Frederik

Thanks, good to know, where do you typically find brass tubing in that size? Edit: just re-read and saw you said b&q, I looked it up, did not realize it was a place Might try that out instead of regular auto brake line. Edit 2: just ordered a bunch of 4mm brass line (I googled that and the diameter for roll cages tube is 38mm, so in tenth scale would be around 4mm!). Ordered 10 tubes of 300mm x 4mm (3mm internal) and one of 3mm (2mm internal) so I can put a piece inside in case I need to make a tube longer. Think is I ordered on ebay from china so it'll take likely weeks to arrive...

Hahaha yes I guess Papa gave the name pretty good I got the car to my office where we have a precision scale and it now weigh in at 4.3 lbs, functional with battery and all. Also there are larger areas of carpet at the office, more grip and speed which is scary with this car since it currently has pretty soft suspension and higher CG! Also removed the oil from the front struts as it was way too thick, makes more sense now but slightly bouncy lol will have to find lighter oil. Made a small vid too, tried to follow the car with the iPhone while at the same time driving the car... I am getting pretty good at driving it but with the camera the skillz dropped significantly lol ! Now I am thinking of doing a roll cage but unsure how. I have brake line and a bender, but only have stuff for soldering, no brazing. Might give it a go since it is not going to be abused like a rock crawler, should hold pretty good. Searched for some reference pictures to have ideas:

Yes french Canadian How did you know, is it my profile info, or my two little boys playing and speaking french in the last vid? I did not listen to the sound when I edited the vid, I just cut the video where I wanted so I'm not sure if I talk or if they talk during the vid lol! There is quite a good checklist before completion! Thanks for asking, that will help me put on the table what needs to be done! Here is what I think of : - Find something to cover the front wheels holes in the floor and firewall. Needs something just the right rounded shape, best would be tin can so I can solder it, or worse case I can use some plastic and jb-weld it in there. - Re-do the passenger side strut, make it same as other side (machine the bearing holes better, no slack) - Fix the driveshaft (it is too short, I made an add-on piece but need to attach it permanently (currently duct tape) - Do a better version of the lower 4-link mounting points at the chassis, the little pieces hang too low and I need to find a better way - Finish the front, the thing holding the lights is held with magnets, make actual brackets - Route the steering cables somehow so they are not everywhere like currently (might do a roll cage and run the cables along it, but I need to figure out a way of soldering a roll cage, I don't have what is needed to braze, I just use solder) - Solder the 4-link boxes to the floor instead of having them bolted (I'm afraid of melting the surrounding solders though..) - Make a cross brace at the front of the 4-link boxes - Find a way to prevent the top struts pillow ball from moving around inside of their metal holders - Powdercoat all chassis parts in white - Paint the body, attach the working headlight correctly to the body, attach the bumpers, wing and auxiliary lights up front. Things I've have in mind for a while might decide to do sooner or later: - Modify how the rear shocks attach to have them poke through the floor a bit, so they don't hang that low under the car. As they are now chances are I'll hit a rock and rip them off... I'll also be able to have more travel that way. I would have liked to have them outside of the frame rails like 1:1 but I made the frame rails a bit too wide. - Make the front brakes functional. Currently only have rear brakes (ESC). I have the calipers and discs ready (from an 8th scale bike), I need to make them work with the front struts. Not much space is available, especially with my favorite wheels (the m-chassis mini wheels). I'll need to use the larger 4-spoke wheels if I want to do that. - Install the servo potentiometer at the front, attached directly to the steering rack, so the slop in the cabling system is eliminated. The steering works good now but there is some memory steer (if you turn left, then go straight, it keeps pointing slightly to the left and vice versa). There is more to do but this is what I am thinking of at the moment

I did not do much progress lately, but I do take it out from time to time for a spin (I think that's the right word lol!) I accidentally went over an angled cardboard and was surprised how easy it climbed right up! So I did it a few more times on a video

