Feb'22: we're getting there (at last)... CWF (tub) and Shiny RC10

[TRX-1-3]

Amazing!!!

Great build. Very unique with a ton of rare parts.

I am still unclear on who makes those amazing aluminum outdrives? I would love to get a pair if possible.

https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=103&t=42142

[shodog]

This is shaping up to be a sweet build. Those Rogue gear cases are nothing short of perfection. I have a couple of other aluminum gear cases and the are heads above the rest. I’ve been lucky enough to get three of them.

What are your plans for the rear brace? The motor plate looks beautiful but there isn’t anything to bolt the chassis to.

[Lonestar]

Hi all, thanks for the kind words.

Yes @Lavigna , @TRX-1-3 pointed you to Brian's thread indeed - not sure he has any left but you can certainly ask.

@shodog , these cases certainlt are a work of art, I agree fully. I should have picked up more of them like you did I will explain very shortly how my set had an issue (I dropped you a PM about it a few days ago) in the next messages, but even then the result is still stunning indeed.

No plans for bracing the transmission to the rear chassis kink this is structurally suboptimal but will still be plenty enough for shelf duties I think.

[Trass]

Jerome always staying close to the shiny stuff

a+
Paul

Absolutely !!!


Jerome

[Lonestar]

As said, I had an issue with the transmission case.

At first assembly, the clearance between the internal slipper and motor plate looked very tiny. When tightening the slipper (with the wrong spring for now, see my other thread ), the transmission would bind. After a few dissassemblies and reassemblies, and checking every component (are the bearing the right ones? Are the seated properly? Am I not mixing slipper plates old/new? Is it the right top-shaft? Is the carbon too thick? ...) and measuring a few things left right and center, including on other stealth transmissions across the "stash" ( ) I concluded that the spacers provided with the case are too long - the plate is spaced too far away from the case for the length of the top shaft. Or maybe I missed something totally, but this was the only solution I could find to my problem.

Now - I don't have a lathe... so I had to improvise something to grind them down by about 1.5mm (like 1/16" for my US friends ). I tried sanding, filing, a few "soft" ways... but this wouldn't work. Since it was like 11pm already and I becoming seriously upset at this all, I had to resort to somewhat of a more hardcore solution:



It's not totally clean, but it isn't quite that bad really.

Once reassembled, the end of the transmission case screws are not as flush with the motor plate as they used to be, but so be it - at least the transmission spins properly and the build can restart.

To note, the spacers Chris also sold for "standard" AE plastic cases are super sweet - but they are not compatible with his own case, the dimensions are different:



I had kept that spur for a while, because of the (you guessed it...) alloy holder



It is stupid light, and probably for stock racing as it appears to be flimsy... the rotational mass is reduced to a minimum, there is an interesting silicon disk to mount it to the slipper too, probably as a vibration dampener. Not that many vibrations or torque on the shelf, so it'll be ok there



We are done with the shiny stuff for now - time to move to some sweet black parts

[Lonestar]

That CWF nose plate is lovely - the finish is actually pretty decent, and it seems to be straight and dimensioned properly (spoiler alert: this is not the case for the other main CWF part ). the a-arm mounts are fixed thanks to shiny steel 8-32 screws at the bottom





If we follow the manual, time to take care of the spindles - I use in-line axles, because I had them handy, really. I'm also opening a pack of metric GPM shiny ballstuds, which are supposed to fit the US-style ballcups. The "injection" point is very obvious





30deg hubs - again, perfect for shelf duties, and readily available in black in my box-o-rc10- parts
sa


These molds seem to have been used quite a few times over the years, really... I love the L and R which are still faintly visible, though






All the suspension will hinge on some of Kelly's finest:






After much philosophical self-questioning, I decided against using Andy's arms in the end as I only had the short ones for the front, which would have looked a bit weird with the Worlds towers... Moreover, the "bio" shape of the Andy's arms also didn't work out well with the "industrial" tone of the overall build, I think... I can always change my mind later on

Haaa the joy of opening more fresh, new bags!



Same comment about how well-used these molds are... look at the flashings and burred areas! I'm pretty sure I bought these years before the re-re so they very likely are the old-school ones. No idea how the new ones compare, I would think they did new molds but what do I know...

[Lonestar]

RCCW towers - I haven't followed up but a few months ago it looked like RCCW had disappeared from the radar screen... Anyone knows more about that? The FB page hasn't been updated since Feb17 either



I just love using vintage RC tools when building vintage RC cars



The angle on the edge of the Losi wrench, I recall I grinded many years ago when I used it to rebuild sliders... otherwise there was no way to put the cross-joint back in the plastic parts I can't believe I still have this tool handy and have not lost it

Conical washers and FHS will be my best friends for the rest of the build. I am also realizing I'm running short of FHS (the ones for the shock mounts are obviously too small here...) so an order is in the works. But at least I could complete the front end, except the turnbuckles. I hope you agree it looks pretty darn sexy





(again, apologies for the pics quality, they are done with the cell phone on my (messy) workbench in the garage )

(TBC'ed)

[XLR8]

Holy smokes! With all those exotic parts and materials, this is gonna be one for the ages. "Shiny" indeed!!
Looking forward to the next update.

[works92]

Can't wait to see the end of this amazing build
what a bunch of incredible spare parts

You're surely on the right way to get your "pinky ring" RC10

Cheers
Phil.

[jwscab]

thats looking sweet! Those little tits on the ball ends are from when they were parted off on the lathe and they didn't post-process. I hate those things. Are they steel or aluminum?

[Lonestar]

thats looking sweet! Those little tits on the ball ends are from when they were parted off on the lathe and they didn't post-process. I hate those things. Are they steel or aluminum?

Cheers Joe - I thought these were casted... they appear to be light, and they are not cold to the touch - I think aluminium. I could be wrong though. Sp what you're saying is the thread section is milled? Sorry, i don't know much about fab'ing

Thanks!
Paul

[jwscab]

Yeah they were probably made on a screw machine. A specialized lathe. Once the profile is turned on the ball and the threads cut, they part it off, basically drive a square tool into the material and it cuts it like a saw, but if the tooling is not exactly on center, you get the little bit of the center left, ie the little tit.

[Lonestar]

Time to work on the main chassis now. It is a really cool piece of formed CWF to hold in one's hand - in reality it's looking good from afar but it's far from looking good when you work with it you'll shortly understand why

More new parts - these were died, too, this is a re-re. I have one NIB black worlds bulkhead but I'm keeping it for another very specific build (full black worlds car, one day).



The wing tubes are some of those parts which are becoming hard to get, somehow I've located a batch of 5 in germany this week and I've ordered them all... this bag I had had for a while though. I certainly didn't remembered they had to pushed in so hard into the holes in the bulkhead - a vice was actually needed

and when trying to mount the bulkhead on the chassis, a surprise was waiting



WTF?!?

I checked the size on another one of my worlds car:



so it isn't the bulkhead that TT has messed up, but truly the chassis that is done just plain wrongly Not only is the sizing wrong, but the mounting holes on the sides are actually not facing the bulkhead at all. Time to pull out the dremel again, and by a significant amount actually. I wasn't brave enough to dremel the chassis though, so I worked on the bulkhead instead:



and below, too... interesting to see how far the dye penetrates the nylon btw, even after removing the first millimeter of plastic, it was still mostly black. I never thought the pigment went this "deep".



With a bit of a black paint marker, it'll all do the job:



And some shiny spacers to the rescue. Still unacceptable, but a bit late to send it back to the manufacturer, really!

[Lonestar]

Yeah they were probably made on a screw machine. A specialized lathe. Once the profile is turned on the ball and the threads cut, they part it off, basically drive a square tool into the material and it cuts it like a saw, but if the tooling is not exactly on center, you get the little bit of the center left, ie the little tit.

Cheers Joe for the schooling as usual

[Lonestar]

The next step is to mount the case on the chassis... given the recent findings on how accurate the chassis is, I was a bit worried to be honest

But it all went smooth - the holes line up. I gues they used the stealth (steel) drill jig, hard to miss then Still I didn't analyse the symmetry of the whole thing, I guess I'd rather not know



More shiny bits to mount the rear tower to the bulkhead:
(yes, I did tightne that screw in the end )



you can also see I used another size of washer, much narrower, for the FHS that mounts the bulkhead to the chassis sidewalls. Not much space there.

The brace is from FL too, again, this one has been in the stock for soooo many years. The body posts, no idea who did them. Again, a lot of emotions when ripping these plastic bags open!



CWF and polished metal never gets old



You can see the sandwich structure of the FL brace - definitely a lot of epoxy in there... the countersunk area in the first picture really shows it well.

Logical next step from my transmission case spacing hurdles - now the motor plate is *really* close to the brace... (I'm beginning to think maybe the shaft was too short... I mean, all parts around it can't be that consistently wrong. It MUST be the culprit. Too late anyway now...). So some minor dremeling was needed again ...



... which is all forgotten when it's assembled



(TBC'ed)