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DeadMeat666

DeadMeat666's Embarrassingly Late M06 Build Thread!

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Building upon the "M06 (Better late than never)" thread which was started by me one YEAR ago (gulp!), I finally found the time and motivation to lay out the build thread for the M06 chassis that I built sometime back in 2020. Who knew the title of that thread would be such an accurate foreshadow! 

Better late than never indeed lol.

This is pretty much an "everything but the kitchen sink" kind of build, where I wanted an M06, but was disappointed by how plasticky and cheap-looking it looked in stock form. Hence, I spent more than 3 times the cost of the kit in hop up options, some that make sense, and some I just found interesting.

As is my unfortunate habit, this build does not have a body yet, it's just a naked chassis until I get around to starting/finishing the Porsche 911 body that I recently bought to place on it.

As with my other build threads, each pic will be preceded with a caption describing some tidbit of information about that particular build stage. I apologize in advance for my sometimes cynical tone, I promise it is meant in jest :D

 

So off we go:

 

Here are 'some' of the accessories/hopups that will be going into the M06. The kit itself was bought as a parted out chassis, so no body or wheels were included (nor a box obviously).

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I started by ditching the stock diff (ditching stock pieces will become a theme here) and building up this YR 39 tooth oil-filled gear diff to replace it. Despite being one tooth off of the stock diff, the mesh was perfect with the rest of the gearbox. Magic? Maybe... Also you'll notice that I ditched the bushings and used rubber-sealed bearings throughout.

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Here is the gearcase enclosed with a YR motor-plate and heatsink on either side. I looked for the Tamiya version but it was out of stock everywhere at the time. Besides, the YR one has a fancy radiator-looking extension in the back which you'll see later. Also of note here is that I've used titanium screws everywhere, mostly because I prefer machine screws, and I prefer hex heads, and I prefer pretty looking screws lol.

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I'll be using the Superstock TZ motor for this build, because I really like to end up with a car that can't go 10 meters without slamming into the nearest wall. Also the colors match nicely.

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The TZ is now installed in its rightful place. The picture is taken against the splendid backdrop of the black and white manual showing the particular step I was following at the time. The hardest thing about this build was remembering what hopup to use and when, and hopping between the main M06 manual and the 20 or so little instruction leaflets for each hopup. You'll notice that I have the stock rear suspension arms on there, fastened together by titanium screws no less. I later replaced them with carbon-reinforced lightweight one-piece M05/M06 arms that were a little more in keeping with the spirit of this build (whatever that means).

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The chassis halves are now bolted together. I chose the medium setting because... well because I had no body to match it up to, and it felt wrong going long or short for no particular reason. Luckily, the body I ended up liking and getting ONE YEAR LATER turned out to be medium length (225mm wheelbase), so it worked out at the end. I used titanium coated suspension shafts all around. Nothing quite like the occasional flying e-clip to add some drama and mystery into a Tamiya build.

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Still plasticky. Needs more blue bling.

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I opened Screw Bag A in anticipation of starting the build, but I didn't end up using anything from it. So for Screw Bag B, I held off on opening it until I needed something from it. As I suspected, I didn't use anything from that either lol. The build is finished and they still look like this.

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Rear damper mount installed, with titanium upper suspension links.

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The rear hubs going on. I decided to use fluorine-coated ball connectors because I hadn't tried them before. They're actually so slippery to the touch that there were a couple times I thought they were still loose while turning them with my hand, but they were in fact tightly affixed to the part, only my fingers were slipping around them as if they were spinning!

(Note to self: there are no fluorine-coated ball-connectors in this particular picture, the audience will either get confused or think you're lying)

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Steel and aluminum universal shafts courtesy of Yeah Racing. They even came with white blade protecty-thingies so they don't wear out the drive cups! I've had mixed results with YR universals. Later that year when I was building an MF01X (which uses the same length cvds), one of the YR cvd shafts had messed-up thread that prevented me from fastening the wheel nut. It drove me 'nuts' (npi) and made me think the nut was bad, when it was the shaft all along. So be warned.

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This is the rear end completed, minus the dampers and the wheels. I used aluminum spacers to compensate for the suspension shafts (which were made for the M06!) being a little too long.

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Carbon rear shock tower, because it would look silly if I bought an aluminum shock tower brace and then used the plastic shock tower. This (along with the ball-end suspension shaft) allowed me to angle the rear shocks so they are a little more aligned with the angle of the front shocks. The stock setup does not allow this.

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Front lower suspension pieces installed on the chassis. Also titanium shafts were used instead of screw pins. Of particular note in this pic is the first appearance of the previously mentioned fluorine-coated ball connectors (those grey things at the bottom of the pic)!

