Yep, here I go again with another Traxxas villain...

Hiya Guy's :tiphat: , it's been awhile :biggrin: ...

As some of you that have been here for quite a while might have guessed, yep, I've went and done it again and got myself another Traxxas Villain, guess I just can't help myself with these things ... This vintage Villain IV Chaparrel popped up on eBay a week or two back for $150 shipped, so I made an offer on it and really didn't think too much about it after that until a couple days later when I took a closer look at it.

It was advertised as an original villain with the servo / radio tray missing, original motors, brass props & a Novak ESC and other than that it was supposed to be really clean. Well, a few days went by and I get a notification from eBay on it and I just happen to have a little free time so I sat down and decided to take a closer look at the pictures that were posted of it. From the way the pictures looked it seemed like it was in really good shape considering it's a 35 or so you're old boat, and right off the bat I noticed that the servo tray that covers the stuffing tubes was indeed in the boat and then the endbells of the motors caught my eye, and I thought to myself, wow, those are definitely not the stock stinger motors. From the looks of the crops that were on it I was guessing they were probably 447's and it had decent prop shafts in it but I also noticed that no one had upgraded the outdrives from the oilite bushings to flanged bearings & they hadn't upgraded the driveshafts either. I thought about it for a little while and figured, okay, someone obviously put some $ into this thing, probably in the 90s from the looks of the Novak ESC and if I don't have to replace the motors, props or propshafts this could be a real inexpensive boat to get back on the water just the way that I like them, especially since I already have another EVX 2 4s lipo ESC for it kicking around, so I bought it...

I've had plenty of other projects going on to keep me busy and I haven't really been paying attention to the tracking number, but I was relaxing in the living room late this morning enjoying some coffee when my mailman knocked on the door and delivered another package I was expecting. I got up, answered the door and sat back down again & not five seconds later there was another knock at the door, so I got up and answered it again & found a deck box sitting outside waiting for me and I knew it was the boat because I wasn't expecting anything else that big. I brought it in, opened it and gave it a once-over and found out that I haven't been disappointed. Overall this boat is in really really nice shape considering its age and it's probably the nicest villain that I've seen yet as new as this abs Hull looks. The Hull look so nice that if I didn't know any better I'd swear it was a newer production villain ex w/ Chapparel decals but those things have been discontinued and extinct for 20 some years now and you'd have better luck finding Dragon's Teeth than a vintage decal sheet from one of them.

Other than that it has the Traxxas propshafts, X447 props, a Novak 824-HV ESC and a pair of Team Associated Reedy motors. How's the expected the bushings haven't been upgraded to flange the bearings and the stuffing tubes haven't been upgraded either. Like my other villains the plans for this one are fairly simple. keep the motors, props and propshafts, upgrade the driveshafts to 11/32's, upgrade the oilite bushings in the boat to flanged bearings, install the traxxas evx motor mounts to eliminate the Flex in the stock lounts & install my EVX 2 ESC. Oh yeah, also need to order a pair of water cooling coils for the motors and a nice water outlet for them. Overall this will be a nice inexpensive boat to clean up and get back on the water and probably shouldn't take more than $35 or so to get it done :biggrin: . ...

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I'm always interested in following your Villian builds. They're such beautiful boats + "back in the day" they were one of the only two high performance RtRs available (I went with the Twinstorm after carefully mulling over both boat's specs : Traxxas Villian tested at 19 mph & the Twinny at 21 smokin' mph.) I just cleaned up the Villian powerplant in my Coast Guard Scale boat - EVX-2 a little quirky but has reverse - needed for scale.

Will be tagging along here :thumbup1:

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Originally Posted by properchopper

I'm always interested in following your Villian builds. They're such beautiful boats + "back in the day" they were one of the only two high performance RtRs available (I went with the Twinstorm after carefully mulling over both boat's specs : Traxxas Villian tested at 19 mph & the Twinny at 21 smokin' mph.) I just cleaned up the Villian powerplant in my Coast Guard Scale boat - EVX-2 a little quirky but has reverse - needed for scale.

Will be tagging along here :thumbup1:

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Mornin' Tony , it's been awhile :tiphat:

That's a nice boat and I agree, back in the day the villain and the Twin Storm were the cat's meow for the rtf boats but I always leaned toward the Villain's & I suspect that the reason why they're so sexy is because they were modeled after Crockett's Scarab from the Miami Vice series, which at the time was the hottest TV series in history and cost just over $1 Million per episode to shoot and I'm still a big fan of the series which is why I'm probably such a sucker for these boats :biggrin: ...

As you know I've mentioned this before in my other villain threads, but our friend Make-A-Wake & Myself agree that the villain's sweet spot is 30-35 mph and anything over that is pointless because the Hull design just can't handle it and all it wants to do is try to turn into an airplane and it's like trying to drive a V8 in a roller skate :olleyes: . ..

These days hitting 30ish mph is fairly easy with good motors, nice props, bearing supported drives & outdrives with lightweight lipos even with brushed power. Back in the day if we would have had LiPO batteries the villain would have done much better than 19mph because the nimh's were just too heavy ...

the best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaWVUhudI9I

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Originally Posted by properchopper

the best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaWVUhudI9I

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Damn Tony, now I am going to have to dig up the MiamiVice box set for the collection, haha.

Following along Jim.

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Originally Posted by srislash

Damn Tony, now I am going to have to dig up the MiamiVice box set for the collection, haha.

Following along Jim.

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Ha ha, Howdy Shawn :tiphat:
It's been a while, at least since my last Villain build a few months back :biggrin: .. Thanks for the Vid Tony, without checking and just off the top of my head I believe that video is from me two part episode "Calderone" where Crockett and Tubbs take the Scarab from Florida over to the Caribbean island chain to try and catch the drug Smuggler, Calderon. I already have the complete series in my Digital Collection but I would love to pick up the box set on DVD and it would go nicely with my Nash Bridges box set, which is basically Don Johnson's follow-up Series 2 Miami Vice with Cheech Marin. As a matter of fact there's a Nash Bridges episode that has DJ, Philip Michael Thomas (Tubbs), Cheech Marin & Tommy Chong in it and I believe Stone Cold Steve Austin is as well hwhahahahahaha ..

On another note, from the looks of things it looks like it's really slow here on the board ?. I need to get a list of parts together that I need to order for this boat and after doing so I'm thinking about continuing this thread over in the RTF / Traxxas villain and EX Q&A which is probably where I should have put my other villain builds. There are a total of five threads there so it could definitely use an update ...

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Originally Posted by gsbuickman

Ha ha, Howdy Shawn :tiphat:
It's been a while, at least since my last Villain build a few months back :biggrin: .. Thanks for the Vid Tony, without checking and just off the top of my head I believe that video is from me two part episode "Calderone" where Crockett and Tubbs take the Scarab from Florida over to the Caribbean island chain to try and catch the drug Smuggler, Calderon. I already have the complete series in my Digital Collection but I would love to pick up the box set on DVD and it would go nicely with my Nash Bridges box set, which is basically Don Johnson's follow-up Series 2 Miami Vice with Cheech Marin. As a matter of fact there's a Nash Bridges episode that has DJ, Philip Michael Thomas (Tubbs), Cheech Marin & Tommy Chong in it and I believe Stone Cold Steve Austin is as well hwhahahahahaha ..

On another note, from the looks of things it looks like it's really slow here on the board ?. I need to get a list of parts together that I need to order for this boat and after doing so I'm thinking about continuing this thread over in the RTF / Traxxas villain and EX Q&A which is probably where I should have put my other villain builds. There are a total of five threads there so it could definitely use an update ...

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Actually the boat in the video is a 39 foot Chris Craft Stinger which was used in the first Miami Vice season - After that they switched to the Scarab - Also season one Crockett drove a Ferrari convertible (which was actually a kit car clone)

If you need any stuff for your rebuild - LMK. I have lots of unused stuff sitting around and you can have it if it'll help :thumbup1:

Nice find! I just picked one up NIB. Do you know what size flange bearings I need for drive shafts and outdrives?

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Originally Posted by emspjay

Nice find! I just picked one up NIB. Do you know what size flange bearings I need for drive shafts and outdrives?

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Here ya go :tiphat:

You need eight bearings total, 4 for the stuffing tubes and 4 for the outdrives. I usually order 15 bearings so I have several Spurs on hand because you will occasionally lose one. You'll need the appropriate graduated or step bit to ream out the outdrives. You don't want to ream out the inside diameter of the drives, you just want to ream out the retention wall in the center of the drive tubes that the bushings set against to make room for the wider flanged bearings. It's a little tricky and I usually do it by hand with the step bit . You'll also need a one foot stick of 11/32 brass tubing to replace both of the factory stuffing tubes so you'll need a Dremel or angle grinder with a metal cutting disc on it. I have several Traxxas villain build threads that you can follow like this one :

https://forums.offshoreelectrics.com...per&highlight=

Awesome! Thank you! I just ordered the bearings and tube. I will start a thread for mine when I get around to building it. It is the kit version which I never seen before, I have only seen the RTR version.