Hey TamiyaCowboy! Sorry for the late reply. I tried to make a link with the same idea you suggested, except it was a simple link with two holes and bolts instead of ball joints. The problem was with the link lenght I wanted to have (in order to have the servo hidden underneath) the link was so short that it did not cancel the vertical movement all that much. As soon as the servo would rotate, the link would become angled quite a bit and not very effective because it would push and pull the cable attachment down and up instead of left right. So I ended up with direct attachment to the servo horn. The cables can take it and it seems to work well. I tried it a couple more times, had a few screws coming loose lol The car is not all that ready to drive since I did not tighten everything up really. Weight balance is even better now, with the 2S saddle pack battery, one cell placed on each side of the driveshaft tunnel. And the front back distribution is about 50%, which is what those car have, approximately. I think I will wash the floor a bit to remove the dust which I think is why the car slips so much. The first few drifts were easier to manage when tires were still clean, but dust built up and it starts slipping like crazy! lol

Thanks bieomax for the idea, yes it would help cancel the vertical movement, but I think I overestimated that problem and it now seems pretty good even with the wires as is. Most important is to set it up so it is at perfect height when completely turned to either side, because when centered there is more wire lenght to soak in the height difference so it is not an issue. Soldered is kind of a hassle because it is not possible to undo anything easily, but it prevents slack from adding up and it saves a bit of space too.

Made a vid in the garage, it is painted plywood so it slips wayy to much... kind of hard to have the suspension work when there is no grip. It is quite a handful to drive lol especially since the place is not all that big, can't get much speed before hit something lol Oh and the bumpers are not there anymore since I hit something and they fell all three lol they were held with a dot of hot glue each so.. yeah I did another vid this morning, slow motion of the suspension when dropping the car on the table from a few inches. Probably need to replace the pistons in the rear shocks for a bit more damping, and also the rear axle linkage touches the steering servo so it kind of bottoms out weirdly, but otherwise pretty good!

Last night I continued the steering in the rear (lol strange to say!) I made two blocks, with one small hole halfway through, size of the sheat, and another tiny hole going through just the size of the cable. This acts as a sheat stopper, so I had the cables arranged like this: Then I prepared the soldering of the cable to a metal plate I can attach to the servo horn. I did not expect what happened next, maybe you can figure by looking how it is before soldering ..... The metal plate soldered to the floor... lol I ground the hole larger to make a bit more room. My problem at the moment is the cable moves horizontally and the servo arm moves as a radius so it moves up and down throughout the travel... The cables won't flex to follow this so I need to find a way to have the servo horn.

I have a small tiny wee update! I was able to make use of the new hobby space a bit tonight. No huge progress but I started to work on replacing the tiny steering cables I used for testing with actual length, desolder the cables, but then I could not find where I put the solder flux when moving... So I moved on to other things I have been pushing for a while and proceeded to replace the little m2 screws and bolts holding the chassis rails to floor with larger M3, threaded in the chassis rails. Don't need bolts anymore, and the button heads are inside the car, so they are flusher inside, and I ground the other end flush under the chassis. Nicer! Then I found the flux paste so I was able to resume working on the steering. I cut the yellow sheat to correct lenght, and made mounts for the steering servo. Here is where I am at now, with the button head screws on the floor instead of bulky bolts and nuts, and ready to do the thingy that will tie the cables to servo horn. That might be tomorrow night

Nice start on the shell, I have a Retroracing mk2 shell and it looks like the rally legends are a bit crisper shapes, I mean the door lines crease and other angles look tighter on the rally legends. A good thing I believe, but they have the same odd front door window bottom area, like the glass is not going low enough, but the way you painted the trim makes it look more like the real one. Did you intentionally paint the trim lower on the front doors to make them more event with the rear glass? For this car I really like Tamiya mini wheels, in my opinion they are the closest size to the real thing, they don't look as deep dish but the diameter is right (these Fords had tiny wheels!) But I can appreciate different options, it still look proper with the wheels you got. You are painting it completely on the outside, right? And I really like those in white, I'll be following along!

