RC Bashers

I can't believe I've waited this long to build a kit. I have to say it was one of the funnest experiences I've had in rc for a real long time, I will definitely be building more in the future.

Decided to go with the Tamiya DF03Ra chassis for my first build, got the Lancia Delta Integrale body which I absolutely love.

I took over 500 pics during the build and here are a few.....Build went smooth and wasn't too difficult, took close to 10 hours over a few days. I tried to take my time and enjoy the build and took lots of pics alone the way so that slowed me down I lot, but I'm very happy with the outcome. check it out!

For electronics I'll be stock status for a little while as far as motor and ESC go, It came with an ESC and 540 silver can which scoots it around 15-17mph with the 3600mah 2s lipo I'm going to be using. For a receiver, I'm using a Losi mxr-3000 which is a Spektrum SR300 rebadged and it's cheaper in "losi form" ($29) So I can use my M8. For the servo I just threw in a crappy HPI sf-4 that I had laying around and actually failed after about 15 minutes of driving lol It will end up with either a traxxas 2075 waterproof or Hitec hs625mg.

I'm not used to how nimble it is, as this is my first real 1/10 "touring car" basically, but once I get the hang of it i'll be going brushless. I had an hpi e-10 drifter which sucked, friction shocks, everything was plastic (even the driveshaft) and it was just too much of a beginner car to make me want to throw money at so I sold it. But this car is a blast!

nice rig indeed!!

ya kits are a blast to build, makes you appreciate them more after all work you do. glad to hear you enjoyed the build.

that's an awesome kit build sir. and nice box art on the body.

i have a DF-03 buggy that is so modded its probably as good at a 501x now. or close. full carbon fiber chassis slipper spur gear, saddle lipo. i love the thing, goes around the track nicely too.

i have just about enough spares left to start a df03-ra at some point when my truck builds get boring too.

cant wait to see more.

looks great man.

First test of the rally car this weekend, I've found an amazing place to run. Steep inclines, downhill sweepers, narrow trails.....will be making some killer vids when it warms up.

Here are a couple pics, my friend took some video and as soon as he can get it to me I'll post it up.

that looks like a fun place to drive. nice pics also and thanks for sharing with us!

looks great bub. I've always like rally cars for some odd reason. Maybe it cause they always show them flying thru the air and such, IDK. Hows it handle those rocks and all? I figured they'd have that little car bouncing all over the place.

HD, and everyone else, watch this if you haven't already. Good footage and info about the class B cars like this Lancia.
I will warn you though, it's ove an hour long.
[youtube]NUCtYCYd1u8[/youtube]

watched...looks like it'd be fun to watch. Not sure on driving it though

Oh man, kits are SO MUCH FUN! I had a blast building my Honcho kit, I couldn't stop.
Got it assembled in an afternoon (like 4 hours) and then tried to paint but it got too dark to spray paint outside.

Pretty epic looking work space you got set up. Wish I had spent time on an RC-specific work area with the peg board n stuff. Instead I spent waaaay too much money on vehicles, bodies, paint and upgrade parts. Now it's kinda everywhere (but I can still find most everything first try).

lol thanks guys! It actually handled really well in stock form on those trails. The rear was a tad bouncy and the steering was way too responsive on the skinny trails and with 10-50 foot drops on at least one side of the trail it made me nervous lol

I may be driving back down there this weekend if it's nice since it's only 30 mins from my house. I spent about 2 hours last night going over the car and making adjustments. I changed or adjusted just about everything that the airtronics M8 will allow and switched out the stock 30-ish weight shock oil for some 50wt so it should be a whole different beast lol

It looks so scale driving down the trails that it will distract me from driving lol


I'll have to take an updated pic of my "hobby room" lol

added some lights! lol

Used (4x) 3mm bright white LEDs and using a 1s lipo to power them

good job on them lights man.

and that little battery. lipo even. that is even cooler. how did you get that idea?

thanks! just made it up as I went lol

I found a package of LEDs on ebay for $3.99 for 50 lights! lol So I just ordered them, but had no idea what or how I was going to make them work, I had some connectors laying around and just started soldering things. I just got some new 2s lipos for the micro crawler and had some extra 1s lipos that I was using for it before. The 1s lipos were 350mah and one of them will power all 4 lights for about half an hour, which isn't bad. I'll probably order a 1000mah or 2200mah single cell lipo pretty soon just so I don't have to change out batts and can just run all day on one.

The plastic grille on the car made it easy, just drilled some holes slightly smaller than the 3mm LED and then just pressed them in. I just ran the car for about 15-20 mins and everything worked flawlessly. I have a light set from a night crawler that I will be rigging up somehow as a removable light bar type thing that will be attached to the hood with like a magnet or something, idk yet lol

I guess I got LED fever lol

First off I decided to make the headlights a bit more realistic. Basically I just added more resistors to the low beams (outside lights) so they aren't as bright as the high beams (center 2 lights). You may or may not be able to tell from the pics. I also decided to just run them off the 2s lipo that powers the car so I wouldn't have to carry around a bunch of extra 1s lipos to power them. All I had to do was tap into the battery side of the ESC and solder in a connector.




After that I decided to make my own hood mounted removable lights like they use in the WRC. I wanted them to be independent of the rest of the car so I can take them off and on without removing the body. I used a plastic medicine case that my migraine prescription comes in lol

I already had the lights and buckets, I took them off my nightcrawler a year or so ago and forgot I had them. I plan to paint the case white and add some tamiya stickers later on.

I took me a while to figure out how I was going to mount them, the main concern was that I didn't want to drill any holes in the body and I wanted it to be as close to the edge of the hood as possible and not lose the realistic look. Ultimately I drilled two holes in the bottom and on each side and mounted them to the body posts.

Then I cout out a slot for the battery to fit snugly and after about 30 minutes of running it didn't budge. I have to say, those four 5mm LEDs are very bright when you have them at eye level lol

mocking up


testing light fitment


This is the sort of "look" I had in mind.


holes drilled


mounted up


night output


you can see the "highs and lows" better in this pic, with the hood lights finished (besides paint)


Well like a lot of things I couldn't stop there. I wanted some tail lights to bring the look together, so I tapped into the head light wires and added two rear tail lights using some 3mm red LEDs. Continuing my theme of not wanting to molest the body I did some trial and error with some different ways to mount them inside the body because they still shine through really well. I ended up using some foam I had laying around and mounted the LEDs in the foam and then secured the foam with some double sided tape.

tail light mounts


first test


how I had them mounted before I got rid of the 1s lipo


Still striving for realism the next logical step was brake lights, this is where I had to be a little more inventive. I've seen brake light kits that come with programmers for a plug and play experience, but they were somewhere between $30 and $60! :-O I figured there had to be a way to do it myself, but I had no idea and wiring LEDs is totally new to me.

So after doing some research I found a solution, it was simple and effective. I decided to go with sort of a "faux brake light" mod by using a relay. So I ran over to my local radio shack and picked up a mini relay for $4.78 or something. I wired up 4 more red LEDs to match the tail light style on the body, I then wired them to the relay and then wired the relay to the motor side of the ESC. So basically when the car is stopped, i.e. no power going to the motor the lights stay on, and when I hit the throttle the relay senses the voltage to the motor and switches the lights off as though I hit the brakes and it looks perfectly realistic. To be honest they really do "respond" when I hit the brakes because the current that goes to the motor during braking drops below the threshold of the relay and it switches the lights back on lol

build progress pics..

relay


wiring up the relay


one set of brake lights


lights wired to the relay


Testing...it works!


installing the brake lights


running wires lol


got the wiring "cleaned up"


Brake lights on


Outdoor night pic!


From the front


bright!


here a quick vid testing the brake lights, excuse the one handed driving lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V8eeqO-CbU



*Waterproof Update- I extensively waterproofed the car a few weeks ago (receiver, esc, switch, servo, bearings, dogbones..etc) and it got it's first test the other day. I drove it around on the soaked pavement for probably 25-30 mins during a heavy sprinkle and 40 degree temps. I hit a few 1 inch deep puddles at wot (accidentally, it was dark out lol) the car performed perfectly, never a glitch or anything weird at all, just blew off the water when I was done and it was good to go. here are a few after run pics....











Lastly on the agenda of this huge update I had an official rally run with the car today at a local national park. It was AWESOME! lol The trail was all gravel, pretty skinny so it looked perfectly scale, steep inclines, tight switchbacks...basically rally heaven. The total distance to the top was about a mile and it did it with just one 2s 3600mah lipo, all uphill too! When it comes down to it I bought this car with the intention of driving it exclusively on the perfectly groomed trails of this state park and it exceeded my expectations, this summer is going to be fun lol also with plenty of video. :-)

here are a few pics from today...enjoy!


at the top!


very close to the edge lol




heading back down



epic



I love this car :-)

/massive update

Lights look great. I especially like the relay for taillights. You should post that in the How-to section.