mikegigabyte
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- 153
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- RC Driving Style
- Bashing
- Racing
Hey everyone, well I think I finally finished the building this crawler named HeAvY MeTaL. Its taken about a 2 weeks of spare time to get everything completed.
I've been out of the hobby for 6 years when I dug out a old nitro T Maxx and got it running, I was hooked again. Then the hobby store opened up my eyes to the newest technology and the crawlers. Never knew they existed so I bought the MRC as it was ready to go because I didnt have anything setup for electric.
I originally bought the truck right before thanksgiving. Also bought the tube chassis at the same time. When they came in I wasn't impressed with the looks of the tube chassis and set it aside. I did the usual mods to the stock chassis and had good luck with how it ran. Later I upgraded the servo and radio so I could set the servo endpoint and not fry another servo. I custom made the steering links because of the full size servo, and I was keeping the lipo in the front too.
Then I upgraded to a brushless motor and a mongoose esc as a combo pack from novak. The motor was super fast compared to the losi and I was glad to have the new radio to keep the motor slower so I dont destroy the gears. The brushless does have a different power then the losi motor and it really runs great.
I've added alot of Hot Racing aluminum parts, mostly for looks. Also upgraded the shocks from losi, and losi beadlocks which was probably the best investment as its super easy to switch around tires. I have done the steering mod to get a few more inches less turning radius, and have coming the losi cvd axles to hopefully get a little more. With the full size servo and front mount lipo the tires barely hit them, and hopefully if the cvd's get me more steering that wont be an issue.
Last week I got a set of flat irons and love them. At the same time I decided to try the tube chassis again because I heard the flat irons would rub on the losi truck body and I didnt want to cut it all up. I hated the chrome look the tuber came with so I painted it black, which chipped like crazy and ended up looking worse. I media blasted the chrome hoping to take it off and spray truck bed liner paint over the chassis. But before I painted it I got out a bottle of gun blue and tried that first, with great success. It turned a nice shade of gun metal gray and since its chemically etched into the metal the scratches are berealy seen, and touch up could be done easily and quickly. I've rolled and flipped it a ton and the scratches blend in and can't even bee seen. I also had to make all the body panels and heat bend some of them. I used some graphics and painted the inside of the panels black.
I just got the suspension and wheel weights figured out, also made the lower suspension rods because the bent ones I had interfered with the 3 link. Everything now runs great. Once the cvd's come in I can hopefully take a break from all the work and actually drive it more. I've spent almost every night after work tinkering with every part of this. I've made a backyard track for this, and even have a light mounted outside for night driving, seems I drive it at night more then the day. Its never been driven anywhere else, except inside houses so I have no idea how it would drive in the real world.
Here are some pics from oldest to newest.
First pic brand new with the tuber chassis installed, 1/2 hour later it was taken off.
Pic of the truck swapped back to stock
Body off
Beadlocks and changed suspension angle, seemed to work the best at that angle
Alot of new parts
Lowered body, another set of bent suspension rods. The best looking I've seen yet
Tube chassis after many coats of bluing. Even though its very dark I had to steel wool it to get the finish I ended up with, and the strength of the bluing wore out and I couldnt get any darker.
How it is now, and hopefully stay that way
I've been out of the hobby for 6 years when I dug out a old nitro T Maxx and got it running, I was hooked again. Then the hobby store opened up my eyes to the newest technology and the crawlers. Never knew they existed so I bought the MRC as it was ready to go because I didnt have anything setup for electric.
I originally bought the truck right before thanksgiving. Also bought the tube chassis at the same time. When they came in I wasn't impressed with the looks of the tube chassis and set it aside. I did the usual mods to the stock chassis and had good luck with how it ran. Later I upgraded the servo and radio so I could set the servo endpoint and not fry another servo. I custom made the steering links because of the full size servo, and I was keeping the lipo in the front too.
Then I upgraded to a brushless motor and a mongoose esc as a combo pack from novak. The motor was super fast compared to the losi and I was glad to have the new radio to keep the motor slower so I dont destroy the gears. The brushless does have a different power then the losi motor and it really runs great.
I've added alot of Hot Racing aluminum parts, mostly for looks. Also upgraded the shocks from losi, and losi beadlocks which was probably the best investment as its super easy to switch around tires. I have done the steering mod to get a few more inches less turning radius, and have coming the losi cvd axles to hopefully get a little more. With the full size servo and front mount lipo the tires barely hit them, and hopefully if the cvd's get me more steering that wont be an issue.
Last week I got a set of flat irons and love them. At the same time I decided to try the tube chassis again because I heard the flat irons would rub on the losi truck body and I didnt want to cut it all up. I hated the chrome look the tuber came with so I painted it black, which chipped like crazy and ended up looking worse. I media blasted the chrome hoping to take it off and spray truck bed liner paint over the chassis. But before I painted it I got out a bottle of gun blue and tried that first, with great success. It turned a nice shade of gun metal gray and since its chemically etched into the metal the scratches are berealy seen, and touch up could be done easily and quickly. I've rolled and flipped it a ton and the scratches blend in and can't even bee seen. I also had to make all the body panels and heat bend some of them. I used some graphics and painted the inside of the panels black.
I just got the suspension and wheel weights figured out, also made the lower suspension rods because the bent ones I had interfered with the 3 link. Everything now runs great. Once the cvd's come in I can hopefully take a break from all the work and actually drive it more. I've spent almost every night after work tinkering with every part of this. I've made a backyard track for this, and even have a light mounted outside for night driving, seems I drive it at night more then the day. Its never been driven anywhere else, except inside houses so I have no idea how it would drive in the real world.
Here are some pics from oldest to newest.
First pic brand new with the tuber chassis installed, 1/2 hour later it was taken off.
Pic of the truck swapped back to stock
Body off
Beadlocks and changed suspension angle, seemed to work the best at that angle
Alot of new parts
Lowered body, another set of bent suspension rods. The best looking I've seen yet
Tube chassis after many coats of bluing. Even though its very dark I had to steel wool it to get the finish I ended up with, and the strength of the bluing wore out and I couldnt get any darker.
How it is now, and hopefully stay that way
