Toprace211/Huina 1550 upgrade

[jerry56]

Ok... So I've been screwing around with this for months and finally decided to get it done so I can move on to another project....
I wanted an Excavator that wasn't super expensive and that scaled well with my Tonka...
After looking around the internet "scale" was all over the place so I took a shot in the dark a while back and bought a TopRace 211 since it was like $80 to my door and already RC...sort of, I figured I'd take a chance.
https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/4e4...d053fda35.jpeg
I didn't take a picture before I tore it apart...so that's it....
I've seen Cat 320s around the area (I think that's what it's supposed to be modeled after) and they aren't super big it seems to look right next to my Tonka...so I decided to make this thing capable of actually digging...I hope...
So the Journey begins...
First I tore it down...


Yes it's all plastic.....and the tracks are rubber....plastic gears....but we'll fix that




First I cleaned up the cab base


Then the track base


The plan is to epoxy a thin sheet of aluminum into both.... I figure the plastic,aluminum, and epoxy should give it enough strength to hold up to the digging I plan on doing.... I'm not going to be digging house foundations or sewer lines thru the countryside...I think it will hold up with a little care... If not then I spring $500 for the all metal version... all the upgrade parts I put on this can be swapped over to the TopRace 211M/Huina 1580 both are all metal...time will tell
The two plates are cut



And glued in... I let the epoxy "ooze" up around the mounting posts to help reinforce them a little ... first a test fit



These excavators come from several "manufactures" in China...TopRace,Huina,and a couple others they are all basically the same there are some subtle differences but overall they are pretty much the same so what you do to one "should" work on the rest...with that said I'll let the epoxy set up for now....