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*****This has been posted on other boards. I thought you TAMIYA guys would enjoy this build*****

This is my 1986 TAMIYA "BIGWIG". The older members will remember this buggy. It was quite famous back in the day. Was one of the 1ST R/C cars to get a 8.4 volt battery and the TECHNIGOLD motor. Full rack and pinion steering. Oil filled shocks, 4 wheel drive. I have 3 of these. One is original fully restored and is a shelf queen, one is slightly modded, and then I went all out on this one.

Well when I got back into R/C cars about 3 years ago I decided to buy a few used ones of these to re-live my childhood. I had one when I was 13 back in "86". I really luved running it. So I bought a few off E-BAY and decided to upgrade them with modern technology. I upgraded to a TEKIN R1 ESC and TEKIN brushless "REDLINE" 537 motor. Got a few MAXAMPS 7.4 volt, 8000mAh LI-PO batteries for it. Well with a custom 19 tooth pinion she has been clocked at about 40MPH. Not bad for a car that was only running about 15-20MPH stock. Just wish there was more gearing options for it.

Anyway the chassis was never designed to take impacts at this speed. Due to it is only street/parking lot driven it has encountered the occasional curb. The chassis's are a black ABS bath tub style and being 25 years old the break quite easily. So getting sick of trying to find parts for this car and when you do their expensive, I decided to start fabricating and using parts from other cars to keep THIS "BIGWIG" alive.

Here's what the "BIGWIG" looked like stock :





I 1st started by upgrading the fragile stock front bumper with a custom handmade aluminum one. This is a copy of the stock plastic one.





Then I worked on the shocks. The stock TAMIYA plastic shocks are not much to be desired. So upgraded to some TRAXXAS ones. :

HI!... Well after breaking like 8 chassis's in 6 weeks I decided to build one from scratch out of aluminum.

Here is what the stock chassis looks like :



So I used some bristle board and started to mock one up :

HI!... And aluminum fabrication begins. This was all done by hand. I do have a brake for the bends.

HI!... The chassis was all TIG welded inside and out. I then ground down the welds on the outside to make it cosmetically pleasing.








I made another front bumper. This one with some supports to keep it from bending on impacts. It is currently at my welders getting the supports TIG'ed on.

HI!... When everything is completely done all parts will be getting powder coated gloss black.

Picked up the tire/rim upgrade today. The stock tires are so hard, probably due to the rubber technology is 24 years old. lol! Getting the car up to speed is a challenge. It wants to go in donuts most of the time, even with the 4x4. So I looked around and found some TRAXXAS "ANACONDA" rims tires that come on the TRAXXAS "BANDIT VXL". I couldn't believe it! They are a direct bolt on. Same size as the stockers. Now I should be able to get some half decent traction on the road.

HI!... It's also been hard to find upper "A" arms for the front and rear. So back to TRAXXAS again and I got some turnbuckles. They had to be cut down to length but worked out perfectly.

Stock front upper "A" arm :





New fabricated TRAXXAS upper "A" arms :





Fabricated rear TRAXXAS upper "A" arms :

HI!... Well I got the front bumper tig welded up. Man is this thing strong! I also used two new "1984" TAMIYA "HORNET" front bumpers. These bumpers have a ton of flex in them and won't break. I trimmed both down and bolted them to the front bumper and made a aluminum plate to mount one on the rear. The BIGWIG rear gearbox does not like backing into curbs. lol!

HI!... I also got the brass 3mm inserts installed in the front steering knuckles, so I can run my custom "A" arms made from TRAXXAS turnbuckles.

HI!... Well tonight I decided to lighten it up a bit. Surprisingly the "SPEED" hole lightened it by almost a pound! Then I sandblasted it to make it look pretty! LOL!

HI!... Well I have like 30 hours in this thing already. lol! The funny thing is I have enough parts here right now to build 4 BIGWIG's in total. I'm debating if I want to start a few more aluminum chassis's. It will most likely be easier the 2ND time around since now I know how to do it and what needs to be done. I most likely will.