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Johnny Builds a Brat I'm on a quest to build the most capable least capable trail rig I can. Building the MST CFX Bronco with its tiny tires was a ton of fun, but it's still a great performer out on the trails. I want a challenge! "How about an even tinier tired Subaru Brat?" Yes! Now you're talking, man inside my head! I love the Brat. I know there was a period of time when everybody and their mother built Brat scalers, but I missed that boat. Besides, most of those were built as solid axle rigs (at least in the rear). I want to do one that's pretty much what a stock Brat would be. That sounds like a wonderful awful idea. "Enough chatter, chatterbox. Show me a picture." OK... https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7879/...1c67c965_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr "That doesn't look like a Brat." No, but it is a 4wd platform with independent suspension and a wheelbase pretty close to the Tamiya Brat body, so let's do this! I've been playing around with this off and on for a few months. It hasn't really gone as planned, so I've tried to just go with the flow and see where it takes me. No point in getting too stressed out over tiny trucks. Wish me luck. |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat :shock: IN. that sounds RAD. i am also into doing cool stuff that seems dumb hahaha cant wait to see where this goes! i mean i know where it will go but its the journey, right? "thumbsup" seriously cool idea. i will be checking back on this for sure. *oh and if you don't use 1.55 dirt grabbers you are being to easy on yourself lol |
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Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Fabulous! I love the Brat! The Tamiya Brat was my first rc car. Still have the body, which was meant to go on some MRC axles. Yeah, solid axles, the easy way :oops: I like your Bronco and your Cherokee, so I am curious what you will do with this one "thumbsup" |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Nice. Built one a while ago - same chassis, same body using the Shapeways body mounts, and some little Baja MTZ's. The wheelbase was off a bit which kind of turned me off to the project. Fun little chassis though!! |
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Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Here are the first few pics from the build. So far pretty much straight up according to the manual. I did lock both differentials with the gear method. I also added a set of bearings. I may end up unlocking the diffs at some point for a couple of reasons. One, I think this tiny truck is going to be challenged in the turning radius department. Two, I think it might be "fun" with a more limited slip type of setup out on the trails. I'll make that decision after I've run it a bit. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7804/...885b79ec_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7814/...41558c4d_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4891/...e704e0e3_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat More please! Looks good so far. Seeing where things went wrong can save others a lot of frustration, can we hear more about what didn't work and why? Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk |
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Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Here are a few more pics. Again, pretty much a straight up build according to the manual at this point. I used these DS3218MG servos in my CFX, TT02 and Dancing Rider builds. They've worked OK in those applications, so I thought I'd try one here to keep the costs down. The pogo sticks won't be staying... https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7905/...8c52a8aa_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7904/...ebb7ba6c_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7841/...e932d84e_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Here's the last batch of pictures before we start getting into some of the challenges. Here we've got a Holmes Hobbies Trailmaster Sport and a Hobbywing 1080 ESC. For my money, together they're a great value to get you up and running. At this point I had a basic, functioning vehicle. The speed seems to be right in the ballpark of where I want it (we'll see if things run too hot due to the gearing once it gets on the trails). Overall, the build provided a lot of that "quirky" Tamiya fun. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4813/...25da16cb_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4892/...dd7fafdd_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7885/...4513b5d1_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat OK. This is where things start to go awry. So my plan going into this build was to make what would essentially be a stock Brat, seats in the bed and all. In fact, seats in the bed was pretty much my primary goal going in. With that in mind, I grabbed the Tamiya body and placed it over the chassis. Uh oh. The wheelbase is pretty close, but that's gonna sit way too high... https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7841/...a49af1b3_b.jpgTamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr The issue with the MF-01x chassis is that it's really tall the whole way through. To make matters worse, the upper control arms of the rear suspension go up even higher when compressed. Now, Yeah Racing makes a kit to relocate the upper control arms, but that's still not going to get this body anywhere near where it needs to be. To get the body down to more of a "stock" Brat stance I'd need to cut out the bed and either raise it up and fake it or do a tonneau cover thing. Either way it would rule out the rear seats, which I desperately wanted to do. Ugh. Feeling kind of defeated I started to think about if I really wanted to hack up the hard body or wait and try a different platform down the road. Then I remembered I have a couple of the Lexan Brat bodies stashed away. Those don't have a drop bed. Let's see how that would sit... https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4804/...b743b4f1_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr OK. The body is able to sit quite a bit lower (it also gave me an idea of where the hard body would sit if I hacked it up). Interestingly, the wheelbase of the Lexan body is noticeably longer. How odd! It also is much more squared off at the bottom, has a weird hump in the bed and is not nearly as detailed. After mulling it over for quite a while, I decided to hold onto the hard body and try to find a different platform that would allow me to do a seats-in-the-back Brat. Since I had a couple of the Lexan bodies kicking around (and I've already made plans for the Mercedes body), I figured I'd try to make it work. It certainly won't look as good as a nicely detailed hard body, but I'm going to do what I can to salvage the project. Let the disappointment commence! |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Hang in there! I like the idea of the seats on the bed! |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Once I got over the disappointment of moving past the hard body, I was all in on making the Lexan body work. Let's get to it! First up if fixing the wheelbase. As I mentioned, the wheelbase on the Lexan body is noticeably longer than the hard body. 30 minutes with the Dremel and some Team KNK spacers had me pushing the wheelbase of this little rig to its limits. There should still be enough meat on the arms to stand up to the kind of driving I'm likely to do with this tiny truck. My bigger concern is popping out dogbones. To combat this, I've put some little rubber o-rings in each of the drive cups to keep the dogbones "centered." The shocks I've got are also slightly shorter than the pogo sticks, so that will limit the down travel slightly. In this case, I'll call that a win. Here are some comparison shots. