Again another Marui project : Super Wheelie and Big Bear!

[silvertriple]

Since last post, I made quite a few modifications to the chassis...

I first added some room to give wider choice of Lipo packs



Then I added some holes in order to be able to pass cables more easily (when you can, it really makes sense to do it) and some other reinforcements...


The body mounts are very frequently lost when the poles to mount them are broken. That means many of the chassis are going to miss them. I adapted the poles to Tamiya Frog body mounts...

Once the chassis work was over, I did put the gearbox part together in a cluster (for many providers, one stl instead of 4 to print is much lower cost).


I'm getting closer to have finished the work on this chassis. I have thought about various solutions for the shocks mount, but i'm 100% happy with none of them, so that means it will have to wait for a better idea...

[silvertriple]

Some times that I've not posted...
As said, the real project I have in mind is slightly unique...

Marui RC catalog for the year 1986 displayed a kit which was never released... It was planned, and it even appeared on some importer catalogs...



I have modeled the CJ-7 and the Land Cruiser, there is some common design cues, some invariant dimensions, and some assumptions to do, but I believe I can get there...


Analysis of the two body shell shows some key informations. Cage is shorter on the front for the Land Cruiser and that is the one I'm going to use. As matter of fact, I believe the image from the catalog was not a final version. It in fact used the CJ-7 roll cage. And that would mean a much larger bodyshell... So something is wrong. But anyway, I'll proceed with the Land Cruiser roll cage configuration as a basis.



The structure of the body shell is a mix between the two original bobyshells...

The front part is defined by the grill and the position of the headlights... So we need to start there, as it will define the larger of the front area


After some tests, I went with something which I believe could be it...


We have a nice front face definition...


From there, it is time to add the surrounds...


There is still a lot of work, but it starts to shape...


And the roll cage will allow to define the windshield position...


I got many difficulty with confusion360 (poke @Dadio): sometimes locked sketches unlock themselves few sketches later on, and the bodyshell is getting tear down appart... Maybe the previous update was the culprit, as I don't see this happening anymore this afternoon after another update...

There is still a lot of work, but it is on going. I slightly modified the Enhance chassis to allow for usage with all Marui Super Wheelie and Big Bear bodyshells (it required to remove some material on the top of the extensions I made for higher battery compatibility but that should be fine now)...

[silvertriple]

Following the last post, I had a doubt... My assumption for the front of the roll cage don't compute : too much space between the roll cage and the walls of the bodyshell...

The cluster ABS part set 2 showed 3 set of parts 23, 24, 25.


I had a look at my parts...


3 different length for the spacer used on each side on the front bar. Long is for the CJ-7, Short for the Land Cruiser, Medium is for the Mitsubishi, and the Mitsubishi jeep was in the Marui master plan from the beginning of the Super Wheelie series...

[silvertriple]

Lot of work being done those last two days...

Added rear details...


And on the top... The way it is mocked up in the original pictures from the catalog would make it impossible to put the body pins and to put the roll cage in place, I believe. I decided to make it simple...


Added some detais on the side and it is almost complete...


The driver scan fits in there...


Roll cage based on medium extensions works well...


Time to work on the Windshield, and mapping is first...


It's in place now, with wipers, and I also reviewed the doors cut


And finally added some details on the dashboard...


It will be time to add the suspensions and it will be over for CAD work...

[silvertriple]

Joints... Not very hard, especially when you have all the sub assembly jointed already


And here we have the Marui Mitsubishi Jeep MT60-RC09




What do you think?

[silvertriple]

A family pictures was required


Then renderings...





And this is not over. I will make one Mitsubishi Jeep, for sure... But I want it to have leds...
Rear is easy to deal with!


Front requires a bit more work, but nothing impossible. The glass is taking the original design, but reviewed to be snapped on the reflector (which is included in the body shell)...


Maybe I should add a lock feature... And I also need to work out the roll cage for this...

[silvertriple]

Back in eighties, in France, there was a specific racing category for 1/10 electric powered wheelie cars... And the Super Wheelies were highly represented in that category... Many cars had supsension mods, with addition of hydraulic shocks, and there was even an article in one of the rc magazine to indicate how to mod the chassis for race: http://rc-paper.com/details_page.php?id=rev_autorcmfr-0058&pg=42

I took some inspiration of this and decided to add some shocks to my Super Wheelie chassis (Maybe I shhould have done this before I ordered my final validation parts, actually).

I modified the front arms and made a specific cluster for it



Then I pulled all the elements with the chassis and start to work out the fixation, with a mock up of some Tamiya mini CVA for TT02 I had sitting there...


