I bought the Mudblaster NIB in the late 80s. I put it together and ran it hard. I had lots of fun with it 20 years ago. It has seen two other bodies. The original Bratt and a Bronco body. Back then Tamiya parts were readily available at any hobby store. I never thought about it much. Once I had time I would just go get the parts and get it fun ready again. Over the years, I did put parts on it. Starting with an older transmitter and reciever I found on E-bay. It was a Magnum Jr which came with the receiver. The remote did not work, but I just used it for parts for my Magnum Sport. I found an original mechanical speed controler at the local hobby store about 10 years ago. I installed it and ran it.
I discovered the rear end was making grinding noises on takeoff. It still went after replacing the bad battery pack. From there it sat in my closet until recently. I pulled it out charged the battery and surprisingly ran for a good 15 minutes. Still had the grind in the rear end.
I started hitting the local hobby stores in search of parts. Yea, nobody sells the old or new Tamiya brand or parts anymore. My wife said maybe you should look into getting a new different one. I did look into it, but found all the new RC cars came preassembled, except for mounting the tires, customizing the body, etc.
What I really liked about the older kits, was you put it all together, all of it. Now they seem kinda cheezy that way. I am kinda old school I guess. No, I decided to rebuild my old MudBlaster.
After really looking it over, the only real issue with it was the noise coming from the gear box. I found a guy on E-bay that sells brand new gear boxes. I purchased that one and installed it. I felt a little guilty about buying a pre-built one. I looked at the cost of buying the parts separate. I found it was a lot cheaper to go that route. I make myself feel better, I took the old one apart and made an inventory or part to repair the old one.
I took it out and ran it. Yep just as much fun as I remember. Still needed a body. All my body mounting parts were either broken or missing. I order the body mounting pars and installed them from E-bay. I found new in bag replacements. Cool beans!!!
Ok now the body was a bit more of a challenge. I did find original body parts or the whole thing, for a lot of green. More than I was willing to pay for anyway. At Christmas my son got me a body. Not a direct fit so, some modification was in order.
I left the original body mounting there in case i stumbled across one for a reasonable price. I built different mounting parts out of aluminum stock from Home Depot, to fit my new Doge Ram body that goes to a gasser RC.
So here is the finished MudBlaster. It is all original except for the body. Still has the mechanical speed controller and a crystal transmitter and receiver.
Looks like my pics are too big to post, bummer......
