TOPIC:

I decided to finish the bathtub chassis for the Hummer first. Wasn't really satisfied with the steering on this one before.
It had a lot of slop because I had to use the regular tie rod instead of a set up with ball ends and adjusters.
Unfortunately there was no room to install all these items.



Thinking it would be enough to take away a few corners to make room for the new threaded shaft and other components, I found myself in the position of having to cut off more every time for the steering assembly to move smoothly.
Again - much more labour than I anticipated. And quite some maiming of the chassis. But it didn't turn out bad :



I really had to take away a lot of plastic, effectively weakening the chassis there.
So I think I'll do some fiber glass reinforcing later.

Here's a sketch of what was removed because the photos didn't turn out right with the flash :


Steering works like clockwork now!

Btw - don't worry. It's a reissue chassis.



Also fixed the servo - it had a wire loose and that has been soldered.
Motor has a nice solid Deans connector now.

Again - a bump in the road. Preventing me from driving the car.
The combination of the wide body and oversized tyres caused them to make contact at the maximum steering position.
This wasn't that much of an issue before - don't know why exactly...



Only good answer to this I came up with was a transmitter that could limit the steering angle.
But someone stated a good solution on the Dutch forum - a shorter servo arm!
That hadn't even crossed my mind yet...

Live and learn! And try not to forget!

Still waiting on parts for the Manta Ray chassis.

With a bit of a search I found another part from 3Racing.
It's an alloy (single) servo horn that is a little shorter than that of the Manta Ray.
The original part has a center to center of 18mm while this one is 16.5mm.
Hoping that will do the trick.



Thought the car could use some blue detailing!
The matching high torque servo saver should be on it's way too...

Since this is more a quest to customize and upgrade than a linear build, I decided to place an index in the first post :

Yo wrote:

01 - Introduction, disassembly and the start of the rebuild (with some hop ups).
02 - Side track (Hummer plans) and reinforcing the Manta Ray body with fiber glass. The start of hop up mania.
03 - First layers of paint on the body and choosing 2.8" rims.
04 - Electronics and running in the motor under water!
05 - Beautiful blue parts and Pro-Line Dirt Hawgs.
06 - Tyre glue and a new start on the body. A new option and some hop ups.
07 - Promising paintwork and glued tyres. Suddenly a Humvee on the chasis! And a Cayenne?
08 - Custom decals and a bunch of upgrades.
09 - Hop up heaven.
10 - A heap of hop ups. Details to fit a Humvee body on the Manta Ray chassis enter the thread.
11 - Theory about gear ratios and a blue phenomenon.
12 - Finally the Manta Ray! The ultimate upgrade - an FRP chassis.
13 - Alloy steering mod on the Humvee.

Should be good for a bit of overview.

Mmm... I thought shortening the length on the arm of the servo was quite ingenious but it doesn't have the effect I expected.
Got some high torque servo savers in today and used a generic horn with a center to center of 13mm.



The original Manta Ray having a dimension of 18mm, a (linear) decrease of about 30 percent of the stroke on the wheels should be the result. Which would have been more than enough to clear the wheels from the body...
But that's not the case quite yet. I'll have to take another look at it.
Btw - here you can see I used a vintage Robbe servo that used an MPX connector - resoldered that to JR.

But I'll be finishing the Manta Ray first. Final items have arrived!



I thought it was worth saving some future shipment cost for the servo savers at $2,50 to get a few.
You don't get the amount of screws and ball ends that you receive with a Tamiya though...
Still - the material seems to be very sturdy and functional.
With this brand, the torque rings (?) are visible from the outside :



A Tamiya would have this covered with black. But it doesn't look bad at all I think.
I was also out of blue lock nuts for the wheels so it'll get some Tamiya originals.
And on the picture there is the Pajero/Wrangler shaft bag to connect the steering parts as well.
Last but not least - some lexan scissors to cut the Cayenne body!

First I'll be doing some work on the Manta Ray... will there finally be a finished result?
But is a car ever really finished?

"Yo aqui"? As I'm sure you know, the English approach to foreign languages is to speak English, just slower and louder ... is that "Here I" en espa

Yes, something like "me here" and that probably happened because I was talking off topic about my Spanish cat.
El gato poco loco.

Edou wrote:

...
El gato poco loco.

The crazy little cat?

Please refer to forum rule #13 "The official language and only allowed langauage is English", and give yourself a stern talking to

Sorry, I will report myself!

Lovely weather - cutting out my Porsche Cayenne body on the balcony.
Looking good so far thanks to the new scissors.
It'll fit on this chassis with some minor adjustments :