My RWD solid axle front engine Escort MK2 build

[Frederik]

Funny you mention it! That’s exactly what I’m after! I started looking for 1:10 scale 4 cylinder engines to put on the motor and would like to know the options, if you know other models I have not seen. I don't styrene just yet and I thought I'd take a shortcut and find something already done, and not outrageously expensive. Since the motor is pretty wide I was thinking of something with 4 individual intake horns on the throttle bodies, these end up pretty wide usually so it should hide more. Also was thinking of a twin cam engine so it hides more, and I came across the Toyota 4E-AG from Dimension RC. It is my favorite for now, fairly expensive though, probably worth it, but I'd like to know who else you guys know does a similar engine so I can ponder more options. 

This one is made for drift cars so it only has the top part of everything, I'd have to build something to at least cover the sides of the motor.

 

It seems like the 4E-AG was swapped on some MK1 and 2 Escorts so it would somewhat make sense Thinking it would fit nicely in there :

 

Would look similar to these:

 

[Frederik]

Pics after I received the dimension rc engine compartment, it is nice but it is quite a bit too big to look realistic.. Maybe I will use it anyway, but I would have liked it to be smaller.

 

[Frederik]

I removed the Toyota and put some color on it, still need at least one coat on the head but looks kind of cool I think! I tried to grind down the underside of the motor to make it sit lower in the engine bay, but there is not a lot of meat before I reach the bottom of the cavity between the two valve cover...

 

[Frederik]

Also since I have recently sourced a large sheet of black Sintra (similar to Komacel), I got started on a dash. It is pretty much my first scratch work with plastic stuff (except a small start on the floor of my Hilux build). I don't yet have all the tools to work it, for now a big yellow Olfa construction knife, a piece of very fine sandpaper (too fine), large and small dremel sanding drum, a dremel sherical metal bit and some Gorilla Gel glue. I would need some mini files and other grit sandpaper, and a smaller blade to make it a bit easier. But not too bad of a start I think! Plus it is black and already looks a bit like alcantara leather lol!

 

Some reference pics, a carbon fiber Escort dash to go in group 4 racing cars, and an actual interior pic:

 

 

 

I don't have much pics of the process, but I just sandwitched about 5 or 6 pieces and started dremeling. At first the dash was too thin so I added another layer and reworked it:

 

 

 

Then carved out the under part and the inside of the cluster the best I could with my dremel bits:

 

 

The dash does not quite go low enough, in the reference pic there is an additional piece below the cluster (same height as the steering column). Maybe I'll skip that one if I go for the group 4 interior look.

Also started to think of some seats, I want to find a good balance of simple design since I'm a noob, but also ok looking. And good news is the two 1S separate lipo packs are just about the right size to be hidden where the seats should be. I thought they'd be too big or to forward, but from reference pics they'll be ok!

[Frederik]

 

Another recent update, with the motor sitting just a bit too high to have a realistic fake engine position (it would touch the hood!), and the fact the 540 sized motor has too much power anyway for dirt driving, I bought a cheap tamiya 380 sized motor to try, it is much smaller!

 

 

 

I had to make a small adapter plate (out of sintra since I was really lazy and wanted to try mounting it to the tranny). It should overheat pretty easily, but it was cheap and I wanted to try, anyway I am always limiting the throttle on the radio to make it more driveable. So I guess we'll see if it melts

 

 

 

Now the motor sits at a much nicer height!

[Candyman]

a low profile steering servo would give you some extra room in the engine bay.

 

[Frederik]

4 hours ago, Candyman said:

a low profile steering servo would give you some extra room in the engine bay.

 

 

Hey there Candyman, yes I thought the same, and it is in fact a low profile servo you see in the pictures. Here is an older pic before I switched, compared to new servo, huge difference! It used to touch the hood:

 

 

[Candyman]

lol, oh wow, ok

 

[Frederik]

Yeah hahaha, and I can't put the servo lower since the servo horn linkage has to fit under it, as well as the steering rack. It is all very tight in there.

