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After two years of collecting parts (used partial Radiant and Pro Radiant cars and NIP parts) and six months of off and on building (almost as slow as scr8p! ), my Pro Radiant is complete:

--Used chassis plates
--New and used suspension components
--Rebuilt diffs front and rear with new diff sprockets
--Kyosho Gold shocks
--Proline B4 rear rims (fronts trimmed down) dyed black and 2.2 Proline tires
--Mr. Lexan Boost body and wing
--Pactra paint
--Race Prep stock motor
--vintage electronics
--a few 3D printed parts in black ABS, including custom battery straps for my Lipo stick packs
--And a bunch of stuff I forgot...

As with all my cars, this is meant to be a runner. As soon as State College, PA dries out (hopefully some time this year), I'll be taking it for a spin.

I have stock gold wheels with vintage tires, but the modern wheels are better for running.

Next up, a regular Radiant!

Awesome! There aren't enough of these cars around now days but they are cool! Congrats to you on a very nice build.
Makes me want to get a hurry on with mine again.
Thanks for sharing your new build. Cheers- Jason

slower than me? 2 1/2 years? pfft, i have cars i started in 2006 that still aren't done.

looks good robert.

Good point...fixed it! You may be the slowest...

Although I do have a monster tank project that's been in process since 1990 .

Thanks, J.M.!

Hi Rob.
Would you believe I busted my steering bell cranks on my Boost's maiden voyage. Didn't even make it past the first heat actually. Although they didn't seem it at the time of my build I found them a little too fragile for what I was doing with the car. I have been working on a ball raced replacement for a while. 'Bullfrog' got some Egress levers to work in his. Might be worth a look.

Got to love chain driven 4WD's from back in the day. This car is very capable. Mike Dunn did very well with his back in 89 at the IFMAR worlds here in Australia.

It looks great!

Thanks, Hcp22!

Jason:

I haven't raced in almost 25 years and I try (don't always succeed ) to take it easy on the vintage stuff while just driving around my back yard or in a neighborhood park, so I hope my steering holds up long term. The Pro's bellcrank design doesn't inspire confidence, but time will tell.

I definitely have an affinity for the old chain drive 4WD cars as well. There is nothing quite like their sound at top speed!

Beautiful car, Robert. However, you gotta take some pictures with the gold wheels for your money shots! They just make the Pro Radiant what it is! Then you can slap on the black 2.2" wheels & modern rubber when it's time to play.

Excellent work! Can you give more info on the 3-D printer portion - Definitely opens new opportunities to the vintage parts/restoration hobby.

- Limestang

Marc: Yeah, I need to get the gold wheels on there for some more pics; it was late . I actually prefer the black ones, though. The Boost had black wheels, so that was my inspiration for the black ones on this build.

3D Printing:

I've had a Solidoodle "Fused Filament Fabrication" style 3D printer on my desk at work for almost a year now. The Solidoodle is definitely inexpensive, open source and hobby grade, but it's been a great start in 3D printing and I plan on buying a better printer one later this year. All that said, the Solidoodle has the same resolution as much more expensive printers. It's just not as elegant.

There's been a fair amount of discussion on here, and in the general media, lately about 3D printing. I think the technology is definitely posed to change manufacturing period, let alone the awesome options it gives a hobbiest. As opposed to traditional machining, the printer makes creating the physical part very easy. The challenge is now almost solely in creating the 3D models using various software. Most parts just can't be copied directly from their molded or machined originals. Care must be taken to ensure the part is easily printed and is strong enough structurally to withstand the stresses encountered on a running RC car; common 3D printing polymers just don't have the strength of glass or carbon filled nylon blends.

Given the time and skill, anyone can design and print almost a whole car if they want to. See these guys: https://plus.google.com/communities/112745535856143176146

My Pro Radiant has four sets of 3D printed parts: shock bushings, custom battery clamps, servo mounts and the little dogbone capture thingys (that's a technical term! ) on the front lower arms. I only had one dogbone thingy, so I modeled it and printed two. The material is black ABS. ABS and PLA are pretty standard for filament type printing. I do all my CAD work in Autodesk Inventor and export to .stl files for printing. That's pretty much the standard file format at the moment.

Robert

are you running the rear axles in the front so the 5mm axle and cross pin works for the B4 wheels?

Yes. I have Pro Radiant rear axles in the front and Radiant front/rear axles in the rear. So, I don't have the one-way bearing assemblies installed.

I finally got this running yesterday evening. We shot a short video; please excuse the spotty driving (all me ) and filming (my six year old son...I actually think he did pretty well).

The Pro was setup as shown in the pictures above, except for the addition of a 2S Lipo pack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxmQVkca3s8

I LOVE the black rims! Great job Robert. And that video... I smell an Oscar! I think you hire your camera crew from the same company I do. My 7 yr old daughter points the camera at me instead of the car whenever she's talking to me; which is always... . At least he kept the camera on the car. Hats off to you and that beauty. Love the video too! Wish there was more of that around here.