Welp, just picked this up today.

[BJoe]

Finally had a chance to really beat on the car after putting the 2 pole VXL I had put in the all Graphite 4-Tec that I shelved due to rarity. The J71 took a beating and I had to set the TMS to 50% to keep it from wanting to go sideways all the time and since I was out with a former co-worker and a couple former co-workers of his (he's changing careers next week) and had an absolute blast between bashing this, my temporarily repaired E-Revo, and the Stampede I've had for 20 years now.



BTW, those rocks were ones I dug out of the chassis on lunch today

[BJoe]

Had this thing shelved for the last few years, broke a servo some time after the last post and kinda tinkered with it here and there and had a few annoying issues to deal with, plus a couple minor mods, then linked it to the Tx for my Drag Slash to try the trans brake feature on this. I ended up shimming the diffs to loosed them a bit, which was an issue from day one that was also causing the car to run hot, fixed both problems, then swapped the front chassis brace and servo I broke in 2019. Now it’s running like I thought it always should have!
https://youtube.com/shorts/LmRb6BiGWaE?feature=share

[BJoe]

Decided to rebody the car after that bashing session Saturday, dug up a HPI Viper GTS-R body that had residue from a failed masking attempt about 15 years ago that was collecting dust, so I dug it up, cleaned it up, and mounted it, fanned up my own wing since the one that came with it had gone AWAL.




I then shot it in the classic Viper Metallic Blue and Pearl White with some Pactra paint I had laying around.


I had intended to wrap the whole wing in the carbon fiber decal, but the XXX Main sheet I had was too narrow to go tip to tip on the horizontal operation, so I just wrapped the side plates and may just shoot the other part in silver later on or maybe even try that shelf liner trick again on it so it’s paint instead of vinyl………and like everything else in this rebody, I should still have the supplies laying around for that too!




And yes, that is 2 Barris Batmobiles and a Chrysler Concord in the background there

[BJoe]

Decided to redo the wing and try and give it a scale-ish forged carbon finish. I still have some experimenting to do with my method on that, including different paint.

[BJoe]

And I have now added a 3rd 4-Tec to the fleet……



I’ll get pics of this with my full graphite 1st Gen E4T and the now Viper bodied 4-Tec 2.0 once I get home.

[BJoe]

Lined up the 4-Tecs for pics when I got home with the 3.0!

Listed in order is my original Electric 4-Tec with the seemingly unobtainium Traxxas Graphite Chassis Kit and Nitro 4-Tex steering and diffs, Big Bore shocks and a very well used HPI Plymouth Cuda AAR body, then my 2.0 with an old pre-waterproof 2pole VXL system, Big Bore shocks that came off a Nitro 4-Tec I had and a vintage HPI Viper GTS-R body and Savox shorty Servo, followed by the completely new and yet to be run 3.0 Hot Rod!






Probably going to clean up the E4T and put an old Trinity Monster Stock I have laying around in it and then use the XL5 out of the 2.0 for an ESC and the radio out of the 3.0. I plan on swapping in a TQi w/TSM Rx to the 3.0 when I swap the VXL into it. Since that Cuda body is thrashed, I’ll probably need something else and will probably stick with something American for the body……..anybody still make a Stratus body that actually looks like a Stratus any more?

[BJoe]

Picked up some Supra rolling stock and a TSM Tx for the 3.0 build, will need to order the Body, lights, and steel toe links for the 3.0 build



Then I discovered that the Supra wheels are the same width front to back, just different offsets!


Might be interesting to get 2 full sets and see o how it drives narrow front/wide rear vs narrow front and back vs wide front and back!

This is the width of the tires for a comparison


And just lined up with the openings,

think it should look good once I get the new body and go fenderless with it

[BJoe]

Picked up the remaining parts for the 3.0 and E4T today.


Then it was time to get started!
The Project Forman appears to be all in on this one too😄


Here it is with the electronics mostly removed and the steel camber links and tie rods installed, along with the Supra GR’s rolling stock.


And with it back together, ditched the waterproof box since the CXL combo isn’t either.


Then threw the stock body back on out of curiosity


Then it was time to start cutting the clear body


Then here is where I “stopped for the night, now it’s starting to look like a real hot rod!



