Tamiya TA02 Widetrack Project

[Sammo]

Seeing as we now have a specific section for this sort of thing I figured I'd put my build thread on here

Recently my girlfriends sons started showing an interest in cars and how they work. We don't have the space for a full sized car project so I figured this was the ideal time to try and get them into R/C cars. I bought them a Tamiya Racing Fighter and Tamiya Neo Fighter which we slowly building up ready to take down the park for a good bash.





Now the main problem with getting them interested in R/C cars is that it's renewed my interest as well! When I was about 13 I had a few different cars and would spend ages stripping them down, changing bits and then taking them to the park to bash around again. Of course with my renewed interest I had to get something for myself. When I'd moved out of my Mums a few years ago I boxed up the various cars I still had and stashed them in the loft. I couldn't remember exactly what was up there so got all the boxes down. Amongst the various shelf queens that I'll never run (see my various posts in the "Show is your R/C" thread) I found an old TA01 chassis. I don't remember buying this so have no idea where it came from, however it was in good condition and could be a good starting point for a project.

This is fresh out of the loft. Complete with a few years of loft dust.

[Sammo]

After doing a bit of googling I found out you could use the lower arms and various other bits to make these into a widetrack buggy type car. Seeing as the boys cars are buggies and would be getting used at the park I figured this would be the way to go with my new project.

I set about finding out exactly what bits I needed. The arms were easy enough to get hold of, but I also needed an adjustable turnbuckle set which was a little harder to find. I also discovered that the TA01 chassis had a slightly longer wheelbase than the later TA02 and this limited the bodies I could use. Seeing as it's a simple as just swapping the tub to go to TA02 I got on eBay and ordered the later tub.

Here's the TA01 on the left and TA02 on the right.



I set to work swapping the tubs over and while doing that the wider arms arrived So they got fitted too





This is how it started off, with the TA01 tub.



Then the TA02 tub.



Then the TA02 with the widetrack arms









It's starting to look considerably wider

[Sammo]

Once the arms were fitted I had to find some longer dampers to go with them, along with some longer ball joints to bolt through the chassis.



I bought these aluminium dampers which are supposedly very good.



I got to work fitting them, along with the adjustable tie rods that I eventually managed to track down.










Should have a reasonable amount of ground clearance

[Sammo]

While all this was going on I had been thinking about what body I wanted for this project. I liked the idea of it being a sort of stadium truck style and eventually settled on the Tamiya Chevy S10. eBay once again came to the rescue and soon enough this was winging it way to me.




I didn't realise how old that Chevy kit was!



Annoyingly, because of how old it is I couldn't find the original decal set anywhere, however a company in Canada does repro decal sets and this was one of the sets they made Another order and I soon had these.



Unfortunately I cannot find the window mask set anywhere on earth so I think I'm going to have to come up with a solution myself.

I figured I might as well cut the shell out so I can drop it over the chassis and get an idea of what it might look like.

[Sammo]

I got slightly sidetracked by the arrival of an original TA02T F150 that I bought from eBay.

[Sammo]

The next step was to add some of the bits that were missing from the chassis. Front and rear bumpers, ESC/receiver mount and prop shaft were all fitted.





I also bought some metal hexes as this will be reasonably powerful and I've heard of the plastic ones not holding up too well.

[Sammo]

Next up was to make a decision on wheels and tyres. Now this is where I really struggled. I know nothing about what will fit what and had to do lots of reading of other people's Build threads on various R/C forums to gleen as much info as I could. I eventually settled on a set of Tamiya beadlock wheels from a CR01 model and ProLine tyres front and back, however different tread patterns for each end.



That's a lot of parts just for one wheel!



A built wheel



Fitted to the car.






Annoyingly the rear tyres were coming from a different supplier so I had to wait another week for them to arrive. Once they were here I got them mounted up straight away






All fitted up!




Plenty of ground clearance

[Sammo]

That's the car pretty much up to date. I'm keeping an eye out for a set of body posts, aluminium servo mounts, aluminium steering mechanism and motor mount. I've bought a 7.5T brushless motor and once payday comes around I'll get an ESC to go with it. I also bought a 2.4ghz transmitter. A little different from the old 27mhz stuff I was used to all those years ago.

[Sammo]

I also need to figure out what size pinion gear to use. I've heard that with the wrong sized pinion I can end up overheating the motor and ESC pretty quickly.

[sarkie83]

Love it - looks really similar to my ta02 wide project! Bought as a beaten up shed off eBay then the manta ray suspension added. Painted the already battery Chevy s10 shell and added some spots. Funnily enough I've got the same controller as well - I used the 3rd channel to let me remotely flash the lights :-)



Currently it's sitting in the shed as one too many jumps finally killed the tub mountings (...well and shock mounts but they are consumables anyway ;-) )

I've also got a king Blackfoot (broken steering), celiac gr.b (broken wishbones) and frog (Woking!!)

[Sammo]

I had a few bits arrive from Modelsport yesterday including my body mounts. Managed to get 5 mins to get them on and line the body up to get an idea of what it's going to look like

[sarkie83]

Have you got the standard diff's in yours?
I ended up putting a M05 locked diff in the back of mine and moved the standard ball diff to the front..makes it pretty fun to skid about on the loose stuff ;-)

[HoTWire]

HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies HoTWire doesn't need more hobbies

but this looks soooooooo cool.

[Sammo]

Aug 8, 2017 20:57:35 GMT sarkie83 said:

Have you got the standard diff's in yours?
I ended up putting a M05 locked diff in the back of mine and moved the standard ball diff to the front..makes it pretty fun to skid about on the loose stuff ;-)

Yes standard diff's for now. I'll see how it goes using them and then have a mess around if required.

[Sammo]

A few days after my last update my Savox servo and aluminium servo mounts arrived



Even though I don't have the steering linkage yet I decided to bolt the servo in just for something to do.

[Sammo]

After being paid I ordered the paint for my shell and a body reamer tool to make the post holes.



I lined the shell up one more time and then reamed the holes

[Sammo]

Due to a current lack of funds, daughters birthday and imminent holiday I haven't been able to buy anything else for this. Seeing as I had a free evening today I decided I could at least mask the shell up ready to paint. Masking and painting definitely aren't my strong points but I was determined this is going to look presentable.

I decided not to go with the box art design, however I will be sticking to the box art colours. Just a different take on them

[Sammo]

I managed to spray the first colour when I got home from work last night. It's been years since I painted a shell so couldn't remember how long between coats. Left it 10-15 mins inbetween and I think I put four coats of paint on.

Tonight I peeled the masking off and was pleasantly surprised to only find one very small bleed near the scuttle panel. Should be able to sort it with a razor blade

[Sammo]

I managed to spray the second colour after work today I then left the shell under a lamp to dry it as fast as I could. I have no patience so wanted to peel the window masks and the outer plastic coating tonight too!

Well, I think it's come out pretty well considering shells aren't my strong suit!

[Sammo]

Tonight was sticker time. Something I didn't realise when I bought the sticker set was that they weren't pre cut! It took me all evening to do this but I'm happy with how it's come out Again, I'm not going for box art but I think I mixed it up pretty well for someone with no artistic imagination haha.












It's nearly pay day again so I'll be ordering up a few more bits to keep this Build going Annoyingly I'm almost not wanting to drive it haha! I think I've made it too nice!