TOPIC:

So chassis together and front end pretty much all together.
A couple of bits might look wrong on this build, but I corrected things as I went.
I was using my phone and TC’s manual, so the small screen did me no favours.

The trickiest bit was probably the little rubber spacers on the radius arms at the front.
The only new bits so far are C2 and one of the step screws. Even though I had some shiny new bits I’ve tried to keep this as original as possible.

Next the gear box.
One interesting thing I discovered was that my original chassis I bought had been a Frog. I only discovered this when I realised the gears I’d originally taken out of it had the bevelled gears.
But in another purchase I got the original gearing which is much simpler.

Now to one of the major failings I’ve found with this kit.
The rear trailing arms and in particular the point where the shock screws into it.
I had several of these arms, 3 of them were for the right had side and only one left sided part.
Out of the 4 only one is actually any use. I broke the left hand one this afternoon.
That’s a small area of plastic that has a self tapping screw going though it and taking the pressure from the suspension.

Here’s today’s latest break, while I was sorting out redoing the shocks.

When I came to fitting the MSC, I realised I was missing the resistors for it. In one of those bizarre flukes of luck, I started rooting through some storage draws of random bits and there it was.
No idea when or how I got this.
But a nice bit of luck.

So at this point, it felt like I was almost done. But the shocks on the rear just weren’t right. The range of movement was a bit short and the rear of the car was sitting too low.
Someone had at some point glued the plastic end of the shock on. So I couldn’t get them apart to see what was inside and causing the problem.
All I could do at this point is take the shocks off.

The next thing was to fit some servos and hook up the steering and the speed controller.
I put a couple of “ copy “, Futaba S3003’s in.
But initially they were fouling with the speed controller and I couldn’t fit everything properly.
After studying the tiny manual on my phone the next day, I realised that C17 that goes in near the start wasn’t in the right place.
So after loosening off a bunch of screws on one side I managed to move it down into the correct place and then move the servos. Allowing me to finally fit the speed controller properly.

So at this point, I will say the MSC isn’t the correct one. I need one with 4 wires going to the 2 resistors.
The one in it at the minute might be the type used on the Blazing Blazer amongst others no doubt .
I haven’t fitted the black bumper ( of which I have 4 or 5 ), because I just don’t like them.
The shocks aren’t right.

Luckily an eBay listing has helped with the shocks.

So another fortuitous eBay buy.
A bunch of bits came up for sale with the parts for the black shocks.
This then meant I could cut open the ones I had and see what was going on inside.
So the PO had used the metal tubes that go in the eyes at either end of the shocks to reduce the movement of the piston.

All back together and they now work as intended.

Fitted and sitting properly now.

So fitted the shocks and as already said, one of the trailing arm failed at the connecting point.

So out of 4 that I had, 3 are broken and only one is any good, probably because it looked new and hadn’t had too many attempts at putting self tappers into it.

On a positive, I re wired the motor and it looks better for it.

One last thing today.
Here’s all the left overs from this build.


I’m not sure if there’s a point to this, but it just shows how easy it is to start building up boxes of “ spares “.

And that’s another funny thing with the original Brat, the nice shiny under guard wasn’t in this build they added it for the Frog.

I can’t bring myself to buy more rear trailing arms at this point.
So I’ll now box this up and wait until I can get on with the paint work- next year then ??

I just had to add one last pic, the body on the chassis.

I’d still like the wheels to sit closer into the wheel arches. But after this build I’ve got a new found affection for this car.
But it’s make or break when it gets painted.

Cheers Al.

Hi Al, great job! I love your intent to do a real 58038. Mine is a re re that I retro'd with a 380 and mechanical speed controller. I searched high and low for that front body mount so I could drop it down proper in the front. Couldn't help it but to apply the 4WD decal! LOL Heres mine: