Alloy parts for the RS4 3 SS

[Kev]

I'm trying to find some alloy parts for my SS kit, I've already got the GPM centre gear carrier but I want some arms etc. I don't know if GPM do any but Hot Bodies do. Does anyone know of any other options companies making stuff for the RS4 3?

Bolton Model Mart, can you get hold of these Hot Bodies parts, and if so how much are they?
I'm not even sure if they are available in this country.

Rear arm set
Front arm set
Front arm bulkhead
Rear " "
Rear knuckle
Front "
Front C-Hub
Threaded shocks

All for the Nitro RS4 3 SS

Does anyone have an alloy RS4 3 that they can post pics of? :D

Kev.

[Smirnoff]

Apex have most of the Hot Bodies parts. I would post some pictures of my stuff but most of it is stripped to bare metal, waiting to be re-anodized like the following:

[Smirnoff]

And (some of my earlier attempts at anodizing, 10 parts, 8 different shades :():

[Smirnoff]

Here's a picture of a HPI threaded shock, haven't seen a the Hot Bodies ones yet but I know that Apex list them and are around £20 a pair I think:

[Smirnoff]

Finally the Hot Bodies centre bulkhead (which you've got the GPM version of, did you have to shim it a lot to remove the play in the transmission?). I would have included a picture of my HB steering assembly but its still not turned up ::mad:!!!

[Smirnoff]

Actually here's the centre bulkhead:

[Smirnoff]

Those pictures are all parts for my Nitro 3, all Hot Bodies. I thought about getting the arms but felt that they would add to much weight and I like the idea of the plastic a-arms being the weakest part of the chain, and hence first to break.

Here's one more of the front and rear lower bulkheads:

[Smirnoff]

Sorry guys, don't know what's going wrong with me today, here's the picture:

[Rapid Roy]

The other downside to aluminum a-arms is that they will bend in a hard crash. If you are racing, and you have a bent arm, your car won't handle correctly and you won't know why.

[Kev]

Cheers Smirnoff. I see you're going for the 'subtle' look anodizing them black, I'll wait until mine are looking 'used' before I redo mine (when I get some).
What did you use to strip the original anodizing? I've heard of people using oven cleaner with mixed results. I've wondered if the sulphuric acid used in the anodizing process could be used undiluted to strip it?

Kev.

[Smirnoff]

Hey that's meant to be blue, not black ;). Well actually the dye bottle states grey :confused:. But yes, away with the extravagent purple!

There are a number of things you can use to strip the anodized layer off. It seems the most popular is over cleaner (in the States at least) and another house hold(ish) chemical used to clean drains and garden paths (I don't want to name it as the younger members of the forum might go and grab a bottle and try this themselves, can be quite dangerous if misused), I suspect that this chemical is a major component in the oven cleaner cans/bottles. My advice to anybody wishing to try it themselves is don't bother, if you insist on having parts a different colour you should send them out to a professional. The anodizing process itself is easy, and the equipment/chemicals needed to do it are easily obtained for under £20 (excluding power source). Dyeing the part is a whole different story, for the dye to take well you need to heat the dye to 62C and maintain that heat for up to 30 minutes, easier said than done - I ended up spending £90 on a heater element and thermostat that can heat the tank and hold the temperature. In total there are three tanks that should be heated to 62C so do the math and you soon see that it becomes very expensive. Anyway, after experimenting, nearly every night for quite a while, I am still unable to produce the same colour for more than two consecutive batches. Back to stripping, the more you do it, the more damage you're likely to do to the aluminium parts, pitting and so on. Each part needs a good 30 minutes or so of polishing prior to anodizing if you wish to get a bright finish. If anybody else has any advice for me then I'd love to hear it, I'm fed up of getting mixed results and want to start getting some satisfaction from the time and money invested. I will get it right sooner or later and will take great pleasure in showing the results on the forum. Oh yeah, I found two parts yesterday that then were 90% eaten away by the chemical they were accidentaly left in overnight, they no longer exist!!!

Back on topic... Any decisions? Going to go with HB or GPM. Personally I prefer the HB stuff, can't really give you much of a reason, I just do :). The above pictures show just about every HB alloy part for the RS4 3, except for the a-arms and steering assembly. I can say that the HB stuff is great quality (expcept for the lower front and rear bulkheads, they've used a low grade aluminium for these, perhaps because they are mostly out of sight???).

