Went out for a little crawling today, tried to run my Tamiya MF-01x TR Jimny but the battery is dead and needs a replacement, so getting onto that rock and back off again was all it could do. The rest were of my AX-10 Scorpion turned XJ bodied SCX-10, which is now a more or less 16 year old build with a handful of changed made here and there over the last 14 years.
Bought this car new in April of 2012 with less than 100 miles in it and it rolled 175k on the drive home from work last night. It’s the Touring trim with only 3 options, the 7 spoke 18” wheels, the basic U-Connect head unit, and most importantly, the 3.6l Pentastar under the hood. Even though it’s got a December 2011 build date, which would have been the covered under the 150k mile left bank head warranty, this 3.6l still has the original heads, cams and valve train on it! Oil changes have always been done in the 3000-5000 mile range and the vast majority of these miles, maybe all but 10k, have been running E85 as well.
Let me know what you all think😁
I did the 1st drawing as a doodle mid call and liked how it turned out, for some reason I thought it “went hard”, if I’m using the phrase correctly?! After that, I decided to try it a couple more times with what would be considered pretty while if not radical kustoms from a Post War Ford, Merc, and Chevy.
After the Batmobile inspired ‘39-‘40 Ford Coupe doodles, I had another idea, applying the same modifications to a Shoebox Ford, specifically 1949-1950 Fords. So I shorted the front fenders between the wheel openings and the A-Pillars, then shortening the car overall length of the car from the B-Pillars to the end of the tail fins/quarters as well as changing it into a 3-Window style roof. The shortening of the back half removed sections on both sides of the rear wheel openings and the deck lid to match. I also flipped the front bumper so instead of being shaped like an ersatz spoiler it’s more like the bow of a boat and raised the impact point of the bumper too.
Now with the ‘49-‘50 Merc, it received most of the same mods as the Ford, though I didn’t shorted the front fenders as much, though I did shorten the deck lid more while leaving the roof a bit longer so there would still be quarter windows, converted it to a hard top that would allow a chop while leaving better visibility out of the side windows. The front bumper was also flipped for the same reasons as I did on the Ford.
It’s been a while, but had these random ideas and put them to paper.
The first is half inspired by a Batfamily video I saw where a reporter asks Bruce Wayne about any connections he might have with The Batman, to which Bruce responded……
“He just uses me for my body.”
while smiling.
So that got me thinking, what if Bruce wanted to build a Kustom ‘39 or ‘40 Ford couple with a few early comic Batmobile styling cues that could easily be seen as inspired by coach built pre WW2 European cars. The first cue was the spine fin down the back of the car from the trailing edge of the roof back to the deck lid. I then went on the think about chopping the top as well as sectioning it both in height and length and taking it from a 5-Window arrangement to a 3-Window, topped off with enclosed wheel openings in the fenders, all in the top drawing.
The bottom drawing it where I took the above and gave the doors frameless windows, reshaped the rear part of the roof, changed the shape of the roof fin and added matching fins to the front and rear fenders.
Found these two ID.Buzz Bombs as well as the Jag and another Lucid from a local Walmart today. The Jag and Lucid were out of a big box and the cards are beat up, though I don’t really care about that since I thought the Jag was cool and just like the Lucids.
It’s been sitting without anything for power for over a decade, plus the transmission, bearings, and left inner hinge pins were a bit gummed up from a grease I had in the diff that leaked out at some point. I had bought a new set
Of reinforced transmission gears about 14 years ago and planned on swapping those in while doing this rebuild, then discovered I had the light weight hollow shafts and Titanium coated hinge pins that I also bought around the same time and forgot about. Got all that installed, freshened up the shock oil while I was at it.
It already had the HPI Mini body and tires on newer BMW Mini wheels, M-05 uprights and carriers, Kimbrough servo saver, Traxxas rod ends and Teflon coated hollow balls with Associated Ti tie rods for steering, then the red TC shocks built with the sedan length in the front and Mini length in back using 50wt oil and medium springs up front and 60wt oil and firm springs out back.
Still have a little work to do and may have to order a new pack as it’s slightly puffed right now.
I’m looking at making a big 4 wheeled purchase later this year and may help fund that by selling off some of my less used R/Cs, probably my E-Revo build with parts from all of it’s siblings and RPM arms and knuckles, my Drag Slash with no electronics or transmission, but does have the factory rolling stock and then C10 and a XJ Cherokee bodies, the maybe my Wild Willy 4x4 with the parts from the Wild Willy 2 and Monster Beetle TR donor kits (latter wouldn’t have the portals since those are on the Jimny), and maybe even my unfinished Lunchbox Black Edition that is built with the body cut out for AmPro lights and the roof vent filled in with a roof section from another can body, and my Losi Comp Crawler.
How do you guys, especially here in the US, go about deciding on what to sell them for then actually selling your R/Cs?
I’m looking at getting something new, big, and 4 wheeled later this year and may help fund that by getting rid of some of my less used R/Cs, probably my E-Revo build with parts from all of it’s siblings and RPM arms and knuckles, my Drag Slash with no electronics or transmission, but does have the factory rolling stock and then C10 and a XJ Cherokee bodies, the maybe my Wild Willy 4x4 with the parts from the Wild Willy 2 and Monster Beetle TR donor kits (latter wouldn’t have the portals since those are on the Jimny), and maybe even my unfinished Lunchbox Black Edition that is built with the body cut out for AmPro lights and the roof vent filled in with a roof section from another can body, and my Losi Comp Crawler.
How do you guys, especially here in the US, go about deciding on pricing and where to try and move your R/Cs?
