Ultima SC-R build challenge

Starting to edit photos now. I am planning to do Al hexes all the way around, that's on the need list. Beyond axle breakage, the fact that they give out plastic hexes was kind of hoaky. I'd have paid 20 more bucks to have them in the box. I think they kit came with V2 rear hubs. Not sure exactly what you mean by the hooks on the front bumper. I'm not 100% on the front bulkhead. I'll probably run it until there is a problem.

Time for photos. I'm going to limit it to 5 per post since I started this once and then accidently hit a link about half way through in my browser window and it deleted it all...

I started by getting everything out and looking it all over. Desk was cleaned up and ready to get started.



Bag 1; I'd love to tell you that everything you need to complete the Bag 1steps are in it, but they aren't. A lot of steps require you to go into Bag B, which had all the bumbers and supporting hardware. I ended up putting the contents of that bag on a table behind me so I could quickly grab what I needed from it.



Assembly begins with the upper front bulkhead. One thing that bothered me was the fact that the kit comes with plastic spacers to adjust roll height, etc. The manual calls for two of those washers here, but the setup I decided to go with only called for one. I've also got some aluminum spacers coming to replace the plastic ones; the plastics will compress if you tighten them too much.



Next we assemble the arms to the front pivot block. All the hingepins in this kit are captured, which is a very nice feature. The front pivot block has 2 holes in it to use setscrews to secure against 2 flats on the hingepins. Those hingepins won't be going anywhere.



Now we assemble the front skid, the upper bulkhead and the arms. The front pivot brace (the blue aluminum piece) on this kit can pop off from what I've read since it's held in place by the skid plate which can flex. I am going to run it stock for now, but if it becomes an issue I'll use an RB5 bumper under the skid to secure the pivot brace or possibly drill into it and secure it using some screws.

Now we move on to the servo saver. The instructions were a little difficult to understand on this step. At first I thought they were telling me to leave 1.5mm of the servo saver post above the screw on collar, but my collar bottomed out against the top of the post. After looking at it a few times, what they were telling me to do was leave 1.5mm of the bearing exposed above the collar. Notice how the bearing sits above the collar but is still held in place by the collar.



Now assemble the bellcranks and steering posts. I did make one change on this step. The kit comes with what appears to be 2 steel bushings that go into the steering rack to act as the pivot between rack and the bellcranks. I replaced these bushings with two 3x6x2.5mm flanged bearings. The bushings would work fine, but they bearings should last much longer.



Then I secured the steering assembly and the front bulkhead assembly to the chassis. I did run into a small snag here...



The manual calls for two 3x10mm button head screws to secure the left and right sides of the front bulkhead assembly to the chassis (its the top and bottom screws in this photo). These stripped pretty easily on me as I had used them to draw the bulkhead and chassis together. I think ultimately these screws are just slightly too short. I had some spare 3x12s that I used instead that tightened up nicely and held it all together.



Now we build up the front steering spindles. I was bummed to see plastic hexes as part of this assembly step, but that's easily remedied down the line. The bearings are teflon sealed, which I haven't seen since my old Losi days. I love this style of bearing and all the ones in the kit were nice and smooth.

Now we assemble the rear arms to the T-Plate. The arms are again captured by the mounts and the hinge pins have steel pivots that slide onto them and then go into the mount housings. This should provide maintenance free running for a while. My arms had a little bit of front to back play in them and a small shim would probably do away with it completely but a little play isn't a huge deal so I did without. One thing to note, the rear arm mount doesn't need to be tightened all the way just yet. The rear bumper ultimately slides underneath it so leave it a little loose to save some time later.



Now assemble the T-Plate to the chassis. It's starting to look like a truck at this point. Again everything slides together nice and tight and seems to socket into place. My T-Plate had a small piece of sprue on the front side that kept it from sitting flush with the chassis. I had to pull it back off and shave it down and then everything fit nicely.



Now install the transmission into the T-Plate.



Another view of the transmission installed. The T-Plate has a nice thick socket for it to fit into and it's a good tight fit.



Now we put the rear bumper in place and tighten the rear mount down completely. This bumper has a center support built in and flexes far less than the front bumper. It also acts as a motor guard and from a quick test fit, this nearly covers my entire Tekin 17.5 motor. Ultimately, I'll probably pick up Kyosho's motor centering kit and I'll have plenty of motor protection then.

Now assemble the rear hubs... more plastic spacers. These are some very nice looking CVD units. They're small compared to the MIP units I'm used to, but I've heard really good things about them. I like that I can adjust roll with some spacers on these hubs. Plastic hexes show up here as well. I should have aluminum ones on this truck before I run it a second time, but these should be plenty to get me through Friday's race.



Now we assemble them to the arms. Captured pins yet again. These actually use the same style hinge pin as the Losi 8ight. Two nuts thread onto it, one on either side, to secure it. For having so many methods of capturing pins on one truck I feel confident that they will all hold quite well. Every hinge point on this truck has been perfect. No slop, but not bound up either.



Built the rear turnbuckles just like the front. Kyosho gives you dimensions for the turnbuckles that goes from the inner edge of the ball cup to the inner edge of the other ball cup. They're much easier to build than the center-to-center measurements that a lot of companies give you.



Finally attach the side nerf guards and battery mounts and the main chassis is done and ready to move on to the shocks. I really like these nerf guards compared to the other SCT trucks. Small but fairly stiff. They also snap onto the chassis before being screwed in. They're very well thought out.



That completes the main chassis. Time to start building some shocks. I've looked at the velvet shocks and my jaw dropped; they're beautiful. If they build half as nice as they look, they may very well take the pain out of building and bleeding shocks as well.