TOPIC:

Firstly, let me explain how this project came about. When the BBX was announced and we got a look at the buggy for the first time, I had a thought that the transmission might just drop in to the Wild One. When I first got back into Tamiya around 2013 the Wild One was the buggy I bought, and my Dad bought the FAV. We had loads of fun with them, and I even did a spot of vintage racing with it. But, then I sold it. So, this Wild One will be it's replacement. For me there are only two real issues with the kit. Number 1: the transmission is not the strongest, and Number 2: the chassis take a lot of flex from the rear and can eventually crack. So, to address these issues I'm going to attempt to put the BBX transmission onto the Kingfly RC aluminium chassis. The Kingfly Chassis. I'm aware that there is some reservation towards these alloy chassis that Kingfly have built for a lot of the Tamiya vintage kits, but I can confirm that the quality is second to none. They fit perfectly together, and all of the Tamiya parts bolt straight on without issue. They are also hard anodised and extremely well thought out.  They even come with nice 3D printed parts, like with battery stops. I don't think I'll use these as I want to try to put the battery down the center of the chassis.  The instructions are not Tamiya quality, but still nicely done.  On to the Wild One Kit now.  Xtra Speed front damper mounts. These are relatively new, and a much stronger than the kit ones. So, there should be no need for a bracing bar between them.  I've never been a fan of the kit front bumper. Always thought it stuck out too far, and didn't look very “scale” or realistic. So, I emailed Mirage RC and asked him to make me an aluminium bumper, but as close to the chassis as possible. This is what he came up with. Exactly as I'd imagined.  Assembling the front end.  Here's some more of the nice 3D printed parts.  Xtra Speed lower mounts installed on to the kit front arms.  Spot on.  Cage, and rear suspension arm mounts installed. Nothing different about this step.

Now, on to the fabrication to get the BBX transmission in. I've borrowed the transmission out of my BBX, but I have bought enough parts to build another one, if this works out ok.  A quick mock up, and the first issue is that the rear universals are too short. Luckily I have some 2mm longer axles that will be perfect.  After a long amount of time head scratching and thinking about how I'm going to mount the transmission I came up with this. A simple 20mm wide steel plate with a steel tube brazed to the end that mounts to the existing rear transmission mount that comes in the kit.The tube is the correct length, and the steel strip is way too long.... for now.  I use Johnson Matthey powder flux, 55% silver solder rods, MAPP gas and a Bernzomatic TS4000 torch. The MAPP gas burns much hotter than Butane.  The flux mixed to a paste, and put exactly where I want the silver solder to run.  Cut to length, drillled and fitted to the kit mount.  The other end will be fitted to the chassis with 2x 3mm bolts and nuts. Once the buggy is finished I'll removed this mount and give it a couple of coats of etch primer, and then paint.  All fits so far.  And here's the transmission all mounted up. Now that it's all square and bolted it I can work on the upper mount. This should be much, much easier.  That's all for now. A good days work so far. I'm happy with the results.

Wahoo. It's an amazing work. 

stingray-63 wrote:

Wahoo. It's an amazing work. 

Thanks very much. More coming soon. Just uploaded the pics.

It's been a hectic few days, the weather has been miserable, and I haven't really felt like working in the garage the last few days, so progress has been slow. However, I have done a little more so here we go. The XV-02 dampers I used on the front were a little too wide and fouled the steering arms at full lock, so I reverted back to the kit dampers. One of the issues with the Wild One kit is that the lower front spring retainer has no support to stop the spring moving around. On the Wild One I built about 2014 I discovered an Associated 18th scale part that solves this issue.  Next up was to remove the brushless motor from the transmission. That will go back into my BBX once I've built another transmission for it. The Wild One will get this beast instead.  Motor wires removed. I'll solder it direct to the ESC.  Last job on the transmission was to make the upper support to the chassis. I was hoping to use the kit upper mount, but it just wasn't in the correct place. So, I decided just to make up a simple brace using a rod end. Here you can see the upper mount on the transmission case.  And, some 8mm delrin bar that I've had for years.  I filed the end down to fit the transmission and drilled a 3mm hole. Cut to length and tapped to take a grub screw for the rod end to fix to.  And the final piece. The transmission is super rigid now.  I also etch primed and painted the transmission mount, so this can now be fitted for the final time.

Next job. I was hoping that there would be enough room in the alloy chassis to allow me to move the servo over so that I could get both steering arms the same length. And, there was... just about. Here you can see the two new 3mm holes I drilled to accept the servo mounts.  Here's some Tamiya alloy servo mounts (I forget the part number) but these didn't quite moved the servo back far enough.  So, I had a look in my parts box and found these old DT02 servo mounts.  These moved the servo back far enough to get the steering arms straight and prevent them from rubbing on the springs.  Next, the lipo mount. Another thing that didn't fit and needed modifying. Here's the 3d printed mount that I got with the chassis. When I tried it, it fitted great.  However, I soon realised that the rear of the battery fouled on the two bolts that held the new rear transmission mount to the chassis. So, after a lot of head scratching I came up with this. Two RPM servo mounts screwed to existing holes at the back of the chassis. These brought the battery forwards just enough to clear the transmission mount bolts. Then I used two alloy tubes that I drilled and screwed to the chassis. Here you can also see the two bolts that fouled the battery.  And a simple piece of styrene as a strap, with some body clips.  ESC next. As the wiring is tight in this chassis I got rid of any excess. Starting with the on/off switch.  As I'm running the battery down the center of the chassis the meant that there was no room for the esc (as the chassis tapers). So, I made a simple styrene mount and sat it on the back of the chassis. This just fits underneath the driver figure lexan piece.  Last job for now was to try and re-create the look of the Blockhead decals on the chassis sides. This chassis has cut outs al down the sides, but it does have a 3mm hole at each end on both side. So, I thought I'd use these to screw a piece of lexan to. I found some 1mm lexan, cut it to shape, and painted it black.  And, here they are with some decals on. I decided black would look better than the box are blue, so I cut the decals off the blue sticker sheet.  Here's how it stands now.  

Fantastic work!

I also dig your scale garage