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Re-Bugged

Alfa Giulia M06

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Welcome to my Alfa Giulia Build thread, Italian style with Japanese reliability, who wouldn't want that? Brought on by a request from @alvinlwh for an M06 build thread as it is a considered addition to his fleet. (Hope this is of use to you buddy.)  I'm sure there have been other build threads on an M06 but as content on the site increases finding them can be tricky and there may be things that have changed in the kit since the first release?

I missed out on the last run of this kit so when I spotted it on Tamico's website recently it was a swift  'Add to Basket'  then immediately check out. It will probably be a mainly stock build other than CVA Super Mini Shocks and maybe something with a bit more poke than a Silver Can motor. But not to say bits and pieces won't be added at a later stage.

I believe the previous release's didn't have a Speed Controller included so it was a pleasant surprise when the box arrived that it actually had one included in the form of Tamiya's latest a TBLE-04S. The good thing about them if you don't already know is they are Brushed and Brushless motor compatible, it also has a Hi / Lo battery voltage cut off selection. Now we know Tamiya don't really like LiPo batteries but at least this is some recognition from Tamiya that their customers do.

So today saw the start...man rummaging through a brand new kit boxes contents never gets old does it? :)

Screw bag A under way....

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Thanks for this mate! You are too kind. This will really help me plan my next next build. 👍

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No worries 😉 On with Bag A.

The kit comes with a generic grease  but from previous experience with other rear wheel drives I’ve built if the Diff is to free running then it can make for some ‘lively’ handling characteristics with anything more than a Silver Can especially when on poor grip surfaces. So with that in mind I’ve gone with some AW grease instead to stiffen it a bit.

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Not sure if it’s a cost cutting effort by Tamiya but the M05 Diff and gears (and M08 I’ve built) were made of white plastic not black?

To get an even spread of grease (ceramic in this case) I rolled the spur gear against the Diff before it goes in the Gearbox casing.

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No Bearings included in the kit either but I have enough 1150 & 850’s anyway,

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I did find that the Bearings were a bit loose fitting and could fall out when tipped up. I tried a plastic bushing in there and they were loose to. 
A thin strip of sticky tape around the bearing seems to keep them in place, probably not the best cure but all I could think of at the time, any other ideas would be welcome here.

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At the next stage it would a good idea to fit the optional Aluminium Blue Motor Mounts, but I haven’t got those, so plastic ones it is for now..

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A spot of grease was required to help ease the self tappers in as well.

And the Gearbox together..

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A few more stages put together this evening while @toyolien is making a brew 😉

As with the previous stages a small dab of grease aided the Self Tappers, machine threads are fine without. I tend to use the 2 turns in, 1 turn back out then 2 turns in again method until the screw is seated home with just a finger and thumb on the screwdriver to avoid over tightening and stripping the plastic. It’s worked for me so far.

I decided to try a dab of Humbrol Enamel paint on the inside head of the Suspension Screw Pins as they are notorious for backing out and Thread Lock is not good for plastic. Stainless Steel Suspension Shafts option would be a good here as they are held in with e-clips and I think were smoother operating on my M05 when changed those over.

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Once the suspension arms were attached to the rear section of the chassis assembled to medium length, the motor is fitted next.

I’m going with a Torque Tuned from the spares box for now. I happen to have a hard coated 20 tooth pinion in there as well which was handy. There are 20, 18 and 16 tooth options with the standard gearbox. This could get an upgrade to Brushless later, a 17.5t perhaps mainly to utilise the TBLE-04s ESC to see what that’s like.

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It’s going to a shame to scratch up the shiny underside

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And that’s the end of screw bag A

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Oh yeah, I discovered today that the Black Diff and Gears are actually reinforced versions so that’s reassuring.

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Great detail in this thread! I have been putting off posting my M06 build for .... a year now? I have all the pictures ready, but I somehow never got around to it.

Perhaps following along with your build thread will motivate me :D

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Okie Dokie, I’ve had a marvellous afternoon getting stuck into Screw bag B this afternoon,

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This mainly consists of all the bits that will connect the wheels chassis and the front end directional department.

Everything going together nicely continuing with dabs of grease on self tappers and this time on the Machine Thread 15mm jobbies that go through the top of the front hub carriers that have a ball connector nut on the end for the upper arm as they we’re almost uncomfortably tight going in.

