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*****This has been posted on other boards. I thought you TAMIYA guys would enjoy this build*****

This is my 1986 TAMIYA "BIGWIG. The older members will remember this buggy. It was quite famous back in the day. Was one of the 1ST R/C cars to get a 8.4 volt battery and the TECHNIGOLD motor. Full rack and pinion steering. Oil filled shocks, 4 wheel drive. I have 3 of these. One is original, one is slightly modded, and then I went all out on this one.

Well when I got back into R/C cars about a year ago I decided to buy a few used ones of these to re-live my childhood. I had one when I was 13 back in "86". I really luved running it. So I bought a few off E-BAY and decided to upgrade them with modern technology. I upgraded to a TEKIN R1 ESC and TEKIN brushless "REDLINE" 537 motor. Got a few MAXAMPS 7.4 volt, 8000mAh LI-PO batteries for it. Well with a custom 19 tooth pinion she has been clocked at about 40MPH. Not bad for a car that was only running about 15-20MPH stock. Just wish there was more gearing options for it.

Anyway the chassis was never designed to take impacts at this speed. Due to it is only street driven it has encountered the occasional curb. The chassis's are a black ABS bath tub style and being 24 years old the break quite easily. So getting sick of trying to find parts for this car and when you do their expensive, I decided to start fabricating and using parts from other cars to keep the "BIGWIG" alive.

Here's what the "BIGWIG" looked like stock :





I 1st started by upgrading the fragile stock front bumper with a custom handmade aluminum one.





Then I worked on the shocks. The stock TAMIYA plastic shocks are not much to be desired. So upgraded to some TRAXXAS ones. :

HI!... Well after breaking like 8 chassis's in 6 weeks I decided to build one from scratch out of aluminum.

Here is what the stock chassis looks like :



So I used some bristle board and started to mock one up :

HI!... And aluminum fabrication begins. This was all done by hand. I do have a brake for the bends.

HI!... The chassis was all TIG welded inside and out. I then ground down the welds on the outside to make it cosmetically pleasing.








I made another front bumper. This one with some supports to keep it from bending on impacts. It is currently at my welders getting the supports TIG'ed on.

HI!... When everything is completely done all parts will be getting powder coated gloss black.

Picked up the tire/rim upgrade today. The stock tires are so hard, probably due to the rubber technology is 24 years old. lol! Getting the car up to speed is a challenge. It wants to go in donuts most of the time, even with the 4x4. So I looked around and found some TRAXXAS "ANACONDA" rims tires that come on the TRAXXAS "BANDIT VXL". I couldn't believe it! They are a direct bolt on. Same size as the stockers. Now I should be able to get some half decent traction on the road.

HI!... It's also been hard to find upper "A" arms for the front and rear. So back to TRAXXAS again and I got some turnbuckles. They had to be cut down to length but worked out perfectly.

Stock front upper "A" arm :





New fabricated TRAXXAS upper "A" arms :





Fabricated rear TRAXXAS upper "A" arms :

HI!... Well I got the front bumper tig welded up. Man is this thing strong! I also used two new "1984" TAMIYA "HORNET" front bumpers. These bumpers have a ton of flex in them and won't break. I trimmed both down and bolted them to the front bumper and made a aluminum plate to mount one on the rear. The BIGWIG rear gearbox does not like backing into curbs. lol!

HI!... I also got the brass 3mm inserts installed in the front steering knuckles, so I can run my custom "A" arms made from TRAXXAS turnbuckles.

HI!... Well tonight I decided to lighten it up a bit. Surprisingly the "SPEED" hole lightened it by almost a pound! Then I sandblasted it to make it look pretty! LOL!

HI!... Well I have like 30 hours in this thing already. lol! The funny thing is I have enough parts here right now to build 4 BIGWIG's in total. I'm debating if I want to start a few more aluminum chassis's. It will most likely be easier the 2ND time around since now I know how to do it and what needs to be done. I most likely will.

HI!... Well I got off work early today and decided to build my servo support. Got it all done. Here's a few pics :

HI!... I also decided to try to dye some parts for the 1ST time. It turned out pretty good I think. Here's some before after pics. This batch was dyed all black.

HI!... Well did a bit of work on the old girl today. Got the rear/front lower "A" arms all JB WELDED up, where they are known to split. Got the backs all sanded down and lightly sandblasted. The fronts are currently curing. Will file those and sandblast then tomorrow. Then I'm going to dye them all black. Also built two brand new gear boxes and running gear. I also ordered a new 20 tooth pinion. Had to modify the rear gearbox to fit it in. Was running a 19 tooth before.

HI!... Well I got a lot of work done on the aluminum chassis "BIGWIG" today. I got it all put together, minus electronics. I'll work on that tomorrow. Plus I'm still waiting for my 20 tooth pinion to come in for my TEKIN brushless motor.

It's still in bare aluminum. I want to run it for a bit like this and see if anything needs to be modified before I send it out to be powder coated. The local powder coated said he could make it look like it was anodized but it would be powder coating. Thinking of a metallic dark Grey or a metallic anodized looking electric blue. What do you guys think?

Anyway, here's a few pics of what she looks like right now.

HI!... Well I took the aluminum chassis BIGWIG out for her virgin run last night. Everything went pretty good. She ran straight and true. Handled pretty good. The only thing I had to do was change the valving in the TRAXXAS front/rear shocks and go to a 60 weight oil. I also had to add a few shims to the springs. On hard deceleration the front bars under the front bumper would hit the asphalt and rub. Now they don't. She trapped 61KPH on the radar gun. Can't wait for my 11.1 li-po's to get here so I can try one in the BIGWIG.

Here's a few pics. The body is old. I've got a new one I still have to cut out and paint.