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7820/...b2930632_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4889/...7612dbe8_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat You can't have a tiny truck without tiny wheels and tiny tires. I chose RC4WD products for both. Here we've got 1.55" Dirt Grabbers mounted on white 1.55" OEM stamped steel beadlocks. I was originally going to use wagon wheels, but these fit the look better (albeit with a slightly wider stance). Some Lock Up scale hardware and SSD hubs round things out. Also, color sneak peek! https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7844/...ac6ba7ff_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4845/...e60bd595_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Let's talk shocks for a second. I picked up a set of these Tamiya dampers for the M Chassis cars. They're a little shorter than the pogo sticks that came with the kit, but that should hopefully help keep the dogbones in place with the wheelbase modifications I made. I put these on the chassis and they were way too stiff with even the softest included springs. Then I swapped on the springs from the kit. A little better, but still too hard. Then I noticed the Axial springs sort of fit diameter wise, but are obviously too long. So I order a set of the softest Axial springs (in blue, because they were $1 cheaper) and cut them down to size. I ended up making all 4 springs out of two. At this point I'd describe the setup as the "stiff side of acceptable," which is probably good enough. Bonus points if you made it through that entire previous paragraphs without chuckling. I also added some lights. I used some light buckets I had laying around. They're simply hooked up to an Axial simple light controller at this point. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4836/...9a3aff49_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7838/...b9938bae_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7910/...27a4d41c_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7829/...174d1162_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7810/...67d168ce_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4846/...3ac1ab34_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat What kind of glue did you use to attach the light buckets? Just curious, as I tried hot glue once and it ended in melting the body ... |
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Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Every tiny truck needs a tiny driver (or at least 1/2 of a driver). This tiny truck is no exception. I find it oddly therapeutic to paint up these Tamiya guys. Since I was feeling in need of some therapy, that's what I did. Let me introduce you to Steve Man. Incidentally, his twin brother Alan drives a pretty sweet Ford Bronco. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7914/...5b2b6db0_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat that's crazy, i work with a guy named Steve Allen. yeah it really is therapeutic to paint stuff like this. base color. wash. dry brush. therapy has occurred. looks great! oh and the light bucket thing reminds me, don't they make E6000 in a few colors, including black? i always forget to look at hobby lobby. |
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Re: Johnny Builds a Brat I know I probably lost a lot of folks when I said "Lexan Brat body." In an attempt to regain some credibility, I've decided to do a custom interior. I'm no stranger to the Lexan interiors, but this will be my first try at scratch building one (or at least mostly scratch building one). I don't have a lot of room to work with. I can only go down about an inch. As a result, I'm just going for something "Brat-esque" rather than trying to do a highly-detailed replica. My hope is to pick up some skills and experience that may help me out on some other build down the road. I started with a cardboard mock-up to get a general size. Then I had at the styrene stash that was mocking me (it's been sitting on the shelf so long it got complacent). That's a Knight Customs SR5 steering wheel, but it's pretty close to what was in the brat, so I went with it. I was also unsure about tackling the seats, so I cut down a couple from Cross RC. They aren't a match, but they'll do fine considering the limited visibility this interior will get. It's nothing special, but it's something. My favorite part was using a little Bondo to fashion the shift boot. I'm doing the work, I'm baby-stepping, I'm not a slacker! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4803/...5c1b5d94_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4864/...5699db37_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4828/...c5b7244b_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4824/...b68b3f33_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4822/...294cc462_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7859/...6c463557_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Still watching! :ror: |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Here's the interior all painted up. Again, not particularly impressive, but it feels vaguely Bratty to me. I can live with it. Steve seems pretty comfortable behind the wheel, so I'm happy. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4806/...efc27200_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7861/...ebd1ae89_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4872/...04138551_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4847/...e250d3cf_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7849/...bd670113_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4899/...b8995cd1_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Very 80s Japan interior sir! I could be convinced it's either brat or 86 Corolla gts. Thats a good thing! |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat A couple more details to wrap this thing up... I got the wipers when I was building the Ford Courier for my dad. I think they're for the Mojave body. Anyway, they seemed like a good fit here. Steve wanted a vanity plate. His twin brother Alan got "BUCKY" for his Bronco. Steve thought "BRATTY" and "BUCKY" sounded pretty good together. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7894/...2be4f8f2_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4863/...eb0d02f6_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7873/...bcdd909e_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7824/...740e842a_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat nice work on the plate! i need to revisit that art. printed mine and just used packing tape over the paper. didn't uh... didn't hold up too well when i dipped her toes in some water. wipers look good too. full reveal soon? |
