TAG Navajo (Pro)

[1300GT]

I first saw one of these on Tamiyaclub back in 2006. First impressions were, "what were they on?"
After much investigation and research, I decided that I would buy one and modify it for running. There's no way I could shelve something this weird.
Navajos are hobby grade yet verge on toy grade at least in one area. The two cluster gears in the gearbox run directly on 3mm shafts. No bearings. The diff is another matter. It's straight out of the TAG Pro 10 and runs on bearings, which is fortunate. The car also shares suspension arms, dogbones, wheels, tyres and stub axles with the Coyote.

The overall plan is to add bearings, shocks, bumper and front kickup. Also improve steering, beef up the lower arms and allow for gear ratio changes. There are other small things that will be addressed as I tackle them.

This is how I bought the car. The paint is terrible. The chassis is in really good condition.

In pieces. The body is being stripped.

Normally I would start work on the chassis first, but the body needed attention. This is how it stands now. 99.9% of the old paint has been removed and the cut lines cleaned up. The lexan was very cloudy plus there's numerous cracks and dings that need fixing. It's been coated in Tamiya PS silver as a basecoat on the outside. Once the repairs are finished another colour will be added, the windows painted and the whole body will be coated in gloss clear. The red nylon parts have also been dyed black.

[Dadio]

I've looked at these when they come up and had much the same response as you , curious , too rare for an organ donor for a Coyote , very fragile looking .
It's kind of got Mcferson strut suspension all round without shocks , odd choice .

[1300GT]

Absolutely. The suspension is a strange choice for a buggy. In stock form it sits high off the ground with the arms at full droop. The springs seem a little stiff. If you've seen the two YouTube videos on the Navajo it bounces around a lot on rough terrain. I may have to wind softer springs for it. Surprisingly, it has a fair amount of suspension travel.

[1300GT]

The body is finished apart from the MCI stickers that are on the way. Not too shabby considering what it looked like.

On to the first modification. The front track is only about 215mm, which is too narrow for my liking. There's also no front kickup plus hardly any castor. To cure this, I made this bracket out of 1/8' G10. When attached to the chassis it widens the front track to just over 240mm, increases the wheelbase by 7.5mm which consequently increases castor and also adds almost ten degrees of kickup.

Here it is fitted to the chassis using the two rear original suspension arm mounts plus a third hole 20mm forwards of the others. You can see how close together the original arm mounts are. Luckily there are two bumper mounts at the front which worked out perfectly for mounting the front arm pivot balls into.

Here's a side shot showing the kickup.

There's not as much kickup as I'd like, but I'm not prepared to hack the chassis up to accomplish that. It'll have to do. Should be pretty good though.

[Coelacanth]

That body looks really good for being painted on the outside. Did you clearcoat it? I'm not familiar with this car but the body looks pretty cool, aside from the front shock mount...

[Dadio]

You should be pleased with the suspension mod , very tidy

[1300GT]

That body looks really good for being painted on the outside. Did you clearcoat it? I'm not familiar with this car but the body looks pretty cool, aside from the front shock mount...

Thanks. Yep. Three light coats of Tamiya TS-13 followed by a fourth heavier final coat. It bonds really well with the PS paint and becomes flexible.
It would have been much better looking if the body ran to the front of the chassis. Still, I like the black better than the original red.

You should be pleased with the suspension mod , very tidy

Thanks Gav.
Very pleased with such a simple change.