Fat Freddy

RTR means ready to rebuild.

Cheap as chips to replace, Google is your friend.....

Not to my actual model, but.... planning to re-paint my SCA-1E with a more authentic colour complete with some rust and weathering after finding out the coyote shell is an almost exact copy of a Toyopet (that’s Toyota pre-‘62) Stout. Have been putting it off as not sure I had the skills to do it justice. Painted a piece of off-cut lexan in my proposed new colour so I could practice some rust/weathering techniques. Quite pleased with the results of a first attempt. Far from perfect but with a bit more practice 😋👍

My first crawler. Got the kit and love it. Not too keen on the colour I chose but hey ho, first world problems eh?

A few pics of my SCA-1E out on the trail... Which I had to delete to make space…..😠

Agree with everything above except you’ll find that a servo mounted servo saver like this won’t fit under a Vantage shell...... as I once, rather annoyingly, discovered the hard way.

You might find after a while the tyres get a bit “baggy” and soft. They grip REALLY well at that stage but handling gets a bit vague. When I switched to brushless they were barely useable due to so much distortion at speed. For the same/similar price I replaced mine with a set from a cheap Himoto RTR. Same overall diameter with lower profile tyres. Tyres seem well glued and better balanced than the ftx ones. I got the ones with tiny pins (part number HM-31504B) but tbh on anything slippier than a dry car park the grip isn’t great, although great fun wheelspinning everywhere lol. If I know it’s gonna be muddy I put the FTX ones back on. With hindsight I should have got the Himoto ones with a heavier tread pattern. (HM-31804B).... a little better suited to British weather (mud).

Wow Ed, You want actual facts instead of opinions? Frankly I have NO idea where to find that sort of info, sorry. Have you tried the distributors CML? when you decide to switch to brushless, there is a useful chart on one of the general electric threads that guides you to the right Kv motor you'll want. Good luck with your search

Excuse me, but page one of the manual says, THIS IS NOT A TOY so there 😂😂😂

Good idea, Tupperware is a bit flexible isn’t it? Less likely to shatter perhaps?? I saw a brand called lock and lock that give a lifetime guarantee...... although I think cutting it up might possibly stretch the terms of the warranty agreement, but guessed they must be pretty resilient. Mrs thinks I’ve lost the plot, reading online reviews for sandwich boxes.............. she may have a point 🤪

Decided to get the Mongrel going again (started life as a brushed FTX Vantage). Replaced the brushed motor/esc with a brushless system...... fairly straightforward, no real issues. It’s currently wearing a cheap truck bodyshell that’s been heavily cut back and fits really badly. The bottom of the new motor got scratched on the first test run and I found myself thinking of a way to protect the motor and fill the gap between chassis and shell.... and ended up hacking a sandwich box to pieces. Attaching it using the four convenient bolt holes that FTX saw fit to put in the chassis for no apparent reason (thanks FTX 👍)...... voila! Although worth doing as an experiment, a prototype maybe, I could tell the sandwich box was far too brittle and would probably shatter after the first crash and said as much to the Mrs as I headed out for a test run......... I just didn’t think that first crash would be so soon or so brutal! (approx 5 mins...... full speed argument with immovable object!) All things considered, I thought the sandwich box held up quite well 😂😂 Now does anybody know of a brand of sandwich box that’s a little more shock resistant??

You’re welcome. I’m no expert, you just happened to ask one of the few questions I know the answer to. You are right....... You will need a steel pinion the same pitch as the spur you get. I’ll be honest, I can’t remember what pitch mine is, but I was able to get a steel pinion to match it, fairly cheap, from Modelsport. I worked it out so it was pretty close to the ratio of the stock ones (once again, sorry, can’t remember what that was). I got a few different ones so I could play around with gearing. Pretty sure the bore is 3.2mm.

@Jens Trust me, if you get a hardened steel pinion you won’t need to cover the holes..... although I guess there’s no harm in a belt and braces approach 😁👍

Just checked and it was a year ago I got that steel spur gear. Even allowing for the times it was laid up, or I was spending more time on my other car, I reckon it must have had at least 3 or 4 months of daily use but still looks in pretty good nick. Those marks are dirt, not damage. When clean it looks virtually brand new.

