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MF-01X Suzuki Jimny all-weather runner build

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As those of you who read my post on the subject in the "Postman" thread already know, my birthday presents this year included a Jimny kit from my wonderful wife, along with all the gubbins required to build it.

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Under the wrapping paper I found the kit itself, a pair of Super Mini CVA shock packs, a steel pinion, a rubber-sealed bearing set, a waterproof Spektrum RX, a waterproof ballraced Alturn servo, a waterproof Mtroniks ESC, a set of metal wheel hexes, some AW grease to slow the diff action, a bag of long ball connectors for which I have a cunning plan to try to sort out the car's asymmetrical rear suspension travel, a set of black M-05RA F-parts to replace the unsightly red ones supplied in the kit, and finally a set of scale GB license plates that according to DVLA records are registered to a fullsize Jimny.

Having been inspired by YouTube videos of other people's RC Jimnys splashing through puddles and streams, my plan with this model is to build it to be fully submersible like my CC-01 Pajero. This should open up all sorts of terrain possibilities.

I have been considering many colour scheme options, including painting it up as a working vehicle of some sort:

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...But when looking at my wheel and tyre options, none appeared all that workmanlike. I think it is the proportions of wheels versus tyres - no matter what rim style I choose, the big wheels and relatively low-profile Rally Blocks suggest a mildly customised fun ride rather than a hardworking stock one.

So rather than fight it, I decided to go with it. Googling images of customised 4X4s gave me plenty of inspiration, but there was one theme that seemed to suit pretty much every vehicle it was applied to:

Land Rover:

p5.land-rover-defender-diesel-four-wheel

Jeep:

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Gelandewagen:

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Even Fiat:

p5.fiat-panda-diesel-4-x-4_zpskyhjat88.j

And of course the Jimny, both mild:

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...And wild:

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So with the "Black 'n Bling" theme in mind, I have chosen my wheels for the project:

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Why two packs? To be able to add a functional spare of course! :)

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Awesome stuff buddy I'm sure you're already enjoying the build.

I don't think I'll ever be happy with the wheel and tyre options on this little truck, they all look out of proportion - aside from the very expensive 1.55" option of course!

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Ahahahah! This Jimny is located in Susa Valley, near my home in Italy!

It's the vehicle of the Civil Protection Volunteers.

Nice!

Max

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Ahahahah! This Jimny is located in Susa Valley, near my home in Italy!

It's the vehicle of the Civil Protection Volunteers.

Nice!

Max

That's cool! What do the Civil Protection Volunteers do?

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Awesome stuff buddy I'm sure you're already enjoying the build.

I think I am about to!

Since I strongly dislike trimming bodyshells, I decided to start with this step to get it out of the way. And since the most stressful part of trimming bodyshells is drilling holes where there are no dimples to mark their positions, I thought I had best start with the hole for the spare wheel mounting bolt.

You know what they say: "Measure twice, measure again, measure a fourth time to be sure, then eyeball it to make sure you measured it right."

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...And the hole is in the right place!

The bodyshell polycarbonate is a bit on the thin side at the rear, so to reinforce the mounting area, I cut two large "washers" from thick polycarbonate which will be bonded in place subsequent to painting. These should help the body support the weight of the spare wheel and mounting bolt.

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Everything mounts up straight and true, and my little assistant approves.

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With that sorted, the rest of the trimming went smoothly enough, using a combination of curved scissors and score-and-snap techniques.

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With the weather outside taking a turn for the worse this afternoon, I didn't think it wise to proceed with masking and spraying, so I am about to start the fun stuff - chassis construction! :D

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First step with chassis construction is to free up the parts required for the rear diff. I thought I may as well trim all the gears from the sprue while I was at it.

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Unlike many recent Tamiya kits with black fibre-reinforced gears, this kit uses the traditional off-white ones we know and love.

No surprises in the diff:

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As I intend to use the car for offroad trails, I locked the rear diff. As this chassis does not lend itself to frequent diff changes, I locked it using hot glue. I doubt I'll need to unlock it again any time soon, but just in case I do, I greased the gears first to facilitate easy removal of the hot glue if required.

