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TN's King Cab New Build & Restore Projects

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Everyone's first Tamiya has a special place in their heart. Mine was the King Cab, July 19th 1990. I really wanted a Bruiser but my very clued up friend at the time said they were too slow, hard to build and not much fun for kids. I didn't know it at the time but how right he was. I've now scratched that itch with a Mountain Rider and Bruiser body set. My second choice was a Blackfoot but he said that wasn't much different, still that one to tick off.

Him and myself met up with another school friend who'd just bought a King Cab already built, and after repairing a large crack in the tub with Araldite we took it for a spin. Decision made.

I pestered my Mum and Dad for the KC, even though at £220 for the kit, radio gear and battery it was over double what I was usually allowed. A visit to Cheshire Models in Macclesfield a few days later and a KC was ordered. It works out at nearly £500 in today's money so I certainly did well.

We collected it about two weeks before my birthday and I passed the agonising wait by poring over the 1990 Tamiya catalogue (still got it) and by reading the manual which I'd snuck out of the box.

The 19th arrived and finally I had it in my hands. my mum even made me a King Cab birthday cake (photo of a photo, sorry):

king-cab-cake.jpg

I made a complete mess of the body (brush painted with the wrong blue), crashed it on the first run (didn't reset the servos before installation) and because I'd never heard of threadlock it fell apart every time I drove it.

I only remember taking one photo of it, which I managed to come across today, located in the archetypal shoebox of old photos, scanned and uploaded:

king-cab-1990.jpg

It served me well, taking it to the BMX track at South Park in Macclesfield with my friend and his Terra Scorcher, running for 15 minutes then fruitlessly trying to quick charge our batteries from a car charger, neither of us being able to afford spare batteries. At Christmas 1992 another friend got a Hi-Lux Monster Racer which we ran together for a few short months until July 1993 when I needed money for a new mountain bike. I sold the car and radio gear for £90 to a lad in the year above me at school.

All I have left is this:

king-cab-box.jpg

Nothing inside but memories:

king-cab-emptybox.jpg

25 years later I started looking for another and located a perfect NIB. Unbelievably still shrink wrapped. I doubt I could have found a better one!

king-cab-nib.jpg

Way too good to build, so it's time to refill that empty box and build one from parts.

This is how it starts:

king-cab-parts-apr-12.jpg

I've got rear wheels, chassis and more bits on the way. I'd like to use a genuine body rather than a ***** repro, but I suspect availability might be an issue there.

Either way, 25 years later and more money, more patience and more experience means I can produce something that looks more like the beautiful catalogue images and less like the brush painted abomination of my youth!

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I admire your effort . I've hunted down all of the parts for a few new build models in the past and it takes some time to do ,but very rewarding once you get the final piece , or pieces :). I think you did a good job on your first truck , a lot of 'youth' models have hideous non box art paint jobs , and decals all over the place .

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Great story, I love the King Cab & Monster Racer.

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Like the KingCab pity Tamiya didnt do a rere with that shell.

If you're in need of more parts, I have several leftovers/spares from my monster Hilux.

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Great post. I bought a KingCab last year, don't know how I never bought one the first time around. Mine's got a ***** shell but I still love it. It came with some spares too but I'm not sure what I've got.

kingcab7.jpg

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Brilliant story. I think a lot of us have the same type of experience as you've had. I actually had one of these on order for a christmas present as a kid and my brother was going to get the hilux version. We both changed our minds at the last minute to a bullhead and clodbuster but they werent as fast as my mates mudblaster so some times I regretted it.

If I see any parts I'll send you a link. Good luck in your search. It'll be worth it. :)

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More parts arrived this week, including rear wheels which seem a lot rarer than the fronts:

king-cab-parts-apr-17.jpg

Another one!

One project seems to have turned into two, as an impulse eBay purchase lead to this. For £90 I'm very happy!

ebay-king-cab-3.jpg

Body remarkably undamaged, no splits, cracks or crumpled corners but has a few extra holes. Lights have been left clear for some reason:

ebay-king-cab-5.jpg

Spike tyres still quite spiky! (Corner here looks crumpled but it's just the sticker)

ebay-king-cab-1.jpg

A bit grubby but in pretty good condition:

ebay-king-cab-2.jpg

Sloppy paint job with sparkley metallic red:

ebay-king-cab-4.jpg

Numbers still on stickers, lazy!

ebay-king-cab-6.jpg

Much narrower than I remember, looks a bit anorexic next to a more modern truck:

ebay-kc-and-twin-det.jpg

Think this explains some of the extra holes:

ebay-kc-on-twin-det.jpg

Looks good on the WT-01 chassis though! Might have to get a ***** body for it :D Needs to sit a bit further forward than this though.

