bRIBEGuy's MCD XR5-Max: Past, Present, & Future...

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evssv said:
braver man thn me trimming thm 4x arches..🫡..i`d made a right balls up of em.... 💯
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Oh, it was definitely a solid example of "measure twice cut once"... ha! I think I probably spent the better part of a week drawing cut lines with a sharpy, then erasing them, then doing it all over again!

Once I had the cut line established on one side, I would trace it out onto a sheet of cardboard, cut that out, and use it as a template for the second side. Seemed to work well.

The back wheel arch definitely took more time, as I moved away from a smooth rounded arch, and instead followed the body lines a bit more.

It certainly isn't the last time in this project that cutting would be involved...lol
 
White would be the last stand alone color, before the whole car was backed in silver, and then black.

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With the protective covering off, it was starting to look pretty good, IMO!

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I wish I was as patient as you..... incredible work!!!!! With your attention to detail going to be amazing. Find a second body because I don't want to see that damaged.....keep at it, beautiful work!!!!!
 
Next up was detailing... mirrors mounted and wipers started!

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I strongly dislike the way the side mirrors look... they will be added to my list of things to look to rectify one day...
 
Roof antennae and stickers...

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While I like the way the roof antennae look... they are REALLY easily bent when you pay no attention to how you throw down the body. If I did it all over again, I may consider leaving them off...
 
Those with keen eyes may note that some of the stickers are from an original MCD RaceRunner... this was from a OG sticker sheet I had from back in the day when I first was involved with MCD's... but THAT is a story for another day...

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smokinwheel said:
Very nice job.
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Wolle said:
Mego paintjob done (y)
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Thanks guys, I appreciate the kind words!


Mick Mars said:
I wish I was as patient as you..... incredible work!!!!! With your attention to detail going to be amazing. Find a second body because I don't want to see that damaged.....keep at it, beautiful work!!!!!
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Thanks!

In retrospect, I wish I would have picked up a second body right off the bat. As much as the car looks really nice in the pictures up to this point, it has been driven quite a bit since, and there have been scrapes, cracks, and paint damage. No big deal as the car was always purchased with the intention of running, but I'd be lying if I said my heart didn't break a bit every time it comes home with a new war wound...LOL. I'd love to have kept this as a nice "display" shell, and have done a second (maybe simpler?) version as a runner..... but oh well. I keep telling myself I'll do a second "nice" body for it at some point, but the problem has sort of been three-fold:
  1. The XR5 Body has been out of stock for a while
  2. The though of redoing this paint job is actually really daunting
  3. The Tamiya "PS" series of paints I used are no longer available in Canada (or legal to import), so I'm not sure what I would use.
Granted on some level those are just excuses..... I'm sure one day I'll have a spark of motivation and a few extra bucks in my pocket and will pull the trigger...
 
After a few rips with the Rally Xross tires, I figured I'd try out the soft (RS) road tires that the XR5 shipped with. Definitely more grip on asphalt, but still frighteningly easy to overpower with the Max5 setup.

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The power unit is actually an interesting point of discussion, IMO. The internet seems packed full of deep-pocketed folks trying to see how much motor and many batteries they can cram into their RC car, and maybe I just don't have the space (or dangly bits) for it, but honestly this thing is quite the beast on 8S with a 800kv motor. Even with the softest tires available, going from grip to drift is only a blip of the throttle away (something that is both fun and scary).

I will say that the throttle response could be smoother... but the sensorless nature of the Max5 does play into that (as does the clangy nature of the metal pinion gear/spur, whose noise always makes it seem like things are just a bit rougher than they actually are).
 
As I was hopeful to one day run the run the Hydrax disc brakes (a guy can dream, right?), I wanted to setup the car from the start with mechanical brakes AND reverse. Yes, just using the ESC for braking is the easiest way to go... but the easy way is rarely my jam. :ROFLMAO:

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F&R brakes were setup to run off one servo, with bias being adjustable mechanically through the linkages. Some programming of the radio (Futaba 4pk) allowed me to assign a switch as a "brake over-ride", which in turn works out okay as long as you're paying attention a bit.

The ESC is setup with no drag brake, and with reverse enabled (but limited to 25% power). As such, the motor will not go into reverse until it has stopped rotating (which it will not do as long as the car is in motion). This allows for the use of the mechanical disc brakes to slow down or stop.

Once stopped, going into reverse would normally activate the brakes as well (which is counter productive...ha!)... which is where I have assigned a switch (under the wheel, and accessible with my thumb) as a momentary override on the brake servo. Here, you can press (and hold) the button to disable the brakes, allowing you to to back up. It does require a bit of co-ordination, but seeing as I don't find myself reversing a lot, it has functioned great so far.
 
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