My Savage 5B conversion by Alza Racing.

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hey 2strokes!

I don't mind posting and nobody replying but it would be cool to have some feedback and get some usefull tips. That's why i post on the other Savage forums also to get feedback and tips if nothing come's up here ;)

In the meantime i'll just keep posting and sometimes guys like you will post and that will be much appreciated! Got some usefull tips allready and that's great if you feel people are thinking with you to get it working but if they don't i don't mind :)

Recieved my yellow seal Boca bearings (50% thanksgiving sale!) for the diffs and finally recieved the FLM XL /Flux Bulkheads also with the appropriate diff cups so it will actually be able to run in a couple of weeks :)

now this is my next move!!!
:stupidcoffee:


and i plan to do what the text says! hehehe
 
id love to get those arms for my baja. looks like those ones for 100 bucks. how much is that material? lol

forgot to answer your question but I can't make arms for baja's coz then i would also need custom baja dogbones and that would be toooo expensive :)

I will be making Baja 5B bumpers but that's it ;)

On material costs (custom bones, resins, silicone,....everything needed for 4 arms) it will have cost me a Flux HP....
 
moulding time is finished! i hope i did everything ok...fingers crossed but it looks quite good for a first time :)

coated the arms with a film to make sure the rubber doesnt stick.

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my mold recipients also coated ;)

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the arms in the rubber, had to put some pieces on them to make sure they stay under....

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and now it's 24hours of waiting and hoping it didnt fail! :)
 
I do have to say, this is the most interesting build. Whats the deal with the arms? how come your moulding them? the arms right now look plastic?
 
Well the arms are now made of hmpe, its a high-modulus polyethylene but its a pain in the ### to shape it. You can't sand it to make it smooth you can just cut it in a form and that's it without having special tools i guess...
So i'm making molds of these rough versions and then i'll cast them in resin.
In resin i can really finish them like i want them to be and then eventually those versions will be molded again and then cast in high impact resin reinforced with fibreglass or carbonfibre. The same will be done with the shocktowers but i'm testing this on the arms first.

that's the deal with the arms but I've never done this before so its one big experiment/adventure for me but it's interesting to say the least ;)
 
to answer your question, i didnt upgrade the pins, i only upgraded the pins with e-clips to screws so no more stupid e-clips to worry about! :)

i finished some resin casts and they ended up better than i expected especially because i never did this before. Made some mistakes but that's the way you learn things like i made the molds on a surface wich wasn't 100% level so afterwards i needed to level the molds to cast the resin... :) That wasnt that bad since i still have to shape the arms and the rough cuts need alot of shaping so no biggie!

The arms still have to cure for a day and then the resin is 100% hardened so then i'll shape them and i'll make some new molds :)

here are some pics:

the moulds

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the arms in resin

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1 arm had som big airbubbles but now i know how to get rid of them :)

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that's all for now and i hope i don't get sicker pffffff stupid flu....
 
another update :)
I have been working on 1 arm but got some doubts about the finish...

some pics:

had to mill out some material to let the shock move freely and allow 100% movement.

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milled a bit inside the arm also to lose some weight but don't know if i'll keep it that way because of the loss of strength...?

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this shows better i had to remove some material for the shock to move freely

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Then i was bored and really wanted to test if this stuff was tough so i took a hammer, clamped it and started hammering it hard (per swing it had +/- 30mm of flex) and after 73 of those swings it broke.... This was the version without the milled down parts so i don't know if this is tough....????

It took 73 swings and i had the feeling i was abusing it lol but on the other hand i tested a stock HPI arm exactly the same and it didnt even bend :roll: 8O So the stock plastic is WAAAY stronger(alot more flexible)....

so this leaves me to this HMMMmMMMMmmmZZZzzZZZz?!?è'(§è( conclusion....

