fg build thread

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don't feel so bad about missing that race, it was cancelled as only 4 people confirmed to showing up. the whole series might be cancelled due to lack of turnout in the first few races.

one stop hobbies has been pretty good to me, although it helps that the owner went to school with my dad, and ive been buying stuff from them for 10 years. stuff used to take a while, but their ordering system now is much better and they get orders once a week. i guess being my stuff is a bit oddball, their supplier didnt have it and had to get it before they could ship it to the hobby shop. im just gonna order stuff for this car online, seems easier.
 
car is together now, i finally got my clutch. im still waiting on my parts from innovative hobby (been 15 days now, aparently its was in canada 1 week ago but hasnt moved since), and that has my airfilter in it. i hacked together an airfilter for time being, then it decided to dump a couple inches of snow on us, so i didnt get to run it (however my savage x is quite fun in the snow).

have yet to order a body or tires. i told myself i wouldnt start buying hop-ups for it till next year after ive run it for a while, but im working out a wicked deal on a mielke onroad pipe.
 
its alive!!!!!!!

ok so it wasnt that exciting. the rest of my parts showed up this past week and i spent a couple evenings finishing it off. it was wet, but not raining and i wanted to get it fired and make sure everything worked alright before heading away from the garage. was amazed, it fired on the 1st pull and idle real nice on factory settings. took it up and down the road a couple times, i don't think it went straight for more than 3 feet, wet road covered in sand/salt along with tires on cords isnt much fun. however, everything seems to work as it should.

on a side note, i scooped a nice mielke side power pipe on ebay for $75. cant wait to get that here and see what it sounds like.
 
What a great right up......Ive just got into the large scale ans i pick up an FG Marder today in a box.....not all there so im told (don't think the guy has a clue) but this thread sure will be a help.
Keep us posted :)
 
haven't had much chance to run it, been trying to get some runtime here and there. ive had to completly rethink the suspension just to even get some traction. the car really needs the proper springs, the thing sits way too high and is way too soft. tires are really needed as well, right now i gotta heat the hell out of them to get a little bit of traction. i still haven't gotten near 1/2 throttle yet, all it does is spin the tires and do donuts. this is my first 2wd rc, and first 1/5 scale so its a giant learning curve driving it, i think i need to get a while new trigger finger. i thought running on carpet with rubber tires and a one way was hard, its a peice of cake compared to this thing, but im sure ill get it sorted.

pipe still hasnt showed up yet, doesn't look like it got shipped out when i was told it did (combined with the high shipping costs, this guy isnt going to get much praise from me with feedback). on another note, ive found a guy in the uk that parts out 1/5 stuff, new and used. ive found a bunch or the parts ive been looking for that nobody in north america seems to have in stock. hoping this time tomorow i have some more parts being shipped to me.
 
finally got out and ran the thing for a bit today. i got some tires last weekend, have them mounted up, diff is now filled with some thick fluid (its actualy lucas oil tranny stop leak). i ran it for about 15 minutes, just starting to get it tuned right and the clutch shoe bolts backed off jaming against the clutch bell. took the car home, fixed it and put my mielke sidepower pipe on that i finally showed up tuesday. i decided since its supposed to rain for the next 2 weeks id head out again, and man, night and day difference with that pipe. a lot better top end, smooth bottom end, and it kinda sounds like a dirtbike now.

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the suspension needs sorting out, the car tends to lift the front inside wheel when cornering, making the car very unstable. its mostly due to the offroad springs, i have a 4 pairs of springs and some other shock parts i won off e-bay being shipped, once i get that stuff ill be sorting that out. in the mean time i have a body to fit and paint, i picked up an alfa romeo 156 shell. going to be a pile of work, never done a body this big before. going to put a lot of carefull thought and prep work into this one, i cant afford to replace this thing if i don't like the paint sceme.

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i more than likely wont run it again till i get the springs and get the suspension sorted out. within a couple weeks i hope to have the body painted and all the loose ends tied up so i can call it done. i need to concentrate on my crawler, i have a pile of design and fab work to do on that
 
the body is nearly complete, just have to paint and mount the wing.

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im glad its almost done, 1/5 scale bodies are a pain. aside from the obvious fact that they are huge and hard to work with, they don't have overspray protection, window masks, there is no decals for window moldings, and the decals are the worst ive ever dealt with. the grill decal is nowhere near fitting, the headlights and taillights arent contoured to fit the curve of the body, and none of them are very sticky, id be surprised if they didnt fall off within the first couple outings. honestly, for the cost of these bodies, im rather dissapointed in the quality. however, it is now done, it looks not bad aside from the decals (imho) and i got some more practice with my airbrush and mixing paint.

on another note, my box of shock parts and springs showed up. the bad news with it all is i completely misjudged the size of 1/5 scale shocks, as my car has 1/8 scale offroad shocks. the springs are far too large to fit on the shocks i have, at least without some creativity. looks like i have another large expense with this car before its ready to hit the track, as it looks like the shocks i have just arent gonna work.
 
figured out whats going on with my springs. i won a bunch of shock parts off e-bay, turns out they are all 20mm i.d. springs, basicly all offroad stuff. i don't think i can get these springs to fit through the front control arms, so adapting them to the shocks i have doesn't seem like they will work.

seems the only proper fix for this cobbled together suspension setup is a full set of proper fg shocks and several pairs of springs
 
Sharkey said:
figured out whats going on with my springs. i won a bunch of shock parts off e-bay, turns out they are all 20mm i.d. springs, basicly all offroad stuff. i don't think i can get these springs to fit through the front control arms, so adapting them to the shocks i have doesn't seem like they will work.

seems the only proper fix for this cobbled together suspension setup is a full set of proper fg shocks and several pairs of springs
Click to expand...

Thats a shame......there are a few ebay members is the uk that break these all the time but i think it would take a while to ship them to you.
 
ill be keeping my eyes open for some proper shocks, however for the time being i have my answer (at least i hope). im a transmission tech by trade, so i started digging through our stock and pulled a bunch of springs out of valve bodies and accumulators and found some springs that are going to work. im going to get a set of shocks built with some 50 and 80 wt oil and try that out, should be a bunch better than it currently is.
 
Body looks good... try some tmaxx springs. they are the same size shock body. any brand that fits including the dual rated prolines will fit... tmaxx springs are super cheap as the truck is out of date

we have monsoon season for at least another week, probably 2 so no big rush. I just went out... should make work for me tonight simple. nobody will be out trying to steal stuff from the camp site tonight LOL
 
success on a couple of the springs i found today, need to dig around some more. i was underestimating how heavy the springs need to be, the heaviest springs i brought home with me are about right for rears, need stiffer for the fronts. im pretty sure ive got some stiffer, or at least the same as the rears. ill make this work yet
 
found some more springs today, got the shocks all rebuilt and filled, and the car is back together. finished the body off tonight, i think i can now call the car complete, at least for now.

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Wow, that car looks nice. What a good choice of colors. That pipe looks like it can deliver!!! Also, I like the simplicity of the receiver box.

Chris
 
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