TOPIC:

Finally some progress on the Manta Ray. A two-month distraction by on road cars!
That distraction is still going on but there's no reason to not build an off road car.
With the lack of proper on road facilities nearby, I'd very much like to be able to drive a nice off roader.
The rear gearbox is finished - a lot more work than I anticipated :



It has a nice list of hop ups :

- Ball bearings
- Ball diff
- One piece all thrust bearing
- Hollow carbon gear shafts
- Skyline speed tuned (69T) spur with 25T pinion
- Aluminium shock tower
- Hardened steel Thundershot dogbones
- Revised shocks with new (black) Top Force damper housings
- GPM silver alu prop shaft
- Hardened turnbuckles
- Blue allloy (7mm thickness) wheel hubs (with grub screw)
- TRF ball adjusters

Next step : the FRP chassis.
That will take some polishing still but I'm more than halfway there...



Gonna go for a different set up of gears and motor than I had in mind before.
The gear ratio will make it go faster but the motor will give more torque.
Let's see how that works out...

Ooow yeah! I am quite aware of how special this complete set of parts is.
Coolest upgrade ever for your Manta Ray chassis :



If only I had not forgotten to put the (small) battery plates in the picture too.
Took me a while to gather this and I had to put a few hours in restoring the chassis plates but I can now put it together!

I should be able to show the result tomorrow.

Some in between shots. Always love the FRP look.




Using the manual from the Top Force :

A little further in the process but hitting a bump also. Most of the steering assembly has been fitted.
I can keep on building the car (front gearbox for example) but I will need a threaded shaft to connect the two steering parts :



Of course I used very nice ball bearings (blue) instead of the nylons bits :



I will order two of the threaded shafts and do the upgrade on the other chassis I have built too.
So far it still uses the original tie rod which causes a lot of play :



There isn't enough room between the steering assembly and the bathtub chassis to fit ball ends though.
So I will have to use the Dremel a bit for that...

Doing the right amount of research before ordering custom parts is often unavoidable.
I assumed too much that the turnbuckle set for a DF-03 would come close to dimensions of the Manta Ray.
Mostly because I liked the way they looked - black and a "petit peu bleu" is obviously my favourite colour scheme.

Consequence is that the ones on the rear are on the edge of being too long and on the front they won't fit at all...
Only good match are the rods that do the steering as can be seen on the pictures above.
So I will replace the turnbuckles for camber with (affordable) titanium specimen by 3Racing :


The threaded shafts for the connecting both parts of the steering assembly are also on their way.
I needed 38mm and the parts in the shaft bag from the TLT-1 came closest.
Not being able to find this one, I settled for 35mm belonging to a CC-01 Pajero/Wrangler.

Only way to find out if the lenghts matched was to go through a bunch of manuals...
Not an item you can buy seperately and I didn't want to use a turnbuckle for this because there is no adjusting to be done.


Since there are two of in the shaft bag (BS1 - left and right side) I will need only one bag to be able to connect the steering assemblies from both chassis. Won't be needing the other shafts.

Now it's the waiting game again...

Isn't it the waiting for parts that make some builds 2 or 3 years long... I think it will be worth the wait....

Edou, why not just use M3 studding cut to length?

Jonny wrote:

Edou, why not just use M3 studding cut to length?

Now that just wouldn't be the same If it is not a hopup, then it doesn't go on the car...

I must agree with JR, I bought 1 meter of the M3 threaded rod, and it only cost me R20 ($3)

Jonny wrote:

Edou, why not just use M3 studding cut to length?

That crossed my mind at first but I'm kind of lacking the right tools for working metal.
And of course LB illustrates the way my RC psyche tends to go :

Louisbaby wrote:

If it is not a hopup, then it doesn't go on the car...

The shaft bag costing $3,50 tipped the scale to "original" parts.

Running out of patience to wait on the original parts when looking at the weather forecast for the weekend, I decided to go with Jonny R's approach and get some basic items to make the 3mm threaded shafts myself :



Can never hurt to have this stuff available!
With a borrowed Dremel also at hand I should be able to create a nice 38mm specimen...