MIP 4X SRB Project: Gonna Have A Lot Of Questions

[morrisey0]

So, I stumbled into this MIP 4X in a lot that I picked up yesterday, not having any idea what it was, outside of being cool. I am just starting to break it down now to get a jist of what is there and not there, and get nylon soaking. I am going to have a lot of questions because I would ultimately like to put the 400 kit on there if I can find one (haha). From the looks of it, I am going to need everything involved with that kit. I am downloading all manuals and pics I can find right now, and found Shodog's on here, and man is that thing pretty! All plate stuff will be ordered from Factory Works ASAP.

The foundation. Haven't found another picture of one with pan car wheel adapters on it. This thing has been ghetto-fabbed at pretty much every point. For everything held in by two screws, the screws don't match. There are three different types of shocks on it, and there are different types of spacers at all eight ends. The front arms are being held together by zip ties because one of the ball cup threads stripped out of the steering knuckle. There is a lot not right about this car. Since parts are so hard to find, I am probably going to turn to just better quality ghetto fixes.

So this leads to question #1 right off the bat. For the front uprights, I am not seeing any more fasteners here, so can I safely assume I just need to gently force everything apart here? Just don't want to force it if there is a trick to it.

[GoMachV]

If you haven't seen Toybarons excellent reference page make sure you check it out.
http://www.toybaron.com/MIPreference.htm

[morrisey0]

If you haven't seen Toybarons excellent reference page make sure you check it out.
http://www.toybaron.com/MIPreference.htm

What a fantastic resource that person put together!! Thanks for the link!

[morrisey0]

So, I knew the chassis plate had an engraving on the bottom of it when I bought it, and I had thoughts of what it might be, but then talked myself out of it. But really, if it isn't what I think it is, is it just an odd coincidence

The founder, and current president, of Moore's Ideal Products is Eustace Moore Jr.

[GoMachV]

You may want to rethink the replacement chassis that shipped out about a half hour ago

[Phin]

Wow, that's interesting. Jan. 1985 for a #3 is kind of surprising to me...I would've thought 1984 for that low a number. I guess they didn't sell well.

I'll say for sure though, Mr. Moore didn't build it with those Traxxas shocks and Pro-line pan car rear wheels.

More likely it originally looked something like the last car in this article: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/article.asp?id=189

[hugger19]

Where you pick the car up from??? Will take some $$$$$ to make it a correct build but will be worth it in the end

[morrisey0]

I reached out to MIP through FB last night, but haven't heard back. They seem like a small enough organization that hopefully my message will get to the boss. I will update if I hear back.

Build wise is good and bad.

Good in that the front upright tubes came right apart, and are 5/16" with about .035" wall. Easily replaceable 5/16 X .040 tubing works just fine.

Bad in that one of the rear trailing arm mounts ended up with a broken screw in it, and all the nice and easy fixes did not work. What is left of the screw is now beneath the aluminum face, and of course any drill bit wants to bend / wander off to the aluminum. I have a helicoil kit coming in tomorrow, and once I know the full size drill bit I can run on it, it will hopefully be stiff enough to not wander, but I am not confident. So a new mount may be needed.

As I wait for and decide on bigger things, I am looking at little things. One plan over the next couple of days is to make some new rag joints for the rear drive shafts. The old ones are pretty well worn out for sure. I found some .020" styrene sheets in the stash, so I plan on just punching out some pieces, and then punching or drilling out the holes from there using printed jigs. May not work, but will be entertaining trying. As with everything odd on this vehicle, there should be eight matching rag joints here (doubling up at four locations), but there is an oddball that is thicker and not the same material as the rest.

[Frankentruck]

Bad in that one of the rear trailing arm mounts ended up with a broken screw in it, and all the nice and easy fixes did not work.

If you would be able to make a slot across the broken screw, then maybe a slotted screwdriver could be used to back it out. An overnight soak in penetrating oil could help free it up for backing it out too.

The real magic would be center punching the middle of the broken screw and using a small reverse twist drill bit.

[morrisey0]

If you would be able to make a slot across the broken screw, then maybe a slotted screwdriver could be used to back it out. An overnight soak in penetrating oil could help free it up for backing it out too.

The real magic would be center punching the middle of the broken screw and using a small reverse twist drill bit.

Yep, those would be the nice and easy fixes that didn't work. The thread is 4-40, so once a slot was cut, the sides collapsed pretty quickly. I think I probably should have tried brazing to it prior to the slot cutting. I have been soaking this thing constantly, and the left hand bits have not worked, as large as I have tried, which I think is going to be my max before destroying threads. I am good going with a helicoil, I just hope I can drill through what is left of the screw. It just sucks with you have everything properly secured in a vise on drill press, and you are confident that bit isn't going anywhere, and then it just floats off with the lightest pressure.

[Frankentruck]

I was looking for an acid that would dissolve steel and not aluminum and came across this:

"By using some sort of Alum: either by using Potassium alum or Ammonium alluminium sulfate. Some guy on the forum suggested to dissolve above alum in hot tap water and then put aluminium part with steel part into resulting solution and let it stay there for a day. It should dissolve or at least damage steel part without affecting aluminium part which may ease physical removal of steel part.

"If steel is really stuck in a blind hole in an aluminum part, immerse in a heated alum solution for several days. There wil be very little solid ferrous material left but a crust.

The alum in water method works wel;. It is safer, cheaper, and can be accelerated with a small amount of heat, such as from a low wattage incandescent lamp."

I've never tried this and assuming there are other non-aluminum metals present they might also be affected. If you could grind a flat top and make a centering dimple, I'd still feel like a reverse twist drill bit would be the way to go. Maybe it also needs somd heat cycles to 300 F to break any surface bonds between the aluminum and steel. The heated aluminum should expand more than the steel.

[GoMachV]

I just had some of those made and the area between the threads and the outside are paper thin, I don't think you will have anything left to helicoil into. Im sure heat was tried and maybe soaking in PB blaster but if not, those are my go to's. Otherwise drill as planned because I think your out of options at that point

[GoMachV]

"By using some sort of Alum: either by using Potassium alum or Ammonium alluminium sulfate. Some guy on the forum suggested to dissolve above alum in hot tap water and then put aluminium part with steel part into resulting solution and let it stay there for a day. It should dissolve or at least damage steel part without affecting aluminium part which may ease physical removal of steel part."

Oh wow, that is cool. Definitely let us know if you try!

[1300GT]

Really nice score. Does it have an MIP or Thorp diff?

[morrisey0]

Really nice score. Does it have an MIP or Thorp diff?

It has a diff that looks like this.

At some point today, I remembered the fantasticness of Aero Kroil (now just called Kroil??), and went and bought some in just liquid form instead of aerosol. I am just leaving the whole piece submerged until probably the weekend to see if that helps out the locked screw situation. If that can't get it, no PO can.

As I am looking at the nylon parts soak, I am realizing why so many people dye these parts on these cars .............. the nylon just kinda looks blah. The parts are in various shades of off white and translucent, and seem to be very prone to staining, so now I am thinking about dying the parts myself, which wasn't the original plan. It isn't like an old RC10 where everything ages the same; these parts are all kinds of different colors.