The Tamiya RC car thread

[generationx]

Fully restored Tamiya Mitsubishi Lancer WRC ‘98 (1/10, #58225)

[generationx]

And a group photo of the recent additions

[dom9]

Great collection!

[generationx]

Another restored Tamiya classic, this time the Porsche 911 GT1 ‘96 on the TA03-RS belt-drive chassis. I bought this on eBay years ago as a part-finished build where I think whoever had it took one look at the two decal sheets and, after badly cutting the body, put it to one side. I tidied the body, rebuilt the whole chassis, added ball bearings and some Porsche GT2 wheels, and finished it off as Tamiya intended. Lovely!





The gold across the roof and rear section is a one piece decal…



Where I started

[Burny16v]

Seeing these restorations has encouraged me to pull out my Tamiya Mondeo that was given to me about 10 years ago when I was a kid by my Dads friend. It's more or less sat on a shelf since then, until now. I'd given it a quick clean off (but it could do with a dust again!), bought a new battery pack and a 3D printed battery holder stay/clip thing. A controller I had for a Nikko car actually worked with it so I've confirmed mechanically it's fine, but would love a bit of guidance on how best to tackle freshening it up.

The wheels have yellowed and gone almost Subaru gold and the body is a little tatty but actually in exceptional condition compared to many I saw pop up on eBay - it actually seems really well painted and stickered up, it's just a few have peeled off and there is a crack or two in the front bumper. I don't know much about this sort of thing or where to source bits and pieces, but would love to tackle it and bring it back to its former glory! I may be wrong but it seems fairly unique as a front-"engined" FWD RC car.

[generationx]

Burny16v said:

Seeing these restorations has encouraged me to pull out my Tamiya Mondeo that was given to me about 10 years ago when I was a kid by my Dads friend. It's more or less sat on a shelf since then, until now. I'd given it a quick clean off (but it could do with a dust again!), bought a new battery pack and a 3D printed battery holder stay/clip thing. A controller I had for a Nikko car actually worked with it so I've confirmed mechanically it's fine, but would love a bit of guidance on how best to tackle freshening it up.

The wheels have yellowed and gone almost Subaru gold and the body is a little tatty but actually in exceptional condition compared to many I saw pop up on eBay - it actually seems really well painted and stickered up, it's just a few have peeled off and there is a crack or two in the front bumper. I don't know much about this sort of thing or where to source bits and pieces, but would love to tackle it and bring it back to its former glory! I may be wrong but it seems fairly unique as a front-"engined" FWD RC car.

Looks in pretty good shape! L&L Models have 3D printed replica wheels and replica bodies but I don’t know how accurate they are:

https://landlmodels.co.uk/search?q=mondeo

MCI Racing in Canada have good quality replica decals:

https://mciracing.ca/products/1-10th-tam-58143-for...

Most of the chassis parts should be fairly easy from eBay and the like. If you want to run it I’d recommend a cheapo Electronic Speed Controller (ESC) to replace the mechanical one.
Are you in the UK? If so Modelsport is a good supplier:

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/

But there are others of course.

For detailed parts information take a look at Tamiyabase:

https://tamiyabase.com/tamiya-models/58143-58143

Or TamiyaClub:

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/car.asp?cid=149

[blueST]

Nice Mondeo. It’s on an FF01 chassis. I have one. They drive really well. A lot of the parts are hard to find now. Mine is a shelf queen now as there are couple cracks after getting hammered when I was a kid. Any Tamiya touring car wheels should fit. If it hasn’t been done, replace the plastic bushes with bearings in the transmission and gearbox and hubs. It has a ball diff which acts like LSD and is neat piece of simple engineering. There is a good FB group for FF01 and I think someone on there is starting to 3d print some of the no longer available bits. Tony’s Tamiya Parts is good first look for plastic parts. The wheelbase can be changed by altering the rear chassis to accommodate different bodies.

[Burny16v]

Thanks very much for all those links and the information both, really appreciate it! It is indeed in pretty decent condition generally so cosmetically I’ll probably try to fix the crack as best I can and slap some new stickers on to replace the missing/peeling ones, repaint the wheels (or get new ones) and go from there. Mechanically I’ll definitely take into consideration all those points bluest, thanks. It might be nice to find another body for it, for variety, but it’ll probably be a shelf Queen too - I will still take it for the odd run out though!

