Acerpower's 18R

[acerpower]

It seems 1/18 scale isn't as popular as it used to be, but that's not stopping me from putting another 18 in my stable.

This car started life out as a Megatech Propulse and I slowly started adding my spare Associated parts until it was pretty much an RC18T.
Since I already have a few capable RC18T's this car fell by the wayside and ended up in my parts box.

I recently acquired an Xray M18 for next to nothing and I decided it would be nice to have another 1/18 on-road car for some driveway, or parking lot racing, since there seems to be no interest in 1/18 on-road racing in my area.

So I took my RC18/Propulse hybrid and bought a few more spare parts to start my latest build.........................



It still has the 18T axles, plus I still need wheels and a body.

The shocks I have for it need some re-building, but I might get some 3Racing shocks instead.
I'm not so sure I want to spend much money on this build though. :unsure:

[acerpower]

I have the body and wheels now, but I'll probably pick up a set of 3racing shocks to replace my leaky stock set.



I plan on painting it black, orange, and silver.
Somewhat similar to this...............................



I also ordered this motor and esc.
I'm not sure how good it is, but it's a 4 pole motor.
I would have liked the EZrun esc instead but they were sold out. Hopefully this set-up will be even better.

[FloydfanYodaman]

looks like its coming along nicely...a wanted the subaru and skyline when those 18R came out...looking forward to paint

[acerpower]

No paint yet but, I have the new ESC and 4-pole motor combo.
Here it is with my new 2.4ghz RX...............



Here's a closer look....................



The orange anodizing should match the the orange on the body quite nicely, but I might have to strip the anodizing on the blue aluminum dog-bones and steering link since silver will match the color scheme better than blue.

I'm not sure how much more torque this 4-pole motor will have over the 2-pole motors I normally use, but just spinning the shaft by hand you can feel the difference between my other brushless motors.
I'll find out soon enough anyways, and since it was so cheap I'll be happy with it even if it only has as much power as my 2-pole motors.



I'm scrapping the stock shocks and bought a new set of 3racing shocks even though I originally didn't want to spend much on this rig.
I'll eventually get some steel diff gears and MIP outdrives and scrap the old Propulse diffs as well.
I have a Propulse carbon fiber drive-shaft in it now but I'm not sure how long it will hold up under the extra power of the BL motor.
I'll have to get an aluminum RC18 shaft for it anyways after the spur gear wears out since I don't want to have to buy Propulse spurs when I already have plenty of spare RC18 spurs.

I'm currently recovering from a major surgery on my ankle that I had almost 3 weeks ago, plus I've been busy with my newborn son(3 weeks old), so I haven't felt much like painting anything yet.
But I'll get around to it soon since the weather has finally been decent lately.
My new shocks should also be here by the weekend so I'm going to want to drive it, but not with a clear body.

[acerpower]

I stripped and polished the blue dogbones, and steering link................................


Now the silver matches with the orange anodizing a little better than the blue did....................

The parts look much more shiny in person than they do in this picture.

The blue shock caps and threaded spacer on the new 3racing shocks will get the same treatment as well.

I like blue anodizing as much as the next guy, but since most aluminum parts are blue I like to have something a little different than the next guy.
To bad it costs to much to get my parts re-anodized, I'd like to have an all orange, or all green car someday.

[acerpower]

The paint is almost done.
I kind of rushed through trimming the liquid masking so it's not my neatest work, but I guess I could have done worse.

Here's a sneak peek of my progress......................


I guess I won't notice the imperfections when it's flying by at full speed.

I still have to paint the wing and I think I might try and do a simulated carbon fiber effect on it.

[acerpower]

No video just yet, but painting and bodywork is now complete..........











It didn't come out quite as nice as I planned, but I'm still pleased with it's overall appearance.
I'm still not sure if I should have tried the carbon fiber effect on the wing since it doesn't quite look scale, but what's done is done.