WhiteCharisma's Mini-Z Garage

[WhiteCharisma]

Finally right??? I'm finally an owner of a Mini-Z!!! And after about five minutes of play time, I love it. Surprisingly though, even though the turning radius murders an Xmod, it still has the same "feel" since I did a board swap on my car, almost like a Gen 1 with AWD. Very light and nimble feeling, less "bulk" then an Evo xmod. Its just that Mini-Z's have more parts and have more sources for spares and such which got me to make the "jump" to the Mini-Z side of things. Though mine is rough around the edges, I'm hoping to get a couple new bodies.

The last owner said the body was pretty rough, I was expecting slight damage, some small bits broken off, this caught me by surprise, but I still love it because its the Initial D White FC RX-7




The previous owner need some practice....he had to go full speed into things to do this kinda damage LOL! but the chassis is the real beauty, for $145 w/controller and body shipped, I had to do it.





Carbon Fiber!!!



These cars are really simple too...I had a good 5 min look and I figured out only 4 screws and the back comes off to get to the pinions. Really nice, the pinions were confusing though...It was on the longer setting, so I put it back to the short setting for the body. The pinion on the motor was a little loose but I pushed it back in and it was fine. Really smooth but I thought it would roll a bit more after you let go of the throttle like my Xmod. Gotta lube it up I guess.







I'm really happy with the car, hope to learn more about Mini-Z's now, gotta make a new drift video now too!!!

[Bananabrain]

Cool, everyone has a mini-z but me. lol
Or at least it seems like that.

[theoriganalRiD3R1967]

145? woah nice deal, what bodies are you thinking of getting, that ones pretty banged up lol

[okoye]

don't put lube on it at all bad idea. to get it to roll more you will need to adjust the throttle trim on it to forward just a little bit so that it slightly accelerates like when you ease of the clutch of a real car.

[2wdpancar]

Originally Posted by okoye

don't put lube on it at all bad idea. to get it to roll more you will need to adjust the throttle trim on it to forward just a little bit so that it slightly accelerates like when you ease of the clutch of a real car.

Um, by roll I think he means by how free the drive train is. The thing is that I know your owner had a pn70t motor in there, and if you don't break in the brushes and bushing so that they are smooth your car will stop fast. This is because of the bushings being tight when made in the factory. Even if you have brand new bearings, all clean with motor spray, your car will still stop fast due to the bushings. Adjusting throttle trim would basically mask the issue but not fix it.

[WhiteCharisma]

Originally Posted by Bananabrain

Cool, everyone has a mini-z but me. lol
Or at least it seems like that.

Haha its ok, with time you'll find a nice deal eventually

Originally Posted by theoriganalRiD3R1967

145? woah nice deal, what bodies are you thinking of getting, that ones pretty banged up lol

I'm dead set on getting the Blue 240z body that just came out from R246 to replicate the Devil Z from Wangan Midnight. Anything after that is just a hard choice lol too many bodies!!

Originally Posted by okoye

don't put lube on it at all bad idea. to get it to roll more you will need to adjust the throttle trim on it to forward just a little bit so that it slightly accelerates like when you ease of the clutch of a real car.

Yup found out it helped a little, but the rolling resistance compared to my xmod is still much higher. Its tight to even push!! But its definitely not binding.

Originally Posted by blt456

Um, by roll I think he means by how free the drive train is. The thing is that I know your owner had a pn70t motor in there, and if you don't break in the brushes and bushing so that they are smooth your car will stop fast. This is because of the bushings being tight when made in the factory. Even if you have brand new bearings, all clean with motor spray, your car will still stop fast due to the bushings. Adjusting throttle trim would basically mask the issue but not fix it.