I masked the windows tonight and so long as the weather holds out, I’ll spray it tomorrow.

[BJoe]

Well, detailed the grill with a Sharpie, don’t use 91% iso alcohol, it slightly fogged the chrome.


Then I hit it with the color coat before lunch


Then discovered I used up all my bed liner when I painted the XJ body for my Drag Slash that color, so I had to go grab a new can of it from the local O’Reilly’s.


And the bed liner is on it now, just waiting for it all to dry, luckily it’s 80* here, so it should be good and dry here before long!

[OSRC]

Some nice stuff going on here...those cars are nice platforms - way durable. Some dude used to run a 4S system in his when drag racing and it held up just fine.

BTW, regarding the wing and painting a carbon look - I use tool liner pad for "carbon paint." Lay it on the body and spray silver, than take it off and back with black - seems to work really well!

[BJoe]

Originally Posted by OSRC

Some nice stuff going on here...those cars are nice platforms - way durable. Some dude used to run a 4S system in his when drag racing and it held up just fine.

BTW, regarding the wing and painting a carbon look - I use tool liner pad for "carbon paint." Lay it on the body and spray silver, than take it off and back with black - seems to work really well!

Thanks!
I was going to do that, but wanted to experiment with the forged carbon look, plus since we didn’t have any of the liner laying around, this ended up being cheaper too!

[BJoe]

Cosmetically, it’s done!



Still need to program the Rx and ESC to make it drivable, but that’s it!

[BJoe]

Finally ran the ‘33 3-Window on Thursday, need to adjust the gear mesh in the diffs as they might be a bit tight out of the box, not as bad as my 2.0 was, but just enough that it would be a good idea……….now if I could only find that last set of shims I bought to use in the 2.0…….







And then here’s the video those pics were taken from!
https://youtu.be/xGKi_Xu4v2c

[Logan’s RCAdventures]

That looks awesome! How fast do you wear through tires on your 2.0? My 2.0 decides it wanted to remove the tread pattern after about 10 runs. My steering is kinda garbage which is probably why I'm going through them so fast.

[BJoe]

Originally Posted by Logan’s RCAdventures

That looks awesome! How fast do you wear through tires on your 2.0? My 2.0 decides it wanted to remove the tread pattern after about 10 runs. My steering is kinda garbage which is probably why I'm going through them so fast.

Sorry, just saw this!

My 2.0 still has the factory tires! I did upgrade all three 4-Tecs to ball bearings in the steering as well as put a low profile Savox metal gear steering Servo in the 2.0 ( as well as one in my Stampede and 2 in my Wheely King monster truck), May look into getting one for the 3.0 in the future and plan on leaving the Traxxas 2070 in the E4T.

[Logan’s RCAdventures]

It's ok for the late response. Whenever I need to turn with my car, it'll just make a skipping tire sound as I'm at full lock and barely turning, I have to slow down a lot to get good turning, so that really shreds the tires in the front. The servo is great but its like I need more weight over the front wheels. My camber is also slightly off as all of the tires wear hard on the outside. I just haven't upgraded the stock links at the top which would probably help a lot. Is that a problem you have with your 4tecs or not? Thank you

[BJoe]

Originally Posted by Logan’s RCAdventures

It's ok for the late response. Whenever I need to turn with my car, it'll just make a skipping tire sound as I'm at full lock and barely turning, I have to slow down a lot to get good turning, so that really shreds the tires in the front. The servo is great but its like I need more weight over the front wheels. My camber is also slightly off as all of the tires wear hard on the outside. I just haven't upgraded the stock links at the top which would probably help a lot. Is that a problem you have with your 4tecs or not? Thank you

I’m not having camber issues on the 2.0 or 3.0, the 2.0 is still using the factory links and the 3.0 has the adjustable links that were installed straight out of the packaging. Gave you played with the diff oils at all? Going too thick could act like a spool, especially up front.

[Logan’s RCAdventures]

I have messed with both diffs but the grease I used (Super Lube) is definitely a thinner grease as the wheels will spin separately with ease. It has seen probably close to about 1000 crashes so far which might have something to do with it The adjustable links are a bit pricey for what they are but the car will be sitting for a little bit so I have time to think about it.