Finally got back to machining some stuff

Took a break from machining for a bit but over the weekend I finally got round to doing some of the parts I've had churning around in my head for a bit... Here's a quick rundown.

First off, the Tamiya TRF511 was taken off the shelf. It's been sitting there ever since my 23mm tall saddle pack lipos were decommissioned and I bought some 25mm tall LRP ones. The reason is that the taller packs didn't fit in the 511. I've seen some very creative solutions to fit the taller packs and the one I liked best was to slightly shift the packs back to clear the center bulkheads. These would shift the weight backwards as well which in my opinion is a good thing for the somewhat aggressive 511 buggy. So I machined the outer Lipo retainers, a center "spacer" as well as new battery straps.

The other advantage is that this mod allows me to use the heavier 5000mah packs which are about 35g heavier than my previous packs. I used to run 45g of weight around the batteries so now I can remove most of that *and* gain more runtime.








Next up the TRF502 also got a new mod. After the recent race I found that I could use a tad more low speed steering. I've heard about the mods that Lee Martin in Europe had done to give the 502 better steering geometry like the 511. So I machined a center steering link to move the ball studs forwards and slightly outwards to allow the 502 to get similar ackerman as the 511.






Lastly, the 2WD section also got some of my attention. I've always wanted to get the Cougar to work better on the dirt tracks that we run on and I've suspected that the loose rear on the car is generally due to weight distribution. I wanted to move weight more to the rear so I decided to go to a saddle layout. Schumacher sells their own version of these as an option but I went ahead to machine my own. Preliminary tests show that the car is a *lot* more planted but the rear shocks now need tuning as they are way too soft for the increased rear weight bias.

Here's a before/after view...

BEFORE



AFTER



Testing to be done on all cars as soon as I get the chance! :)

Vids from our NOOB Series 4WD Round 1 Race

Took the win today with the TRF502X. Run 1 was won by the always competitive Tein with his DEX410 but managed to snag the win by taking Run 2 and Run 3.

A Main Run 2




A Main Run 3

Yokomo YZ870C First Run

Here's a video of the car's first run. Boy was I impressed. The car tracked straight, accelerated hard and steered really tight. I dare say in the right hands this car will stand a good chance making it to the A Main in the local races!

enjoy!

Yokomo YZ870C - all ready to race!

Finally my Yokomo YZ-870C is ready to run, finished up some final mods and also a body shell for the car.

Here's a shell that the used car came with. Gave it a good wash and trimmed up some of the cracked areas and it actually came out looking like a decent basher shell. I was told by a friend this looks like a "Eagle" shell from Parma. It looks like it was purpose made for this car given the way it fits with the under-tray.



I like the design of the shell very much although the paint on this one could have been a lot better. Funny thing is, "cab-forward" buggy designs were present even in the vintage era - though I must say the execution seems so much more aesthetically pleasing than the current crop of Bulldog and Punisher shells. lol


As I gave the car a once over I noticed quite a bit of slop in the suspension, particularly where the hingepins go through the bulkheads. I thought of machining some front and rear hingepin braces to take up some of the slop, but the wonderful guys at RC10talk.com suggested this solution - longer hingepins, a couple of balls and a turnbuckle. Nice!


Here's a pic of the car ready to run with lipo batts and a black can motor (requirement of our local vintage event). I also wussed out and changed the elegant stock bumper for a larger RPM one which offers more protection.


Okay so the nice basher shell comes off and here's the car with the Protech shell it's supposed to run - done up in the same paint that I run on almost all my race cars. I got this shell from Mr Lexan and I must say his work is very good - lexan seems to be of excellent quality and the body is well made with proper overspray film too.


Fresh paint, JC tires to fit 2.2" JConcept Caliber tires, RPM bumper, vintage AE gold shocks...


One more pic to go!


Drop me a comment if you like this restoration project.

YZ-870C update - lipo trays, body shell...

The last 2 days have been very unfortunate ones with regard to my tools... for some strange reasons, accidents have resulted in 1 broken carbide end mill, reamer and machine tap... and 1 messed up drillbit as well.

At least through it all there's been some progress on my 870C. Slow and steady she goes!

Manage to mill out new lipo battery trays as well as stand offs for thumbscrews to hold down the batteries. The tray on the right of the car can be flipped over to swap the battery position for weight adjustments.




Batteries mounted. Barely visible is also the servo mount plate that I made. I didn't want to drill any new holes to mount the servo so I used the existing holes in the chassis originally used to attached the chassis "spine".



Also trimmed out the shell and undertray. Took a bit of fiddling and trimming to get it to fit right especially with the new top-deck mounted. Here's a pic with the shell and Pro-line Caliber tires all round. Starting to look like an 870C now!



Gonna mask up the shell and get it painted.



Some stuff still to finish... wingmount wire, cut and paint wing, glue tires, rebuild shocks, install electronics.

If time allows I'm going to try to mount a rear brace to the hingepins also, not to strengthen it but to remove some of the slop. lol!

Vintage SG Coyote 2WD Buggy!

Won this on ebay last week and the postman delivered a nice big box today!

It's a buggy made by an Italian company - probably sometime in the 1980s - called a Coyote. The Coyote was actually a 4WD buggy but it wasn't unusual for companies back in the day to "convert" a 4WD buggy into 2WD simply by omitting the front transmission parts from the kit. This was the case with the 2WD Coyote.

