TOPIC:

This Hirobo project is not finished, and today I got one more reason to trigger the rebuilt of my 44B chassis...

A few months back, I did a CAD model for a bodyshell for the 44B Hilux....


I believe the 210 mm wheelbase makes room to use the body on M chassis with some axles extensions for larger width...


I still need to review the roll bar, especially the fog lights part as I believe they are out of dimensions (they should be bigger, at least, and maybe mobile to avoid breaking them too easily). Further on the bodyshell itself, there was some missing details...


And I believe I already mentioned in the past that I tried to create a mold in CAD...


I also added some details...




And I finally got a part printed for experimentation...


That was before Montluçon, in May. While there, I got the mold handed to my friend at Loisirs Creations RC for the experimentation...

Yesterday in La Vosgienne RC 2023, I met him, and he handed me some nice stuff...


Yes! It is a bodyshell... It's the first element out of the mold with a material that allows vacforming at low temperature. This will allow me to work out the accessory details and check the dimensions on a chassis... I think I have to build my 44B Hilux soon...

In the meantime, I did some picture comparison with the original damaged bodyshell...





What do you think?

Another crazy création. Congrats. And thanks for your work to make all to do relive some iconic models.

Now that I have a body shell for the Hilux, I think it is time to do something about those cars...

The parts of the Zerda and 44B were all together in one single heavy box. Luckily, I cleared some boxes recently : I took the time to separate boxes, one for the Zerda, and one for the 44Bs. The Zerda will be the last one to be rebuilt.

I will start by the 44B Hilux, and I'll print a Radio box cover for it, as it is the part I don't have... I need to check the screws as I may not have the exact number to build all the cars... But each things in its proper time.

In short, expect to see this thread moving on soon...

The complete radio box was already printed long time back by stevar who did not have any parts of the radiobox with his own 44B chassis. And it was perfectly adjusted in length and matching the profile of the rear gearbox parts... But that was not enough to validate the top of the radio box would match the bottom of the original radio box...


Therefore, I had to print one. I printed it on one of the sides, which was what the auto orientation proposed in the slicer (I tried other orientations, but there was a lot of support for all of them... I guess I will have to post process this properly . 3 hours print on the X1C (On my Ender 5 plus, this would be around 10-12 hours, I suspect, if not more, with more chances of failures). I printed it in PETG, and did not even played with multimaterial for the supports, so it took a bot of time to remove the supports. But the good news is that it is working on the radio box as expected...


While at it, I'm thinking about what I want for my 44B and Zerda, I may need to do a full count of what I have as I'm sure I can go for 3 cars, and there will be a good basis for a 4th one...

And while thinking about this, I can already tell that I will printed tires for both Zerda and 44B (I have the CAD models already). I just need to order resin again...



I launched a print of the final version of the pulley cover (PETG) (did try in transparent flex resin and it did not work, I may need to try with transparent non flexible resine at some point) as well. Updates later...

44B City/Vega radio box cover printed during night. There is some issues with the print, probably linked with the way it was on the bed, as right side is not as clean as the left side (but this can be addressed easily with sand paper...



It fits the radio box, but it may require an additional millimeter in length to be perfect...

Hirobo 44B/Zerda Pulley cover printed as well...


it matches the rear gearbox (it was already tested by Andy, but it was missing some space for the motor screws, which is the modification)...



Thinking about printing some gearbox, arms, knuckles and other chassis parts...

Another Hilux 44B arrived today.... I saw it within a lot of pictures of someone selling a big lot of cars and contacted the guy few minutes after he published the listing. From the additional pics, I knew the bodyshell was nice, and that there is quite some work needed on the chassis...

Here is the car. The front body mount is broken, clearly, and the bumper is missing...


The red parts were painted in black. There is fair chance I can get them back in red, and they seems to be in proper state, but we will only know once we get the paint removed...


The wheels are not original Hirobo wheels, the tires are the same we can find on Bandai/Monogram Interceptor RS. The front blocks are vanished, but they were similar at some point. The tires are mounted the wrong way (they are directional)... I'm not sure for the rims, but I have some suspicion the slots were not part of the original design...



The transmission/diffs are in good shape. The wheels are mounted with some Nichimo parts, apparently... 
I will probably start rebuilding the other one before getting this one in parts...

Nice one.

Tonight, it is about to get ready for some builds...

Target is to do at least the 44B Hilux chassis soon, but I may also look into the LWB chassis as well... I did rebuild the diffs  and extracted the 44B parts (the Zerda did have different pivot balls than the original ones so it was different to identify where the pars are coming from when the pivot balls are still there)...


I've checked and it seems I have enough ball bearings for 2 cars, I may have to complete for the last one (some were damaged and the wheel axles will be replaced by a coulple of ball bearings with an additional part, like on the Bearcat SS...

Early this afternoon, I decided I would go a for a double SWB/LWB build, and I started to put all the parts together for this...


And two cars parts take a lot of space on the table... So I stopped to put the elements on the table and went to the build


First, I just added a bit of grease in the diffs (and also to make sure there was no issue in the two that I did not opened)...


Then I added bearings and axis to the rear hubs and front knuckles (same principle than for the Bearcat SS, with a small printed part, and two ball bearings to get less wobble). The second car is going to be mounted on single ball bearings with the idea to allow the comparison between the two. 


Next, we get the knuckles installed in the front hubs...


And it is time to get to the chassis and install the front part of the transmission... SWB on top, and LWB on bottom...


The rear part is always quite crowded on a 44B (this is the same on the Zerda), and the path of the synchronous belt is quite complex...



And I did that on both cars... I will need to work on  some elements on the Zerda, as it seems some shafts needs to be shaved...


Then I focused to add the radio box on the LWB


And here is a check of the fittings of the radio box cover... With the front mount, it is actually almost ok (the pin is required to keep the box closed... I'm now sure that 1 mm more would be way too much...


I had to clear the table, so next steps will be later or tomorrow...