Project Blue Berry

[Prime]

So, my daughter has decided she wants a new truck and it would be rude of me not to oblige. As luck would have it I had my Ripper Clod up for trade and as part of the deal I got the guy to throw in this SCX10.

So here is Blue Berry. My daughter chose the name based on the cool blue color of the body.
The body is in pretty good shape over all, but someone had LEDs in it and they apparently glued the buckets to the outside of the body.
Plan is to fix the body/grill where it is cracked below the lights, make new buckets, and paint the grill flat black.





It wears a nice set of wheels and tires. Tires are a set of RC4WD Rok Lox. Not sure what brand the rims are, they have Pro-line centers but I suspect they are china made. Still though, they are a good looking wheels and do the job.



Has metal steering links already installed.



A look underneath revels how little run time this truck has seen. Also shows off the metal lower links, the uppers are still plastic for now though. It also has a set of the older style Axial drive shafts.



Up top it has a inner fender set and LEDs in the bumpers.



Wired into those LEDs is the weirdest BEC I have ever seen. It has two inputs and two outs?? I am going to have to look into this one.
If anyone knows anything about it I would love some input.



The bad is these shocks here. Not sure what brand they are but they are horrible. The rears are very very soft and the fronts are hard and springy. They are pretty but they are going to have to go.



Plans are to replace the shocks with some rebuilt stock scx10 shocks. fix the body, add LEDs to the body, and getting it running.
Going with an AE5, prob a tactic servo, and going to add a waterproof radio box.

Not going to be a crazy build but should be a solid trail truck when finished. Thank you for looking,
-Prime-

[Prime]

Originally Posted by clodzilla319

looks like a Very decent starting point!! good for you gettin your daughter her own truck!

Thank you. It is actually her second crawler. Her current trail rig is getting rather tired though, it is a TLT axle/pede tranny based rig that was thrown together out of spare parts. She wanted one "more like daddy's truck" so this had to happen lol.

[NeedDirection]

It looks awesome!!! I really like the wrangler bodies

[michaelwhite533]

Rc4wd ultimate scale shocks. I have these on one of my rigs. I bent a shock shaft the first hard tumble. They need a lot of fussing with to tune. They sell a spring kit also they are good for a trail rig that don't crash

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[svt923]

Originally Posted by Prime

Wired into those LEDs is the weirdest BEC I have ever seen. It has two inputs and two outs?? I am going to have to look into this one.
If anyone knows anything about it I would love some input.

I had one of those MadThrust BECs a while back. It has a built in switch for controlling lights or whatever integrated with the main unit. It has one input for the battery and one output like a normal BEC but it has an additional input for the radio signal to control the switch on the second output.

[Drewmtb29]

Originally Posted by svt923

I had one of those MadThrust BECs a while back. It has a built in switch for controlling lights or whatever integrated with the main unit. It has one input for the battery and one output like a normal BEC but it has an additional input for the radio signal to control the switch on the second output.

Most likely can be found in the BEC section on Hobbyking. There should be an instruction file somewhere on the product page too



In fact.. Just found it. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s..._AU_Wareh.html


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[Prime]

Originally Posted by michaelwhite533

Rc4wd ultimate scale shocks. I have these on one of my rigs. I bent a shock shaft the first hard tumble. They need a lot of fussing with to tune. They sell a spring kit also they are good for a trail rig that don't crash

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Thanks for the info. I honestly figured they were cheap china shocks. Regardless they are getting replaced, I do not like the way they feel at all.

Originally Posted by svt923

I had one of those MadThrust BECs a while back. It has a built in switch for controlling lights or whatever integrated with the main unit. It has one input for the battery and one output like a normal BEC but it has an additional input for the radio signal to control the switch on the second output.

Thank you for the info. I will give it a try to get this one working and let it power the lights. If it doesn't work out I will order up a cheapo light controller.

Originally Posted by Drewmtb29

Most likely can be found in the BEC section on Hobbyking. There should be an instruction file somewhere on the product page too

In fact.. Just found it. Dr. Mad Thrust series 3A BEC with Inbuilt Aux Controlled On/Off Switch for Accessories(AU) (AU Wareh

Can't find the instruction link on that page but I think I have it figured out.

[Prime]

We finally got around to getting some work done on Blue Berry.

First order of business was to get these "wonderful" shocks off of the truck. They sure are pretty but are way too soft in my opinion. I think on a leafer they would be a good shock.



We are going with a set of stock scx-10 shocks for this truck. They were filthy so I put my daughter to work cleaning them since these are for her truck.



Here they are cleaned up right before we slimed the orings and filled them with some Associated 40wt oil.



This truck had these weird Proline hub covers/center caps on it. They looked familiar but I could not figure out where they were from. When we pulled the wheels today I figured it out. They are caps off of a set of Pro-Line body mounts and they double as the wheel nuts. Pretty neat idea.



Here is how she sits right now. Axles and transmission are out. Since we don't know what they look like inside we are going to go ahead and pull them apart to check and lube them.



Thanks for looking, more updates soon.
-Prime-
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[Chris83]

Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out. Was looking at a set of shocks like those at the lhs today but after reading about your experience I'll stick with the stock scx shocks for now.

[Prime]

So, I am glad I decided to tear apart and relube the transmission. Turned out there was next to no grease in it and what was there was really thin. So glad this thing had next to no run time on it.

