My first build thread: Yup, another Hyper 7

[optimus]

After reading a few of the build threads on here I thought I put up my own. I know this has been done to death but I have never done any kind of conversion before, just straight forward kit builds of a TL01 and a TC3 that came with instruction booklets which held your hand through building.

I went for the 7 because of the availability and cheapness of spares, I know there are newer and better cars but I won't be racing and I wanted something that was tough although next time I do a build it'll probably a Losi 8ight.

Anyways, here goes....

This is the car as advertised on theifBay:

It had visible signs of wear but I asked the seller if he'd sell it as a roller as it was up for sale at

[optimus]

I started to order bits for the car. I needed a motor and at least another battery to match one of the ones I already had so that I could run them together as 4s so I got these from HobbyKing, I also bought some electric gubbins at the same time and an extra pair of batteries (my charger only goes up to 3s).

While looking around the chassis I noticed the front pin holder was damaged so I bought some new ones and some chassis braces from Marderboy. I bought the chassis braces after reading that the chassis can flex during hard use and cause issues with the centre driveshafts. I'm not planning to bash the car hard but I just wanted to add strength where I could.

Next I tried to fit the motor. This was difficult to do as a result of the fins that run around the can. In the end I had to remove the motor/diff mount just to get the motor to fit.

I then refitted the battery tray that I had removed previously....

I posted this picture up in another thread and another forum member kindly told me that the tray was too close to the spur which would eat the tray and my lipo.

I didn't like the sound of that.

Out the tray came and after scratching my head I decided that new holes would need to be drilled into the chassis to mount the tray where I wanted it. This also meant that I needed to raise the tray further because it came into contact with the screws that hold the side guards into the chassis which was angling the tray towards the spur again, not as bad as before but I just wanted to be safe. Also, I did not want to use the side guards to mount anything as they are made of plastic and will get bashed about which I presume is not good for lipo's.

Countersunk screw holes for the tray:

I raised the tray off of the side guard with a spacer made from carbon fibre faced glass fibre that I had laying around:

Spacer fitted to battery tray mount:

The spacer is screwed to the mount with a countersunk screw to ease alignment when screwing everything to the chassis.

It fits! (Underneath):

It fits pt.2! Note room between tray and spur gear. I'm a genius!:

*edit* - I forgot to mention that I had to use some clear washers that came with some plastic numberplate bolts to raise the motor mount slightly as I found out the hyper 8 conversion mount sits lower than the hyper 7 one which explained why the spur came so close to the chassis when looking from underneath. With the spacers the spur sits right in the middle of the cut out in the chassis. This also helped with the clearance between the motor and the chassis as there was virtually no clearance before.

Edited August 23, 2014 by optimus

[optimus]

While I was pushing my brain into overdrive with my amazing feats of r/c engineering and fabrication I ordered these bits:

The suspension arms came with nuts and bolts instead of the pins and circlips and would replace the battered ones that where on the car when it arrived. I also ordered the ST shock towers because of their strength and the fact they use the extra mounting holes on the diff cases. A new steering assembly and some bargain CNC steering knuckles also arrived:

The costs are adding up at this point but funnily enough this is also the point I stopped counting how much everything was costing lol. The good thing was I was making some money from some of my other R/C bits that I was no longer using.

I mounted the towers and fitted the bodyshell which highlighted a new problem. The lack of clearance between the batteries and the bodyshell when they are mounted in the tray. This was partially caused by the raised battery try and by the side by side layout of the batteries I will be using and also the fact that the car was supposed to have an engine instead of two chunky batteries. This meant I had to make a bracket to raise the shell at the rear. The end result does the job nicely and feels solid.

It fits! Pt3:

No rubbing on the shell. Sweet.

While making the mounting bracket for the shell mount I made a plate for the top of the diff so that I could mount the extra chassis braces I bought:

[optimus]

Next I tackled the electrics. The wires on the motor where very long, as where the wires for the ESC. Rather than shortening both sets of wires I just cut down the motor side. I had bought a bunch 4mm straight connectors from Hobbyking and some 4mm right angled plugs. The straight connectors where used for the leads between the motor and ESC whereas I used the angled ones for the ESC to battery connections. I ended up doing a decent job and finished it off with some heat-shrink:

Looks a bit like an arachnid...

