New Optima Build: Project CYANide - Finished!

[Coelacanth]

I made a nice eBay score on these front & rear Kyosho TF3 billet control arms for $10 that are an almost perfect match to the nylon Spider GP-10 arms I installed previously. The seller had them advertised as "Tamiya TF3" so nobody else bid but me.

They were just a tad wider at the C-carrier end than the plastic ones, so I used a 1mm thick Tamiya alloy spacer before snapping on the e-clip.

I also received a nice set of Starex front alloy control arms from EvolutionRevolution which have more or less the same shape as the plastic arms and are a bit thicker, but I actually prefer the funky design of these Top Racing Performance arms. It doesn't look like I'll be using the rears--they're a perfect fit to replace the stock Optima arms at the frame side, but they're too short.

This project is getting close to being finished.

[Hcp22]

Nice score

[EvolutionRevolution]

So are you going to add the rear hubs too?

[Coelacanth]

So are you going to add the rear hubs too?

Already done--just waiting on a few details before taking more pics. They look fantastic but the CVD cups are a tighter fit inside the alloy hubs than the stock nylon hubs, which required a bit of tweaking to make everything silky-smooth.

[Coelacanth]

One of my biggest challenges with this build turned out to be narrowing the track front & rear. Ironically, I would've thought bringing in the fronts more difficult than the rears, but the opposite was true. Simply changing to Kyosho Spider/TF3 front arms & CVDs (and camber links/tie rods/shocks/shock towers, hehe!) was all it took to narrow the front track.

Pulling in the rears turned out to be a more frustrating task, but I think I finally acquired all the parts needed to do it! I must've spent at least 4 hours last night messing around with various components and FINALLY managed to pull in the rear tires flush with the 'Cuda's wheel-wells.

It took a combination of Lazer ZX-5 hub/carriers, GPM alloy arms, MIP shiny CVD bones for the HPI RS4 that were installed in place of existing Kyosho CVD bones (and needed a bit of grinding on the inside to improve smoothness), more shock travel adjustments, adding longer ball-cups to increase the camber link lengths, and various spacers to make this work. Whew!

Pics to follow this weekend...I was too tired last night to take pics. This project is nearly complete! I just need to CA the tires, drill some 3mm holes for the rear stabilizer link ball-studs (the GPM arms lack mounting holes there) and give it a final wipe-down...that should just about wrap things up.

[Coelacanth]

Here's a couple pics of the rear suspension, using the $5 GPM alloy arms--a direct fit but are about 4.5mm longer than the stock arms and require some spacers to eliminate the play on either side of the hub carriers. The $12 Lazer ZX-5 hubs have much less offset than the stock hubs, bringing in the outer bearing by about 17mm. I had to mix-'n'-match to make a CVD to fit properly, using some MIP shiny CVD bones for an HPI RS4 (about 52.5mm as opposed to the 60.5mm CVD bones I was using previously) with the Kyosho CVD axles. I had to do some grinding on the inside of the shiny bone cups to make things move smoothly, but now they spin silky-smooth. I also had to make some smaller 1.6mm crosspins because the holes in the MIP bones were too small to fit standard 2mm crosspins. I used wing wire for that. After all that, the net change in track width was about 7 or 8mm shorter on either side.

As the alloy GPM arms are 5mm longer than stock, I had to lengthen the turnbuckles by attaching longer ball-cups. I also had to shorten the shock travel by about 5mm as the holes to mount the shocks were inboard about 15mm from the stock arm holes. Lastly, I drilled some 3mm holes in the rear surface of the GPM arms so I could reinstall the stabilizer link assembly.

The best part of these mods is how the body fits the rear tires now! It looks great now but my main motivation was to reduce the stagger between front and rear track. I figured that the bigger the difference was between front & rear track, the more unstable and likely to flip the car would be. With rear tires significantly wider apart than the fronts, I imagine the cornering capabilities would be closer to a shopping cart or trike, the greater the amount of stagger gets. Reducing the stagger will probably help with cornering performance. I hope, anyway.

[Toasted Coastie]

Dude, I am in awe of this build. Pure goodness! Fantastic job!

[Coelacanth]

Dude, I am in awe of this build. Pure goodness! Fantastic job!

Thanks, Coastie!

I lubed & threadlocked & put everything back together on the rear, and finally took some quickie body shots showing the results of countless hours of measuring, searching the 'net for parts that *might* fit, and lots of trial & error. This is as good as I can get it, but it was worth the effort. Who'd have any idea there's a Turbo Optima under there? I think it looks like a muscle car ought to look, like they did back in the 60's and 70's...not with the tires pulled several inches inside the wheel-wells or sticking out too much--just about flush.

I also dig how the blue rear arms & Lazer hubs, and front knuckle arms can be seen through the 5-spokes!

[tim.sanderson]

Dude, I am in awe of this build. Pure goodness! Fantastic job!

Agreed! Very good job, Marc!

[RedScampi]

This car is absolutely amazing! Great job!

[sgirouard]

Next step Marc is go to a VTA race and have the judges look at you with ABSOLUTELY no clue how to include this in a race.

[Coelacanth]

Next step Marc is go to a VTA race and have the judges look at you with ABSOLUTELY no clue how to include this in a race.

LOL From what I understand after reading a good post on the subject by Eau Rouge, it appears that this breaks too many rules. No driver doll, I'm using 31mm tires on the front instead of 26mm, wrong motor, I'm not sure if the Castle Sidewinder ESC is accepted, and who knows what else.

[Coelacanth]

I can finally say Project CYANide is completed! This took over 8 months to finish, several months more than I expected, but I'm happy with the final product...an Optima like no other!

Tonight I found the time to take the final "money shots". Thanks to all who followed this thread, helped me out in countless ways (but mostly by answering my hundred questions about "what size is that?" or "will that fit?") not the least of which included selling or trading me the various parts needed to make this car happen...and thanks also for all the great comments, which was a big part of my motivation to get this thing done.

Body On Pics...

[Coelacanth]

Naked Pics...

Now, on to the next project--Barney the Lizard King cometh!

[shane]

Very nice.