[generationx]

Tamiya 1/10th buggy “Vanquish” (#58076, 1988) restored using mostly NOS parts with a body and wheels from the rere VQS and repro decals from MCI.

[TUS373]

Love the Vanquish. I picked up a battered one from Ebay. Been rebuilding and rebuilding. Replaced so many parts, I think I can actually build a second Vanquish...in other words the one I started with.

It has twin deck chassis, Hicap dampers, hopped up steering rack and carbon fibre parts. Got a TBG body on it in same blue as an Avante, which it could easily become. Just acquired a new body shell and thinking box art for it.

[100SRV]

generationx said:

And a group photo of the recent additions

Very nice, where to stop collecting?
Is the 037 4wd or RWD?
If it was RWD would it be a bit tricky to handle?

[generationx]

100SRV said:

generationx said:

And a group photo of the recent additions

Very nice, where to stop collecting?
Is the 037 4wd or RWD?
If it was RWD would it be a bit tricky to handle?

Thanks, and where indeed!

The 037 is 4WD but easy enough to convert. On tarmac they handle pretty well…

[rodericb]

generationx said:

100SRV said:

generationx said:

And a group photo of the recent additions

Very nice, where to stop collecting?
Is the 037 4wd or RWD?
If it was RWD would it be a bit tricky to handle?

Thanks, and where indeed!

The 037 is 4WD but easy enough to convert. On tarmac they handle pretty well…

Do you drive these cars? As in take them to the local offroad RC track for some lairy WRC style tail-out action? I built a GR Yaris with a MF01X chassis a couple of years ago, thought I'd do the paint later and I've gone through the standard rear pinion from the motor and a set of tyres already........

[generationx]

rodericb said:

Do you drive these cars? As in take them to the local offroad RC track for some lairy WRC style tail-out action? I built a GR Yaris with a MF01X chassis a couple of years ago, thought I'd do the paint later and I've gone through the standard rear pinion from the motor and a set of tyres already........

Ha ha it’s not an easy question! Some of these, such as the Porsche and Mitsubishi, are restorations of NLA cars and will only be displayed. I do have some that get used such as my Avante, Hotshot and Escort (on an M-08R RWD chassis). But I get as much, if not more, pleasure from building and restoring as running.

[TUS373]

Question on the Hotshot. Got a ReRe for my son about 6 years ago. We did a great build on it, with a brushless motor too.

However....the front end hits the ground on braking. It is just the design I expect. Was the original that bad, or is it in the set up? We have not run it for years for fear of wrecking it up grazing along the ground. We did get a metal front piece for it.

Are we better modding it?

[Caddyshack]

TUS373 said:

Question on the Hotshot. Got a ReRe for my son about 6 years ago. We did a great build on it, with a brushless motor too.

However....the front end hits the ground on braking. It is just the design I expect. Was the original that bad, or is it in the set up? We have not run it for years for fear of wrecking it up grazing along the ground. We did get a metal front piece for it.

Are we better modding it?

Back in the day there was a double front suspension mod, I would do that.

You could try some pre-load spacers on the standard spring, there is normally spacers in the kit (like c clips) and even some thicker shock oil but that really just slows down the travel.

[Caddyshack]

Here is the double setup on the super hotshot

[Caddyshack]

Pre load spacers and a link:

Note, these won’t make the suspension stiffer, it just puts the spring under tension sooner, sort of jacks it up a little.




https://sussex-model-centre.co.uk/products/spring-...

[generationx]

The Supershot upgrade is a good shout, and as it was recently rereleased all the parts are pretty easy to find.

You can check the manual for the bits needed:

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/manuals.asp?cm=368

[TUS373]

Thanks all.

I will take a look in the box to see if it came with clips for the damper. I like the originality with the single huge damper but the travel is too much.

Just got some ReRe Hicap dampers for my Vanquish. They are lovely items and at a price about 1/3 of what people have been asking for originals on Ebay. Great quality and sorted the Vanquish out well.