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The diff joins the other rear gearbox gubbins in a grey plastic moulding. Rubber sealed bearings are employed as befitting a practical offroader.

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Although the grey plastic colour is reminiscent of the lightweight but weak TL-01LA chassis parts, it seems good and tough.

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I am employing a stock plastic motor plate for this build. I use a metal one in my brushless M-05 to help with cooling, but my M-06 rally car with its 27t brushed motor keeps plenty cool enough with the plastic one. As I am going to run the same motor in this model, I foresee no issues.

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The gearbox mouldings don't fit together as tightly as one might expect from a well-designed Tamiya model, and the instructions call for the use of foam tape to seal the gaps.

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As I will be running this model in all weathers on all terrains, I didn't want to take any chances, so I was quite generous with the tape, and grease-sealed the joints for extra security.

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Adding the rear shock tower and ball connectors for the upper arms finishes the rear gearbox sub-assembly.

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We now turn our attention to the steering.

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I am employing an inexpensive Alturn AAS700 servo, which is ballraced, fully waterproof, more than strong enough for such a small and light model, and cheap to replace if it ever does go wrong (not that I think it will - I have several of these in various models and none have failed me yet).

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The servo saver and servo horn come from two different sprues which appear to have been moulded to different tolerances as there is a fair bit of slop between the grey and beige parts. The tape trick tightens them up nicely though.

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The servo needs the small vertical spacers to bring the top of the servo arm to the requisite 24mm from the servo mount.

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The medium horizontal spacer centres it nicely in the chassis.

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Don't worry about over using the foam tape - there is way more provided than you could ever actually use!

Very familiar to building a TL01 isn't it? Lots of 1150 bearings too!

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The Protezione Civile (Civil Protection or Civil Defence) department is the national body in Italy that deals with the prediction, prevention and management of exceptional events and any sort of catastrophes like earthquakes, floods, fires, great events and so on.
The term Protezione Civile outlines all the facilities and activities used by the state to protect the sake of life, the properties, the settlements and the environment from damages and dangers caused by natural catastrophes.
In order to cope with the risky and difficult situations, the Protezione Civile needs a great deal of volunteers and all the other existing forces.

Volunteers join together in no profit associations that unite and coordinate with the Civil Defence and in which were equipped with rescue equipment, are trained and formed in order to be ready in case of problems.Volunteers are not paid and are combined with other forces and departments that make up the Civil Protection. Disaster relief volunteers, if called, are allowed to leave their jobs to provide relief.
A friend of mine was in the Civil Defence and he had to rush, leaving its job, in a little town outside the city because of the fall on the houses of an airplane just after take-off.

Max

That's cool! What do the Civil Protection Volunteers do?

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@kontemax: Thanks for the info! Sounds like it might make an interesting subject for a "tribute" colour scheme on a future shell.

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We now turn our attention to the front gearbox.

The bearing holders will be familiar to builders of other current M-chassis cars.

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The kit comes with garish red ones, but I prefer black.

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They clip into the chassis mouldings, allowing one to use a variety of gear and ball diffs in the car, including those where the outdrives pass through a larger bearing, as on the rear of the TA-06 for example.

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The front diff is not locked, but has been filled with AW grease to slow its action. This combo of locked rear and slowed front works well on my Evoque, and should work well here too.

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The gears ride on more rubber sealed bearings. The front gearbox mouldings seem better designed than the rears, with no need to resort to sticky foam seals, but I grease-sealed the joints anyway prior to putting the two halves together.

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With two half chassis, it is time to build the spacer that joins them in MWB configuration.

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Some builders have reported warping of the plastic at this point, but I didn't notice any. Lucky I guess, or perhaps there is some variation in the mouldings?

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With the basic chassis complete, the similarities to the TL-01 are clear to see. Another thing that struck me was the weight - although smaller than the TL-01, it feels significantly heavier.

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Propshaft next, with its IMHO overly complex arrangement of bearings and spacers.

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Why they couldn't have simply used 4 X 1150 bearings like the TL-01, or even 4 X 850s, I do not know.