The blue wire is used to join 2 2s batteries to make them operate as a 4s.

Motor connected up:

I'm not that happy with the routing, still looks a little untidy but it can bet tidied up without too much of an issue...

[MAZ]

This has been 'liked' as its pretty snazzy, well done sir

[barnestah]

Nice little build sir. I'm thinking those chassis braces's might work on my X1-CR. Although I might stick with the cnc braces and a carbon fibre front top deck option to mount my esc to. Keep us updated on progress.

[optimus]

This has been 'liked' as its pretty snazzy, well done sir

Much appreciated, thank you!

[optimus]

Nice little build sir. I'm thinking those chassis braces's might work on my X1-CR. Although I might stick with the cnc braces and a carbon fibre front top deck option to mount my esc to. Keep us updated on progress.

Thanks dude, I'll try to get the rest of the thread done today as the car is pretty much done and just needs the suspension fiddling with...

[optimus]

Right, the next dilemma was getting the battery tray to work with my battery layout. I didn't want to stack the batteries on top of each other as I was worried about what would happen to the top battery on landings and I didn't want to have to wrap the batteries together to make them secure.

Cue more head-scratching...

I decided that I would need to butcher the battery tray to make my battery layout work. Thankfully I bought the right angled plugs as they where ideal for what I wanted to do:

This pic was taken after I already cut the tray and tested the car with the batteries. I decided to make the corner hole longer so that if the battery moved backwards (there is padding at the back end of the tray to help the batteries fit snugly) the plug could move with the battery and not be damaged by the side of the battery tray.

It fits pt4!

Then I tidied the wiring a bit:

Shell on:

I then had a chance to test the car a bit more and found that the thing would wheelie and the unload the front like crazy resulting in some mad inflated donut wheel action. A bit more reading on here and I found that this was probably being caused by the centre diff needing thicker oil as it was probably still set up for nitro. So I took the diff out and carefully opened it up just incase it exploded or something. It just had grease in it so I put some 100k in there and put it back together (sorry, no pics). The 100k helped bigtime and minimised the dinghy tyres. However, I still need to split the front and rear diffs to fill them up as I bet they just have grease in them too. This is a shame because I had the front and rear diffs out when I put the new suspension arms and gubbins on...

...Oh yeah! I got some new shocks too!:

TQ2 shocks, felt very soft under the weight of the car with 35wt so I bought 50wt which caused the suspension to move too slowly. I had the genius idea of widening the holes in the pistons to try and help. The front was softer than the back so I only widened 2 of the 4 holes in each of the front shocks:

After reassembling the shocks I found they where softer than when I first put the 50wt in but not quite as soft as they originally were so I bought 60wt. This helped further but still it was softer than I'd like. I think I'll be putting some 75 or 80 in there next (this may sound crazy but remember the holes are larger in the dampers) and I found out about stiffer springs being available so I'll get a set of those. The damping seems pretty even front to back though so only opening up 2 of the damping holes at the front seems to have worked in that sense.

[optimus]

I then decided to make a new larger diff top plate because I didn't like the rx hanging off the servo tray. As small and as light as the rx is its location wasn't great and putting it on the top plate just seemed logical as my ESC is located in front of the battery tray:

Another random shell on pic:

Different angle:

Artistic shot:

Then I read a Hyper 7 build thread where the builder used some modded Vorza shock tower protectors on his ST shock towers so I bought some for my 7:

I didn't want the expensive shock towers getting damaged if I could avoid it.

[barnestah]

Yeah I have similar issues with tyre ballooning. My diffs have 7k - 10k - 7k at the moment and medium flex belted vp pro evo striker tyre's. But a 60mph + the tyre's were still catching my body. So I've cut nearly an inch out of each side of the stone gaurds. Luckily I am in the process of making a new body so thining it down is not an issue.

Excuse the roughness of it at the moment. It work in progress.