Rear end attached, factory set toe in, 

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And a front end sandwich,

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Now the next step had me pondering over a cuppa for a bit. Being time poor and wanting to make it at least up to Dampers stage, do I install the kit supplied steering linkage? Or do wait and order a Yeah Racing Aluminium upgrade, knowing how much it made a great improvement to my M05? Hummmm….

Refreshed with Tea and a Dark Choc digestive I went with the kit linkage for the now but with Ball Bearings added.

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It does operate very smoothly and hardly any slop, so I think this will be absolutely fine till I need to make up an order somewhere as the front just steers unlike the M05 that steers & drives. I wasn’t looking to spend a fortune on Hop Ups with this chassis either as I also have a M08 that was just magic straight out the box and is a regular runner. This kit is more about the body that sits on it than performance.

 

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This is one of my absolute favourite body shells, will be interested to see it sitting on an M06 as I found it quite tricksy to get it to fit on my M07! Got there in the end though 

I built a box-standard M06 last year and found it quite disengaging...unengaging...whatever the right word is. So it will be interesting to hear your thoughts on the experience, compared to other builds :)

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The front upper arms plastics need 2mm cut of the end of them. And seeing as how dimensions for the assembled  length of the arms are given it helps to be as accurate as possible when cutting them.

So I put a bit of 2mm tape on the end as a guide and a razor sharp Stanley knife (one of my favourite tools, I just don’t seem to gel with any other knives as well as my Retractable Stanley) had the task neatly finished in a jiffy,

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With that taken care of it was plain sailing to Step 18 assembling the rest of the front end,

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Oil Dampers are money well spent over the kit pogo’s so I added some CVA Super Mini’s to the kit order from Tamico at the same time,

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The instructions on the back of these refer to a TA03 chassis and show them using the 1 hole piston ring on the shaft. I was sure though that the M08 didn’t use the 1 hole, so checking the manual confirmed that, 3 holes on the front and 2 holes on the rear, which is what I have gone with for this build.

Custom Damper holders,

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With all the bubbles out the Dampers where fitted with the Springs supplied in the kit, softer chrome ones on the front with the stiffer ones on the rear. So we’ll see how that goes when it’s all up and running. It feels pretty good on the bench and is probably helped but the Ball End Connectors that the Dampers are attached to now rather than the kit step screws.

That’ll be mission accomplished for the time being, I must say I quite enjoyed it 😉

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13 minutes ago, Juhunio said:

I built a box-standard M06 last year and found it quite disengaging...unengaging...whatever the right word is. So it will be interesting to hear your thoughts on the experience, compared to other builds :)

I can see what you mean, I’ve held off of an M06 because of the M08 I’ve done. It sort of seemed, well, going backwards. But I just couldn’t resist the Giulia shell, especially with the current global  situation, it’s a bit take or leave it. I’ve got a couple of other builds in mind as well so I may even get another M08 and drop the Giulia on that and put something else on this M06.

I haven’t minded this build at all now though, and I am a bit biased to RWD 😉 but I’m just glad to have something on the bench for the time being. A bit of rest bite from the daily grind. 

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I bet all that black plastic makes it difficult to get good lighting for the photos! Quite a plasticky thing isn't it.

Looking forward to the body build!

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3 hours ago, Re-Bugged said:

The instructions on the back of these refer to a TA03 chassis and show them using the 1 hole piston ring on the shaft. I was sure though that the M08 didn’t use the 1 hole, so checking the manual confirmed that, 3 holes on the front and 2 holes on the rear, which is what I have gone with for this build.

I am not sure how or why Tamiya label their CVA's they way they do. The 54753 I used for my M-05Ra are labeled as for TT-02 but then when I compared them to a set of 53619 from 12 years ago, they are exactly the same.

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@Re-Bugged It's quite interesting to see little differences we can all do in the same kit, showing our personal touches. 

The grease certainly helps. I actually broke one of those little plastic spacers in half between the two motor plates :blink:

Also you're in Australia now, you can bin the digestives for Tim Tam's, Aussies flagship bikkie 😄

4 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

I am not sure how or why Tamiya label their CVA's they way they do. The 54753 I used for my M-05Ra are labeled as for TT-02 but then when I compared them to a set of 53619 from 12 years ago, they are exactly the same.