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It all fits in neatly enough though, with absolutely no need for the rubber cement called for in the instructions. The gear caps fitted nicely, but were also grease-sealed for extra peace of mind.

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Suspension and uprights next!

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Rear lower arms will be familiar to anyone who has built an M-03, M-04, M-05 or M-06.

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...As will the fronts.

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Agreed on all your findings.

For me the spacer 'warped' because (bizarrely) a couple of the screws can actually be over-tightened bringing the two halves too close together. I do all my screws by feel by hand and was surprised when these didn't bottom out first - I had to undo them both a couple of turns.

I'm just waiting on some deliveries before I embark on a long wheelbase version...

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Looking forward to seeing your build thread! Which shell do you have in mind for it?

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The unsightly red hubs and uprights have been replaced with neat black M-05RA items.

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Past experience with other M-chassis builds has shown me that it is quite easy to misalign the kingpins leading to binding of the steering. To ensure perfect alignment, I therefore run a long straight M3 bolt through both kingpin holes prior to attachment, making sure the threads line up in both of them.

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With the threads pre-cut, it is also a lot easier to get the kingpins into place without damaging the screwheads, which don't seem to be the best fit for a JIS screwdriver.

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I really really wanted to do an mx5 drift car but it would have been expensive (£40 in parts before paint) that I think it would have been prohibitive to me actually using the car - a mistake I make all-to often!!

So it's a Nissan S-body drift pig instead!

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Sounds like a plan!

I know what you mean about investing so heavily in a car that you end up not wanting to use it. I was like that with my CC-01 Pajero initially. It was only when it took a tumble down a rock face during a photo shoot and picked up some scratches that I got over it and started enjoying the model as a runner.

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With the uprights attached and the shocks (Super Mini CVAs) and bumper in place, the front end looks very M-05ish.

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I wonder if the M-05 front shock tower hop-ups would fit? I suspect so...

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The wheels were fitted using metal hexes rather than the plastic ones that tend to crack in cold weather.

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Now we divert from the manual for a while, to fix some of the issues that have been raised by previous builders.

The first issue is that of the slightly wobbly joint between the rear uprights and their extensions, which are held on with only one screw on each side. The joints experience very little stress fore and aft, so the single screw in each side is enough to keep them together. However the parts do not fit tightly enough to completely lock out side-to-side movement. In stock form this makes camber adjustments rather hit-and-miss, as the camber changes when the two parts pivot on the single screw and move relative to each other.

The M-05RA uprights feature two mounting holes at the top, but they are too close together to both be used with conventional screws as the heads interfere with each other. I saw a fix for this in a Japanese build blog that involved countersinking one pair of holes, but this removes material and weakens the parts.

Instead I opted for these:

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They are screwed into the second set of holes, like so:

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The protruding threaded shafts engage with the second set of holes in the upright extensions, locking them against side-to-side movement, without any modifications or material removal required. It is such a simple fix that I am surprised Tamiya didn't include it in the manual.

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The second fix is one I am particularly pleased with. As we know from previous build reports, the right rear upper suspension arm hits the propshaft gear cover, preventing full droop of the suspension. One possible fix is to grind away part of the cover, but I didn't fancy grinding on a brand new car. Instead, I opted for the following approach:

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Rather than using the supplied short brass ball studs in the upright extensions, I used a pair of 9805825 long ball studs instead. This moves the upper arm forwards, clear of the gear cover, allowing symmetrical droop.

To move the upper shock mount forwards and out of the way, I ommitted the spacer between the shock tower and the upper ball stud. To keep the shock aligned, I moved the bottom mounting point forwards too, by using another pair of long ball studs.

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Everything lines up beautifully, with the shock perfectly vertical, no binding or interference between parts, and no grinding or other irreversible mods required.

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Again, the fix is so simple that I am surprised that the kit doesn't come like this as standard.

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Do you need to drill the second set of holes out to 3mm to allow the threaded shaft to engage, or are the holes already big enough?

Dorvack.

The holes are already just big enough for a snug fit. No further mods are required.

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