Plan with this one is to dismantle, clean and rebuild it, will have a go at stripping the paint. Not sure I can do anything about the holes, other than cover with stickers?

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The king cab body looks amazing on the wt01 chassis. How does it compare to the wt01 handling wise? I love the handling on my wt01 beetle.

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Everyone's first Tamiya has a special place in their heart. Mine was the King Cab, July 19th 1990. I really wanted a Bruiser but my very clued up friend at the time said they were too slow, hard to build and not much fun for kids. I didn't know it at the time but how right he was. I've now scratched that itch with a Mountain Rider and Bruiser body set. My second choice was a Blackfoot but he said that wasn't much different, still that one to tick off.

Him and myself met up with another school friend who'd just bought a King Cab already built, and after repairing a large crack in the tub with Araldite we took it for a spin. Decision made.

I pestered my Mum and Dad for the KC, even though at £220 for the kit, radio gear and battery it was over double what I was usually allowed. A visit to Cheshire Models in Macclesfield a few days later and a KC was ordered. It works out at nearly £500 in today's money so I certainly did well.

We collected it about two weeks before my birthday and I passed the agonising wait by poring over the 1990 Tamiya catalogue (still got it) and by reading the manual which I'd snuck out of the box.

The 19th arrived and finally I had it in my hands. my mum even made me a King Cab birthday cake (photo of a photo, sorry):

I made a complete mess of the body (brush painted with the wrong blue), crashed it on the first run (didn't reset the servos before installation) and because I'd never heard of threadlock it fell apart every time I drove it.

I only remember taking one photo of it, which I managed to come across today, located in the archetypal shoebox of old photos, scanned and uploaded:

It served me well, taking it to the BMX track at South Park in Macclesfield with my friend and his Terra Scorcher, running for 15 minutes then fruitlessly trying to quick charge our batteries from a car charger, neither of us being able to afford spare batteries. At Christmas 1992 another friend got a Hi-Lux Monster Racer which we ran together for a few short months until July 1993 when I needed money for a new mountain bike. I sold the car and radio gear for £90 to a lad in the year above me at school.

All I have left is this:

Nothing inside but memories:

25 years later I started looking for another and located a perfect NIB. Unbelievably still shrink wrapped. I doubt I could have found a better one!

Way too good to build, so it's time to refill that empty box and build one from parts.

This is how it starts:

I've got rear wheels, chassis and more bits on the way. I'd like to use a genuine body rather than a ***** repro, but I suspect availability might be an issue there.

Either way, 25 years later and more money, more patience and more experience means I can produce something that looks more like the beautiful catalogue images and less like the brush painted abomination of my youth!

Love the opening of the thread and the story behind it. I especially love the birthday cake. You had some very understanding and loving parents!

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More parts arrived this week, including rear wheels which seem a lot rarer than the fronts:

Another one!

One project seems to have turned into two, as an impulse eBay purchase lead to this. For £90 I'm very happy!

Body remarkably undamaged, no splits, cracks or crumpled corners but has a few extra holes. Lights have been left clear for some reason:

Spike tyres still quite spiky! (Corner here looks crumpled but it's just the sticker)

A bit grubby but in pretty good condition:

Sloppy paint job with sparkley metallic red:

Numbers still on stickers, lazy!

Much narrower than I remember, looks a bit anorexic next to a more modern truck:

Think this explains some of the extra holes:

Looks good on the WT-01 chassis though! Might have to get a ***** body for it :D Needs to sit a bit further forward than this though.

Plan with this one is to dismantle, clean and rebuild it, will have a go at stripping the paint. Not sure I can do anything about the holes, other than cover with stickers?

