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Rebuilding a B3 (A series of builds by rcpelle)

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 10:07 am
by rcpelle
Hi all

I am new at the forum, but not new to the hobby. I started racing in 1987 and ended up racing seriously up until 2008 where I stopped - more than 20 years. The last years I only raced touring car and my last off road race was in 2002. I raced with my dad and he began to not be able to come to the races so I decided to stop. Last year (2018) he passed away and when cleaning his house and my old RC gear, I decided to go to a race and say hi. Now race RC cars again and have also started painting cars for a few racers.

A short CV:

1987 First race
1994-2008 Danish Champion 9 timers and top three around 35 times over full season
Participated in six IFMAR worlds (four in offroad in both 2wd & 4wd and 2 in Touring car)
8th place in Reedy Race Invitational 2005 Touring Europe
B main at IFMAR Worlds 4WD Offroad
3rd place qualifier in VEGAS IRC 2005 Touring Stock Rubber
7th place at the 40+ World Championship 2019

I was A-team driver for Team Associated from 1996 to 2008 and also designed the Team Orion website, the Nosram Website, RCZONE.net and Peak Motors website. Especially the Orion site was the go-to site for RC news back then.

I drive a B74 at races now, but I decided to restore my B3 which last raced in South Africa for the IFMAR worlds in 2002. Down there it was converted into a B3X which was the precurser to the B4 with pretty much a B4 front-end and a B3 rear end but with long arms and short offset wheels. I was not allowed to keep that unfortunately, so it was build back into a normal B3. Then it was left to collect dust for a couple of decades, and now I am trying to build as new a B3 as I can from the parts I have.

I will be looking to build out my collection of cars with a Worlds or Team car at some point - the 1993 look of RC10 (looking for all parts and perhaps full car) and perhaps a B2 for which I have most part.

I will post progress here.

Re: Rebuilding a B3

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 10:19 am
by XLR8
Hi rcpelle and welcome back to RC and to the forums. :D
Well, that's a very impressive resume!
I was just about to post a B3 related question when I spotted your post.
Very much looking forward to your future posts.

Re: Rebuilding a B3

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 10:27 am
by rcpelle
Thank you XLR8 :D

Re: Rebuilding a B3

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 10:45 am
by rcpelle
A little progress. I didn't take a before image unfortunately, but imagine brown dust in 1mm all over. This car is mostly new parts though.

At this point I was going for a B3 body, but I have actually decided to paint a B2 body (which I think is way more beautiful) and keep the B3 body unpainted for now.

I have a lot of TIR Titanium screws from my TC3 and TC4 time, so I am giving it a bit of bling. The turnbuckles are used though, which I need to replace at some point.

Re: Rebuilding a B3

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 10:54 am
by rcpelle
I also found a completely new gearbox - not sure if it is an original B2 or B3 one though. I didn't want to unpack it and I couldn't see the slipper details though the bags.

Re: Rebuilding a B3

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 11:56 am
by broodenburg
Impressive resume!
Is there a difference between the b2 and b3 gears? I assumed that they were the same...

Re: Rebuilding a B3

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 1:42 pm
by mikea96
The internal gears are the same but the b2 transmission used first stealth slipper assembly before it was updated for the B3.

Re: Rebuilding a B3

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 1:59 pm
by rcpelle
Fully assembled car. I really like the B3 (and B2). Still the DNA of the original but a lot more modern plastics and exotic materials.

Re: Rebuilding a B3

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 2:03 pm
by mikea96
Very nice

Re: Rebuilding a B3

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 2:09 pm
by XLR8
Very nice, your making very good progress.
I also have a B2 Racer kit that I want to restore some day and I'll need a proper body (it currently has an aftermarket one - Proline I think - nice but it's not original). Penguin used to have that body listed on his ebay store (the one with a small ESC scoop - AE # 6133) but none are listed presently. I've reached out to him last week but so far no reply. Does anyone else make this body?

Re: Rebuilding a B3

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 2:11 pm
by rcpelle
For the body I am going for a retro version of my current scheme.

And the B74 is how my "modern" scheme looks.

Re: Rebuilding a B3

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 2:13 pm
by rcpelle
XLR8 wrote: Mon Dec 30, 2019 2:09 pm Very nice, your making very good progress.
I also have a B2 Racer kit that I want to restore some day and I'll need a proper body (it currently has an aftermarket one - Proline I think - nice but it's not original). Penguin used to have that body listed on his ebay store (the one with a small ESC scoop - AE # 6133) but none are listed presently. I've reached out to him last week but so far no reply. Does anyone else make this body?
I am not sure if anybody do make an aftermarket replica.

Re: Rebuilding a B3

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 2:17 pm
by mikea96

Re: Rebuilding a B3

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 2:17 pm
by jwscab
penguin in your best bet. I have not seen the b2 body in a while, hopefully they will pull more in the new year. EDIT*** yep, there they are, they must have pulled them recently!

BTW beautiful car and great history!

Re: Rebuilding a B3

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 2:27 pm
by XLR8
mikea96 wrote: Mon Dec 30, 2019 2:17 pm He still has them listed. Here is the item number 273997545116 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Team-Associated-Reproduction-Rc10-B2-Bodyshell-New-Clear-Vintage-Iconic-/273997545116
Thanks Mike. Sure enough, there it is. They don't appear when I browse his listed items. Anyway, I'll go ahead and place the order.
No wonder he hasn't replied to my inquiry. He probably thinks I'm an idiot (and he's probably right). :oops: