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My restoration of a 959

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Hello friends...last week I began restoring one of my all time favorite RC cars, the Paris Dakar Porsche 959. I've always wanted one and lusted over them in hobby shop windows as a child, and now I finally got my hands on one..well two actually.

I've never driven one, and never had any friends lucky enough to have one, so this is all new to me. After many searches, and research, I finally decided to bite the bullet and get cracking.

I won a bid on ebay on one that appeared to be in good shape, but with a wrecked body. It also came with some NIP gear sets, extra light buckets, rear spoiler, muffler tips, and three sets of wheels/tires. The slicks, some used rally blocks, and a set of unused wheels and rally blocks

While the bid was going on for that one, I was able to buy one outright from another seller on ebay. The second one was beaten, and didn't come with a body, but I picked it up pretty cheap, and can use it for a parts car. After this restoration, I do plan on running it, so a parts car made sense.

So here we are, the two vehicles, the original body, and a reproduction body for the restoration

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I removed the MSC, and plan to run a modern Tamiya TEU-104 or 5 ESC

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Here's the body, in pretty poor shape

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The better chassis, with Technigold..I was able to find a new brush set for it, and plan to rebuild it.

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The reproduction body

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Trimming

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I decided to apply the paint the way it was done in 1986, by brush. I have to admit, this is the most challenging paint application I have ever done, and am so glad times have changed. Great deals of patience, lots of masking, and a very steady hand are needed.

Masking and painting

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For the two tone scheme, I first ran a tape line on the outside of the shell, and mirrored it from the inside

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And this is where I stand at the moment. I am not thrilled with how it is coming out thus far, but I hope decals will help hide the imperfections. This week all new ball bearings came in, as well as a Celica Gr. B front sway bar and center differential. Reproduction and original decals have arrived and so did the cockpit.

I plan to finish the paint work this weekend, and possibly apply the decals. Then the chassis tear down begins.

Any help and/or pointers from those who've done this before would be welcomed and greatly appreciated!

Thanks for viewing, and stay tuned for many more pics!

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The 959 is one of the toughest paintjobs ever. Looks great from here though. I have a 959 that I started to restore, but is now on hold because of the price of the parts I need (the whole rear end). I would gladly take those 2 msc if you won't be using them lol

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Looks great to me.

The decals will hide a lot of little blemishes so it will be fine. Whats a nice project and maybe one day I will get one since ***** have so many parts for them now.

@ pizzachaude are these MSC rare as I have a few with that colour board or is it a little different to the non 959 MSC with the same board??? From memory it was the 959 to feature that new board .

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Good work! I am keeping an eye on this thread.

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Great start to your project.

The 959 rocks!

Hardest paintjob I have ever done but you seem to be making a lovely job of it.

Good luck and keep the photos coming.

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very nice, i had a celica. that i restored and sold on very stupidly. it had about 90% new parts that took me well over a year to collect, i still dont want to add up the cost of all those bits. :(

002_zps96c66005.jpg

i never got round to painting it. i think if i had i would never of sold it.

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Great thread so far matey, what paint are you using out of curiosity as I have 2 cars to resto myself and the main reason I keep putting them off is the paint job?

Here's my collection (the Celica on the right is a mint new build that I paid the grand sum of £50 for (yes that includes a brand new Technigold)).

null_zpsb0ba6529.jpg

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Great project, classic model, another one I stupidly sold :(

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Mad Racer: After a closer look, and I also searched in the showrooms, it appears that the MSC used in the 959 is the same one that's used in the Blackfoot, Monster Beetle, Boomerang, etc. There is a different MSC used in the Clodbuster and Kingcab (and probably others), but the board is the same brown color. It has an additonnal copper wire on the top of it

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Thanks pizzachaude . I have a few of those brown boards MSC new from kits i bought. over the years.

Love the 959 & Celica .

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Thank you gents!! I really needed some motivation and I definitely got it from these pics posted. I feared that this build would get stale and be put on the back burner. I picked up another vehicle and plan to clean it up and bring it back to its former glory.

As for the paint, I've been using this Duratrax paint the my lhs sold me, said it's for PC shells

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It's been working for the most part. It's forgiving. Before it's completely dry, you you can peel your mask, and persuade the paint a bit by giving it a nudge with something flat and dull.

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:(

So, another week has past, and I was able to paint the second color and apply the decals. I am very disappointed with a major mistake I made applying the white. I thought backing the already painted blue section with white would have been a good idea. Well, all I ended up doing with each brush stroke was pulling blue into my white sections. It was hard to tell at first since the repro body is wrapped in a blue mask. But once uncovered, well...you can judge for yourself. All I can say is that I am disappointed. I've decided that this body will be the runner shell and I will start another one once I finish the chassis restoration. All the plastic bits like the mirrors, lights, etc will go on the shelfer body.

This being the runner body, the decals I applied to this shell are from a repro sheet. I have an original Tamiya 959 Rothman's decal sheet which will only be cut up if the next shell is absolutely perfect.

Anyway, enough talk..along with the pictures

Windows and lights masked

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:unsure:

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:angry:

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Parts not going on this shell

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Decals applied

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Repro vs. original

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-_-

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Awaiting chassis tear down

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Alongside another rallye great :D

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I'm eager to get the chassis disassembled, cleaned, re-greased, and re-oiled. I have the Celica Gr B front sway bar and center differential which I plan to install as well. Today I hope to get started and go throughout the weekend as much as possible...(I'm thankful to my wife :D )...and I'll be happy to share all of the progress pics, thanks for viewing

:)

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Looks great for a runner, but if its got to be perfect, personnally Id use Tamiya spray cans. Remember you're painting what must be Tamiya's toughest paint job (OK the Kingcab is a tough one too...).

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Looks great for a runner mate, if it was me I'd actually be happy that it went a bit wrong so that my conscience wouldn't be eating away at me when driving it.

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Painted the crew over the weekend...

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That blue mask really throws you for a loop

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I'm pleased with the way the driver and co-driver came out :)

Stay tuned for more pics! Thanks for viewing :D

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You should try a matt finish ove the drivers surface. Tamiya made an excellent policarbonate matt clear paint.

Max

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Good idea Max, thanks. Since this was a re-pro poly carbonate crew, I had to paint from the inside, making it too glossy. For the helmets and faces, I used the colors the assembly manual called for, as well as for the uniforms. Just painting from the inside gave it too much of that glossy effect. But I'll definitely look into that matte finish. Thanks again.

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Your other option could have been to spray it with Tamiya fine primer on the top and paint it like it was an original white plastic piece.

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Fine primer doesn't mix with polycarbonate.

For this option he can spray the cockpit with PS paint, white for example, as a base for the acrylic paints.

Max

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I agree on the dull finish on the outside, but I seem to remember on the Ultimate RC forum that somebody was able to achieve a matte finish by painting on the outside of the polycarbonate. The cockpit in question was a lot smaller - he was painting a re-release Tyrrell P34 - but the effect was still excellent.

However, he used spray paints and masking, and knowing that you are using brushes exclusively, that would not quite work.

Do not fret too much over the shell - that work is still way above my best efforts, and of course it eases the conscience for bashing!

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I began the chassis refurb the other day..it is now fully ball raced, cleaned, lubed and almost ready for a run

903139C3-ABF1-4208-A97C-F2C3DB4C5613_zps

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rear section separated

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original technigold

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28 year old grease..surprisingly, the gears are in excellent condition

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regardless the great condition of the original gears, I opted to use all new gears since one of the vehicles I purchased came with them

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rear gear box housings all cleaned

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and the rear control arms

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Celica Gr B center diff

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Celica Gr B center prop shaft

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Next, on to the center and front sections

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Actually the gears dont wear down much in 959s because a whole bunch of other parts break first..... :D

Nice work on the crew, they look fantastic

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It's been a while since I've updated this thread, but I have completed the chassis restoration. I'm about to start on another body, and hope to get a few runs in very soon.

Here's the rest of the pics

Center and front sections

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Center ready for disassembly and cleaning

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Cleaned up and ready for reinstallation

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Steering linkage cleaned and lubricated

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Mated to rear section

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Cleaned and re-oiled dampers

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Front section ready for disassembly

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Front gear box

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Gears are in great shape for it's age

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Regardless, they were replaced and ball raced

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Suspension arms

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Lots of filth here

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Cleaned up

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Ready for reinstallation

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Back together

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Front dampers

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Dampers back in their home

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I decided to add a little bit of silver paint to the wheels' lugs

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Almost complete

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Celica Gr. B front stabilizer bar installation

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ESC fitted, and tidying up the wiring

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Finished up

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So, that's it for now. I picked up another re-pro shell and will have a second attempt at a nice shelfer body. This time I will try air brushing, and I was able to find the proper Tamiya PC paints.

Thanks for viewing, and thanks to all of the wonderful members here who have helped with their advice and tips. Greatly appreciated!

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Round 2, or shall I say-body #2...

So the first body is the runner shell, wasn't at all pleased with the outcome.

Here is body #2, the one intended for it when it's parked on the shelf.

B420F9F7-31D5-4F40-A7A7-84826D48AF84_zps

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It came out much better, but I'm still not 100% satisfied. I am completely burnt out from this paint job, and I will not attempt another. Or at least not until I finish some other projects. I've come to grips with the fact that this is the best I can do. For this shell I sourced some original Tamiya PC paint jars for the correct colors. Some parts I airbrushed, and some brushed by hand. I also got my hands on original decals, so they are on this one, as well as all the bits like the mirrors, etc.

Again, thanks to all who helped along the way of this restoration, and thank you for viewing.

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