Funnily enough I just built both recently and was thinking the same thing building the TT02 ones, and only difference (apart from price) that stuck out to me, was the shafts. 🤷

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4 hours ago, berman said:

@Re-Bugged It's quite interesting to see little differences we can all do in the same kit, showing our personal touches. 

The grease certainly helps. I actually broke one of those little plastic spacers in half between the two motor plates :blink:

Also you're in Australia now, you can bin the digestives for Tim Tam's, Aussies flagship bikkie 😄

Funnily enough I just built both recently and was thinking the same thing building the TT02 ones, and only difference (apart from price) that stuck out to me, was the shafts. 🤷

They say to many Tim Tams makes you a bit ham fisted 😉

In all honesty though since a Paleo stint a while back for my wife’s health, I can’t do that sweet anymore. I’ve gone from 2 sugar’s in tea to none and Dark choc from Milk choc.

As for CVA’s I also bought a set for the M05 although they were listed for TT’s and are exactly the same as these ones. They do come out at 55mm eye to eye, I thought they were supposed to be 50mm. I have a vague recollection of putting a spacer on the shaft inside on the M05 ones that reduces the length? But it was to late to take these ones apart again so I’m going to see how it sits with the body before I get to involved in that. I do believe there are alternative shafts to shorten them too. 

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10 hours ago, DeadMeat666 said:

I bet all that black plastic makes it difficult to get good lighting for the photos! Quite a plasticky thing isn't it.

Looking forward to the body build!

Your not wrong, I took the pic’s deliberately on the wooden bench and enhanced with the magic wand button so you see something at least.

I’m also looking forward to the body just narrowing down a few possibilities. But I sure there will be some Red on it.
 

Don't tell @Juhunio but I’ve stolen the photo of his Alfa from the RC Gallery thread and is in my ‘ideas’ album at the moment. 

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8 hours ago, Re-Bugged said:

Don't tell @Juhunio but I’ve stolen the photo of his Alfa from the RC Gallery thread and is in my ‘ideas’ album at the moment. 

Why-I-oughta!! 💪💪😅

It was a toss up between the tricolore and this 1:1 design, which is also completely gorgeous :wub:

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But in the end I went with this one...

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The memory of trying to mask off that tricolore pattern INSIDE the shell, and yet somehow still get enough red paint into the raised ridge at the front of the bonnet but keep it off the flat strip at the very front will live with me for a LONG time *shudder*. I didn't completely nail it either, some of the paint joins are a bit woozy, so I'll be interested to see what you do with yours. It's such a classic body 👍👍

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I remember doing my 1997 BTCC Laguna body and found the Tamiya masking tape not great, ended up using revell model masking tape and it was fantastic, such a sharp edge to define the yellow and blue. Would highly recommend it.

That one with the baby blue and red looks gorgeous .

James.

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8 hours ago, Re-Bugged said:

They say to many Tim Tams makes you a bit ham fisted 😉

In all honesty though since a Paleo stint a while back for my wife’s health, I can’t do that sweet anymore. I’ve gone from 2 sugar’s in tea to none and Dark choc from Milk choc.

As for CVA’s I also bought a set for the M05 although they were listed for TT’s and are exactly the same as these ones. They do come out at 55mm eye to eye, I thought they were supposed to be 50mm. I have a vague recollection of putting a spacer on the shaft inside on the M05 ones that reduces the length? But it was to late to take these ones apart again so I’m going to see how it sits with the body before I get to involved in that. I do believe there are alternative shafts to shorten them too. 

I don't really eat biscuits, but the half dozen beers I had in me when screwing that self tapper into it probably was the driving force 🤣

The TT (50746) have a silver shaft and different rate black springs, I thought the shaft looked longer, but never measured it. The 53619s have silver springs (I never used these, I have the touring car red/blue sets installed) and the tinted shafts.

Mine were both spaced to 50mm. I run 55mm on the M01/2 and M07/8 everything else is 50mm. There is a spare set of shafts for the rear of the M06 included in the kit which from memory say to use with the TRF and 54000 dampers. Not sure what the length is though. 🙂

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On 9/30/2021 at 10:15 AM, berman said:

Mine were both spaced to 50mm. I run 55mm on the M01/2 and M07/8 everything else is 50mm. There is a spare set of shafts for the rear of the M06 included in the kit which from memory say to use with the TRF and 54000 dampers. Not sure what the length is though. 🙂

If I recall correctly, the M06 was weird in that it used 50mm shocks up front and 55mm in back, or was it the other way around? Anyhow that's why there were additional shafts included for use with the 54000 set, which are 50mm M-chassis upgrade shocks.