[nigel1210]

if your looking for hop up parts, try here (http://www.meganitro.com) they are based in the states but there shipping costs are very reasonable and they will mark the value of goods down so you don't get charged as much by customs.

hope this helps

[nigel1210]

smirnoff are you gonna anodize your titanium upper deck?

[Smirnoff]

Nah Nigel, anodizing titanium is a completely different kettle of fish, much simpler. The colour is achieved through voltage variation rather than dyeing. All it takes to anodized titanium is a the content of a bottle of Coke, a piece of lead and a power source between 2V and 30V. I can give more detailed info if you want to try it out. Did you get yours polished or natural, natural anodized would create a really cool brushed metal effect.

Personally I really like a natural finish and since titanium doesn't tarnish or oxidize like aluminium it doesn't need coating, just a one off super polishing session. If anything I'd see about putting a zinc coating on it to give it that little bit extra protection from corrosion. Besides (hope Larry doesn't see this) for the Nitro 3 I'm sticking with the graphite/CF HB upper deck, looks cool and weighs less. The MT Racer on the other hand, that's going to be Ti heavy!!!

Tomorrow I'm going to strip a few of the parts and anodize them but seal the pores without applying the dye. When they are fresh out of the tank they have a yellowish tint to them that doesn't look too hot but this is supposed to go after they have been steamed (oh yeah, another £30 on a food steamer to seal the pores, locking the colour in place). I'd like to do a mix of steal blue and natural alloy if I can get some sort of consistency amongst the dyed pieces :(.

Nigel has pointed you in the direction of a really good US based store. I like to say that they are 'international customer friendly', make what you will of this ;) and have better prices than Tower. On a recent order placed with them they/he worked out £70 cheaper than Tower but best of all around £250 cheaper than UK (this was for a $600 order, but even on small items he's way cheaper than you're likely to find elsewhere). The site shows only a small part of his stock, you'll be better of e-mailing him (lance.bingham@mindspring.com) if you can't see what you are looking for. Don't forget to mention Nigel and Lee!!!

[nigel1210]

Originally posted by Smirnoff
Nah Nigel, anodizing titanium is a completely different kettle of fish, much simpler. The colour is achieved through voltage variation rather than dyeing. All it takes to anodized titanium is a the content of a bottle of Coke, a piece of lead and a power source between 2V and 30V. I can give more detailed info if you want to try it out. Did you get yours polished or natural, natural anodized would create a really cool brushed metal effect.

Personally I really like a natural finish and since titanium doesn't tarnish or oxidize like aluminium it doesn't need coating, just a one off super polishing session. If anything I'd see about putting a zinc coating on it to give it that little bit extra protection from corrosion. Besides (hope Larry doesn't see this) for the Nitro 3 I'm sticking with the graphite/CF HB upper deck, looks cool and weighs less. The MT Racer on the other hand, that's going to be Ti heavy!!!

Tomorrow I'm going to strip a few of the parts and anodize them but seal the pores without applying the dye. When they are fresh out of the tank they have a yellowish tint to them that doesn't look too hot but this is supposed to go after they have been steamed (oh yeah, another £30 on a food steamer to seal the pores, locking the colour in place). I'd like to do a mix of steal blue and natural alloy if I can get some sort of consistency amongst the dyed pieces :(.

Nigel has pointed you in the direction of a really good US based store. I like to say that they are 'international customer friendly', make what you will of this ;) and have better prices than Tower. On a recent order placed with them they/he worked out £70 cheaper than Tower but best of all around £250 cheaper than UK (this was for a $600 order, but even on small items he's way cheaper than you're likely to find elsewhere). The site shows only a small part of his stock, you'll be better of e-mailing him (lance.bingham@mindspring.com) if you can't see what you are looking for. Don't forget to mention Nigel and Lee!!!

the upper tray i got was polished if you can send me the info about anodizing it that would be great.

please send it to nigel1210@btinternet.com

also are your shocks the ones made for the proceed?

[Smirnoff]

Yes they are the proceed ones. I'll e-mail you tomorrow about the anodizing and a couple of other things.

[nigel1210]

Originally posted by Smirnoff
Yes they are the proceed ones. I'll e-mail you tomorrow about the anodizing and a couple of other things.

o.k mate no probs

[Smirnoff]

My Hot Bodies steering assembly arrived this morning, again this is made of the same poor aluminium as the lower bulkheads, very pitted. To me it looks 100% the same as the Powerline assembly that Kedar uses on Rockette (http://kedar.itgo.com/tipz.html#steering).