The Coyote wasn't exactly a very well known buggy, but like many buggies in its time it boasted some very interesting and unique features. I hope I can cover some of these as I build this New-In-Box kit, hopefully in time for our vintage run in December. :)

Here's a picture of the NIB kit. It's awesome enough to receive vintage buggies in the mail, but the feeling of receiving a NIB ready to be built can't be beat!


The buggy pictured on the box is actually the 4WD version as the front drive shafts are clearly visible. It was obvious that - other than the giant number "2" on the box - this car was simply a repacked and rebadged 4WD kit. Even the list of features printed on the box says "TWO FOUR WHEEL DRIVE" as if to highlight the split personality of the car. :)


Here's a picture of the side of the box with the "Technical Data" of the car. Again, the car pictured is a 4WD version.


Upon opening the box I'm greeted with SG's version of blister packaging. While it is a far cry from the awesome Tamiya blister pack presentation (which often highlighted many of the performance parts in a kit), the Coyote's packaging is neat and functional.

Check out the manual too - boldly declaring "4WD"!



Lift up the blister and all the various parts of the car are neatly packaged. Also visible is the lexan shell which on first impression looks very well made and feels quite substantial.


Here's one quick pic of the manual - as stated before it is a manual for the 4WD version of the car with no obvious notes for how the 2WD car should be built. I'll figure that out during the build itself. :)




I look forward to building this kit soon but I will have to first measure and count the many self-tapping screws included and order up some more "modern" hex head screws.

Tune in for the build to start!

Finally a top deck for my YZ-870C

One more car to finish up for the vintage event and that's my Yokomo YZ-870C. Some of the great folk over at RC10talk informed me that the front bulkhead was prone to breakage especially where the front shock tower was attached. Their advise? Fashion a top deck to support the back of the tower to take some of the load off the bulkhead in the case of impact.

Took quite some time to measure up everything carefully but I'm very pleased with how it turned out!




Front of top deck with shock tower support. :)

Mudblaster and Yokomo 834B shells...

So it appears white is the new black. lol!

Short post with quick pics.

Mudblaster with painted shell... she's ready for the vintage event!



And here's the stickered up 834B. It's a basher shell so just trying to get it to look a tad cooler...

Yokomo YZ834B RPS SE Track Test

Here's how the car looked at the last vintage event held in October...



Although it started life as an RPS SE I had returned it to stock 834B specs for the event with the twin-monoshock suspension setup too.

I had a blast with the car but it was far from competitive. The stock wheels/tires combined with the monoshock suspension just couldn't handle the rutted track very well. For the upcoming event in December I wanted to go back to a dual-shock rear setup. So here's the car back in RPS trim.



Basher shell



With the rear independent suspension and the larger, more "modern" 2-inch wheels and tires the car was certainly transformed! It's still no TRF511, but it did much much better. Rough track handling was improved and the car was a lot more settled. There were some wierd steering characteristics but I attribute that to the limited steering throw (leading to a lack of steering) and the front one-way-bearing design (leading to the occasional breaking of rear traction resulting in too much "steering").

I did have problems with the king-pins though. The design of the car uses grub screws in the knuckles to hold the kingpins but because the kingpins are totally cylindrical there really isn't much for the grub screws to hold onto. Coupled with the soft plastic the knuckles are made of, this resulted in the kingpins coming undone easily.

Solution? I machined new kingpins with notches on the surface for a firmer hold. This way, the grub screw doesn't need to tighten all the way down to secure the kingpin, the notch will hold it in... that's the idea anyway.

Here's a pic of the new kingpins (I know... not much to see till I take pics of the pins removed) but they should work well and will be tested soon.

There's a local Vintage RC event - called the NOOB CLASSICS - planned on 12 Dec 2010. It's the first event of it's kind and here's a couple of vintage cars that are doing some laps on the local track! :)

Nichimo Luminous - vintage and unusual!

Check out this little RC gem from the 1980s that I picked up from a local collector recently. This is the Nichimo Luminous 4WD buggy!

The 1980s would be the golden era of RC for me where many manufacturers were producing RC cars with all sorts of designs which embodied very unique concepts and ideas. It was an age of innovation and ideas which made the cars from that time very unique - unlike today's much developed world of RC where a newcomer would be hardpressed to tell the difference between a Tamiya TRF201, Losi XXX-CR, Associated B4, etc.

It was cool to pick up such a nice specimen of this buggy - it is essentially a newly built buggy in tip top condition.

Here are some other pics. :)

The buggy came with era-specific electronics too! A mint condition set of Acoms radio gear!




Here's a picture of the buggy without the body shell.




Unique motor placement - doesn't help maintain a low center of gravity I'm sure. lol!




Servo placement on the car. It was interesting to find the manual speed control (3 speed forward and reverse baby!!!) installed *ON* the servo. I am more familiar with the Kyosho / Tamiya type MSCs that had the speed control installed elsewhere on the car actuated by a standard servo horn setup.




Aluminum shocks were considered "racing-spec" then. These are even adjustable with 3 positions for the collar to adjust ride height. I don't see the point though, the springs are so hard even in the top-most position the car sits with zero-droop! Of course, back in the 80s buggies were almost always run at FULL ride height. :)




Cool placement of the switch in the rear under the wing. The resistors for the speed control are located under the switch - very cool.




Check out the cool motto on the wing - I'm not sure if it's original though...




One last pic of the underside of the car. This huge casing houses the limited-slip center differential. See how cool the 80s were? A 3-diff buggy with a cool limited-slip diff!!!



What a cool car. Most guys will say it's the ugliest body-shell ever designed (I would agree though today's cab-forward body designs are giving this a good run for it's money) but you can't deny the car is unique in it's quirkiness!