TOPIC:

As you may have seen in one of the other threads I got a freebee a couple of days ago.
The vehicle is a clone of the TL01 and was orginally a HBX Bonzer, the Monster Truck variant.
Basicly it is a TL01B with Wild Dagger wheels, tires and body.

Since most parts are swapable between this clone and orginal TL01 parts, you can make endless projects with this base.
I also have loads of spare parts from both TL01 and HBX variants, so when I was asked if I could use this vehicle it was a no brainer really.
And best of all it was free, so it won't hurt if I need to modify it.

There is really no rc funds these days, but I do want the new Tamiya Escort MkII body.
The Escort is of M chassis size so the TL01 chassis has to be both shortned, this has been done several times by remove a section of the chassis.
To get it from buggy width to 165mm M chassis width it simply the matter of fitting M03 suspension parts, which I also happen to have on a spare chassis.

Over to the base of this build.
This is how I got it, very dirty,with cut down rear body posts and missing the body.
But it did come with two batteries and transmitter.

Yesterday I pulled it apart and gave all the plastic parts and tires/wheels a hot bath in soapy water and just let it sit there for hours.

All the metall bits beside the drive dog bones was given a bath in WD40 to remove all the grime and grease.

Today I gave all the plastic another soapy bath in hot water, this time they was scrubbed with a little hand scrubber I found in the lady section of one of the shops I go to.

With that done the metal bits was put in other set of shot glasses to rinse on off before being dried with a paper towel.

All metal bits got really clean and most of the hardware is useable.
Some of the screw pins are not straight, so those needs to be replaced.

 Some of the differences vs a orginal Tamiya TL01.
HBX uses black hardware on their chassis.

Gearbox drive cups are grey ish on the inside.

So are the wheelaxles

The star inside in the diff has extra fingers on them

And no HBX seems to have ball bearings, bushes fitted to the same place.
I think I had at least 3 of them and non of them was put together in the same manner.
And HBX seems to use the whole specter of bushings and bearings, metal shielded bearings, rubber bearings in 2 colors. brass bushings and plastic bushings.
All came from this vehicle.

Screw pins on the other side seems to be very similar to the Tamiya ones

Usually HBX TL01 versions has brown gears in them, that feels a bit gritty to them in material.
But this had a combo of both white and brown gears.
These are still to be cleaned.

The dog bones also needs to be cleaned, these have some rust on them.
Autosol will fix that I think.

That is how far I have come with this project.

Cons on this paricular chassis:
Broken body mount on the chassis left front - no biggie as I will mod the chassis if it can' be glued.
Tires have tears in them - repairable and they are already been set aside for one of my other projets.
Wheeøs are scuffed - not bad, but need the outher lip needs to be sanded off. Have no use for them right now tho'.
Missing body posts - not a problem as I need new ones for the Escortbody anyway.
Chaissis is scratched on the underside - fits this chassis it will be a rally car and it might get a skid plate to made up.

Pros:
Heaps of possibilitys to mod to near any vehicle type you want.
Loads of spare parts still available - and I have loads of spare parts as well.
Easy to mod for fitting bigger capacity batteries.
Pulls apart with few screws.
Nearly bullet proof.

I might order the body very soon.
Same for rally tires as I don't have those in M chassis size.
But I do have minilite type wheels sitting around.

Minilite rims on an escort fit perfectly richard. 

Yep I'm a fan of Minilites on older vehicles, period correct and they look good.
I also love BBS wheels, but that's more for touring type cars...


Today is my birthday, so I started the day by shopping and then having a couple of hot dogs, which is nice 

After that I wanted to get back on this project.
Wanted a bit easy work so I cleaned the gears and polished the dog bones, propeller shaft and the drive cups together with wheel axles.
I'm using Autosol which I have been using since the 90s for polishing metal parts 

Dog bones went from this

To this

Drive cups and wheel axles turned out ok.

Gears cleaned.
The idler gear had grease that will not go away, so it's dirtier than I wanted it to be.
Rest of the gears are good enough for a runner. I may scrape them with my dentist tools I recently bought before I install them.

Polishing work was made easy by chucking them in my drill and using a microfibre cloth.

A bit more progress 

Happy birthday Richard. Nice work.

Yes Happy Birthday, Looks like you had some fun there  

I hope it's not too late to say happy birthday.

Happy birthday to you and look in your inbox

Thanks for the birthday wishes folks 
Had even more hot dogs in the evening 


More progress today
I pulled the M03 suspension bits from a spare chassis, and even found a set of Minilite wheels and D60 tires.
It all fits good 

It do need 50mm dampers at front as 55mm is too long and it is stressing the suspension right now.

The biggest worry is the right uprigth at front do hit the the propeller shaft cover at full turn and when the suspension is compressed.
I will try M05 uprights to see if those can cure this.

Looks a bit long and strange now at 257wb.
It will be shortned to 239wb later.

Rear suspension arms do lack damper mounting points on the right side for the TL01 chassis.
To overcome this I swapped out the outer screw pin and replaced it with a M3 threaded rod and some nuts and spacers.
Had to use 65mm dampers and the TL01B ones do fit the bill nicely.

And a normal size motor do fit so it has clearance.

Seen from above

So there you have it. TL01 fitted with M03 suspension.

Next step will be to shorten the chassis by 18mm.

Today I have shortned the chassis by 18mm down to 239wb, which is the same as L versions of M chassis kits.
Since I needed 18mm to be removed, a 18mm masking tape was perfect for the job.

First I laid the tape where I wanted it to be cut, then I fitted the bumpers.

Then I made a strechbenk so the chassis would not move while I was working.
One screw at each end and some zip ties was all it needed.
Pictured is the saw I used.

Before

After

For the first time the chassis has now 239wb

As seen here

Cut lines

Still straight 

Empty of steam now, my arms are like al dente spagetti lol.
Will be gluing this later this week hopefully.
Think I will use epoxy for this.

knock on wood this wont become a nascar

nice setup for that operation