Yes I found that out after I figured out how to get to the motor lol. You hit the nail on the head, I tried to just spin the motor with the gear and it doesn't want to move much. I don't know much about motors, but is one way to "break it in" to just let it run off 1 AAA battery til the battery is dead? Yeah the throttle trim helped but it didn't fix it at all. Thanks for info though its good to know


After drifting it some more today, I managed to break off another part on the front bumper LOL it was a love tap too! The front is just all cracked up and it fell off after a small tap to the wall. Its ok though, I gotta get some pics of it with scale duck tape up later too Its definitely a drifter!

EDIT: Ok, lets just say duct tape sucks for fixing Mini-Z bodies lol. It doesn't want to stick at all, but I made it work. Not as small as I wanted but it was hard to get it any smaller or else it wouldn't stick. I tried to tape the broken piece back on too, its not very strong... Its going to fall off after one drift session i know it





And one pic of its good side

[itzlinky]

Nice White. Yeah, I thought about getting this lot from Skyrider but decided not to. He send you the extra XMODS parts as well?

[WhiteCharisma]

Originally Posted by itzlinky

Nice White. Yeah, I thought about getting this lot from Skyrider but decided not to. He send you the extra XMODS parts as well?

Thanks! No he took it out of the deal but I told him I didn't need them so even though he "altered the deal" I was cool with it

Well I spent a little time to sort of fix up the car. Changed the wheels too. Superglued the under body and I put some styrene in the gap of the front bumper. I personally think it looks better then before. Now it just looks ghetto LOL






I really love the back of this car!! Don't know why, kinda like an old 5.0 Mustang from the 90's? I think...


And this is kinda directed to Dr. Kustom, but does anyone know how to fix this? Theres a finger print smuge of some sort on the hood and I don't know how to get rid of it...

[Faze.]

I'd try some goo-gone on it first. If that doesn't work just use some high grit sandpaper and lightly sand it, then polish it up.

[Action B]

The chassis rolls less after releasing throttle because the drivetrain has much less rotating mass. It also has a lot to do with the motor magnets and how strong they are and of course the weight of the car.

[WhiteCharisma]

Originally Posted by Faze.

I'd try some goo-gone on it first. If that doesn't work just use some high grit sandpaper and lightly sand it, then polish it up.

Yeah I'll try the wetsand and polish. That always seems to get stuff out. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Action B

The chassis rolls less after releasing throttle because the drivetrain has much less rotating mass. It also has a lot to do with the motor magnets and how strong they are and of course the weight of the car.

Yeah I noticed the Mini-Z AWD Chassis is tighter in general then my xmods. I took out the motor and the gears were still real tight when I rolled the car around. Guess its just the design? Or my gears are bad. Its pretty noisy but its fine, still runs well



Update for those who say I needed a new body. Got it from okoye. It had a lot of problems, dirty, sticky, paint is messed up (not shiny for some reason...its Gloss Coat too...), small scratches everywhere for hitting things, paint chips on the spoiler, scratches on the roof from being rolled, etc.

It will be sent to Dr. K in time, but for now I polished it up and cleaned it as I could. Looks much better then before. Shines like a beaut now. Hope you like my new addition.

My Red RX-7 FD3S. Something I've wanted since I discovered Z's.

Before polish/Clean up. It looked really faded for some reason... There was a layer of something from sitting out, when I cleaned i up with warm water and a microfiber cloth, my cloth was grey/yellow afterwards...







After clean up. Lots of shine! Color was brought back to life. but this is all you get for now



And a small video of the shine

[WhiteCharisma]

My Z collection is growing.........



Well I had a pretty boring last day of summer today in the Twin Cities but not all was lost. I told my parents to stop by a hobby shop I knew about that use to sell Z's. They still had some old stuff, and luckily, I found this and my parents bought it as a back to school gift

I can finally represent my beloved Honda's!!!!!!!!!!




I can't wait to lower it a bit and slap some TE37's on it

[Osiris19]

Honda S2000!!!!!

[WhiteCharisma]

Originally Posted by Osiris19

Honda S2000!!!!!

Yes....it is, thanks!