You might try cutting a clean hole around the existing sloppy jobbers and use a piece of scrap lexan the exact size of the new hole. Use sheet rock tape (mesh type) and Shoe Goo to affix and reinforce from the underside. You'll still need to use a sticker over top but at least it'll have some structural rigidity behind the sticker. ;)

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The king cab body looks amazing on the wt01 chassis. How does it compare to the wt01 handling wise? I love the handling on my wt01 beetle.

Er... no idea (yet)! I'll give this a wee run tomorrow and report back. Just popped a battery in and 8 AAs in the world's filthiest Techniplus that came with it and it all seems to work.

The WT-01 in the pics is a Blackfoot III with a Twin Detonator body. It's well used but I've got another Twin Det body to go on (prefer Lexan for running and the wheelbase is better on this shell). I'm going to go twin brushless 4x4 with this soon.

Love the opening of the thread and the story behind it. I especially love the birthday cake. You had some very understanding and loving parents!

Still do :) Just twigged too, that I paid the same £90 for this one as I sold the last one for.

You might try cutting a clean hole around the existing sloppy jobbers and use a piece of scrap lexan the exact size of the new hole. Use sheet rock tape (mesh type) and Shoe Goo to affix and reinforce from the underside. You'll still need to use a sticker over top but at least it'll have some structural rigidity behind the sticker. ;)

Cheers, I'll give that a go.

Binned the small silver body pins and put the correct large ones on and replaced the horrible yellow antenna with a proper clear one and it looks better already.

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Went for a run outside yesterday and got about 6 foot before the steering arm fell off. Exactly like what used to happen 25 years ago! Put it back on and immediately there's something wrong, stick up and the motor gets faster but the truck does not. Obviously diff or gearbox related.

I've now completely dismantled and partially rebuilt it. New shock oil and importantly thread lock on any metal to metal nuts/bolts.

With the diff in bits I can see what the problem might be:

ebay-kc-old-diff.jpg

One of the 0.05mm spacers is smaller than the other and looks chewed up. There's also some additional shims in there. Not sure if someone has tried to fix it or what. No sign of grease anywhere in the box, just some oil like residue which seams to have leaked out into the chassis. I'll get replacement diff parts and rebuild.

Other than that it only needed the screws, washers and nuts for the battery retainer on one side plus a couple of 3mm e-clips for the front kingpins. One's bent and the other had been replaced with a rubber o-ring.

It's cleaned up a treat. Just some minor scuffing to the chassis and suspension arms. Looks like it's only run a couple of times. Nothing's perished - the o-rings and seals in the shocks feel like new and the pinion and motor look excellent too:

ebay-kc-motor.jpg

Tested some paint removal techniques on the roll bar (I have a spare so not worried about damaging it). Acetone shifted the paint but fogged the lexan, Meguiars degreaser lifted a tiny little bit and Valet Pro tar and glue remover did nothing. I've got some Autosmart Tardis on the way so will try that and Carson Paint killer.

The paint is brushed on so it's not Tamiya PS. The black looks matt on the inside and all colours are flaking off so I don't think it's any type of polycarb paint.

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Nice Kingcab's ! I have also built one from new parts and got a nice runner too, I used egress diff housings (one needs machining) with three shims fitted, this has run like this for years, ran it recently at one of the Iconic meets...

I think the std monkey metal diff housing flex too much and crack and allow the diff to slip and melt the plastic gear.

If its Tamiya paint I have had some success using Tamiya lexan cleaner but its a long job but did not damage the body, I think its only available from Japan in a small bottle with a violet top.

P.S. you Kingcab box is much nicer than the one I have!

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I used egress diff housings (one needs machining) with three shims fitted

What needs doing to the housing? The original and re-re look to be quite different, do only the original parts fit? From what I can tell studying the manuals it looks like the diff spur gear has a different number of teeth so I'm guessing this won't fit?

I don't think the paint is Tamiya, it's brushed, the red is metallic and flaking off so I think it's some kind of regular paint. It's pretty thin!

ebay-king-cab-trans.jpg

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It's cleaned up better than I'd hoped for. Replaced a few missing or incorrect screws from my spares and needs new diff washers but other than that it's all good.

ebay-king-cab-rebuilt-3.jpg

ebay-king-cab-rebuilt-2.jpg

ebay-king-cab-rebuilt-4.jpg

Speed controller wires a bit melted. I'll shorten them slightly and fit new terminals:

ebay-king-cab-rebuilt-1.jpg

Tyres look amazing. Too good to run!

ebay-king-cab-rebuilt-5.jpg

I've taken off the extra shock preload clips and the front sags properly now. Also fitted the correct clear antenna tube and a (period incorrect) power switch sticker (should be red and blue).