Funnily enough I just said this to @EdwarddR. Get a hardened steel one. I got mine from @daveyboi73 on here. It’s a game changer. Eats gravel for breakfast, runs quieter than the plastic one, and in my opinion is easier to get the mesh right.

Hi, I was plagued by spur gear problems until I invested in a hardened steel one. Seems at first like an expensive mod but it’s fit and forget.

Thanks. I'm a hoarder. Still have the off cuts from the last two shells I did. I shall experiment. 👍

@mond had an idea of simply spraying matt grey polycarbonate paint on the outside of the shell and using that as a primer..... would acrylics be ok on top of that?

Thanks for replying but I obviously need to do a bit more research. Have no idea what a pin wash is, or an enamel filter but Google is my friend. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Ok, well I’d suggest going through the drivetrain front to back looking for binding or stiffness. OE bearings are cheap and nasty and rust up quick.

Only a month late but.... I once had to put a starter motor in one of these... held in by two bolts, one metric, the other imperial, both different sizes and different threads. The original starter motor was missing entirely and I got the “new” one from a breaker, without the necessary bolts. Took f’ing ages to figure out why I couldn’t fit the ******* in there. British Leyland eh? Can’t understand where it all went wrong..........

It might be something in the drivetrain causing resistance. It’s remarkable how even the smallest thing can cause a motor to overheat, a seized bearing or something similar can generate huge amounts of friction and of course that just puts extra strain on everything else. Although having seen how long ago you posted this, presume it’s either been sorted or binned by now?

I have had similar problems with my Vantage, different car but share lots of parts. Thought I had it all sorted after getting rid of stock esc and putting in a 1060. Then a week or so later slowed again, this turned out to be drag caused by drive shaft rubbing on back of servo (replaced stock with one that turned out to be 1mm bigger....duh!). Worked fine for a while again then back to go-slow...turned out to be drag caused by rear diff seizing. Sorted that and all good for a while. Now we are back to go slow.... Sets off great and after about 15 seconds slows to a crawl. Probably need to strip down the front diff and see if that’s seizing but I can’t feel any resistance when turning wheels by hand. A bit stumped tbh.

Hi there, I got a Carisma coyote kit last Christmas. Had vague ideas about doing rust and weathering etc but bottled it and just did a pretty basic paint job on inside of shell..... At the time, I just thought the shell was a generic “pick up truck” of no particular heritage. I have since found out that it’s a virtual copy of an early 60’s Toyopet Stout. Just a year or two before they changed the name to Toyota this baby is an early forerunner to the illustrious hilux. Now I am thinking about a respray on the outside and then maybe have a crack at some weathering, rust and dirt effects something like the original old girl in the photo. Started the “scale model” process by replacing the original plasti-chrome wheels with some steelies which with a bit of help will rust up nicely but not sure where to start with the paint job. I am thinking of starting with a couple of coats of grey primer, then a base colour to be revealed by scratches/ wear and tear to a different coloured top coat. Then finish off with rust effects before sealing the whole lot in with a Matt lacquer....... I don’t have an airbrush so would be using rattle cans for the primer and main colours, then brushes for detailing, rust effects etc. But I have no idea what kind of paint to use. I know polycarbonate/lexan paint is supposed to be used on the inside of the shell isn’t it? So what kind/brand of paint could/should I use as undercoat/primer for the exterior of a shell that is suitably flexible and hard wearing? Same again for the next two colours..... I have literally NO idea. Still not settled on a colour yet either as I’m guessing there will be a limited selection because I’ll be using cans. As a side note, I have a Vallejo acrylic rust effects kit, so I’m hoping whatever paints you recommend will be compatible with acrylic paint. So, have you ever done anything similar? Have any sage advice? Any and all input gratefully received. Thanks in advance, Fred.

SMD (spire model distribution) have been excellent but usually end up using the usual suspects as listed above.