Don't know what to do.... the finished arms would have been reinforced with fibreglass and/or carbonfibre but still i'm confused...

some thoughts plz, is this material to weak or is it sufficient???
 
update! :)

After a few months of waiting i got a phonecall my dogbones were ready so WOOOOOOP!!!!
Psyched to say the least and when i got them i was really impressed!
they really look damned sexy!

here some pics!

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compared to a stock flux bone

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little gimmick ;)
you can easely change size of the pins or a broken pin with loosening the grubscrew and just pulling it out and insert a new one. This is something i thought was never done before so... Now it is ! :twisted:

etuxav.jpg


All this couldn't be done without the help of Rhys Garven (FLUXNZ on the Savage-central forum) so i wanna thank him again this way for the good work he did on designing the dogbone in a cad program for me!

THANX RHYS! :D

since all fairytales have to end sooner or later i discovered they made a mistake....
the file name must've caused the mistake i guess... the file name was Dogbone 10mm longer because i wanted it to be longer so when Rhys did that the filename became dogbone 10mm longer so they must've thought it should be 10mm longer again LOLz
It's an honest mistake so no probz for them but for me....

I have to remake ALL my moulds again so DAAAMNNNN !!!

this is how the dogbone compares to the arm

xdxd3b.jpg


normally it should be +/- the same length as the arm...

well i know what to do again hehehe

the upside is the truck will be even wider now :) 50mm each side so a 100mm increase in overall width :)))

new arm is being moulded as we speak but hell it will take a couple of weeks extra to get it running...
 
another update ;)
Finally finished the lower arms....took me a few days of grinding, milling, and getting totally crazy in my hobbyroom but they're ready....
These should be the final versions of the arms and are being moulded while i'm typing hehehe!
They will be cast again and tested soon i hope coz i still need to finish the upper arms, the shocktowers too and then the diffs and the motor, esc wiring,....lolz

This chunky beast sure takes alot of time and sometimes it drove me crazy but in the end it will be original :)
While i was getting crazy i gave it a name also: Chunky Donkey will be his/her name :)

some pics of the arms ready for moulding!

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naming the little buggers :)

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tomorrow a day off probably and just waiting for the moulds to cure.
Maybe finishing the upper arms if i find the courage hehehe

that's all for now!
 
ok been a while but i had to take a bit of time off and AWAY from this project :)
It's all fun when you're having progress and things are going the way you want but i had a few major setbacks and it started getting pretty frustrating but i found some solutions after taking a break and looking at it freshly again so here we go again :)

So i made the arms, dyed them and they looked pink, lets start with that! :)

2880cns.jpg


i guess you must add more colouring to the resin but they state it also affects the properties so don't know what to do... anyway i like the white effect so i'll keep them white for the moment.


I also thought of reinforcing the arms and i bought some kevlar tape to do that.
All stress points are now reinforced with the kevlar so they should be pretty breakproof but time will tell...
Some pics

2s6m1yd.jpg

11mfb4g.jpg

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ok now i had some time to work on my diffs...always a pleasure humhum...

I changed all the cups to vorza cups, used the HD spider gears from hot bodies and changed all the bearings with boca bearings, the yellow ones who should be pretty dirt proof.

encountered a problem with the bulkheads... it seems you have to use a thinner inner bearing otherwise the pinion doenst fit...
anywayz don't know if the problem is with the bulkheads but i ordered thinner bearings from boca.

pics:

ndrn0m.jpg

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painted the carriers in metallic black and changed all the bearings with yellow boca ones also

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then finally mounting the arms! YAY!

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Since i wont use the standard shocktowers and bumpers/skidplates anymore the upper hingepins can fly away so i came up with this kinda euhm protective cover. Threaded the holes in the bulkheads first. You can flip it up and down when you want to remove the pins or when you want to remove the shocktower.

v4yp3k.jpg

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then i changed the pins for the drive cups into longer ones, the ones in the diff output cups remain the same.

here's what i did, just hammered a hardened steel nail through it and cut it off to the length i wanted.