So......I decided to take it out today and mount it on the AWD chassis today. To my surprise, the body sat crooked. WTF!!! I had no idea it would have any kid of factory defect... I was pretty mad. Oh and the right side side mirror sticker is coming off too. Right out of the box and it was still on the dummy chassis...



Its hard to see, but the left side (passenger side) of the car is higher then the right side (driver's side).


But for some reason the rear is crooked the other way around. ??????? I'm utterly confused, shouldn't one side be completely higher? This car is just weird.....


Tried to fix the rear clip on the right side, didn't help the front but it helped the rear get more straight. Really dumb problem.



Here are some pics of the wheel wells. This side has a ton of gap in the front and very little in the rear (passenger side)


Driver's side has less gap in front, pretty similar in the rear but this side is just barely higher by like 1mm.


So this might be sent to Dr. K before I ruin it trying to fix it....I have no idea whats going on or whats wrong, I looked at a ton of different things. The weird thing was, when I checked the clips they were even but the body sat crooked. Now I had to stagger it a bit on the right side to even it out but the front sits higher now. WTF!!!!

[winner]

woe crazy stuff lol, are you sure the chassis is sitting correctly?

[WhiteCharisma]

Originally Posted by winner

woe crazy stuff lol, are you sure the chassis is sitting correctly?

Yeah the chassis is fine its definitely the body cause even on the dummy chassis its crooked and on my AWD chassis its the same thing

But I did get some stuff figured out and I lowered it a bit with some direction from Dr. K lol

Added 1.5mm offset rims in the front and 2.5mm in the rear. Its amazing! glad its sitting nice and level now. Well close to it, in person you can tell one side is higher but in the pictures its fine. Flushhhh







FD + S2K = Win



Now a problem with my AWD chassis.... Looks like one of the clip mount screw holes is stripped now The clips pop out a bit sometimes even when I use long screws. Sucks so much and this chassis is really good too, gold terminal and everything.


I plan to add exhaust tips to the S2000 and possibly a carbon lip but we'll see. I might wanna keep it clean and just add some exhaust tips I have from a G35 bk.

[Dr. Kustom]

Very nice S2000 you got there WC! Don't see them a lot nowaday. I'm glad you have the clips issues fixed. For the rear, you can use 0W, they are equal to 2.5N.

As for the stripped hole, a simple drop of CA glue/Krazy glue will do the trick. Just take off the front clip, put a drop of glue on that stripped hole, wait for it to dry, then screw the clip back on. Apply more drops if needed.

[WhiteCharisma]

WOW I haven't updated this in a long, long time! I've been so busy, haven't driven my cars in a while either.


Well, I had some free time today, thought I'd snap some pics of my mini-z.

A couple things to note, I got new lowering springs all around the car now with spring shims. Also I got 4.5* knuckles!! Massive camber!! Great handling too!! Drove it once or twice and it feels great!! Love the look now




Now I know what you're thinking. "oh jeez WC the same old same old stuff again???? Take pictures somewhere else already..."


LOL

I remembered an idea i think Donziikid came up with for great photoshoots and now I see a lot of people doing it. And the results are simply stunning, I've never seen my FC look this good!!!


Enough chit chat, here are pics of my new "setup"









They look good rightt??? Even if they look pretty noobish it was such a simple setup that I was wondering why I didn't do it earlier.

I took some more pics too, messed around with the backlight function on the camera. Which do you guys like more? The "brighter" ones or the "darker" ones??






And here's a picture of the incredibly simple setup I took with my cell phone. A white poster board, a lamp, a camera, and a wall. lol. Cool huh? I can't believe it gives these results!!!


More to come later When I have time that is...

Thanks for looking guys!

[okoye]

the s2000 doesnt really fit on an awd kinda like the rx7 body for some reason. because of the hood

[WhiteCharisma]

Originally Posted by okoye

the s2000 doesnt really fit on an awd kinda like the rx7 body for some reason. because of the hood

This is true. I do see some hood/front body flex for some reason. Its overly snug, but on the dummy chassis it sits just fine!!

Weird....