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Hi guys, just sharing a project that I've been working on...

Local weather has been nothing but wet wet wet... so I found some time to do some work on my Tamiya Frog.

So here's how she looks after hours of work...




A side view...




The front end features custom shock mounts to mount two oil-filled dampers... and also custom wideners to increase the front track width. I find running the stock track width with 2.2" tires makes the front look a tad narrow.




The shock towers are made of carbon fiber and feature 3 adjustment positions to tune the front end.




The rear end has also seen some work. Mounts have been made to fit 3.5" buggy shocks. Custom rear "extentions" move the shock mounting point further away from the pivot point to allow me to use more standard spring rates and oils on the car. My take on the stock rear end is that the mounting position is too close to the pivot point resulting in the need for very heavy springs and oils to work. With the extentions, I get to use a lot more of the shock's stroke as the suspension moves through it's range of motion.




Now a lot of the work was also done under the "hood"... let's sneak a peek...




A custom steering plate was designed to mount the steering servo as well as a bellcrank steering setup. The bellcranks are from a M-05 and their geometry quite suitable for the buggy - they are also bearing supported for nice smooth steering action. One of the reasons I went with a bellcrank setup was to reduce the massive bump-steer typical in the Frog... it's all but gone now. Here's a pic of the buggy at rest.




And suspension compressed...




But the main reason I went through all this trouble was... well... I thought it'd look *trick*!




So that's my idea of what a TRF inspired Frog buggy might look like. IMO the front+rear widened track allows the 2.2" wheel-tire combo to look more proportional. The other mods should also improve the handling of the car somewhat. Now if only the weather would clear up to allow me to test it.

Hope you enjoyed the pics. Let me know what you think.



... and don't bug me on that pink bumper... I bought that to go with a box-art pink-white body I hope to do sometime.

Nice and original custom work!

which rear wheels did you use: they appear to have a nice big offset?

Mr. ED wrote:Nice and original custom work!

which rear wheels did you use: they appear to have a nice big offset?

Ah... nice spot! Rear wheels are from a OFNA/Hongnor CRT.5. Perfect offset for vintages like this. I run a pair on my RC10 gold tub too!

That's awesome!

Sweet upgrades you should make some up and offer them for sale

I was thinking the same thing. I'd definitely buy that steering setup. Its quite innovative!

Call it 'the bloodfrog-line'

Very nice work upgrading the suspension, I would really be intrigued to know if it helped out a very bad original design (how couldn't it? LOL).

I find the 2.2" wheels tend to make the already-too-small Frog wing look even more hinky-dink, though. No offence, it just looks odd.

Lowgear wrote:I was thinking the same thing. I'd definitely buy that steering setup. Its quite innovative!

Cool build!! Great work as well, one question though- why put $70 shocks on, and $50 worth of carbon and have a $11 servo?

Mr. ED wrote:Call it 'the bloodfrog-line'

lol... I'm not sure that name would take off Mr Ed.

Which parts do you guys think would have the most interest? Might do some sums to see if it made sense to do a couple.

Coelacanth wrote:Very nice work upgrading the suspension, I would really be intrigued to know if it helped out a very bad original design (how couldn't it? LOL).

I find the 2.2" wheels tend to make the already-too-small Frog wing look even more hinky-dink, though. No offence, it just looks odd.

None taken.

I'm curious about the performance changes too... will update once the weather gives me a chance to run this.

I'm not one to keep stuff strictly period-correct. I love trying to to see what I can get out of these vintage designs with some mods.

Charlie don't surf wrote:

Lowgear wrote:I was thinking the same thing. I'd definitely buy that steering setup. Its quite innovative!

Cool build!! Great work as well, one question though- why put $70 shocks on, and $50 worth of carbon and have a $11 servo?

lol... real reason? cos at 2am in the morning it was the one servo within arms' reach? So I just put it in there to see if the steering worked as I had designed it to...

Of course I could claim that the S148 is kinda vintage...

BloodClod wrote:

Charlie don't surf wrote:

Lowgear wrote:I was thinking the same thing. I'd definitely buy that steering setup. Its quite innovative!

Cool build!! Great work as well, one question though- why put $70 shocks on, and $50 worth of carbon and have a $11 servo?

lol... real reason? cos at 2am in the morning it was the one servo within arms' reach? So I just put it in there to see if the steering worked as I had designed it to...

Of course I could claim that the S148 is kinda vintage...

That's true!!

I will definitely be stealing the steering idea for my frog and blackfoots. Awesome work very cool looking

On the rear wheels, did you leave the tamiya hub off to mount the wheels?

vwjuice wrote:I will definitely be stealing the steering idea for my frog and blackfoots. Awesome work very cool looking

On the rear wheels, did you leave the tamiya hub off to mount the wheels?

The wheels are mounted using a optional hex adaptor - pretty much similar to the one Tamiya offers as an option for the FROG. Let me know if you need a pic/part no.

Thinking of trying to fit a ball bearing into the rear suspension setup to eliminate the friction... I heard it's been done before - anyone have any references of such a setup?

Do post pics of your steering setup when done... I'd love to see your take on it.