Got some Autosmart Tardis which shifts the red and blue paint no problem. The black and white seems a lot more stubborn though. It's soaking at the moment so will see how it goes.

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That has come up amazing. Doesn't look like you need to bother to build the one for spares?

Loved the king cab as kid - i had a Marui big bear at the time of the KC, then got a stadium blitzer after that. So no king cab in my youth.

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That looks great - the chassis looks like a new build! Hope you can achieve similar miracles with the shell!

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Bits arrived today:

ebay-king-cab-diff-parts-new.jpg

- Parts for the diff rebuild (plus a spare set of internals and casings)

- Hi-Lux Monster Racer body posts, 'cos they were cheap and I might use them at some point

- E-rings and screws to replace the missing items

- New terminals for the speed controller

- New A parts, the gearbox housing looks to be damaged but the gears seem to spin OK, will replace if needed

Paint partially stripped:

ebay-king-cab-partially-stripped-2.jpg

Got some more stuff to try:

ebay-king-cab-partially-stripped-1.jpg

Will probably have to loose the decals so had an idea to use a mix of repro and genuine replacements. Some of the sponsor logos on the repros I've seen look a bit iffy but most of them appear on these sheets:

king-cab-decals-othercars.jpg

Can't justify a set of originals for this less than perfect body. Not so much the cost, just using up something so rare.

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This is the other option. I spent a bit of time at the weekend recreating the logos so I can print them myself.

king-cab-decals-redrawn-screenshot.jpg

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So, the De-Solv-It shifted the black but it's caused the shell to become brittle and it's now cracked at the corners :(Can't strip and repaint on the inside so it's plan B AND plan C time...

Plan B

If I can't paint the inside, I'll paint the outside. I've seen this done before and my process will be to re-enforce the shell with fibreglass or suchlike, repair the cracks with filler then paint first with PS clear or white, then TS colours.

Plan C

As I hope to either get a genuine shell at some point I thought I should have a practice run on a repro to make sure I know what I'm doing. Enter one Team Bluegroove shell:

ebay-king-cab-tbg-masked-1.jpg

Masking this was not fun, and probably the worst RC related job I've done. Made the Sand Scorcher seem easy.

I also obtained some decals which are better than any I've seen but not as good as my recreations - the font for Hyper Cam and Hardman on the wings is too thin for example.

Still, didn't turn out too bad (I've since tidied up the lights front and rear with a black Sharpie):

ebay-king-cab-tbg-finished-1.jpg

ebay-king-cab-tbg-finished-2.jpg

ebay-king-cab-tbg-finished-4.jpg

I'm glad I did this because I've learnt a lot:

- Check the inside of the shell thoroughly for overspray with each paint session and remove with Tamiya Polycarb cleaner. I did check but missed a few bits.

- More coats of blue and red are required. I gave it three but the white backing is showing in places.

- The blue to white separation should be slightly higher up as the sponsor decals on the rear quarters are very close.

- Don't put too much washing up liquid in the bowl when using water for decals, I now have a smear of dried suds behind the windscreen decal.

- The ***** shell has some extraneous pulls on the mould by the cab back where the roll bar mounts - don't use side cutters to remove - it'll crack the shell a little around that area.

- Maybe don't back with white - it looks odd inside the arches.

What did work well:

- Using polycarb cleaner to tidy up bleeds, although not all the time sadly.

- A black Sharpie around the headlights and tail lights to tidy up bleeds / inaccurate masking (not shown in pics).

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Stunning job mate, One of my all time favorites.

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Thanks guys!

Nex time, get some liquid mask-lifes too short for that much tape :wacko:

I've got some but never used it. Need to get some practice in. I think it would be tricky to get a knife in up on top of the tail lights though.

Done a bit more on tidying up the lights, much better!

ebay-king-cab-tbg-lights-tidied-1.jpg

ebay-king-cab-tbg-lights-tidied-2.jpg

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