What Would Kinwald Do (WWKD) GTX

[jimbobarooney]

I have had RC's since I was about 9 years old. But they were always from Sears or some other retailer of the time (1979!). Then I would jump them off of some steps or some other abuse and they would break because the were cheap and not rebuildable . I would get a new one every couple of years including a Nikko Dandy Dash which was better quality but still not rebuildable.

My first 'real' RC was Losi's first nitro truck the GTX. I got it back in '96 when they first came out, and then I got a second one shortly after that I was going to use for parts. I still have the parts one and restored it a couple of years ago.

So what does this have to do with Brian Kinwald?? Kinwald was the first Losi driver to race the GTX. The RCCA test of the GTX came out in the June '96 issue. There is a sidebar article that shows his truck, and talks about how he won his first race out with it. After reading that I thought that it would be cool to build a Kinwald tribute truck.

I have my original truck which will serve as a base for the project, and I just bought two more off of ebay for some extra parts and engines. Unfortunately the two that I bought were not exactly as advertised and in pretty rough condition. Usually these trucks are hard to find, especially in Canada so I had to take a chance with these two.

Here's some photos;

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The RCCA article doesn't really give a good indication of what Brian put into the build of his race truck. So I have to ask myself what would Kinwald do to prep this truck for it's maiden race. I think definitely lightening the chassis with some Losi graphite parts would be a start and there were suspension arms, top brace, brake arm, and trans case all available in graphite. A good mix of Trinity Kinwald parts in blue would be a good idea for strength and to promote his product line. I think that he was sponsored by Lunsford so a set of those turnbuckles would be appropriate. And he seemed to use a mix of O.S. and O'Donnell engines, and Airtronics for servos. After looking at his XXT and XX racers from that time, the colours of choice seem to be yellow wheels, and his black/yellow/blue/white paint.

Next; time to tear down my new purchases and see what I can use...

[jimbobarooney]

Pulled together the basic bunch of parts to start from. There were some graphite arms and lunsford turnbuckles that came with my ebay purchase. Also some NIP parts!

[jamin]

Interesting build! Be nice to see a Gas truck on here. Good luck!

You should post up the RCCA article in your thread, be interested in seeing it.

[jimbobarooney]

Great idea!! I had the same thought as I wanted to attach it to an earlier post. I can't seem to find out how to do that. I'm using the downloaded PDF from the scans section of June '96 RCCA page 24.

What I've tried so far is using print to file to save the page into Microsoft Onenote. From there I can convert it into a .PNG file to save it to my desktop so I can attach it to my post into the forum. However it is a 3.6mb file and is way too huge. I can't seem to resize it to 256kb. Any suggestions? I'm computer savvy but not that computer savvy...

I've seen a couple of RC10GT's on here recently so I thought a GTX build would be neat to share. I think more vintage nitro builds would be interesting.

J

[jamin]

How about this for ya!

I can grab the rest of the article if you like?

[jimbobarooney]

Urpaldan - Those are some cool parts! As far as Trinity parts go I was planning on finding a Kinwald front brace, the rear suspension arm pivot blocks (2 or 4 degree) and a screw set. The rear hubs may be something I'm interested in too. I don't have have BST access yet however. Do you have an Ebay listing of these items?

I'll be moving this build along soon and update with some photos. I just bought up a graphite trans case from Ebay - one of the hardest graphite parts to find! Right now I'm waiting to see what my local painter can do to replicate the Kinwald paint - I gave him a XXXT body to practice on. I'll see how it goes...

Jamin - Thanks for posting the article!

[jimbobarooney]

Moderator adjusted the posts because of BST?

[klavy69]

yes. Not a problem doing it via pm but there were more posts of other people selling parts and trying to buy them than of your truck build. Just trying to clean it up a bit since we don't get too many nitro Losi builds around here. Pix would be welcome back .

Todd

[jimbobarooney]

Thanks for following up. Written rules are great, but clarified examples of what is not following the rules are even better.

[Charlie don't surf]

Is that a black chassis on Kinwalds truck? And are you asking about a Trinity steering rack?

[jimbobarooney]

It could be the black anodized chassis - I couldn't tell when I was first looking at the article. It does look black looking at the battery tray at the back of the truck. That chassis is another hard part to find especially nip. Keeping that in mind and that it's a tribute build and not a replica, I was going to stick with the silver chassis anyway.

I have a photo of the front brace that I'm looking for. There is one on the bay but the seller only ships to the U.S..

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kinwald brace.jpg (3.22 KiB) Viewed 1698 times

The front brace fits over the front hinge pins and adds some strength to the front end. The front bulkhead on the GTX (and maybe the NXT) was prone to cracking at the front and needed the extra strength of the brace. Instead of the brace there is also a Trinity bulkhead made of alloy in blue that was also used to help remedy this issue. It's a sweet looking part. I'm wondering if Kinwald would choose bulkhead over brace? The reason I was thinking brace over bulkhead was that it might be marginally lighter?

[klavy69]

There is one on the bay but the seller only ships to the U.S..

kinwald brace.jpg

if you need someone to relay it to you drop me a pm...

Todd

[jimbobarooney]

someone

Thanks for the offer, I'll let you know. It would be a great help.

I've made some progress by putting together the front end of the truck. I built up the Lunsford turnbuckles with new Losi cups and installed the graphite arms. I rebuilt the silver set of shocks - but noticed when I had another look at the RCCA article that the shocks on Kinwalds truck look like the black anodized ones. Does anyone have any info on the black shocks? Are they a 'hard anodized' version of the silver set? Is the silver set hard or soft anodized?

I've started assembling the rear arms. For now I will keep the Losi hub carriers - I haven't decided if I should use the Trinity ones yet. I do have a set of MIP CVD's, but I doubt that Brian would have used them if wasn't sponsored so I have used the Losi units.

Is that a black chassis on Kinwalds truck? And are you asking about a Trinity steering rack?

Was there a Trinity steering rack made for the GTX?

Next up: assemble the trans when I get the graphite trans case in the mail!

[Charlie don't surf]

Yep, I'll shoot a pic of it for you- What year was this truck, Brian was sponsored by MIP after 93'

[jimbobarooney]

Interesting...if Brian was sponsored by MIP after '93, then I really have three choices for the steering rack. MIP and LOSI both made a ball bearing steering kit as an upgrade from the basic bushing rack and now I find out that Trinity offers one as well...decisions, decisions...

I'd appreciate a pic of the steeing rack please. The GTX came out in the spring of 1996 and was in production until the NXT came out in 1999 I believe.

I don't think Brian raced the GTX for very long - maybe one season. After looking through the race results in RCCA it seemed as though he concentrated on the 2wd/4wd buggy and 2wd truck more than gas truck. Or maybe there was less coverage of gas events at the time?