Thanks twisty! Sorry for not updating recently, been busy with moving house, all for good since I'll have a bigger RC place in the new garage, just need to finish some more work on the house. This has to be one of the slowest longest build ever lol Well the big Subaru on the wall is even longer but it does not quite count since I have not touched it in like 5 years haha

Yes speed will help save it quickly when the locked rear axle makes it snap oversteer! I am not a servo spec expert as I never remember what spec value is fast, torquey etc.. But this one is supposed to be a faster one, and the fact I use a fairly long servo arm will make it even quicker, so I think it should be pretty good! And it is strong, based on the fact I use the same model servo on the 8th scale buggy steering, so it will likely not break from trying to extract too much speed out of it Here are the specs: Specifications Motor Type: 3 Pole Ferrite Bearing Type: Dual Ball Bearing Speed (4.8V/6.0V): 0.17 / 0.14 Torque oz./in. (4.8V/6.0V): 110 / 131 Torque kg./cm. (4.8V/6.0V): 7.9 / 9.4 Size in Inches: 1.59 x 0.77 x 1.48 Size in Millimeters: 40.39 x 19.56 x 37.59 Weight ounces: 2.11 Weight grams: 59.82

Very true! It will want to slide around and not roll over, which will be wayyyyy more exciting I want to have as much steering lock as possible (in order to control the slides the best I can!) so I will use a hole slightly farther on the servo arm.. Hopefully I will not overstress the steering servo, it is a fairly fast but not all that torquey servo I think. It is a Hitec HS-5625MG, I used this servo model to steer my Kyosho MP6 1/8 nitro 4wd buggy, so I guess it will steer this little 2WD with tiny wheels no problem!

Small update! I made a new front beam, the aluminum one was not far forward enough to bolt the skid plate to it, so I made one out of steel. It looks much nicer too, but quite heavier than the alu one, so I drilled some speed holes in it Might drill more on the part facing down to remove some more weight. Now that I think of it I should have tried to do dimple holes to add strenght! Not sure how I would do that though I have never experimented with that. I also cut the mock up steering cables at the servo to start and think of how I'll run these to the back where I want the servo. I think I will make them go through the firewall as low as possible (like the one on the right in that engine bay pic, just above frame rail), and run them near the door sills. This is where I want the servo, with the servo arm poking up through the floor. It will have the two cables attached to the same servo horn hole, one coming from each door sill. Hopefully the added curves in the cable to get there do not induce too much steering slop or friction. I'll have to think of a way to keep the servo clean (probably a rubber balloon?) given where it is. I don't pan to go through water but certainly some dirt! I wanted to do more but got interrupted. At least I can now put the body on and have the steering bolted, without a big clamp up front lol!

Sorry guys the msuk emails ended up in my junk folder for some reason? I did not see your replies. Yeah I will probably drive more carefully too now Thanks buddy!! Thanks! With the cable mounting thingy, it gets a bit bulky.. If I were to do a moving steering I think it would be with one of those micro sized servos and a Y cable splitter for the servo. I already have the micro servos too so who knows, depends on how crazy I go with the interior detailing Thanks for commenting!! Much appreciated all.

The four spokes wheels are street jam, most of the times I have looked they were in stock on the website below, but right now they are sold out. If you check regularly you might catch them in stock again. They make them in 3, 6 and 10mm offset too. There are also other spoke design, but with the same fake sidewall thing. http://www.rc-race-and-drift-japan.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=91_94&products_id=1999

Thanks a lot guys! Yes it does tend to roll over if you are not careful right now, there are many factors for that and they can (hopefully!) be managed pretty easily. The heavy nimh battery is currently duct taped under the dash (very high, on top of the tranny tunnel against the firewall). I put it there for the first run because of the trans tunnel and did not want to put it on only one side and have the car very lopsided, and I wanted to keep it closer to the front (not at the back of the rear wheels) for a more realistic weight distribution. The real battery for the car is a lipo saddle pack, so I can place each of the two cells on each side of the trans tunnel, where the front seats would be. Also the tires are very grippy, and the lack of a rear sway bar (for now) makes it roll a lot. I will add a mild sway bar to help that. The fact the shocks ar far inwards of the axle makes it roll more too. I have plans for the future to make turrets for the rear shocks so they can be real close to the wheels and also have more vertical room than where they are now, directly attached to the chassis floor. Thanks for the interest guys! Fred

