Mugged

[MRCrackhead]

This is my first foray into the trail/scale side of the hobby.

My daughter, now 7, has shown interest in my two dusty comp rigs sitting on a shelf in the basement.

I felt two trail rigs would be more "fun" to have cuz we could drive nearly anywhere, and at the same time.

I chose the Wraith as a well rounded crawler/trail rig. I also knew it could be made to go fast and jump, if that's what it took to keep both of us entertained and/or interested.

I set out to buy two vehicles. The first rig I found was a nearly stock Poison Spyder edition. It showed up just in time for her 7th birthday and was in excellent condition. RTR with one 2s 3000mah battery and the stock electronics.

Here she is testing her new rig at the new house job site, just down the street.



Here's her rig a couple days later, same job site, little bit more fun after a good afternoon rain storm.



For myself, I purchased what was advertised as a hopped up Wraith off the classifieds. Turns out it was a used up piece of junk that didn't have any aftermarket parts worth talking about. It's a long story.

I managed to avoid making the bad deal worse by getting upset. Worked out a small, unsatisfactory refund from the perp; and now the build begins.....

Here's the rig sitting by my daughter's Spyder.

[MRCrackhead]

So here's a closer shot of the rig.
Front hood crossmember is missing.
Side panels aren't in bad shape.



Gmade shocks that look kinda junky to me.
I'm not a fan of shocks that don't have a good attachment point up top.
Fuel tubing, a screw, and some washers just seems ghetto.
Titanium links and steering are about all that I have going so far.



The interior is completely hacked to bits.
Not sure how that guy thought I wouldn't notice this????
Passenger side seat is also wasted.

[MRCrackhead]

Diff covers were really beat.
They were actually rubbing the ring gear.



This is a shot of the inside.......
Guessing the gears are wasted.



Here's a shot of the "steel geared" transmission I paid for....
Seems like a plastic main gear to me.
Bearings are all chunky.



The tranny screws are all taped up.
The housing is garbage.
Just keeps on giving! Lol

[Brake Weight]

Sucks on the bad deal. Awesome the daughter wants to play. My kids just want to destroy each other's car after a few minutes.

[MRCrackhead]

I don't want to start out with all bad and no good.
I have some running gear from my retired sportsman rig that will be donated to this lost cause.
Holmes 400 puller 13t (I believe)
BR mini esc, Castle BEC
T maxx shafts (new to Wraith, maybe this is dumb?)
AX10 trans with upgraded outputs
Futaba BLS172HV
MT4 tx/rx



Since the interior was already wasted, I started thinking about doing a tummy tuck with the skid plate.
I tried to research the procedure; but Photobucket has erased most evidence in the threads I did find.
This whole rig is kinda beat, so I was willing to take a chance on screwing up a couple pieces of the Wraith chassis.
Pic of the rail cut. New holes drilled and countersunk.



Obviously you can't just hack up the chassis without consequence.
The frame rail becomes really bendy when you cut the lower section off.
I fabbed up these aluminum runners to counter that effect.



I needed to make a 2mm spacer to get the runners outboard so they would contact the lower plastic frame rail.
Fit up real nice...

[MRCrackhead]

I wanted to trim these down to make them all swanky and racey; but then I realized I would need to build a custom interior since I don't currently have anything.
I decided to leave them square and bulky like this until I get a bit further down the road.
I figure the aluminum may come in handy for tapping some holes to mount stuff.



Here you can see them in the chassis.
Obviously the idea was to tie into the very strong link mount area.
I may add a longer bolt through the link mount and put a locknut on for extra beef.
Not needed at this stage of the game.




Of course, this is the whole point.
They also tie into the outer cage screws in the 4 outermost corners.
This gives the frame rail back it's rigidity.



Shot from the underside.
The stiffeners don't hang down.
They shouldn't cause many, if any hang-ups.

[Oger1983]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck bub. I know I'd probably would have gave some very negative thoughts towards the seller for that crap.

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[Teng]

I consider this is a good read


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[azTony]

Just curious but have you taken any action or can you win h this forum to prevent the POS that sold you the rig from posting up anything else in the for sale section. This could be done without given out their screen name publically and prevent them from selling crap to others. This has been done on other forums I am a member of

[Brake Weight]

I'll give you a few dollars for the remnants of that interior. I've got seats and the floor pan but no dash, shifters, or stickers.

[MRCrackhead]

Originally Posted by Oger1983

Sorry to hear about your bad luck bub. I know I'd probably would have gave some very negative thoughts towards the seller for that crap.

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Originally Posted by azTony

Just curious but have you taken any action or can you win h this forum to prevent the POS that sold you the rig from posting up anything else in the for sale section. This could be done without given out their screen name publically and prevent them from selling crap to others. This has been done on other forums I am a member of

I'm a firm believer that what goes around comes around.
Maybe I'm a terrible person and deserved a crappy deal.
OR, maybe I'm not so bad and that guy will get what he deserves.
Karma is a real m'fer.

[MRCrackhead]

Originally Posted by crawlinwithacat

The builds look great and I really like the blue and silver panels! By the way, how did you cut the "U" shape out of the metal? That is always an issue for me. I've always used a jigsaw in the past on thicker material but is there another way I don't know about?