[optimus]

So, while I actually quite liked the look of the clear shell, I knew it was time to paint it. I had to said for the right time to do it as I didn't want any fumes to be around the house with my wife and children home. The opportunity arose when I got home from work one day to find the house empty.

Where is everyone?

I call the Mrs..."I'm at my mums house"

"Alright babes, I'll collect you guys later on"...

Quick! Spray cans out!!

I was in such a rush I forgot to take pics of the process but long story short I had to mask the inside and outside because the overspray film had been removed. I also had to make the window masks from scratch from some carbon fibre wrap I had in my basement. The rest of the masking was done with Tamiya masking tape which is good stuff but I couldn't do bends very well with it which stopped me using it for the windows. The carbon fibre wrap done a great job of masking the windows btw. I used a hair dryer between layers to help with the drying. Unfortunately I think I went to heavy with the black and seemed to shrink causing lines to appear on the inside. I dried the black and then gave it another few thinner layers which sorted the problem so you'd never know there was an issue looking at it from the outside.

Inside:

Outside:

My daughter chose the Tamiya cherry red and I'm glad she did. Originally I was going to use red white and blue but decided black needed to be in there, then when I was in the shop choosing the colours with my children she said "I like that red better".

The masking is not brilliant and there are a couple areas of bleeding, overspray (can be sorted easily) and bad symmetry but I did the whole thing in around 1.5hrs and it is my first multi colour shell (and the first shell I've sprayed in 14 or so years). In hindsight I should have sprayed the inside white before doing the whole thing black, that would have probably help the cherry red to look brighter. I now know for next time though.

Once painted I rushed off to collect the family with the quickness lol.

Edited August 23, 2014 by optimus

[sozerelli]

Salute you, that is a tasty looking project

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[optimus]

Then I cut and fitted the Vorza shock guards:

And reshaped the servo tray slightly before spraying it fluorescent pink (I have no explanation for the colour):

Then I drove it around the garden for a while before the LVC kicked in. I need to get it to somewhere a bit more open though because I kept on rolling it (the result of a heavy trigger finger & narrow garden multiplied by highish suspension). Anyways here it is as it stood yesterday afternoon:

Overall I'm quite chuffed how it turned out and as I mentioned I just need to set up the chassis. I'll also be fitting the new swaybars that arrived this morning.

I'll add other pics and updates if I make any further changes but thanks for reading.

[Smoothybb]

1st - you must explain the flo pink servo tray!!

 

2nd - nice! Liking your finished hyper - a lot. Good job sir! 

[optimus]

Yeah I have similar issues with tyre ballooning. My diffs have 7k - 10k - 7k at the moment and medium flex belted vp pro evo striker tyre's. But a 60mph + the tyre's were still catching my body. So I've cut nearly an inch out of each side of the stone gaurds. Luckily I am in the process of making a new body so thining it down is not an issue.

Excuse the roughness of it at the moment. It work in progress.

I have some 5000wt oil waiting to try in the front and rear but I'll do that when I get a new bearing set. I noticed a few of the bearings felt a little rough so new bearings should increase the efficiency of the drive train. Are you running 6s then? 60mph sounds mental! I still get ballooning but it's only slight so I'm happy with the power transfer front to back now although I don't know if my tyres have been banded.

I've seen the work that has gone into your shell and take my hat off too you. I wish I still worked in the school I used to work in a couple years ago as they have a vacuum forming machine and would love to do something similar to what you have done.

[optimus]

Salute you, that is a tasty looking project

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks buddy.

I'd like to do another but that will have to wait but I will deffo be doing a Losi 8ight next but I also like truggies and have seen a few nice ST conversions on here so one of those would be cool too.

[MAZ]

Can you make me one of those little carbon fibre spacers to raise the shell pleeeeeaaassseeee!

[optimus]

1st - you must explain the flo pink servo tray!!

2nd - nice! Liking your finished hyper - a lot. Good job sir!

1st - Well it was a choice of the pink or matt black that was sitting on my shelf in my basement. The matt black took a few hours to dry, the pink 25 minutes. The rest is history lol.

2nd - Thanks! I know its probably boring having another 7 build but I think while there are similarities, everyone has also added their own touches and solutions to problems.

Cheers.