[Frederik]

Edit: not sure why the pictures are not showing??

 

So I finished mounting the 380 sized motor, put batteries in and took it for a ride at the park See how small compared to a stock motor.

 

[img]

 

 

It did not go very well, it overheated severely after a few minutes drifting in the gravel. I was not really surprised, I thought for the 6$ they asked for the motor I could just try it. It did not actually burn in flames, but it overheated so much that the magnets got very weak and loss a ton of power. It had decent power for drifting in the gravel initially, but could not handle it for a long time. So I undid the front half to extract the motor, and put back the Tamiya Sport tuned.

 

 

[img][/img]

And while at it I actually attached the tranny with nuts instead of just a bolt with tape

 

 

 

 

Went for a ride with the Sport tuned, and I overheated that one too! Maybe I was just a bit to eager on the throttle. I have undone the front half again and I'm in the process of installing the brushless Castle 3800kv, I plan to configure a limit torque to try and avoid overheating. What do you guys think? The car is probably near 4.5 lbs currently. Is the 3800kv able to handle this safely? I'm on 2s lipo saddle packs.

 

 

 

 

 

Video of the ride with the Tamiya motor:

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2020 by Frederik

[Alex97]

11 hours ago, Frederik said:

Edit: not sure why the pictures are not showing??

 

So I finished mounting the 380 sized motor, put batteries in and took it for a ride at the park See how small compared to a stock motor.

 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/M8qRK3wh.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/K3qaN8Bh.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/w9f28vgh.jpg[/img]

 

 

It did not go very well, it overheated severely after a few minutes drifting in the gravel. I was not really surprised, I thought for the 6$ they asked for the motor I could just try it. It did not actually burn in flames, but it overheated so much that the magnets got very weak and loss a ton of power. It had decent power for drifting in the gravel initially, but could not handle it for a long time. So I undid the front half to extract the motor, and put back the Tamiya Sport tuned.

 

 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/3jYhSvnh.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/PiqjPvyh.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/azeGOArh.jpg[/img]

And while at it I actually attached the tranny with nuts instead of just a bolt with tape

 

 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/59iSWZ2h.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/4XwXDxrh.jpg[/img]

 

 

Went for a ride with the Sport tuned, and I overheated that one too! Maybe I was just a bit to eager on the throttle. I have undone the front half again and I'm in the process of installing the brushless Castle 3800kv, I plan to configure a limit torque to try and avoid overheating. What do you guys think? The car is probably near 4.5 lbs currently. Is the 3800kv able to handle this safely? I'm on 2s lipo saddle packs.

 

 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/H0ZKLvAh.jpg[/img]

 

 

Video of the ride with the Tamiya motor:

 

 

 

https://youtu.be/lyxu-4PfIPw

You need to attach them now. 

 

Linking no longer works. 

[Frederik]

Thanks for the tip on insterting the images! Are the pictures still linked to imgur when I do this (the Other media  function, insert mage from URL) or are they now hosted locally?

 

 

So now that I overheated the Tamiya sport tuned motor, I installed the castle 3400kv 4 pole motor. I had to drill a hole through the firewall to pass the motor wires and also the servo cable while at it. Much cleaner! The motor wires used to run under the car along the transmission tunnel, and back up in the car behind the bumper (there is no actual bumper yet lol).

It is pouring rain now so I can't really go try it out.. But I also have a problem setting up the current limit on the castle ESC. It needs to perform a kV test before I can activate the torque limit, but the test does not run correctly.. I will try some more today.

Edit: I also added a heatsink I had laying around, and I am pondering the idea of cutting away the grille and making it functional, not sure from which material. I have some grille material but it is not the right type for this, Escorts have grilles with horizontal lines, mine is diamond shaped... Also by the way the MK2 body is now cracked, I think my son hit me at some point with the lunchbox or with the other Tamiya truck. With metal behind the body, you can't really hit something hard haha So I guess it is now set that the MK2 will be the beater body and the MK1 will be the display one!