Aaaahhhh, I'm guessing that's the one I seen on eBay for $250 or so ?. When I get the parts in for this build I will either continue this thread in the boat building talk area or the rtr/traxxas/villain &ex area of the board :tiphat: ...

Yep it was on Ebay with a vintage Futaba radio system for $299 OBO and I got him down to $195. Just went through your other thread, can't wait to see what you do with this one :thumbup1:

On another note, the villain was only available in kit form for a long time before it was available RTF. Since you have the original kit and if it hasn't been assembled yet do yourself a favor and fill the empty cavity in between the hulls with two-part expanding marine foam, not the kind you spray in from an aerosol can. The kind you mix with water and pour in. It may make the boat a little bit heavier but it'll increase flotation & stiffen up the Hull.

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Originally Posted by gsbuickman

On another note, the villain was only available in kit form for a long time before it was available RTF. Since you have the original kit and if it hasn't been assembled yet do yourself a favor and fill the empty cavity in between the hulls with two-part expanding marine foam, not the kind you spray in from an aerosol can. The kind you mix with water and pour in. It may make the boat a little bit heavier but it'll increase flotation & stiffen up the Hull.

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Need I like button! Good idea!

You may also want to check out my more recent villain build thread that I did a few months ago because I used the villain EX motor mount system in it because it's a much better motor mount system than the stockville and motor mounts

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Originally Posted by gsbuickman

You may also want to check out my more recent villain build thread that I did a few months ago because I used the villain EX motor mount system in it because it's a much better motor mount system than the stockville and motor mounts

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I'm guessing that is the Monster Horsepower thread? Just went through that. You have done some cool builds with these old boats! I'm into the vintage boats myself but this is my first Villian build, and I think it will be my most expensive vintage build so far. I love the vintage boats because they look more scale. And yes I just ordered the EX mount it looks very solid! :rockon2:

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Originally Posted by emspjay

I'm guessing that is the Monster Horsepower thread? Just went through that. You have done some cool builds with these old boats! I'm into the vintage boats myself but this is my first Villian build, and I think it will be my most expensive vintage build so far. I love the vintage boats because they look more scale. And yes I just ordered the EX mount it looks very solid! :rockon2:

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Yep, that's the one & Thanks :biggrin: on another note I just ordered all the parts I need for this build as well as the water Outlets I was looking for to finish this build and the monster horsepower build :biggrin: ...

Well holy smokes & Howdy Howdy everybody :tiphat:

I kinda stepped away from things for a little while and took a short hiatus but it lasted a little longer than expected and then all this virus crap came out of nowhere and took me by surprise, needless to say I'm back and I hope everyone is okay and things here in my neck of the woods aren't too bad. Anyhoo, it's time for me to pick up where I left off and get both of these Villain's done.

As far as the monster horsepower goes, I just need to get a Y connector and install the new water Outlets and plug in the speed control and she's done. As far as The Reedy Express goes, I have all the parts I need for the building itself including a nice set of water outlets for it as well. I just need to strip the Hull and see what was done to it since it came with a set of X442's on it, but I'm betting it still has the stock drives on oilite bushings and that just won't do. Good thing I have some new K&S 11/32 tubing & Boca bearings to fix that just in case. The only thing I still need 4 it is some tinted lexan to make a new windshield for it and I still need to get a couple spoilers and struts for both boats for the unlimited class look I like but those are just cosmetics. As far as the new water Outlets go, I mentioned before that I was tired of the standard thru Hull outlets and I wanted to find something different yet still really cool and original just to be different and it definitely took a while to find what I was looking for but I'll give you all a clue cuz I like what I finally found from RC boat Bitz in Australia :biggrin: p

I found out about GSBuickman off of RCGroups, was told he the GO-TO guy for all thing Villian related.
Just picked up a Villian in pretty decent shape for $50 off of a co-worker. Looking to to upgrade it to modern technology
I have a pair of Turnigy Aquastar 3660-1460 kv motors along with a set of water cooled 120A ESC's capable of running 2s/6s

Well Howdy Howdy Bozzman :tiphat:

Congrats on your new Chapparel , I know we'd love to see some pics if and when you start a thread on it. RCGroups huh?, surprise surprise, I have a few things on there but I haven't been on there for awhile unfortunately, however I suspect you bumped into our friend and fellow vintage boat Junkie Make-A-Wake :biggrin: . He's actually the Go-To guy for all things Villain & Super Hawaii , however and as of late I do pinch-hit for him from time to time.

The #1 thing you need to realize that'll save you time, $ and a few headaches thanks to a lot of trial and error by numerous people is the Villain's are in they're sweet spot @ 30-35 mph . If you want to go faster than that get a better boat and those aquadtars would make a sweet twin 4s catamaran project and for safety sake I would never run those 120's on 6s.