[optimus]

Can you make me one of those little carbon fibre spacers to raise the shell pleeeeeaaassseeee!

Funnily enough I have the prototype. It fits but I had to elongate some of the holes however its still solid once fitted. PayPal me a couple quid and it's yours.

[Smoothybb]

Okay, let you off on the flo pink then, seems a reasonable excuse.

 

Always good to see a build thread, like you say, everyone has their own little way, like the shock tower protectors, might look into those. 

 

Just out of interest, why two batteries and not just one? I went straight for a single 4s but see people going 2x2s or 2x3s.

[optimus]

Okay, let you off on the flo pink then, seems a reasonable excuse.

Always good to see a build thread, like you say, everyone has their own little way, like the shock tower protectors, might look into those.

Just out of interest, why two batteries and not just one? I went straight for a single 4s but see people going 2x2s or 2x3s.

Thanks for understanding the pink situation lol.

I thought the shock tower protectors where a good idea when I saw it, it just makes sense to try and protect them if poss because it won't be a shelf queen, it will be driven with intent (but not to destruction lol) I could have just doubled up some TQ2 shock towers as they are a fraction of the cost of the cost but the ST towers look much better...

I run two batteries because at the time of ordering battery packs at the beginning of the build I was still running the TC3 and Helion Dominus truggy, both of which use 2s. My charger could only handle up to 3s so I would only be able to charge one battery at a time which would mean it would have taken about 4 years to charge the 4 packs and even longer to do my sons 2 packs but I didn't want to buy another charger because I was supposed to be "on a budget". Anyway I just recently relented and bought another charger from another forum member as I knew I was being unreasonable with my single charger aspirations. My local hobby shop told me about an adaptor that will enable me to charge two 2s packs as one 4s so I just need to get one of these to use with the new charger. I was thinking of selling 2 of the packs and buying a 4s but I don't know which courier would carry them for a reasonable price.

Edited August 23, 2014 by optimus

[optimus]

I forgot to add the current specs so here they are:

ESC - Hobbywing WPSC8 (non sensored).

Motor - Turnigy Trackstar 2350kw 4 pole (sensored).

Batteries - Turnigy Nanotech 5.8 30-60c 2s (used as 4s).

Servo - Savox SC0252mg 10kg/0.19sec digital metal geared.

Tx/Rx - Helion HRS 3.1 2.4Ghz.

18t pinion.

Presumed standard spur, I've never counted the teeth.

TQ2 big bore shocks with medium springs (needs hard springs).

ST shock towers (probably my favourite mod).

CNC steering knuckles.

Nut and bolt hinge pins (I hate e-clips!).

Extra chassis braces mounted to diff top plate.

HPI Vorza shock tower protectors.

Adjustable turnbuckles all round.

Anti roll bars front and back.

I need to get a temp gun, the motor gets hot to the touch but the ESC and batteries only get warm. I also bought a 16t pinny so I might see how that goes.

One thing is for sure, I don't think I need to go faster, not for quite a while anyway. This thing moves even though it weighs the same as a small hatchback and would probably do some serious damage in my hands lol.

Edited August 24, 2014 by optimus

[optimus]

Update:

New white springs ordered and pistons changed to the two hole items that came with the shocks as spares. 80wt oil front and back. The

Hyper doesn't slap the floor as much as the previous setup (which was an improvement over the stock setup).

New bearings all round. Just waiting for 2 more bearings to be sent so the whole chassis will have been done.

Grease cleaned out of front and rear diffs and diffs filled with oil. Now has 10k front, 100k centre and 5k rear.

Now on the lookout for CNC rear hubs and possibly a Hyper SS motor mount as they offer easier adjustment and motor removal when changing pinions.

Also made a new centre diff top plate as the last one was too large and made it difficult to see the mesh on the spur/pinion. The new one makes adjustments a bit easier.

I have since adjusted the pinion so the spur is in the middle which will hopefully help with the fine metallic dust I was getting after I messed around with the pinion last week.

Edited September 5, 2014 by optimus

[andy1787]

Hi its a really nice build but if you don't mind me asking where did you get the shock towers from and the protectors