Please help with rebuilding TL01 Impreza

[MDifficult]

nellyleelephant said:

Metal damper rod snapped cleanly at the start of the thread, never seen that before!

Ouch!

Our first proper test drive will be tonight, so I’m going to be on high alert for brittle parts and screws stripping the threads out of 20 year-old plastic. Fingers crossed!

[MDifficult]

Well, what was supposed to be a little gentle spin around on the road outside the house turned into two batteries-worth of screaming around the park...

Goes like a stabbed rat!

Absolutely brilliant fun and feels so good to see my old car back to life - brings back so many great memories.

All it needs is a bit of bodywork painting, and the oil-filled shocks installed once they arrive. It’s pretty understeery and the front pogos pretty well on anything other than perfectly smooth tarmac - hopefully the shocks will help with that.

For anyone who’s got one of these squirrelled away somewhere... I can heartily recommend a rebuild!

[sgrimshaw]

Lots of fun can be had by sticking a set of drift wheels on these cars, eg:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tires-Blue-Wheel-Rims-f...

[MDifficult]

sgrimshaw said:

Lots of fun can be had by sticking a set of drift wheels on these cars, eg:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tires-Blue-Wheel-Rims-f...

No. More. Spending

[nellyleelephant]

MDifficult said:

No. More. Spending

Haha, yeah, ok.

I said that a few months back!

The latest broken part. Hit a tree in the garden at high speed. 3 new parts needed, one carbon. Track only I think from now on.

[MDifficult]

nellyleelephant said:

Haha, yeah, ok.

I said that a few months back!

The latest broken part. Hit a tree in the garden at high speed. 3 new parts needed, one carbon. Track only I think from now on.

We’re off to find some wide-open spaces tomorrow. Ideally with some jumps

Might take the GoPro too for a chuckle.

[MDifficult]

For anyone who'd like to see some pictures of the rebuild, I've added the Impreza to my 'Reader's Cars' thread for a bit of a laugh

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Thanks all for your help.

[MDifficult]

The Impreza’s had a busy few days over the weekend, with a couple of trips to a big local carpark and the local BMX track. My daughter has perfected the donut!

We managed to have a couple of pretty spectacular ‘moments’ but luckily nothing beyond a few cosmetic scrapes and some pretty battered wheels.

More worrying though, the car clearly has a problem with dragging it’s ass on the ground. First big bump or jump, the rear settles and never comes back up. My assumption is that the springs have lost whatever ‘spring’ they had and now they’re no match for the weight of the car. This, combined with a sag that allows the gearbox to touch the ground is a recipe for disaster.

The good news is that the oil-filled shocks arrived today and seem to be pre-fitted with some more substantial springs. I’ll fit these up this week and hopefully the ass-draggin’ will be cured.

[superkarl]

Thread revival

Any more progress on this?
I'm considering rebuilding my TL-01 with more modern parts. It's not seen the road in probably 15 years

[MDifficult]

superkarl said:

Thread revival

Any more progress on this?
I'm considering rebuilding my TL-01 with more modern parts. It's not seen the road in probably 15 years

Firstly... DO IT! It was great fun.

I actually added a fuller write up in my Readers Cars thread so you can see it here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

I did add oil-filled shocks later on to try to keep the damn thing on the ground (and it’s arse off the ground).

No doubt I probably spent more than was sensible and any later model would have been better value for money but... me an the little ‘un had a cracking time.

[Craikeybaby]

Reading this has added to my motivation to rebuild my Tamiya M-04M MX-5. It isn't the greatest chassis, but it gives me memories of my old car. My 3 year old son (and certainly his baby brother) probably isn't old enough to appreciate it fully, despite his love for anything toy car, but I am sure we will build something together in the future! I've started a build thread , as I enjoyed reading this one.