With that being said unfortunately several of the villain parts have been discontinued and long since dried up including the upgraded motor mounts w" the 3mm aluminum motor mount plate that eliminates torsional twist and ads virginity to the Hull. Idk how you are at dik how you are @ diy but I can give you exact dimensions and pictures since it's just a flat piece of aluminum not hard to fab one up but it's not an absolute necessity either as we were building villains w/o them before they came out.

Luckily 11/16" K&S brass tubing and 3mm x 5mm x 8mm flanged bearings are plentiful and the best thing you can do is build some new stuffing tubes and 86 all the oilite bushings and put the driveshafts and outdrives on flanged bearings with a set of conversion prop shafts and aluminum CNC laser cut villain props from Steven here at the OSE parts shop. As far a motors go you just need a good set of matched 540 brushed motors like the Speed Gems 2 mills ( they're color-coded but I prefer the platinum's) but I've experimented with all kinds of motors and my two latest builds have Trinity Monster Horsepowers & a nice pair of Team Associated Reedy's with counter-rotating X442 props. The speed control of choice is the traxxas EVX2 from the Emaxx truck. Forget about the water cooled version as the cooling plate is made of plastic and the esc fets usually melt thru them causing issues so stick with a standard EVX2 and a Traxxas water cooling kit for the motors and you'll be golden on 4S lipo all day long.

With a good set of motors, upgraded drives and outdrives w/ props & shafts and a water cooling kit for the motors and possibly a set of turn fins it should easily put you in The Sweet Spot and you can't get much better than that and they're a lot of fun and suprisingly agile and fast especially considering they were designed in the early 80s as nicad powered boats :biggrin:

Btw, I have a few villain build threads sure on the board you can follow as how to's

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Originally Posted by gsbuickman

Well Howdy Howdy Bozzman :tiphat:

Congrats on your new Chapparel , I know we'd love to see some pics if and when you start a thread on it. RCGroups huh?, surprise surprise, I have a few things on there but I haven't been on there for awhile unfortunately, however I suspect you bumped into our friend and fellow vintage boat Junkie Make-A-Wake :biggrin: . He's actually the Go-To guy for all things Villain & Super Hawaii , however and as of late I do pinch-hit for him from time to time.

The #1 thing you need to realize that'll save you time, $ and a few headaches thanks to a lot of trial and error by numerous people is the Villain's are in they're sweet spot @ 30-35 mph . If you want to go faster than that get a better boat and those aquadtars would make a sweet twin 4s catamaran project and for safety sake I would never run those 120's on 6s.

With that being said unfortunately several of the villain parts have been discontinued and long since dried up including the upgraded motor mounts w" the 3mm aluminum motor mount plate that eliminates torsional twist and ads virginity to the Hull. Idk how you are at dik how you are @ diy but I can give you exact dimensions and pictures since it's just a flat piece of aluminum not hard to fab one up but it's not an absolute necessity either as we were building villains w/o them before they came out.

Luckily 11/16" K&S brass tubing and 3mm x 5mm x 8mm flanged bearings are plentiful and the best thing you can do is build some new stuffing tubes and 86 all the oilite bushings and put the driveshafts and outdrives on flanged bearings with a set of conversion prop shafts and aluminum CNC laser cut villain props from Steven here at the OSE parts shop. As far a motors go you just need a good set of matched 540 brushed motors like the Speed Gems 2 mills ( they're color-coded but I prefer the platinum's) but I've experimented with all kinds of motors and my two latest builds have Trinity Monster Horsepowers & a nice pair of Team Associated Reedy's with counter-rotating X442 props. The speed control of choice is the traxxas EVX2 from the Emaxx truck. Forget about the water cooled version as the cooling plate is made of plastic and the esc fets usually melt thru them causing issues so stick with a standard EVX2 and a Traxxas water cooling kit for the motors and you'll be golden on 4S lipo all day long.

With a good set of motors, upgraded drives and outdrives w/ props & shafts and a water cooling kit for the motors and possibly a set of turn fins it should easily put you in The Sweet Spot and you can't get much better than that and they're a lot of fun and suprisingly agile and fast especially considering they were designed in the early 80s as nicad powered boats :biggrin:

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Originally Posted by gsbuickman

Btw, I have a few villain build threads sure on the board you can follow as how to's

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Thanks for all the Info.
Yes, I've read about all your builds. I just copied and pasted all of them to a word document for easier accessibility along with pics :)

Your details will definitely save me from wasting time and money.