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Kiwi Blackfoot Resto Mod

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The Blackfoot was the very first Tamiya that I I ever used as a kid and I still have vivid memorys of it bouncing over the dirt section next to our house. My uncle came to visit one day and I couldnt believe my eyes when he pull a monster truck out of his boot!!

And so the love affair with Tamiya Began.

This is my second Blackfoot but I decided that I want a runner that I can relive those days and bring back that feeling of using a Tamiya for the very first time!

I stumbled across this BF on the bay for a really fair price and it looked to be in great conditon so a few bids later and it was on its way to New Zealand

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When it arrived I was plesantly surprised, it seemed to be in really good nick. From the outside the first things I noticed were the tires had flat spots, the body was missing the rear window and there were a few scuffs on the body. All in all not too bad but I,m sure when I come to strip it there will be a few other suprises, I havent had a vintage tamiya yet where there wasnt something a miss under the shell :)

Ive been doing a ton of research on TC and other various forums and have a huge list of what I want to acheive with this BF. I want a reliable every day runner which can handle the knocks I throw at it. I have a mint shelf queen so this is going to be a full resto mod, I found TAZ-NZ (fellow kiwi) thread on tweaking an original BF to be a modern day runner so Ive ordered quite a few parts but wanted to strip the BF before I got to carried away so I could see what needed replacing etc

First thing I did was remove the wheels and the front end. The first hub adapter crumbled and the second almost managed to stay in one piece almost! The front supension arms arent to bad but there are a couple of splits so out they go. I'm going to replace them with madbull steering arms and king blackfoot uprights.

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I then started pulling apart the rear end etc and found a huge amount of yellow grease packed in the transmission

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The rest of the chassis was in great condition with no splits or cracks to be seen. It came with a novack esc and some sort of after market motor, Im not sure what type. Now its pulled apart next job is to clean everything with hot soapy water and wait for the parts to arrive. Really not looking forward to pulling apart the gearbox and cleaning it <_< . I might have to start on the body while I'm waiting!

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Its going to be messy!!

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Cheers Andy :D

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Love a good ORV build! Interested to see what you do with the Mad Bull arms...be sure to post that up.

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Snuck down to the LHS at lunch time and have them sourcing some parts for me, fingers crossed :rolleyes:

I managed to find a spare few minutes tonight so I thought id tackle the gear box cleaning, couldnt believe my eyes when I took the cover off! Ive never seen that much grease in my life! couldnt face it so will do it tomorrow :)

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Thats some thick solid grease!!

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Are you sure this is just grease? :lol:

Good luck on the resto, and I'm looking forward to see how you modify the front hubs to King Blackfoot specs.

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Are you sure this is just grease? :lol:

Good luck on the resto, and I'm looking forward to see how you modify the front hubs to King Blackfoot specs.

LOL Ive never seen so much grease packed into a gearbox before! Before I stripped it I gave it a quick run and couldnt figure out way it was so slow, figured it was a stuffed motor but I'm thinking it was now the harden gease!!

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Started cleaning the worst gearbox Ive ever seen today! few of the gears are pretty worn so looking for replacements so no need to clean them :) , ordered a new bevel gear set from a rere frog along with frog rere universals.

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Starting to look a little better, couldnt look worse thats for sure! LOL

The new tires arived today so I thought I'd fit them to the wheels, went to remove the originals but didnt know that they were glued :( This is what happened when I tried to take them off...........lots of rubber left on the rim and its stuck fast! Any suggestions on removing it?? or will I have to buy new rims....

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Ive tried boiling rims and tires in the past but never with any real sucess, ****** :wacko:

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Decided to make a start on the body while waiting for the parts in the post. Stripped off all the original decals (which I felt really gulity doing!) and cleaned of all the left over residue from the decals. The bodys in pretty good nick with only light scuffing on some edges and a few scratches.

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Wasnt to sure how to tackle cleaning up the scuffing so grabbed some wet and dry sand paper and started lighty sanding the affected areas. Going to buy some finer wet and dry tomorrow and give it another sanding then a coat of primer. Need to decide on a color?

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How its looking after a light sanding, thinking of filling in the sun roof

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Snuck down to the LHS at lunch time and have them sourcing some parts for me, fingers crossed :rolleyes:

I managed to find a spare few minutes tonight so I thought id tackle the gear box cleaning, couldnt believe my eyes when I took the cover off! Ive never seen that much grease in my life! couldnt face it so will do it tomorrow :)

Blackfoot%20resto%2013_zpswmricmll.jpg

Blackfoot%20resto%2014_zpsubnaki1w.jpg

Thats some thick solid grease!!

Looking at that grease , you could repack your front wheel bearing's on your 1:1 car :lol:.

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Cutter and some little files and many time. You don't need new wheels, you need to cut away the glued rubber and file away the glue inside the wheel grooves.

Max

The new tires arived today so I thought I'd fit them to the wheels, went to remove the originals but didnt know that they were glued :( This is what happened when I tried to take them off...........lots of rubber left on the rim and its stuck fast! Any suggestions on removing it?? or will I have to buy new rims....

BF%20Resto%2016_zpsqrtfpyg1.jpg

Ive tried boiling rims and tires in the past but never with any real sucess, ****** :wacko:

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Cutter and some little files and many time. You don't need new wheels, you need to cut away the glued rubber and file away the glue inside the wheel grooves.

