Avante Aluminum wheels and hubs

There are some really cool looking aftermarket parts available for Tamiya cars, and a couple of very impressive ones are these anodized aluminum Tamiya Avante wheels and hubs.  These parts are made by "rc_loverr" on eBay, who is based in Hong Kong.  The wheels I got are machined aluminum and anodized in champagne gold and the locking hubs are also machined out of aluminum and anodized black.  Rc_loverr offers the wheels in champagne gold, gold (a darker gold), and silver while the hubs are offered in champagne gold, black, and silver.

First, the wheels:

 

Avante aluminum wheel (front) by eBay seller "rc_loverr" anodized in champagne gold

 

Avante aluminum wheel (back, 12mm hex)

   The machining quality is very good.  There is some slight burring in some spots but is easily removed with a fingernail, sandpaper, or small file.  The anodizing is excellent, with no discoloration noted in any wheel, nor between wheels.  Generally, it is difficult to match anodizing colors between separate parts.  These are all clear and consistent.

   I would not recommend these wheels for racing or bashing.  The aluminum is very thin where the inner hub part of the wheel connects to the outer rim.   I think it could be a weak point in the structure of the wheel.  These wheels are best for the shelf.  Use some plastic wheels for your runner.

Now the locking hubs:

Avante aluminum locking hub (front, locks down) by eBay seller "rc_loverr" anodized in black

Avante aluminum locking hub (front, locks up)

Avante aluminum locking hub (back, locks up)

Avante aluminum locking hub (back, locks down)

The machining on these hubs is again very well done.   The finish is clean and consistent.  The anodizing is excellent, with the same color uniformity as the wheels.   On the back you can see a spot where the anodizing isn't perfect, but it is probably where the anodizing electrode was touching the part and it's inside the back of the hub so it doesn't matter.

   The design of the locking levers is neat.   A screw and nut hold the locking lever in place and a captive spring provides pressure to keep the lever where you set it.   The spring does not snap the lever up or down, it just holds the lever in place and provides resistance so the lever does not want to move on its own.   

   Again, I would not attempt to race with these parts.   The levers could lift up slightly during the race and allow the hub to unscrew from the axle and the whole wheel could fall off.

A couple of final shots showing the locking hub inside the wheel:

Avante aluminum wheel and locking hub

Avante aluminum wheel and locking hub

 I would highly recommend these for your Tamiya Avante 2011 shelf queen.

Kyosho Blizzard Restoration (part 3)

Another small update.  After receiving the servo conversion wiring (J to G) I did some bench testing of the Futaba Conquest 4 channel radio with the Robot Logic IMX-1 mixer and the M.troniks Viper 25 Marine ESCs.  The IMX-1 mixer has a simple procedure to configure the transmitter trims so the neutral stick setting can be configured to match the neutral pulse width expected by the IMX-1.  However, with the old Conquest, the neutral setting was beyond the limits of the trims.  There was no getting around that, unfortunately, so I bought a new 4 channel radio: a Futaba 4YF FM system.

The box says it is for airplanes, and the transmitter has the profile of an airplane on it, but this set is actually for ground-based models.  I chose channel 70, the same as my old Conquest system.

After making sure it was in working order and verifying that it was going to work with the IMX-1 mixer and ESCs (it did), I opened up the transmitter to move the racheting adjustment from the left stick to the right stick for control of the front blade.  I want to use the right stick for steering (left-right) and blade height (up-down).  It was simple to do.  The racheting mechanism is a flat piece of metal held by a screw, and it gets swapped with a single spring on the other stick.  Voila, now the right stick is ratcheted and un-sprung and the left stick is sprung!

The color of the transmitter isn't my favorite.  It's supposed to look like metal, but I'd rather have black.  When I was looking for a new 4 channel system, I looked at the 4GWD system from Futaba, but it had a few negative points:

• It's AM.   I like FM, PCM, and 2.4G for the improved interference resistance.
• It doesn't come with rechargable batteries.  I don't like using dry cells.
• It only comes with 2 servos.  Not that I need any more, but...

For the same price, the 4YF seemed like the better deal.  Of course I am overlooking the fact that the 4GWD system was more computerized with an LCD display, digital trims and 3 model memory. But I didn't need those features, and felt that an FM system was a better long-term choice.

I made some simple foam battery holders.  The ESC radio wires were routed through the front foam block and the motor wires were soldered to the ESCs and heat-shrinked.

After trimming and ESC setup I did some driving around the house and gave the electronic drive system a workout.   It works well, but with some small drawbacks.  The first one is that when driving in reverse, the direction of the sticks is reversed from what you'd consider "normal".   So, pulling back on the throttle makes both tracks go backward, but then steering left makes the right track slow down and the Blizzard moves back and to the right.   You can get used to it with practice, but it wasn't something I expected.  The second minor drawback is that the sensitivity of the IMX-1 is not adjustable, and it does not take much steering stick movement to alter the direction of the vehicle.  If the transmitter had steering exponential, I think it would help mitigate this, but the T4YF is fairly low-end and doesn't have such functionality.  Both of these things are just annoyances.  Having the drive system be totally electronic is a major improvement over the stock MSC system.  Am I ruining the vintage spirit by doing this?  I don't think so.

Here are some pictures of the blade, muffler and blinking light circuitry from the accessory pack that were bought at the same time as the kit in December 1985:

Finally, I started to clean the original polycarbonate body this past weekend and it actually cleaned up very well.  Just a final wash and rinse and it should be ready for masking and painting.