Project: Tortuga!

[JustnWynn]

"oh lord... here we go again"
"already?? another one??"

Yup... i can hear it now.. and i know. its a problem. a disease. for the life of me.... i cannot stop... starting projects!!

"so what do we got now?" you say? alright, since you asked:

this is a Hosim 1:14 racer.
its four wheel drive. has some pretty dope lights that change color. it gets to about 20mph. it was $70 at walmart and has been a fun little basher for me and the wifey.
been using it mostly to train myself on driving. but now we have a problem... its started making "grinding gears" sounds in fwd. not in reverse though... which i find a little weird.
anyway.. heres what it looked like when we got it:

that pic may make it look rad. but take my word for it... thing was SUPER ugly!

so i made some changes.
i used the extra shell for the Gypsy King and put it on Tortuga. nevermind the colors.. thats all going to change to a hot pink on gray paint scheme eventually:

Pretty neat, right? well, TOO BAD!!
because surprise surprise!! the cheap chinese toy broke something.

well i can't let that stand. so heres the plan:
mechanically, all i want to do, is get it back to stock. becuase i doubt very seriously if i will be able to find metal gear replacement parts for this thing.
then visually, I'm going forward with my original plans: pink on grey with painted wheels, etc etc
then i will just have it to look at and occasionally bring it out to the yard. (the performance was a little lackluster to be honest) and let the neighborhood kids play with it. we are a big hit over here with our dogs and RC cars. . because if they break anything.. who cares? you know?

so let me know what yall think! i welcome any and all conversations about it
cheers, gentlemen
Justin

 

[WickedFog]

Looks much better as a short course truck!

 

[JustnWynn]

Looks much better as a short course truck!

Thanks bud!

 

[majin]

i gotta get one of these for my son to learn to drive in, my bashers are too fast for him
man i can't wait for him to break his gravedigger so i can play with it like you are,hes got a little GD truck o0n tank treads with a foam bottom that floats, wonder if i can go fast in it with some modifications like yours

 

[9x19]

Looking good.

If I were going smaller, the Associated 1/14 models would be my first look... a lot of good features for the price.

 

[JustnWynn]

Here's how far I got last night. Just taking my time and making sure I pay attention
Think I'm gonna paint the a-arms too. Like an electric or fluorescent blue maybe

 

[WickedFog]

When do your replacement parts arrive?

 

[JustnWynn]

Gotta find out which parts I need first. Haven't gotten that deep yet. If I had to guess.. I'd say it was one of these:

All the mechanical stuff is buried pretty deep in there. Shield be able to find out by the end of the day though.
As long as the old lady let's me offleash today.. (weekend)

Or maybe.... now that i think about.. maybe I should go ahead and order those 4 parts... hmmm

i gotta get one of these for my son to learn to drive in, my bashers are too fast for him
man i can't wait for him to break his gravedigger so i can play with it like you are,hes got a little GD truck o0n tank treads with a foam bottom that floats, wonder if i can go fast in it with some modifications like yours

I kinda want a grave digger too! And you should get one. It's an excellent ramp up to bigger and faster cars. Doesn't get too fast.. SERIOUSLY takes a beating too!
Plus the old lady likes the colors. Lol

Looking good.

If I were going smaller, the Associated 1/14 models would be my first look... a lot of good features for the price.

I've looked at those too.. they are pretty dope.
But personally I like that this shell is about half a size too big. I think it makes it look a little more realistic with fenders over the tires. But like I say.. that's just me

 

[WickedFog]

I was just trying to find parts for that truck. The diffs on Amazon has one review that says they don't fit. Hosim's website has the same diffs with what appears to be fake reviews. Can't find the driveshaft. Good luck.

 

[JustnWynn]

Damn. I was afraid of that. But I thought "they took the time to wrote down part numbers for stuff. Maybe it'll be alright"

 

[WickedFog]

Damn. I was afraid of that. But I thought "they took the time to wrote down part numbers for stuff. Maybe it'll be alright"

You may have to contact them. If you bought it off Amazon, maybe you can return it or get a replacement? Sometimes if you leave a really crappy review and contact them it gets their attention and they might help ya.

 

[JustnWynn]

No sir. Got it at Walmart

 

[WickedFog]

No sir. Got it at Walmart

Oh, well you could return it and grab another maybe? Would be much faster than waiting a month or more for parts from China.

 

[JustnWynn]

Thought about it. I've hacked the body to pieces.
Ok.. well now that I'm thinking about it out loud... they sell just the shells on Amazon. Its not like Walmart will know the difference

 

[WickedFog]

Tell them the body fell apart too

 

[JustnWynn]

Just asked the wife. We're stuck with it

 

[WickedFog]

Before you dig too deep into it... is your pinion and spur ok?

 

[JustnWynn]

I don't think I've gotten to that yet

Unless I'm an idiot and don't know what I'm looking at. Which is always a sure bet!

 

[WickedFog]

Sometime the pinion grub can be loose. Or the mesh may be off do to the motor slipping the mounting screws.

 

[JustnWynn]

Looks like it all buried under this: