STRC parts came in so it was time to get serious about making Rusty... Well... Less Rusty!
Which means it was time to get serious about replacing the rear A arms, mounting the rear assembly onto the frame etc.
Transmission is kind of useless without a motor. You will see that I unintentionally made life more difficult for myself. I built the rear end and then had to go back into it again to replace the rear hub carriers. Then I mounted the front hub carriers and caster blocks. Then screwed up by mounting the caster blocks wrong. Put right into left and vice versa. Oh well... Make a mistake and learn from it.
Yuck! The old upper deck, dirty servo, bellcrank etc.
I almost did not buy this front hinge set because I wanted it in blue. So glad I snagged the plain aluminum one! I did not realize until I got into it that the stock Rustler parts used c clips. Yikes! I much prefer the STRC aluminum part to the stock Traxxas fiberglass and the nice screws that came with it will allow me to easily go back into when I want or need to.
Old and new front bulkead:
Yikes! I'm so glad I chose to break the Rustler down instead of running it as it was. The original was cracked. So, bad stock transmission case and bad front bulkhead. There were some issues in the transmission that I rectified too when I got into it.
I think we can make this situation a bit better here. Beautiful STRC bellcrank system!
New screws for the servo, cleaned up, and with new bellcrank,
Testing, testing, 1,2,3... Yup... Some hope here...
These are some seriously nice parts. I'm sure the aluminum Traxxas parts are nice but STRC has made a fan here. I will be happy to use more of their parts in my Stampedes and in future RCs.
Gah! Wrong side silly... I learned how it all worked together though.
Finally! Caster blocks installed the right way and the rear bearing carriers put in.
Hmmm.... All together but now I think a the blue Traxxas wheelie bar would look better.
I also think that the aluminum hex from STRC (or comparable) would be a nice upgrade (and presumably stronger):
Putting the STRC aluminum caps on the shocks cleaned up the look as well. I checked the fluids etc and no leaks. For now these shocks will fit the bill for my bashing needs.
This will be the "Go" body. I want to get another which I will baby which will be the "Show" body.
What next?
-ESC fan
-Blue RPM front bumper for sure. Not sure why it did not come in yet.
-Blue RPM rear bumper
-Blue Traxxas wheelie bar
-Integy Blue anodized aluminum bulkhead when it comes back in stock.
-Aluminum wheel hex 12mm
I did not replace all the bearings as they did not all come in yet. So, I will be going back in to replace those. I also have a stainless steel screw set coming in and I will likely replace many (if not all) of the screws with stainless steel ones.
Not sure about using those Trenchers. I think a set of Badlands would be more in keeping the original car's stance and would be more in keeping with the original wheel/tire gear ratio.
Thoughts on the Badlands? Just run them mounted on Proline F11s or Desperados? I was going to run the RPM blue wheels but they seem to be unavailable for some reason.