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Re: Johnny Builds a Brat There are still some things I'd like to do to this tiny truck. Most noticeably, I'd like to add some side view mirrors, but the handfull I've tried so far haven't looked quite right. I'll run it this way for now and tell Steve to be careful merging onto the highway. I've got some shots of this thing on my kitchen table, but no one wants to see that. Here are a few glamour shots of the little blue Subaru Brat in the great outdoors before it gets chewed up out on the trails... https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7836/...e1073508_b.jpg amiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7916/...7a452a46_b.jpg amiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4864/...f99c8313_b.jpg amiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7853/...0e40fce5_b.jpg amiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4914/...d0a48746_b.jpg amiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7844/...561329d1_b.jpg amiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat I never knew 1.55's could look so big! that thing looks really good for a lexan body. I like it "thumbsup" |
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Re: Johnny Builds a Brat The Brat had its first outing. With minimal ground clearance, tiny tires and big overhangs, I went to a location that I thought would be a nice easy drive. Nope. We had gotten some snow previously, but it had warmed up and a lot of it had melted. Then things got brutally cold. What I hadn't anticipated was that over half of the trail would be blanketed in 3 inch deep, icy, rock hard, frozen footprints. Oof. As I started down the trail I thought about turning back. Then I had a brief conversation with Steve Man who said "We don't build shelf queens. Gimme the keys!" The truck performed admirably in conditions that it had no business performing admirably in. The front lip of the body ended up taking some damage. There was a little chipped paint and a small crack. The cold weather certainly didn't do me any favors there. I'll make some repairs and have it back on the trails in no time. Here are some photos from the non-icy-footprints-of-death parts of the trail... https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4884/...4b7fe8a4_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4913/...4fbd1f63_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4871/...7ffb1b93_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7830/...0404bc81_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Here's a quick look at the damage. On the left you can see the chipped paint. On the right is the crack. A little touch up paint, mesh tape and E6000 should have me back in business. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7834/...0a003ddc_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat All patched up and back out on the trails... https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7809/...e7e7d34c_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7832/...92028ceb_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7852/...0be5b9de_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7831/...139d54f0_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat As suspected with the wheelbase lengthening I did, the dogbones became an issue. Or, rather, the lack of dogbones became an issue. Around mile 7 I noticed the the rig was struggling a bit. At least a bit more than a tiny tire, independent suspension road-car-turned-trail-vehicle with almost no ground clearance would normally struggle. Turns out I was running in three wheel drive. https://live.staticflickr.com/7801/4...37732416_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr Was that going to stop me? Heck no! Should it have stopped me? Probably! You see, it was early in my outing. I wasn't ready to go home, so I decided to soldier on for another mile or so, sticking to the tamest of trails. The little Subie performed admirably under the conditions. Oh, any ideas what happens to Tamiya drive cups that don't have dog bones in them? Anyone? They fall out. Yup. So now I was out a dogbone and a drive cup. Not my finest moment. So I ordered up some replacement drive cups and universals to get the tiny truck back out on the trails. After the install there's a slight hitch in the rear drive train. It's something I want to look into, but doesn't affect things enough to keep it on the shelf. I also noticed that there's more contact with the rear suspension upright assembly and the center drive shaft cover than there was before. It sticks a bit. I suspect it's getting bendy (technical term) due to the way I had to reverse that assembly when lengthening the wheelbase. I'll have to look into that, too. Basically, this car is a disaster right now. Pretty much a failure. But it runs. And it's fun. So, yeah. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...db910b2d_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f6879e3b_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2a6e5f79_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat by johnny anguish, on Flickr https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fea2ac03_b.jpg Tamiya MF-01X Subaru Brat by johnny anguish, on Flickr |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Neato! "thumbsup" |
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Re: Johnny Builds a Brat Great job! Love it! |
Re: Johnny Builds a Brat I used a TT-02 chassis to build my Brat. No pics though because after making it look like a 4 year old painted it, I hid it under the stairs and only let it out on moonless nights. Scares even the werewolves away it’s so ugly. But very nice job on yours; Tamiya’s Subaru Brat and Kyosho’s Optima are my 2 very favorites RC buggies of all time! |
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How did it look on the TT-02 chassis? Was it fairly scale looking? I want to replicate something simliar to this one because the tires are tucked underneath and look realistic compared to the stock brat kit with the tires sticking way out to the sides. I wouldn't mind trying a slightly larger tire than the ones on this build. Ive been looking at tons of sites and threads trying to find a chassis that would give the brat this scale look. |
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