Thanks buddy!! I re-uploaded the first outside run video in HD, the first upload was really crappy quality, on that last one you can see much better how the suspension works! I think once the battery is at the final location (at the seats) it will handle very nicely!

A couple vids showing the steering : First outside run. I promise sometime soon I will make a proper video where I will (try to) follow the car with the camera for now it is another vid with the iPhone sitting by itself on the ground lol And you don't see on the camera when I rolled it, you can hear it though!

Hello all!!! huge milestone tonight! Steering works! And also.... I ran it!!! I completed my first working prototype of the steering, and I was about to just push it around on the floor with my foot and steer it, and it struck me, I can just put the motor and an ESC, duct tape the drive shaft and go for a ride!!! I thought I could not do that first run and not film it, I am trying to upload it as I type this, it is a pretty poor vid with not much space to go (cluttered garage!) but at least I got one! There was only the driveshaft extension I made which is missing a setscrew but I wrapped some duct tape around and it held pretty good! No grip though on the garage floor. Here is the vid, sorry about the quality! I put the MK1 body because I needed the front part off to put the clamp for the steering assembly and the MK1 happened to not have the front half bolted. And I mistakenly recorded at 120 frames per second so I'll be able to edit the vid and slow it down without losing frame rate (that will be a second video upload later though). Lol I love how the still picture of the video looks like it is doing a burnout lol

Also I ended up ordering a 30' length of Sullivan push-pull cable, I thought the 36" kit was not very long.. Not much room for mess-ups when doing my cable steering.. With the 30' I will have enough for the steering and then some, and also the front brakes! And if I like the cable steering I might use the idea again in future builds, who knows. I have not spent time on the brakes lately, I want to get the thing rolling and turning, then I'll see about stopping lol Definitely want to do them though. And a random new pic because even a no-progress update needs a new pic By the way the hot-glue tacked lights did not last long, my youngest son pulled them apart already lol

No real progress pics for now, I have been quite busy with life and work stuff lately... But I managed to find a used castle link so I can program the ESC for lower power in case the 3800 KV is too powerful and I don't want to crash the Escort I also have the Tamiya sport tuned so I have enough power train options to move on to the next thing, which is finishing the steering. I bought these servo horns thinking they would be a good starting point for the steering wrap-around servo horn for the cable steering, so I can bolt on something to. But they don't fit my servo for some reason, I guess I did not order the right type, even though it says in the description they would fit standard Futaba servo, but it does not. I'll have to mod plastic ones I guess. The idea would be to make something like the Capo Jeep (see vid below) and the other end would be my steering "rack" I posted earlier.

Lol at the quote system thing! Thanks a lot for the nice comment, it always starts with a basic idea but somehow ideas goes in the way and it ends up complicated lol ! But it is a fun complicated I think

I have just verified, the GD600 tranny is 2.5:1 and the diff is 2.09:1 so that's about 5:1 ratio not including the smaller tires. But that does not mean much to me until I try it out and get a reference point. What is a common overall ratio for on road cars? I know a couple people used the GD600 for cars and it was ok but each car is different. I guess I'll try it out and see! The TB-01 has 61/16 (3.81:1) gears, not sure about the diff, but tb-01 is known to be geared very slow.

I am not having much flexibility with gearing on this car.. The gd600 plane tranny is pretty much fixed ratio, I think something like 2.5:1, and then there is the diff which I am not sure about the ratio (sdi axle). Also the m-chassis tires I want to run are smaller than touring car. Do any rc people discuss overall ratio, including diff and tires, or is it always model specific and spur/pinion only?