TOPIC:

Page 10: fitting front shocks, joining the gearbox to the chassis/front end, and fitting rear body posts:





Note front shock fittings...






Now if someone had come up with these fittings at home I'd say it was quite a neat fix, but as Tamiya did it?





Manual says you should simply "cut off" the ends of the battery cover posts - but thanks to the hardness of the plastic involved, I had to get out the razor saw, bench vice & files ...





I think I was reasonably complimentary about the alloy L brackets - but nice alloy parts can't really take away from this setup being a bit of a lashup - the thin headed screws didn't torque up in a reassuring way (in fact they felt like they were about to strip entirely) so the posts can move several degrees ... Again, if someone had fitted a Wheeler body to a WR-02 chassis at home you'd applaud maximising the use of standard parts, but wouldn't you think Tamiya have slightly more resources than one bloke fettling things in a back bedroom?





Page 11 - fitting side rails & electronics (I've held off on the latter for the time being ...)

waterbok wrote:

On TC there are some complaints that the body isnt sitting right on the chassis and the front wheels are rubbing the wheelarches. Looking forward to see how yours will turn out.

Xmass isnt till the end of May over here (thats the date Tamico is giving for estimated shipping date)

I'm not seeing a real problem this end, though the outside leading & trailing edges of the front tyres are a bit close to the outside trailing & leading edges of the front arches as the steering angle changes...

On the manual/recommended bodyclip positions for the front post the bottom body at the front will hit the ground at the same time the tops of the front tyres foul the front arches: that suggests a solution to me, especially as the bodyt has a bit of a nose down attitude anyway.


Rubbing tyres is a "feature" of the original Wheeler, and on an awful lot of RC cars anyway - I'm especially thinking of the Wild Willy 2, Lunchbox & Midnight Pumpkin when you try to reverse any of them...

Front wheel adapters aren't a bad solution ...







Rears also work - but 3 sections aren't that elegant ...







pages 12 & 13 of the manual finish off the chassis ... box art Willy is a placeholder while I finish the new driver ...

New hole for the antenna tube hasn't been ideally sited




Lining up of the holes in the glass, body & aluminium wing was a little problematic - I found the kit M2 6mm screws too short to make it work so used 8mm cap heads instead...






I'm not going to leave the front body post like this long term (though the manual says nothing about it):





Front end on full compression - as mentioned it bottoms out as the tyres foul the arches ... I want to fit oil shocks at some point so won't be doing anything too permanent - but raising the body at the front is an obvious interim measure.






Still needs decals fitting but TBH I quite like the look of it as is - the narrower rear track makes it look a bit more scale than the original, but is not going to help handling at all.

Overall, I like it more than I thought I would - but I can't help thinking it needed a bit longer in development.

What I'd really like to see is a more scale chassis arrangement - FWD with a naughty motor straight out of the box (mounted in the front, naturally), the big tyres on the front (and in a harder compound), and all the weight very low so it doesn't roll the first time you try lift off oversteer ... maybe I should cut & shut two bodies & put them on an FF01

Lifting the body by two notches on the front fixes the ground & arch clearance issues, but the body is now a bit wobbly on the posts so will need some O-rings underneath ... I'm still not 100% convinced that "Fuchsia" is the correct accent colour for the the #3 car, but it's worked out nicely

I love it!

I was a couple of days behind on the driver


Paper versions of helmet decals ...




... used to make pencil guide lines ...





Two coats of Fuchsia (50% red, 50% pink):





Two coats of blue, then clear, then white vinyl stripes cover the slightly dodgy edges:

The whole modification they've done is a bit 'homemade' looking. I'd go as far as saying shoddy. not usual Tamiya standards, even the manual need patch up job.

I felt this really deserved better than the kit friction dampers, so fitted a set of CVAs (Edit- "WR-02 C.V.A. Mini Shock Unit Set II Yellow Style", part # 84531) - parts needed to get the shock free & compressed lengths the same as the kit + an appropriate stiffness were the kit springs, kit bump stop tube cut down to 5mm, the shorter spacer under the piston, and the shorter end fittings.

Nice could imagine that it would also would look good with the white CVAs (or with those dyed in a similar colour to the paintjob)