Eman77

I recently bought a NIB Tamiya Stadium Thunder kit (#58181) and am slowly putting it together. I decided to take pics during the process, and to create this thread so interested readers can follow along.

I'll try to add witty commentary as well.

So....on with it! Here is the first pic I took, of the nice shiny, shrink-wrapped box (well, the pic is of 2 of them...but you see what I mean). Oh, the joy of a new purchase!

Eman77

...and like a kid on Christmas day, it didn't take me long to shred the shrink-wrap and open 'er up. Have a look!

Eman77

The first thing I did was assemble the rear gear differential. I also took pics. Crappy pics, it turns out, so you won't be seeing them here. But what you will see is the assembled rear gearbox, with suspension and motor.

What...no camber adjustment? Ah well. Check out the nearly solid lower suspension arms - they are actually 2 pieces screwed together. Kit also comes with a Sport Tune motor - sweet. I'll run that for a bit until I tire of it, and will put in a 19T Chameleon2 Pro in there that I have lying around.

Also note that the gearbox is held together with a screw/flange-nut setup, not just a screw threading into the opposite side, which is pretty darn common normally.

ElectricGuy007

Very nice, I was looking forward to someone to build one of these. I think they re-released it recently.
The a-arms look tough. Is the Blitzer Beetle that LB has the same chassis?

Eman77

Front suspension shot, assembled - pretty stout shock tower! Let's see how it takes it when I repeatedly flip the truck while running. I also like the red/black color theme here.

Again, no camber link. Wah! Oh well, it's not like I'm racing this bad boy anyway.

Eman77

Yes, I believe the Beetle is the same chassis.

...how can you tell if a kit is a re-re, or the original, by the way? (I'm sure this is the re-re that I got, since the price was reasonable).

Eman77

Here's the front assembly, attached to the chassis. Note the funny black piece over the top - that is what will hold the body posts up front (I'll have to get a pic of that later). For steering, I went with the Futaba S3305 MG that I had lying around.

Eman77

Here is the rear gearbox attached to the chassis tub. Rear shocktower is that huge red thing. I also took a pic of the underside of this - attentive readers will notice the black skid plate that now covers the bottom of the red gearbox.

Eman77

Here's one thing I noticed that was odd - while attaching the rear gearbox to the tub, the instruction had me put 2 of these rectangular black pieces onto the rear/bottom of the tub. They attack with a screw/nut combo - I've boxed them in red here (both on the outside of the tub, and inside in the 2nd pic).

Why the heck do these exist? From what I can tell, nothing attaches to them. What am I missing here, in understanding this?

Eman77

And here's where I'm at thus far. Shiny, isn't it? Tons of room in there for ESC, Rx, and battery, and well protected due to the tub chassis. I will try to use a Novak XRS I have lying around, but last I checked, it was dead, so that might not happen. Will muck with it to see what's up.

I'll have to double-check my steering linkage - looks a bit off in the pic. However, I noticed that as I lift the front suspension up/down by hand, the front turnbuckles toe in/out a LOT. Is this what we call vicious bump-steer?

Eman77

Next up is shock building time. I'll try to take more pics as I go, since I just now realized I didn't take all that many for the assembly so far.

More to come at a future date!

Lunchboxer

Eman, does the rear upright have any built-in toe-in? I don't quite remember...

Anyway, looking good!!

Eman77

Not sure on the rear toe-in, will have to check that properly once the shocks are on (to see if suspension travel plays in, like it seems to wildly up front).

LB, did you see my questions in post #9 above? Any idea what that's about?

ElectricGuy007

Pictures and maybe a video would be nice. I'm Thinking about getting one, my xtreme needs a freind.

I see right off the bat you put bearings in it, does it come with a sport tuned motor?

Eman77

Yes indeed I put bearings in, got them from Walawalastore on ebay - I've bought from them before. Works out to about $1/bearing, plus shipping. Nice!

The truck did come with the sport tuned motor, as well as an MSC (that I won't be using). Aaaah...the good old days of wondering why the MSC gets stuck, and burning your fingers on the little resistors that attach to it, and getting another servo in there to move the MSC. That's a lot of extra junk in there!

Lunchboxer

Man, I don't know what that is about.. ! I might have left mine off.. I don't remember if I put that on mine.. (remember, I did not build mine new from kit..)

Not quite sure what they are for just by looking at it!!

Eman77

I put the tires on the wheels, and slapped in some foams I had lying around (aah, vintage - back to the days with foamless tires). Gotta love the big wide super grippers!

Of course, I'm out of CA glue, so time to get more of that stuff.

Eman77

Here's a shot of the front end, with the body posts on. Also, a shot of the rear as I started to put those posts on.

The back seems weird, since you run a screw through the post, then the shock, then into the chassis. So the rear posts are kind of floating out there, and you'd have to remove them to get the rear shocks off. Wacky...

Eman77

Shocks are built and on! I used the soft oil that came with the kit. If I don't like it, I'll swap out later....

Eman77

Wheels are on! We got ourselves a roller. I used rubber shielded bearings in the fronts (which the rear carriers also have, along with the tranny). I will glue the tires down later.

Also just ordered a Futaba MC401CR ESC to power it:
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...6&I=LXTLM6&P=K

Will use a 6 cell NiMh Elite 4000 pack, and the Sport Tuned motor for power...pics to come later.

lee172

i guess you could always put an o-ring (or two) for less slop or 'float' with the shock mounts... nice build, i do like the look of these, but not a big fan of the shell..

Lunchboxer

Eman, be sure to get a Tamiya (yes, it has to be a Tamiya) motor heatsink... keep the motor cool and bling it up some more!!

Eman77

A sport tuned motor needs a heatsink? What...? I might have an extra around, and it just might be a Tamiya one. (And if it isn't, I won't tell anyone).

Lee - you don't like the pickup shell? Boo! C'mon man!

I just read the manual on painting, and it uses 5 (!!) different paints. Black for most of the body, some neon yellow for the bottom/front bumper, gunmetal for the pickup bed, silver for the rails in the bed, and smoke for the windows. That's nuts....like $30+ in paint! But I really want box-art, so I might have to bite the bullet on it (save up and buy paint next month?).

Time to shop around for cheap Tamiya paint sites online (Tower will run me $6+ each, plus $10 shipping, plus tax....forget that).

lee172

sounds very much like the TA02 Ford F150... think that used four colours! and it was a PITA to mask, hence me not doing box art, good luck though [8D]

john01374

Agreed - Here's a tip. When I painted my F150 and S10 bodies I actually pulled off the protective covering and put the decals on the body first. Then recovered the body with cling wrap to protect from over spray. That way I knew exactly where the paint breaks needed to be.