IMO, the best looking monster truck of the '80s was the Kyosho Double Dare! Not the best at really anything else, but looks wise, the DD does it for me!!
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
So, through horse trading, I have ended up with two semi-crappy Double Dares, so might as well make one out of the best parts. This will be a refresh, and light on new parts, and mostly working with what I got. I was reluctant to start this build as I knew I was missing the radio cover and hadn't been able to find one, but while rearranging vehicles last week, I realized that the cover on my [future project] USA-1 had what I had been looking for, so needed part found, so time to move forward.
Of course, I have learned in the past that building one good vehicle from two crappy ones doesn't really work, and you just end up with twice as many bad parts, but I tend to forget that lesson.
Step 1: parts breakdown. Shockingly, very little in regards to broken parts. I knew I wanted a MSC and didn't have one, so that is on order. I had also already ordered machined aluminum chassis braces because my plastic ones chrome was sad, but as usual, the seller is taking their sweet a$$ time shipping those. I am missing one set of kingpin catches, so I may need to print something up.
Step 2: transmissions. All good here; existing parts cleaned up fine and no damage. Bearings added of course, but for no real reason.
Step 3: shocks. Shocks are all fine, and this may just be in my head, but they have "pinked" a little over time I think. I am going to get some red dye in the next couple of days and see if the plastic will take it. Will update.
Step 4: chassis braces. I don't think I am going to wait for the aluminum ones, so I am just coloring the existing ones with Molotov markers. Not as nice as the original plasti-chrome, but I think good enough at the end of the day. Again, I am a 3' away guy!
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
With a second coat, I think the braces will be fine.
Step 5: chassis. Put together the chassis with its internal components. The 4WS setup is weak to say the best, but it is complete.
Step 6: outer susp components.
I build RCs like people would have done back in the '90s ..................................... if they had 3D printers.