Edit: I looked up the M06 and realized I had made a small error. No additional shafts are included. The manual just indicates to use the stock shafts and a couple of o-rings in the rear when installing the 54000 set, because they are a little longer than the 54000 shafts.

So in summary, it looks like 50mm shocks are fine for the fronts, but the rears are more like 53-55mm eye-to-eye, which is why the manual wants you to use the stock (longer) shafts in the rear.

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1 hour ago, Juhunio said:

The memory of trying to mask off that tricolore pattern INSIDE the shell, and yet somehow still get enough red paint into the raised ridge at the front of the bonnet but keep it off the flat strip at the very front will live with me for a LONG time *shudder*.

I agree. I have been masking off the outside of normal models for as long as I can remember no problem but masking the inside is something else. Not only that, the painting steps is also quite different. I have to think backwards. Final coat > Backing/Primer > Clear coat. Dark > Light. And there is no room for mistakes. One good thing is I do not need to worry about finishing as the outside is always shiny.

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As it’s not every day you wake up and think ‘I feel like cutting out a Lexan body today’, so that’s what I did while I was in the mood.

With a fresh blade in Stanley I started as I always do by scoring along the door sills going just past the wheel arches as it’s a nice straight line to get the hand/eye in. It only took a few light passes of the blade and a clean cut was achieved as the Lexan is quite thin there.

Next was to cut up with some scissors to remove the section under the sill, hence why scoring past where needed so as not to cut into the body line accidentally with the scissors.

The rear wheel arches were scored then with a few more passes than the sills as it seemed to be a lot thicker especially where the mould lines are. I tend to peel/tear out wheel arches.

The rear and front end where quite thin material as the sills so a couple of scores there and a they were off too. 15/20 minutes and all done.

The Chassis was already propped up on some Display Drift wheels I use for my 2CV as I was getting an idea if a possible Pumpkin Rod project might work, and that is now looking promising 😁.

I now have to be careful when i reply to my wife’s question of “What you up to…” as “Working on sexy Giulia” could land me in a lot of trouble as my sister in law is a ‘Julia’

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5 hours ago, Re-Bugged said:

As it’s not every day you wake up and think ‘I feel like cutting out a Lexan body today’, so that’s what I did while I was in the mood.

Absolutely, if I’m in a Lexan state of mind I normally strike while the iron is hot and cut out two or three 😅

5 hours ago, Re-Bugged said:

The rear and front end where quite thin material as the sills so a couple of scores there and a they were off too. 15/20 minutes and all done.

Yes I found that too, surprisingly thin for a Tamiya shell, more akin to a HPI or L&L body. Still looks fabulous though!

I find it interesting all the different routes people have to trim out body shells. I’ve found a way with polycarbonate scissors, sanding blocks and a Dremel that works for me, as I know that my hands are no way steady enough to rely on blade skills like you. It clearly works though, your ‘Julia’ is looking beautiful 😃

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5 hours ago, Juhunio said:

Yes I found that too, surprisingly thin for a Tamiya shell, more akin to a HPI or L&L body. Still looks fabulous though!

It seems like there's a challenge with maintaining the thickness of lexan when it curves inwards, like it does on the Alfa body. I have a Tamiya Boxster M-chassis body that I cut a while back, and that was VERY thin in some places as well. My blade went right through while I was scoring it. It was thicker near the top of the wheel arch area though.

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With the body all masked up and wiped with isopropyl alcohol, then check all the masking tape is stuck down before checking again that the masking tape is all stuck down before the last and final checking of the masking tape, it was time to lay on a coat of transparent red.

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1st mist coat…

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3 coats later, it’s going well 🤞🏻 
 

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It would appear to have an even covering, so I’m resisting the temptation of that fateful last squirt of the rattle can to far.

Its a bit tricky getting the paint into the tip of the bonnet on this one but not to much else to worry about.

Phase one of painting done 😃


 

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