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This is my primary weapon of choice in the garage....the cut off wheel.
I use it to cut, cope, radius, etc.
Get really close to your layout lines with this, because it's super fast.
Most all rough cuts are made with this tool.
The sander next to it helps too.



I use this die grinder sometimes.
It works in corners fairly well.
Only issue is, it really likes to get away from you and make a mess of things in a hurry.



Otherwise, once the rough shape is made, I use a dremel.
I've got a bunch of different shape attachments.
This smaller drum sander was perfect to make the radius on the chassis stiffeners.

[Oger1983]

Originally Posted by MRCrackhead

I'm a firm believer that what goes around comes around.
Maybe I'm a terrible person and deserved a crappy deal.
OR, maybe I'm not so bad and that guy will get what he deserves.
Karma is a real m'fer.

Dude nobody deserves that kind of crap pushed on them. That guy is a real McAsshole. I'm glad you made it a positive outcome and your daughter had a good time. I'm currently building my first wraith as well. I purchased a box of parts haha. Got lots of goodies to toss at her.

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[MRCrackhead]

Did some more chassis work.
I decided to try the fastback.
Chopped the rear supports out; but left the roof intact.
Warmed it a bit with the heat gun and put some bend on it.



In an effort to make it look slightly more "factory", I used the cut out rear posts to make the links.
Mixed with some bent rod ends and 3mm stud inserts, I have this now.



At this point, I had to get tires on the rig.
I tossed the junky Gmade shocks and swapped in my old comp big bores. I know they're not scale; but it's what I have right now.
I wanted to get a sense of where I'm at.
I'm really digging the swept roof line and the low stance.
Might look at lowering it just a bit more......

[Oger1983]

Originally Posted by MRCrackhead

Did some more chassis work.
I decided to try the fastback.
Chopped the rear supports out; but left the roof intact.
Warmed it a bit with the heat gun and put some bend on it.

Attachment 362651

In an effort to make it look slightly more "factory", I used the cut out rear posts to make the links.
Mixed with some bent rod ends and 3mm stud inserts, I have this now.

Attachment 362652

At this point, I had to get tires on the rig.
I tossed the junky Gmade shocks and swapped in my old comp big bores. I know they're not scale; but it's what I have right now.
I wanted to get a sense of where I'm at.
I'm really digging the swept roof line and the low stance.
Might look at lowering it just a bit more......

Attachment 362653

What version of the gmades did you toss out? By chance where they the piggy back xd's

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[Oger1983]

I agree the fastback look is rather nice. Might try it with my frame once I get my mattzilla

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[MRCrackhead]

Originally Posted by Oger1983

What version of the gmades did you toss out? By chance where they the piggy back xd's

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They are Gmade Zero shocks.
The pivot ball in the top eye just falls right out.
It's not a true pivot ball.
Being from the comp world, this doesn't seem right.



The mounting spacer, for lack of a better term, just has an oversized washer molded onto it.
This keeps the shock from escaping; but allows it to bang all around.
That's why I'm just not digging these shocks.
I don't know squat about scale shocks; but I've had SCX10 shocks on my comp rigs.
They were very scale looking and didn't have this crappy setup.
Tell me if I'm missing something here.....

[MRCrackhead]

Originally Posted by Brake Weight

I'll give you a few dollars for the remnants of that interior. I've got seats and the floor pan but no dash, shifters, or stickers.

Sorry.
I'm going to salvage what little is left of the interior.
Planning to use the shifters and steering wheel for sure.
Maybe the dash depending on my interior fab skills, lol.

[Oger1983]

Originally Posted by MRCrackhead

They are Gmade Zero shocks.
The pivot ball in the top eye just falls right out.
It's not a true pivot ball.
Being from the comp world, this doesn't seem right.

Attachment 362657

The mounting spacer, for lack of a better term, just has an oversized washer molded onto it.
This keeps the shock from escaping; but allows it to bang all around.
That's why I'm just not digging these shocks.
I don't know squat about scale shocks; but I've had SCX10 shocks on my comp rigs.
They were very scale looking and didn't have this crappy setup.
Tell me if I'm missing something here.....

Attachment 362656

Looks like it's well worn out. He probably didn't take very good care of it. I know the gmade xd with piggy backs are supposedly a good shock. Basically from what I read they don't leak nearly as bad as moat. Are those a big bore? If so that would explain the oversized washer used for a spacer to put the shock out far enough so not to be up against the tower. The going is used for something or another but, lol yeah it's not supposed to fall out.

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[MRCrackhead]

So I got the bug real bad to drive this thing.
I needed to shake off the bad mojo this rig came with.
I cleaned the axles out. Swapped in some stock gears I had laying around.
I stuffed everything under the hood, in no particular order, with zip ties.
It looks good here, just don't open the hood, lol



Here's a picture of the new stance vs the stock Spyder.
Of note, the Spyder didn't have it's battery in the rear yet. May account for it's jacked up look.
Loving the look of the tummy tuck vs stock.



My 40 minute mad dash to get it ready paid off.
Not only did it actually move.......it moved very well.
I had an ONYX 3s 4000mah pack powering the Holmes Puller.
The truck was surprisingly fast, and slow, and handled very well.
It's not ready for any serious action, yet; but it was nice to get out with Addy and tear up some sand piles.