In the pic below is the gears and case BEFORE I cleaned them, there was that little grease in them.



The spur cover was missing it's cap so I made a cover for it from a piece of electrical tape covered with liquid electrical tape.



Everything is lubed and back together. I put a 55t that I have had for a while now in it, though it is older it still has a lot of life left in it. I didn't get a pinion with this and I know the stocker was a 20t but the closest thing I had in my parts bin was a 17t. That will have to do for now, will adjust it as her driving style dictates.



Now to get the tranny mounted in the truck and start on the axles. After the trans gears being so dry I am expecting them to be dry as well.
Thanks for looking.
-Prime-
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[Truckmechanic304]

What type of grease did you use for reassembly?


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[Prime]

Originally Posted by Truckmechanic304

What type of grease did you use for reassembly?

I use a generous amount marine grease. I don't remeber the brand since i have it in a different container than it came in. Got it from Walmart. Have been using it for years with great sucess.

[Prime]

More work to Blue Berry.

Tore the axles apart and no surprise, they were just like the transmission, almost dry. I am pretty sure the lube that is there is just shock oil, that is what it feels like. Luckily the low run time kept wear to a minimum.

Here is the rear as soon as it was taken apart.



And the front.


They are both back together now with a good dose of marine grease.

Decided to go head and replace the plastic upper three link with the metal one that used to be on Cheapbolt. Now the only plastic links are the rear uppers.



Also found one of the knuckles was damaged from being over tightened so replacing it with an old one left over from where I upgraded Cheapbolt's knuckles.



Next up is to get the axles back under the truck and get the electronics mounted.
Thank you for looking.
-Prime-
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[Prime]

A little progress.

Have got the axles back under the truck.



Also mounted the steering servo. This is the one out of my Deadbolt. It has had the plastic gear swapped out for a metal one, so it should hold up to my daughter's driving. I thought I had an extra metal servo horn but I forgotten that I used it on my Pro-2. So I need to order one up.



Next up? Gotta trim the cross member in front of the servo so the horn clears it and get the rest of the electronics mounted up.
-Prime-
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[grayspm]

Looking good! Where did you get the metal gear for the Tactic servo? The plastic gear stripped out in my wife's deadbolt. I replaced the servo, but I wouldn't mind fixing the Tactic rather than tossing it.

PS: props to you for getting your daughter into the hobby early! My son is almost 4 months old, think it's too early to get him an SCX?


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[Prime]

Originally Posted by grayspm

Looking good! Where did you get the metal gear for the Tactic servo? The plastic gear stripped out in my wife's deadbolt. I replaced the servo, but I wouldn't mind fixing the Tactic rather than tossing it.

PS: props to you for getting your daughter into the hobby early! My son is almost 4 months old, think it's too early to get him an SCX?


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Thanks!

I got the gear from a seller on eBay. I don't remember the sellers name. I just looked and didn't see any on there right now. :(

It is never to early to get them an RC! lol My daughter has had a Slash and a TLT based crawler since she was 4. She is ready to move up to a better crawler so the SCX it is. As far as her Slash, it started as a stock brushed truck and as she improves/breaks things we upgrade it. She helps/does it herself so she learns as well.

[Prime]

Sorry there hasn't been an update for a little while. Been doing some renovations around the house so they took priority.

But we now have all the electronics mounted up. And even drove it around the living room. Everything seems to be working as it should. It is not crazy fast with this motor/gearing combo but should be perfect for my daughter out on the trails. Electronics consist of a 55t motor, AE5 ESC (on 2S), Tactic TSX45 servo, and a FlySky radio. The receiver is in an old Traxxas waterproof receiver box. It has some extra holes in it so I sealed them all up first and regreased the seals to keep water out.



Also got the bumper lights working as they should.



Next up is fixing the grill and making new light buckets for it. After that it should be about finished. She does want a set of lights for the roof as well so may need to locate a light bar for it too.
Till next time,
-Prime-

[rerebuilder]

What is that mess material you used to wrap your wires with? That really adds a nice touch to the rig and it is blue.

[grayspm]

It's blue mesh wire loom... A quick Google search will lead you to it!


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[Prime]

The blue mesh I have is something called Mesh Craft Cord. I got it at Wal-Mart out of the clearance isle. I have also seen it at Michaels and Hobby Lobby. Not as tough as the wire loom stuff but holds up well for rc uses. I just cover the end with shrink wrap to hold it in place.



Got a little work on the grill and lights finished.
When we got the truck a previous owner had butchered the grill, they had cut the these large holes for the head lights and glued the buckets to the outside of the body, then someone removed the buckets and cracked the body. We don't want to replace the body so going to fix this up a bit.... hopefully. Here is a pic of what we are starting with.



Glued the cracks with some plastic cement. Seems pretty strong, hopefully it will hold.
Using a set of lights off my Deadbolt's old light bar to make headlight buckets. The trim rigs are the stock covers with the mesh removed. Took some scrap lexan and made brackets to mount the light buckets and running lights in.



Test fitting. It is not perfect but will look better than the giant holes. Plan to paint the grill with bed liner to make it look more "aftermarket".



For the body lights this light controller came in the mail. This is the same one I use on my Cheapbolt. Has been rock solid on there so should do good here as well.



Will post up more pics as more progress happens. Thanks for looking.
-Prime-
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