So I was able to get off work an hour early today and stopped by the Chevy dealership “between” home and work to see if I could at least sit in if not drive one of the Bolts they had in stock. It happened to be a fully stripped LT like I want, but in white vs black like I would prefer. It seemed a bit tighter through the hips and thighs than I remember the 2nd Gens I sat in at the Chicago Auto Show in ‘22, but that was 4 years ago, so my memory could be a bit off.
That said, I do apologize if I start throwing in R/C lingo such as LiPo Cutoff, LVC (Low Voltage Cutoff), Low Voltage Protection, and Drag Brake, since that is where much of my EV like experience comes from. Another thing is that the car I drove was at a 7% state of charge, so we stayed within the empty portions of the dealership lot.
I did get the car up to 32mph, though it didn’t feel as quick as I was expecting it to be, since it should have been fairly close to what my 200 will do for the speeds I did get it to. I figured it could be related to the low charge at the time I drove it, since it did feel like my R/Cs when they hit their cutoff (usually at the +/-3.70 volt/cell mark).
I also drove it with and without One Pedal engaged, which is where any Drag Brake references may come in.
Without it seemed to drive like any other vehicle I have driven, no matter the scale or propulsion. With the One Pedal set at the Normal setting felt like what I have experienced as 50% Drag Brake setting on my trail and crawler trucks. The Heavy setting was much more aggressive than I was expecting, throwing me into the seatbelt at low speeds. That felt comparable to a 75% or so Drag Brake setting, minus the rear tires leaving the ground like I have seen with my SCX10 using that sort of setting as well as on my rigs that have worm gears instead of a ring and pinion set up like a normal axle would have.
Not sure if I want to stop by a different dealer and see if they have a more charged up example to try at this point, I did like the car and all, but it did seem held back by the lack of charge.
Just wanted to update this post!
Stopped at a different dealership after getting lunch with Dad and they had a stripper LT like I’m looking for, but it was the grey vs black AND it has a nearly full charge on it!
This car drove better, was able to take it out onto the highway as well as some residential streets near them, plus the salesman did more to inform me on the car and was surprised how much I already knew on them. Primarily tried the normal Regen setting with One Pedal and it was just more what I was expecting on this drive . It still seems a touch slow, but it was in the normal driving mode and I didn’t notice the sport mode until we were back to the dealership. For some odd reason, this one fit me better though, despite wearing the exact same clothes as I wore to work yesterday?!
I’m still really interested in the Bolt and would like to order it through the dealership I went to today if they don’t have one already on hand by then.
I unfortunately have gained a bunch of weight back over the last year after a slip and fall injury and then getting shuffled to an office +/-45 min from home and my gym, and NEED to drop this weight!
Would it be ok to just have a meal replacement shake or two after a couple hours of gym time, mostly lifting?
So I’m at the point with my Chrysler 200 that it may be time to start shopping for a replacement daily after 14 years and really would like to go electric and like the Bolts. I’m just looking for basic trim, cloth interior, manual driver seat with the adapters to be able to charge at public locations when needed, basically something that is in the KISS mentality I had when I looked for when buying my 200, minus the flex fuel Minivan drivetrain in a rental car part😁
I would probably start with charging via 110v outlets at home with public fast charging as a back up. Appearance wise, I am looking to either locate or order so it looks like the attached screen cap pic.
Is there anything I should look for or consider if/when I go to do this?
Here’s the video I pulled the screen caps I posted yesterday. It was combo was still on the factory settings and it was still running the 23t/96t gears, did swap to a 90t spur and tried one of the spicier punch control settings last night, but rainy weather has rolled in, so no after video for now.
Got some wheelie screen caps of my stretched HPI Wheely King after swapping a Dynamite Tazer Twin into it. Anybody else got wheelie pics of their R/C’s to post?
So when I left for work Thursday, I was getting a scraping sound from the right rear every time I touched the brakes. Now that I’m driving over 50 miles a day for work, I figured it was better to leave it at home and asked Dad if he could run me to work.
He takes me to work both Thursday and Friday and pulled that wheel while I was working and found that inside pad was all but gone and the outside was still almost fully there as well as the slide pins were seized up tight. Since the dealership wasn’t sure if the MaxCare warranty would cover the caliper AND bracket, plus I would need to replace at least the pads and rotors to get the car there anyway, I just decided fuck it and we did the work ourselves.
Since all 4 of the wheel bearings have been replaced by the dealership under that warranty since November of ‘25, the caliper brackets were easy to remove from the rear knuckles, though the right rear was difficult to to get the hose off of the old caliper and back on the new, there wasn’t too much of an issue with the swap when it comes to that part other than trying to figure out where the anti-seize went……it was in his tool bag on my passenger floor, which we found after I got back from the parts house with a fresh bottle.
The biggest problem, who ever replaced the left rear wheel bearing 6 weeks ago must have used all the fucking ugga-duggas they had that day on it because we could not break the nuts loose to pull the tire. I’m a fat guy that does hit the gym 3 days a week and I was throwing all of my weight and strength into the ratchet and then a breaker bar with a cheater tube to the point Dad and I were both concerned we would break the tools first! Finally gave up for the day, went to Harbor Freight and he bought one of their Bauer cordless impacts that was good for 1000lbs/ft of breakaway force and we tried it today. It worked, though a couple of the nuts still took some work.
The attached pics start with the old parts off the right rear, then the boxes of replacements, followed by the left rear once we got started on that, the final result both with and without the wheel back on it, then the odometer reading once we got the car offset on the parking pad so Dad could back in next to it when we got back from returning the calipers and brackets for the core refund.
Guess I can’t complain that I got nearly 169k out of the rear calipers and brackets though!