Then I build up some fixations...


It was clear that I need to position the anchor points higer...


At the end I had this for the front, with the bodyshell on top of it. I believe this should work as well with the Big Bear, but I'll need to check with the Land Cruiser and CJ-7 bodyshells




On the rear side, I'm still thinking about the right way to do... This is my first version, but I might change approach. There is a bit of constraints, and I do not really want to dig holes on the rear side to put the shocks vertically...


Let's see how it goes...

[silvertriple]

I pursued the work on the rear side and adjusted shocks hook positions


The setup will rely on a combined shock/spring, not like the front. Any other setup would require to work differently and make dramatic changes to the chassis...



I also checked the range... Like the front, it reproduces the original range...



The same approach can be used for the Big Bear. I'll work this out later...

[silvertriple]

I applied the exact same principles for the Big Bear than for the Super Wheelie.

On the front, arms are modified to include a shock mount, and a super structure is added on top of the chassis, including a brace to reinforce the chassis...


And for the rear, I'm using exactly the same super structure and parts than for the Super Wheelie...


Here is the full chassis view...


And for the safe of checking it doesn't interfere with the wheels...

[silvertriple]

I will need to print body accessories for my almost fully printed model...

I started to put the roll cage parts together with joints to be able to prepare the clusters...


Then I added all the accessories for the Super Wheelie bodies. The front part of the spare wheel was slightly modified as I noticed the inter distance of the holes are not the same for Land Cruiser and Super Wheelie. This way, the cluster can be used with my Mitsubishi body, the CJ-7 original body or the Land Cruiser original body. This is also the reason there is Two rear parts for the rear of the spare wheel : one is opened, and the second one is plain...


I then made a decision to build 2 clusters : one with only the roll cage parts - very often damaged on the cars I saw, and one with everything (it will require paint for the white front of the lights at least, but it will save impression costs).



The roll cage parts cluster is itself a copy paste as new before adding other parts...


Next prepare a version with leds enabled for the roll cage midlle part (targeted for TPU print to give some flexibility allowing to attach the lights permanently), a cluster for Shocks mod parts, and the main body cluster (body, dashboard and windshield)...

The oeverall plan is coming together

[silvertriple]

Work continues...

I assembled bodyshell, dashboard and windshield...



And since my target is a printed body with leds, I did that as well for my own body...


Then I prepared a roll cage compoenent allowing for leds. The leds will be locked with a small screw (M2x8)...



I put the locks with the roll cage so they can be printed together (possibly TPU, as the integration of the lights in the middle bar makes requirement for flexibility)...


I also made a version of the body with leds and roll cage part (I've not decided yet if I'll use it)...

[silvertriple]

Some chassis parts printed in MJF PA12 arrived today...


I've already done some checks but without pictures so you'll get the results later

In the meantime I've done the remaining clusters...


One for the Big bear front arms ready for shocks and another one including all the parts required for shocks enhancement with drilling template for my enhanced chassis (and also one with drilling templates for the stock chassis).

Ultimately, that is a lot of parts!


Next step : Sunday or Monday, with official test fit of all those parts...

[silvertriple]

Fitting test, phase 1.

Enhanced chassis :
1. with Big Bear original body, all good



2. with Land Cruiser original body, all good



3. with CJ-7 Golden Eagle body, all good





Gearbox halves : All good!







Printed gearbox with original arms : check!



Printed motor cap with original arms : check!



Printed brushless motor cap with original arms : check!



Printed arms with original gearbox and motor cap: check!




I have no doubts on the front arms as I have a running set already on the Super Wheelie which ran at the vintage events...

In short : all good. The internal gearbox was already tested few weeks ago, and it led to a minor change which was not printed. The change will be replaced by a shim washer in the build but I have o doubt it will work... I've not conducted MJF PA12 print test of the Big Bear arms, but their key features are the same as the Super Wheelie arms, and it should be fine...

TLDR : All good! Next will be chassis build

[Dadio]

Must have been very satisfying, especially when your gearbox half mates perfectly with the original, well done !

[silvertriple]

Must have been very satisfying, especially when your gearbox half mates perfectly with the original, well done !

The gearbox and arms were already checked with the FDM printer, so it was not real surprise (you still have a small doubt on some aspect when you come to test on another printer, but generally it is fine)... But the chassis was never really tested before in this version : I only tested the 3 part chassis, which was based on the 7.2V without any enhancements... And I can say that I had a little doubt for the Land Cruiser body shell to work with it...