Question about anodized mini parts.

How do you take off the color, without looking patchy?

Very careful sanding, or a well timed dip in oven cleaner. I've done both, with both success and failure. The downside to oven cleaner is that it eats aluminum. A little too long and you'll find threads missing from screw holes. The trick is the anodizing is actually part of the aluminum - the outer oxide layer that was going to form anyway - so removing it, removes a tiny bit of surface material.

Given the budget, I'd mask off critical areas and media blast. Not sure what media would work.

For a given motor size,

more turns = lower RPM (lower Kv), lower torque, lower power

fewer turns = higher RPM (higher Kv), higher torque, higher power.

It's easy to remember if one always thinks that less = more.

I took my spare parts and built up a M03 recently. I used the friction shocks and they actually work better than I expected. The only thing I don't like is that the ride height is a bit high using the long silvers springs. I was thinking about putting some limiters inside the shocks to lower the ride height but was concerned there would be too much pre-load on those springs. I'm using kit 60d treaded tires, so the car wants to roll over a little bit if I over drive the corners. I've already super-glued the front tires, which has helped, except when I hit a corner disc.

I don't want to spend any money on this car as I'm having a blast driving the car the way it is. I wanted to hear some opinions on the best/cheapest/easiest way to lower a kit with friction shocks (without upgrading to oil filled shocks).

Try using the short springs.

Cut a coil out of the springs?

I noticed something odd with my M05 verII, I went back to finishing the installation after running into problems with the steering a while back. I noticed that the manual specifies a 79mm gap for the steering rod (between the adjusters) but 79mm seems too short for my case.

If i went ahead and used 79mm, the steering will obviously be biased to one side. through trial and error, I found 81.5mm to be the ideal gap.

why is this so?

Haven't got the chance to test out whether the car travels in a straight line but it seems 81.5mm is the proper gap for me

I'm facing a similar issue with another kit as well

the springs included with the kit is shorter than some touring car springs and the stiffness is different from other springs with the same colour code

Is this the issue that the servo horn isn't at the right angle maybe? I know it's supposed to be angled down a little towards the front of the car so the actual steering rod is 90 degrees on the servo horn. Could this be the issue?

EDIT: tried to share a pic but couldn't get it working right

Started working on my m05 last night. First Tamiya Kit I have ever got. So far having a blast

Has anyone else here tried logging in to rcmarket.com.hk account recently? I can't get the cursor or any text to appear in the login boxes.

My only concern with using short springs with the M03 friction shocks is that they will probably have a lot of up travel/droop in the suspension. I will probably just use some internal limiters inside the friction shocks, but wanted to make sure there wouldn't be any issues doing that.

My first visit Jim, and full access.

It's a browser issue Jim. Works ok in Chrome and IE, does not work in Firefox.
BTW, Nathan has that part you wanted, I'm hassling him for the dimensions now.

Yup. Running Firefox on my desktop - no dice. Safari on my iPad - no problem. Good thing. They seem to have more parts for my Serpent than anyone else. RCMushroom has awesome discount codes, but nothing in stock!

Thanks, Tony. I've got a feeling the measurements (guesses) in my CAD file are off by quite a bit. Trying to scale a drawing from a photo taken at an angle, while guessing at the size of "known" components is tricky!