Here it is installed on my car:

[nigel1210]

smirnoff are the hot bodies parts not very good then???

[Smirnoff]

Everything but the steering assembly and lower bulkheads are very good quality. The bad parts are made of low grade stuff, I'm even wondering whether these have been cast rather than machined?

Their carbon woven graphite parts are pretty good too, the upper deck and shock towers look great and are nice and solid.

[nigel1210]

Originally posted by Smirnoff
Everything but the steering assembly and lower bulkheads are very good quality. The bad parts are made of low grade stuff, I'm even wondering whether these have been cast rather than machined?

Their carbon woven graphite parts are pretty good too, the upper deck and shock towers look great and are nice and solid.

o.k might put an order in at mega nitro, or might just save the money and put it towards a savage:D

[Smirnoff]

Put the money towards a Savage!!! You've got the titanium upper deck which will do a lot to help stiffen the car up, stick with that until stuff breaks and then replace whatever broke with a fancy alloy part if thats what takes your fancy at the time. I wish I'd done it this way rather than the way that I have done it, in my latest order to Lance there is a Super Chassis and HD final gears coming so that I can rebuild the diffs and then that is just about everything that can be done to the car done. The only other thing is a custom brake assembly to go with the HB centre bulkhead, which is work in progress. Find two equally good drivers and give them my car and a stock NTC3 running the same engine, I'm willing to be that the NTC3 will still run rings around my car :(. But then my car will bump into his the Nitro 3 will be the only one capable of driving away :D.

Actually, the centre bulkhead is a really nice piece of work, its makes it much easier to adjust your shift point and cleaning is made easier too, I would definately consider getting this one. It looks really nice on the car too, you get to see more of its guts :).

[nigel1210]

Originally posted by Smirnoff
Put the money towards a Savage!!! You've got the titanium upper deck which will do a lot to help stiffen the car up, stick with that until stuff breaks and then replace whatever broke with a fancy alloy part if thats what takes your fancy at the time. I wish I'd done it this way rather than the way that I have done it, in my latest order to Lance there is a Super Chassis and HD final gears coming so that I can rebuild the diffs and then that is just about everything that can be done to the car done. The only other thing is a custom brake assembly to go with the HB centre bulkhead, which is work in progress. Find two equally good drivers and give them my car and a stock NTC3 running the same engine, I'm willing to be that the NTC3 will still run rings around my car :(. But then my car will bump into his the Nitro 3 will be the only one capable of driving away :D.

Actually, the centre bulkhead is a really nice piece of work, its makes it much easier to adjust your shift point and cleaning is made easier too, I would definately consider getting this one. It looks really nice on the car too, you get to see more of its guts :).

might just get some proceed shocks and the centre bulkhead. How much did the centre bulkhead cost?

meganitro are doing the savage for $470.00 inc shipping to u.k which seems pretty good.

[Smirnoff]

That is pretty good and the exchange rate is quite good at the moment too. I sent a payment to Lance last night and saved around £15 I think, perhaps I'm wrong though, I should follow the exchange rate more closely!!!

I can't remember what the centre bulkhead cost, around $30 I think.

[RaceDude]

I have the HB threaded shocks and none of the HPI springs fit them... Not the 29mm Progressives, nor the 27 or 25mm Linears. The collar and spring perches are just too wide. The springs that come with them are hardly stiff enough to keep the car from touching the ground when it's standing still.

I already had HPI threaded shocks on my NRS4 3 Type SS and would buy those over the HB ones anytime. Sure, the HB shocks look great and have those neato ball joints below, but the HPI shocks at least fit the springs, come with 5 piston sizes and bladders that are stiff enough to actually work...

MegaNitro has the HPI threaded shocks for $29 a set and I never regretted buying them!

[BoltonModelMart]

Parts and prices for the bits you were asking
HOT 61110 Rear arm £10.99
HOT 61109 Front arm £10.99
HOT 61115 Front arm bulkhead £10.99
HOT 61116 Rear " " £10.99
HOT 61103 Rear knuckle £12.99
HOT 61104 Front " £12.99
HOT 61102 C-Hub £12.99

all on order just waiting for them

Pete