rear uprights, I ummed and arrrr-ed about replacing the reversible lightweight suspension with kit-standard arms etc, but in the end decided to stick with the reversible set up so didn't use those bits... 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted February 7, 2022 First things first...dismantle! I had also found a well priced, second hand but very clean set of silver aluminium TA04 steering arms, so decided to replace my TA04/Evo III hybrid set up with these silver arms until a blue set turns up Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted February 7, 2022 Then onto the front gearbox, replacing the ball diff with the one-way Opened up the front gearbox.... I'm going to end up with a spare front ball diff with aluminium pulley and lightweight outdrives... And a quick shot of the One Way before it all gets sealed up again. Looks the business! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted February 7, 2022 Then onto the rear gearbox, swapping out one of the centre pulleys for the centre one-way pulley which is mounted on bearings and not fixed to the centre shaft, allowing it to freewheel So I now have a spare aluminium centre pulley too Switched out the damper retainers and spacers while I was there... The blue spacers are a better fit altogether... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted February 7, 2022 Then onto the chassis plate itself, starting with the posts Then rebuilding the steering assembly with the silver aluminium arms. Shame about the blue ones, but I'm happier having the 'correct' part in place I now have spare Evo III steering arms And that's the core of the chassis back together again 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted February 7, 2022 Electronics back in and wheels on and there it is, my TA04-TRF+. A manual-spec TA04-TRF built entirely from parts, with the addition of: reversible lightweight suspension rear ball diff aluminium pulley and lightweight outdrives rear aluminium TRF414 uprights TA04 aluminium steering arms TA04 aluminium front body posts 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted February 7, 2022 There are a few leftovers: a brand new ultimate TA04 ball diff built with aluminium pulley and lightweight diff joints a brand new aluminium centre pulley brand new Evo III blue steering arms brand new Evo III aluminium rear uprights brand new SSG battery holders Oh, and a carbon reinforced tub chassis which is new apart from the little modification I made to remove the back of those nibs at the front to allow the lightweight reversible suspension to fit Only annoying / weird thing is the SSG Battery Holders don't fit...which doesn't make any sense. The TRF uses lots of SSG parts, but plastic J Part battery mounts instead of the SSG parts The Pro and R versions use some carbon fibre parts, and would both be compatible with a carbon equivalent of the SSG battery mounts. But Tamiya only make them in SSG, there are no carbon equivalents. So, it's hard to understand what those SSG battery mounts are actually for?? Is it just the lesser-spotted R-Tuned? I reckon it would have made more sense to make some carbon ones for the other tub chassis variants 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderDragonCy 7071 Posted February 8, 2022 Firstly, that is gorgeous. Secondly, that is so weird about the ssg battery straps. Does the lightweight tub have a wider battery tray? It's clearly different to the regular tray with all the stick pack ribs on my car (not that I have been studying the lightweight tubs. Oh no..... 😬). Have you run the ball diff? I have an Eagle Racing lightweight ball diff option that came in the box with mine. Been wondering whether to build it. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted February 8, 2022 1 hour ago, ThunderDragonCy said: Firstly, that is gorgeous. Cheers! 1 hour ago, ThunderDragonCy said: Secondly, that is so weird about the ssg battery straps. Does the lightweight tub have a wider battery tray? It's clearly different to the regular tray with all the stick pack ribs on my car (not that I have been studying the lightweight tubs. Oh no..... 😬). I've got a 'standard' tub (50889) on the SS and just took this reinforced one (53481) off the TRF. Their battery posts are in the same position so the SSG straps would fit both Seeing as how the R and R-Tuned share the same tub (53494) and the R-Tuned comes supplied with the SSG straps, they must fit both of those too So in short, the SSG straps would seem to fit every tub variant of the 04. But not the TRF, which uses black plastic battery straps on its lovely SSG lower deck. It just seems mad to me that Tamiya would release all the CF hop ups for the tub chassis variants (front and rear damper mounts, upper deck) but not the battery straps, which are only available in SSG so would best suit the TRF, which they don't fit. Go figure 1 hour ago, ThunderDragonCy said: Have you run the ball diff? I have an Eagle Racing lightweight ball diff option that came in the box with mine. Been wondering whether to build it. Only up and down the hallway for a quick post-build shakedown, seemed fine. The R, Pro and TRF all came spec'd with ball diffs, so you probably should build it 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sgt.Speirs 1090 Posted February 8, 2022 Absolute stunning TA04-TRF build. With all these aluminum parts I‘m looking so forward for re-building my TRF414M. Regarding your blue Front OneWay Diff, it is a pity that the gearbox housing prevents the view on the diff. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted February 9, 2022 14 hours ago, Sgt.Speirs said: Absolute stunning TA04-TRF build. With all these aluminum parts I‘m looking so forward for re-building my TRF414M. Thanks very much! Hope you enjoy (and share!) your re-build 14 hours ago, Sgt.Speirs said: Regarding your blue Front OneWay Diff, it is a pity that the gearbox housing prevents the view on the diff. What, this guy? Oh, I can still see him, just about 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sgt.Speirs 1090 Posted February 9, 2022 3 hours ago, Juhunio said: What, this guy? Oh, I can still see him, just about I have no TA04, but I thought the gearbox is more capsulated with only a small hole for the drive belt. In this case you're a lucky man Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted February 9, 2022 Nine pages, and five months, ago.....this thread started with these words: This thread begins with a body shell. An AMG CLK-DTM 2002 shell, to be precise Well, here is that shell! I finally applied all the stickers today....blimey Charlie, not an easy sticker set. Old school, pre-cut, which means you have to peel the whole thing off before you can start to apply it, which for some of the massive ons does make it awkward. There was a LOT of water spray used! It's definitely the most complex sticker job I've done yet! It's not perfect, those compound stickers around the arches and rear wing are pretty fiddly with no margin for error at all, but considering the close scrutiny of these photos I'm pretty pleased with how it came up. I also reckon it was solid practice for the three Audis I've got to take on at some point Of course....it no longer fits any of the projects in this build thread The 04-SS stayed an as SS (Audi TT DTM), and the 04-TRF has body posts in the wrong position for this pre-drilled shell so is getting an AMG-GT3 shell instead So, it's going to go on the TA03 David Jun restoration build instead. The yellow bits will match well with the fluorescent stabiliser bars on the DJ, which will also get fluoro yellow springs too 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
svenb 3378 Posted February 9, 2022 Lovely build👍 definitely won't lose that in the dark!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Juhunio 6766 Posted April 7, 2022 So, after the intended TA04-R bits-a-build went full TRF, with the addition of the lightweight reversible suspension, I ended up with quite a lot of leftovers...upper and lower arms, front hubs and uprights, rear uprights, carbon fibre damper stays and upper deck, rear gearbox, universal shafts and axles, pulley stopper, various shafts and screws. Oh, and a lightweight chassis... I tried to sell this as a job lot but didn't get a sniff, so decided to double down and pull together everything else needed for a TA04-R Mostly this meant tracking down the (real) plastic trees, pulleys, belts, motor plate and ball diff parts....the biggest expense was the C parts bag which contains all the TRF Special damper parts, servo stays, servo saver springs etc I won't detail this one fully step by step as it's pretty similar to the previous TA04, I'll just pick up on the points of interest (well, interesting to me anyway!) 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
