New member, new b3 project!
Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2012 2:31 pm
Greetings everybody,
I am yet another "was cleaning out the garage" story. Last week I was going through some stuff at a relatives and opened a box with a familiar yellow body and black, neglected chassis. Wow, my old B3 Team car. I bought it RTR from Tower Hobbies after saving my pennies for MONTHS lol. I haven't thought of that for about 10 years, when my friend crashed it and broke the front arm/bulkhead. Being 15 and saving up for my first real car, the repair bill was just too high for my minimum wage job, so into the cardboard time capsule it went along with some made in usa front arms & Pro Line Bow tie rear tires which are still in the box!
Fast forward a decade or so and I find myself stripping it down, reading a ton and trying to get it ready for me and my son to play with. Forunately I had the brains to remove the battery from the car, the radio was less lucky. I have ordered all of the parts to rebuild the chassis, arms, bulkhead, shock rebuild kit, etc. I am going to take apart the trans when my "black grease" and diff fluid arrive and give that a fresh lube job before I put the power to it. It spins real nice, just after sitting that long I want to go through it with fresh grease. I have ordered double of some of the body components, and bought a carbon front shock tower off ebay simply because its discontinued and break commonly. If there are any other items I should be hoarding let me know. Also open to aftermarket upgrade ideas, for example the CVD dogbones from associated are discontinued? What do you do if you break one of them?
My main concern is going to be making smart decisions on the electronics going forward. I have no battery but will get one soon, so I won't be able to test and see what works yet, but assuming it all turns on here is whats in the car:
Trinity Midnight 2 motor, Duratrax Spike Mosfet ESC, Tower Hobbies system 3000 receiver and radio, says 75 mhz. I used this for playing around and some backyard races with neighbor kids (we had a decent track built with sweat and shovels). I cannot imagine racing will be in my future, so if it all works I will probably keep it as is for now. I would like to build something for my son if he enjoys the hobby, so maybe I could take that setup and put it in his starter car as I upgrade the old B3 with fresh new fangled wizzbangs.
I am thinking #1 I should upgrade the radio, mainly due to the battery acid death it suffered. I saw a FlySky model for $40 that had decent reviews, would that be good enough for playing around the yard?
#2 I'm going to need a battery and charger. The tenergy TB6-B caught my eye. I would like to have NIMH and LIPO batteries, maybe even some old NICADS for my son to thrash, charge, drain, charge, drain break and only cost me $11 replace. This has been a source of major confusion for me so advice is greatly appreciated. Also I'm a bit confused if one ESC can handle all battery types?
#3 Eventually I would like to go brushless. Either a velineion system or maybe a sidewinder sv2. I love the idea of being able to tune the throttle curve, etc. I could make it run slow for my son and fast for me. This was also appealing about the Traxxas system as it has training mode and is waterproof!
I'm looking for any help and advice I can get. I will post pictures on here soon, thanks in advance and glad to be here!
I am yet another "was cleaning out the garage" story. Last week I was going through some stuff at a relatives and opened a box with a familiar yellow body and black, neglected chassis. Wow, my old B3 Team car. I bought it RTR from Tower Hobbies after saving my pennies for MONTHS lol. I haven't thought of that for about 10 years, when my friend crashed it and broke the front arm/bulkhead. Being 15 and saving up for my first real car, the repair bill was just too high for my minimum wage job, so into the cardboard time capsule it went along with some made in usa front arms & Pro Line Bow tie rear tires which are still in the box!
Fast forward a decade or so and I find myself stripping it down, reading a ton and trying to get it ready for me and my son to play with. Forunately I had the brains to remove the battery from the car, the radio was less lucky. I have ordered all of the parts to rebuild the chassis, arms, bulkhead, shock rebuild kit, etc. I am going to take apart the trans when my "black grease" and diff fluid arrive and give that a fresh lube job before I put the power to it. It spins real nice, just after sitting that long I want to go through it with fresh grease. I have ordered double of some of the body components, and bought a carbon front shock tower off ebay simply because its discontinued and break commonly. If there are any other items I should be hoarding let me know. Also open to aftermarket upgrade ideas, for example the CVD dogbones from associated are discontinued? What do you do if you break one of them?
My main concern is going to be making smart decisions on the electronics going forward. I have no battery but will get one soon, so I won't be able to test and see what works yet, but assuming it all turns on here is whats in the car:
Trinity Midnight 2 motor, Duratrax Spike Mosfet ESC, Tower Hobbies system 3000 receiver and radio, says 75 mhz. I used this for playing around and some backyard races with neighbor kids (we had a decent track built with sweat and shovels). I cannot imagine racing will be in my future, so if it all works I will probably keep it as is for now. I would like to build something for my son if he enjoys the hobby, so maybe I could take that setup and put it in his starter car as I upgrade the old B3 with fresh new fangled wizzbangs.
I am thinking #1 I should upgrade the radio, mainly due to the battery acid death it suffered. I saw a FlySky model for $40 that had decent reviews, would that be good enough for playing around the yard?
#2 I'm going to need a battery and charger. The tenergy TB6-B caught my eye. I would like to have NIMH and LIPO batteries, maybe even some old NICADS for my son to thrash, charge, drain, charge, drain break and only cost me $11 replace. This has been a source of major confusion for me so advice is greatly appreciated. Also I'm a bit confused if one ESC can handle all battery types?
#3 Eventually I would like to go brushless. Either a velineion system or maybe a sidewinder sv2. I love the idea of being able to tune the throttle curve, etc. I could make it run slow for my son and fast for me. This was also appealing about the Traxxas system as it has training mode and is waterproof!
I'm looking for any help and advice I can get. I will post pictures on here soon, thanks in advance and glad to be here!