 

 

Edit 2: I was just able to do the torque limit test, I had the theottle epa not set to 100% and it is required for the test. I set the torque to minimum as a first test. Also I cut the two small openings below the grille, but then thought it will not be sufficient, so I went and cut the whole grille off. I think it did not look very scale at all anyway, at some point I can remove what is left and put a complete grille with working headlights.

Now air should flow pretty good! With that and the brushless with torque limit, overheating should be solved.

 

 

[Frederik]

Small update! I did some sintra work, I wanted to try doing some good enough seats. Since the batteries are two 1s cells one each side of the transmission tunnel, I am making seats that will somewhat hide them. The batteries are a bit bigger than ideal scale wise to hide under the seats, but the seats are not completely out of proportions I think. Maybe just a tad too high and small.

I formed a bit with a propane torch lol now that's some precise heat modulation (not!)

 

 

 

 

Then glued double thickness sides roughly cut to shape 

 

 

 

And started carving a shape in the double layer to make it a bucket:

 

 

 

 

Now looks pretty good in there I think!

 

 

 

And then I realized I forgot the holes for the seatbelts, as in the reference Sparco seat I found on Google

 

 

 

I enjoyed it, not too much waiting on the glue to set, and more carving with the dremel. Doing an interior on the Hilux, it gets long waiting for parts to cure. I am using Gorilla glue gel which was recommended for this material here, but it does not dry all that fast. Maybe I'm using too much of it? I feel like if I put less it will be too weak. It would be cool if the glue would set quickly and be ready to work, cut and grind few seconds layer but that's not the case. So I glue a piece and then go work on something else. 

 

Next should be a steering. Not sure what I can use for the actual steering with proper diameter (don't really want to make one out of a sheet of sintra lol)

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Frederik

[Frederik]

 

So now that I have a gaping hole in the front of the body, I thought I'd do something nicer out of it, so I cut the whole thing more precisely:

 

 

 

And started with a properly shaped blank and drilled some eyeballs, cut a grille opening:

 

Searching for a material for the grille pieces, I found tie wraps just about the right size, but realized the plate was not deep enough to add a grill surrounding that would not poke out (tie wraps were just a tad wide). So I shimmed with an additional layer.

 

 

 

 

 

I also used the same black tie wraps to do the headlight surround, glued and held with another tie wrap And then glued them to the thing, and added a center post to help hold the grille pieces later on.

 

 

 

Then started adding tie wraps one at a time, wait for the glue to set enough to do the next.. long process, but at least I don't have to cut each stripe manually! I'm pretty sure I could not cut the stripes even enough for a nice look.

 

 

 

It's a shame the tie wraps are not a tad longer, I'll have to add small pieces at the top  to make the surrounding pieces meet in the center. There is a slight angle pointing forward in the grille so each piece is cut at the center.

 

 

So I completed the grille pieces, and added vertical reinforcements in the back (3 each side). So now it should be a bit sturdier. I am not sure I'll try to do the small sections of grille on the outer side of each headlight.. I should though if I want it to look closer to the real thing, but that will be a lot of small loose pieces lol We'll see I guess.

 

For a second I thought I could cut the hood and start making the body panels separate, held by magnets.. I really like the idea of being able to remove a fender or the hood, or a door. But that opens a whole can of worms hahaha

 

So the grille has some white traces of glue drying, but I'll shoot a coat of textured black paint on it anyway. I usually put the parts on a vent blowing constant air so it does not fume like that but there are a couple times I could not because the parts were not holding yet.

 

 

 

 

[Frederik]

Shortly after I decided the grille really needed the small pieces on the sides, glad I put them it looks nicer! And I put a small blank oval to mimick a ford logo.