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I went back and replaced the flexy two-piece stock suspension arms with lightweight one-piece CF reinforced arms. They're labelled as fit for the M05, but as you can see here they are a direct drop-in for the M06 as well.

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Aluminum steering rack installed. IIRC, this was the comparatively spendy Tamiya set, not the much more sensible YR set. No, I don't know what I was thinking getting the former instead of the latter. Note the two JIS screws that were supplied with the set, which I had to use, because the Tamiya titanium screw set didn't account for someone wanting to install the TAMIYA aluminum steering set, which uses two countersunk screws there, rather than the buttonhead screws that were there before. Very smart of them. I'll go back and fix that later.

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Moving along... the front hubs are installed. Aluminum naturally. Also titanium kingpins. Here I decided to go back and put white dust covers on the ball connectors, since I didn't want dust and debris damaging the fluorine coating. I did that too all of them though, not just the fluorine ones. The chassis is looking quite different from a stock M06 at this point.

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Covering most of the front end is the front chassis brace, doing its best to make this M06 look plasticky again. I think it succeeded lol. The chassis is now complete (mostly), and ready to have the dampers fitted.

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I chose to put the Tamiya M-Chassis Aluminum Big Bore Dampers Plus. I'm not sure what it takes for Big T to admit that these are TRF dampers and put that in the name, but I digress. VERY smooth action, titanium shafts, white delrin pistons. Basically completely over-the-top for an M06, and probably more suited to an M08. Notice how I couldn't use fluorine-coated ball connectors for the bottom of the shocks, because they needed to have 8mm thread, not the standard 5mm. I'm not mad. Ok maybe a little bit.

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Oh great. I forgot to install the stabilizer bars. Back in we go...

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Front and rear stabilizer bars installed (only front shown here), after removing the whole steering assembly and a undoing all the top suspension links. It was fiddly to say the least! I do like this picture though! 

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Wheels on, electronics in, carbon battery cover and carbon body-post brace on. If you look closely you can spot a partially-done Mazda MX5 body in the background. Although it fits, I found it a shame to put all this under a Mazda, so I bought a Porsche 911 body.

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I'll update this thread further if/when I get around to putting a body on this chassis. Thanks for watching! :)

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Forgot to mention: I had to source this tiny aluminum servo stay from Germany because it was out of stock everywhere, and it alone cost me around $45 including shipping. But I wasn't gonna use the stock plastic one, so that's that. Also shown here is the high-torque servo saver and aluminum servo horn. The servo is a PowerHD 13kg metal geared, the least expensive servo I have, but I'm sure it's more than up to the job of steering an M06.

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Also forgot: (I'm forgetful ok?) I went back and installed two titanium countersunk screws for the steering set. They were bugging me. Obviously they're not pictured here, because I forgot to take a picture. Instead, here's a nice in-focus (for a change) picture of what I consider the best angle of this chassis:

IMG-20201205-025324.jpg

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Great build - making me want to start an over the top M08 project....!

 

Edited by BuggyGuy
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Wow! That’s a thing of beauty. Great work and love the huge amount of hop ups! 

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Absolutely no interest in or even knew what an M06 was at the beginning but I’m invested now. When’s the Porsche bit? 

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7 hours ago, Mad Zero said:

Absolutely no interest in or even knew what an M06 was at the beginning but I’m invested now. When’s the Porsche bit? 

I have a couple of family-less weekends coming up at the end of this month, so I will most likely try to tackle it then.

I'm still not very good at painting bodies, so don't expect wonders lol.

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13 hours ago, BuggyGuy said:

Great build - making me want to start an over the top M08 project....!

 

You mean like this? :D

IMG-20200829-135212.jpg

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9 hours ago, DeadMeat666 said:

I have a couple of family-less weekends coming up at the end of this month, so I will most likely try to tackle it then.

I'm still not very good at painting bodies, so don't expect wonders lol.

Well I’ll be tuning in & probably a few pro bodyshell artists so no pressure :lol:

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Great stuff 👍🏻 So now I’m going to have to start my M06 all over, except the servo and main tub, those are the same saving me 20 bucks 😉

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On 10/2/2021 at 7:13 AM, DeadMeat666 said:

I have a couple of family-less weekends coming up at the end of this month, so I will most likely try to tackle it then.

I'm still not very good at painting bodies, so don't expect wonders lol.

So where are you up to DM666?

Just got myself an Alpine M06 that will be jacked up a bit for rallying and have enjoyed your thread(s) very much. Keen to see how the Porsche ended up,

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