Max

Thanks Max, I thought that they were going to be too hard to bring back from the dead, so I started looking online for a replacement set and got even more frustrated :mellow: Decided to give it another shot and soaked the tires and rims in boiling water for 30min. I then put on some rubber gloves and started pulling the tire away from the rim very carefully (hot!!) to my amazement it popped of pretty well. I did all four and cleaned up the remaining rubber and glue with a craft knife and sand paper. Thanks for your message Max, you made me get of my ******* and try again :D Cheers!

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Soaked each tire and rim for about 30min each before removing with tongs

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All cleaned up with new (second hand but in good nick) monster beetle tires and some cheeky black detailing on the rims. Good thing about boiling your wheels is that it cleans up the rims really well :lol:

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The first of many order parts arrived today, Metal sealed bearings and aluminum swing arm supports from a frog.

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Finished sanding the body this afternoon and gave it two coats of primer. My plan was to paint it black apply the repo decals and then clear coat. I'm now thinking I want to be a little different and maybe go for a non box art paint job? This may take some re thinking as I'm normaly a box art kind of guy :)

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If you have trouble getting your hands on Mad Bull stub axles/steering knuckles, then King Blackfoot and Stadium Blitzer ones are the same. Maybe even Super Blackfoot ones, but I am not 100% sure.

I have a tatty old Blackfoot shell left over from a project as well, but I'm still unsure on how to paint it.

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Thanks for that Greg, I just learnt something new :-) Hopefully I've sourced a set from a TC member just waiting on postage costs.

After lots of research last night I decided on traditional semi gloss black for the BF. The whole reason for this resto mod is that I want to try and recreate that feeling of using a tamiya for the first time again. When I used my uncles his was box art and beside I think they look best box art! :-)

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I'm starting think I'm cursed!! Started cleaning up the chassis today and was scrubbing away and felt a little flexing....right side has a crack :-( The last project I did also had a cracked chassis. Just when I thought I was done spending money on this build........

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Sorry to hear about the chassis. I have some uprights I think are from a stadium blitzer or something similar here, might be what you're after? I have originals too, but they aren't very strong. No rear window. What else are you after?

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Sorry to hear about the chassis. I have some uprights I think are from a stadium blitzer or something similar here, might be what you're after? I have originals too, but they aren't very strong. No rear window. What else are you after?

Thanks Neil, pretty much all I need now is a driver, sunroof and the two sides for the chassis. Waiting to hear from another TC member regarding those and if that doesn't pan out Ive found some on ebay for a good price, they are a new item from a rere frog. Thanks for the offer and I'll keep you in mind if I discover anything else I need (I'm sure I will :rolleyes: )

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So I'm pretty much at the mercy of Mr postman now, cant really to do much more until some of my parts arrive. I sprayed the body in a semi gloss black and started doing some detailing, Working on the grill at the moment which is coming along nicely. I'm unsure of whether to spray the clear coat on and then apply the decals (which haven't arrived yet :( ) or apply the decals and then apply the clear coat. The BF decals are quite large and I'm worried what the clear will finish like on them? Any suggestions welcome :)

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I'm really happy with how its looking as body was in good shape but not great, and its coming along nicely :D

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Let me know, Andy. I have a frog chassis here too and associated bits for a frog that I am never going to build. Would look cool rit dyed black B)

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How much are you wanting for the frog chassis and bits Neil? I agree would look very cool dyed black, can you get rit dye in NZ and if so where? Send a PM with price

Cheers :-)

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Painted the grill yesterday, hasn't turn out too bad considering I'm very average at painting and there are quite a few marks and scratches.

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Ive decided to clear coat the body with out the decals on as I'm worried about damaging them. Hopefully the postman will have some pressies for me soon! :D

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Yay!! the postie brought me some goodies today :lol: Still a lot more to go but its a start.

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So some more supply's turned up this morning including a hobbywing brushless 21.5 combo. I run this setup in another car of mine and love it so I was thinking that it might be a good choice for my modded Blackfoot. Given that I am wanting to run a brushless system in a truck from the late 80's Id thought Id do the sensible mods like new gears, bevels and universal shafts, new and stronger steering and uprights, alloy shock towers, better shocks, bearings etc etc. I'm now having second thoughts and am wondering if I'm doing the right thing? Will it be to much for my vintage BF? I'm thinking a sport tuned might be a safer option, argghh what to do :wacko:

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Well about 90% of the goods have arrived for my build but unfortunately I,m out of town for work until late next week so Id thought I share what I did last night before rushing off to the airport :)

I brought a new set of super blackfoot front uprights and some mad bull front axles (thanks to skip665!) The original BF uprights were cracked and brittle so needed replacing.

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The new upright is a little shorter than the old but shouldn't be to much of a problem. Next was to swap all the parts across to the new uprights, everything else is in pretty good nick so was an easy change :)

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The Madbull axles are a perfect fit but the original BF axles are a tad to long. Instead of buying new ones a quick dremmel took care of the extra length :)

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All cleaned up and ready go. This is where I had to finish for the night and go and pack but I couldn't resist applying a few decals just to keep me satisfied over the next week. These are repos and are quite a bit thicker than the originals but are pretty good. I always use the water with a few drops of dish washing liquid method to apply decals and always works a treat :D Until next time

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Sorry for the blurred pic, its of my phone and I was in a hurry. Will post better ones when Im back. Gotta go!

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