54eznt.jpg

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After that it was time to put the entire thing together!



when i did i encountered a problem and a big one.... the dogbones just didnt fit well they did but they where like jammed like he ll :p in the cups...
First i thought the holes were the reason and i measured everything wrong but thank god i didnt change the holes...

The reason was this, the pins in the ballends where not completely centered and straight so a bit out of center and maybe 1 degree skewed... F U CkkKkkk!!!!! CENSOR this hehehe ;) I thought i was going to throw it throught the window but when i found my calm again i thinked about what could be done now and since ordering new bones was completely out of the question i started grinding the cups.... after grinding the cups both in the diff and drive cups everything ran smoothly...

pfjjjiiiioew.....

didnt know what i would have done if it didnt hehehehe

anyway the pics are here, i just finished the front section and added the skidplate, the shocktowers and the shocks but still have to make steerings links but after typing this i'll get on with it! ;)

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compared to a baja 5b front end 8)
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hope you enjoy it, it gave me headaches but hopefully it will give me some pleasure lol

cheerz!
 
lets hope so!


i could not resist....

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mock up is cool!

don't like the bumpers rear and front 1 bit so i'll remake those!

think i'll be up and running end of next week :)
 
Thats fantastic work you have pulled off. Thanks for sharing on HPISF from SC. Now if Jimmy would only calm down and stop cussing me out in emails and work on anger management I might actually talk to him. You do have skills something not may of us have which is why we buy stuff. If it all holds up as planned all the better. Good luck!
 
Thanx alot for the comments! :beer:
It really means alot for me if people like what i do, i do it for myself ofcourse but reactions like this make me continue when i think of stopping and that occasionally happens hehehe :)

next thing is electronics and painting a new body (MCD race runner body) and something for the batwing :)

thanx again and until next time!
 
hellohello! it's been a while but i have some updates for you all! :)

Dejan from Alza Racing made me some custom tvp's with engravings so now it's really one of a kind and really Chunky donkey style :)

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time for some advertising lol

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they're pretty heavy but it will move i'm sure 8)

Allmost everything was ready from that point, i just had to drill some holes to fit the center diff, battery plate, esc plate....
Then i encountered some probs with my previous center diff so i decided to make another one myself.
I used 10mm thick alu plates, a handsaw and a drill, tapped thread and this is the result, it's pretty Chunky 8)

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offna spider diff with 500k oil.

mounted on the tvp

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with the motor

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overall view

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then the rest was pretty simple, just had to add a battery tray, position the esc recieverbox plate and add the electronics.

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the front bumper was also a bit beefed up ;)

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The upper arms are now also fully adjustable and made from 5mm rvs threaded rods and the adjustable Savage upper arms set from hpi.

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after that it's SHOWTIME!

pics are a bit dark but its finished and ready to roll :)
the lexan body is from Grafil and designed for the mcd race runner.

compared to his real baja brother :twisted:

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and all alone in the snow 8)

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YIHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA i did it and i'm happy about it lolllzzzz :lol:
Took me some time but i'm glad i finished it hehehehe.

Have i run it yet? euhm you can start laughing now coz i installed the rear diff backwards so my wheels turned in opposite directions. Good thing the wheels were off the ground when i tested it so i just have to switch that diff and off i go!
 
thanx alot! i'll drive it asap and make some vids of it!

some specs:
- the weight of the car with batteries and body is 11,5kg or 25,35 pounds, my friends baja 5b without fuel is 10kg.
- the wheelbase is: 56cm and a baja 5B has a 56,5cm wheelbase.-
- width: Fr = 50cm or 19,7 inches Rear = 52cm or 20,5 inches NOTE: is use the standard Flux drive axles not the XL ones to reduce stress on the bearings and i just have long arms lol :)

:smiliejam:
 
I have to say it again. This is one "BA" build thread. Those tvps are off the hook.
 
everyone is secretly waiting for the final pic....


Sigh, a 4 year old thread and you neglected to look at his final pics... a very nice build for sure but whats the point in dragging it back from the dead just to say that..... :DOH: :lmao:
 

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