222 Renovation
Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2018 5:18 pm
I'm making a start on renovating this poor old girl, which I picked up after my Wanted ad on the forum:
One of the issues with the 222 is that the steering servo arm clashes with the chassis rail. The motion pack instructions actually state:
"Note that it may be necessary to remove a small amount of material from the chassis rail to clear the ball joints"
Whoever built this 222 originally obviously had major problems with this interference as a lot of the rail had been removed:
As I'm repositioning the servo and using smaller steering arm ends, so that the ball joints will clear the chassis rails, I decided to reinstate this missing section of the chassis rail using DuraFix aluminium brazing rods.
This is the chassis rail after I broke down the chassis and stripped the paint from it. I used two pieces of steel angle. One to block the rear of the rail, to get the right level and to give the molten aluminium something to sit on, and another to keep the two parts tightly clamped together in the vice.
After 30 minutes or so of heating with a MAPP torch and filling with the rod, this is how it looked once filled:
A few minutes with the power file and this is how it looks now:
A bit of high build primer and sanding and the fill shouldn't be visible.
It's only on the bottom and the inside of the rail, so wouldn't be seen during normal use, unless I start doing acrobatics with the 222
Adrian.
One of the issues with the 222 is that the steering servo arm clashes with the chassis rail. The motion pack instructions actually state:
"Note that it may be necessary to remove a small amount of material from the chassis rail to clear the ball joints"
Whoever built this 222 originally obviously had major problems with this interference as a lot of the rail had been removed:
As I'm repositioning the servo and using smaller steering arm ends, so that the ball joints will clear the chassis rails, I decided to reinstate this missing section of the chassis rail using DuraFix aluminium brazing rods.
This is the chassis rail after I broke down the chassis and stripped the paint from it. I used two pieces of steel angle. One to block the rear of the rail, to get the right level and to give the molten aluminium something to sit on, and another to keep the two parts tightly clamped together in the vice.
After 30 minutes or so of heating with a MAPP torch and filling with the rod, this is how it looked once filled:
A few minutes with the power file and this is how it looks now:
A bit of high build primer and sanding and the fill shouldn't be visible.
It's only on the bottom and the inside of the rail, so wouldn't be seen during normal use, unless I start doing acrobatics with the 222
Adrian.