 

 

[Ninetiesbeard]

This is very well done mate. Love to see a bit of ford love here! Cant wait to see where you go with it next. super super build

[Frederik]

1 hour ago, Ninetiesbeard said:

This is very well done mate. Love to see a bit of ford love here! Cant wait to see where you go with it next. super super build

 

 

Thanks buddy! Much appreciated. I'd like to be able to paint it soon and call it almost done  and then keep doing improvements. 

 

But at the same time I like the fact we can see through the body. One idea I had is to paint only say the right side and keep the other half transparent (except for the window trim and other details). Kind of like the see through views you see in encyclopedia

 

Tanks for looking!

 

Fred

[Oh How Original]

This is one of those perfect examples of 'if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well'  

[Fat Freddy]

Impressive

[Frederik]

On 08/12/2020 at 18:10, Oh How Original said:

This is one of those perfect examples of 'if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well'  

 

On 08/12/2020 at 19:04, Fat Freddy said:

Impressive

 

Thanks mates! Appreciate the nice comments.

 

Last progress, was getting excited too for painting, I got a bit closer by actually installing the bumpers and wind with bolts instead of tacky dots 😆 I just used M2 bolts all around, had to shim to get the right angle. And I put a small block under the hood to prevent the grille from going inwards, so I have bolts only at the bottom.

 

 

 

Also this summer I noticed the car was sending a whole lot of gravel inside the car (from around the fenders and mostly at the back, since the bumper area acts as a shovel to catch everything flying).

So I used some pieces of foam cut to shape and superglued them at the right spots to make a tight fit with the body. And in the rear I used an old bike air tube piece. Not pretty but you can't see it when the body is on

 

 

 

 

And a couple shots with the bumper and wing properly fitted:

 

 

 

 

Now need to find proper paint that is not chemically too harsh on the plastic. It is not lexan, I think it is soda bottle type of plastic, PET or PETG not sure how they call it? I read you should not paint these retracing bodies with lexan paint or they become very brittle.

Looking for some water based but I'm not sure where I can find water based spray paint? And clear coat I could apply on top of it? I don't aim for a super shiny perfect paint, I just don't want it to be flat looking like house walls latex paint lol

Edit: I have just found water based spray paint at De Serres (craft supplies place in Quebec) so I ordered 2 cans of white and one can of black. Just noticed they are only 100g, hopefully that's enough for the whole body in white. There was nothing like clearcoat in that series so I hope it is going to be somewhat shiny!

 

 

[url]https://www.deserres.ca/en/dsaero?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI37GFvfe_7QIVAeOzCh1B-wOUEAYYASABEgJIEvD_BwE[/url]

 

[Frederik]

 

The front windows always bothered me with how they had a huge window trim at the bottom, making the window look much smaller than what it should, so I took the knife and removed what I did not like. I will see later if I keep it windows down look, or if I glue some new windows from inside.

 

 

 

 

 

And then I proceeded to mask it and give it a first coat of paint from the inside You can see how I trimmed the window, and while at it I also reduced the width of the B pillar which was also too chubby. Once the inside dries a bit I'll re-mask the windows from the outside and give the outside coat.

 

 

[Frederik]

It is only one coat but I had to mock it up on the chassis I'm sorry I should probably wait until more is done to show you, it is not very opaque at all and just a first inside coat, but it's pretty exciting to finally put some paint And the opened window is kind of cool to see the inside better.

The paint is definitely very matte on the inside... Not sure what I'll to to give it some shine. What clear coat has chances to work with water based paint, and not chemically react? Guess I'll do some testing on the scrap windows.

 

 

[James.S]

I just had a little look through this thread and it was awesome seeing this gradually taking shape. Guess it really pays off to take your time and be meticulous with it as she's looking great 👍

[Stormbringer]

Humbrol do or did a gloss clearcoat and i am pretty sure it is water based as well

[Hell horn.]

Dude this build is out of this world cool. Some amazing work going on. We'll done dude.