Lights, Camera, Action! Well, just lights...

So there are a lot of possible cars that Tamiya could RERE. Now I know that some of you are against the rereleaseses, not me. Not at all.

Save for getting into too much depth about the that topic on here, would they at least do a bloody run of the stinking tires!

Ok that was my rant. I love this car. I mean look at it, it just looks like it is fun. I have wanted one of these since I saw the add for one in an old RC Car action, from 1988. I remember seeing the adds for all these old cars (it was 1994 by then) and I wanted them! This little pudgy guy was the last one alluding me. I snagged it from Tamiyamandan. He had done a wonderful job restoring it. This car didn’t even have a grain of dust on it. He redid the body and decalled it up. The only sad bit was the poor state of the tires, those things are a mess. This got me thinking, I could 3D print my own custom version of them! There is a material called “elastoplastic” that I was thinking about on Shapeways. True rubber compounds are organic and only one company is able to print them, for about $150 USD per tire. Kinna steep there. I tried a sample of the elastoplastic and though rubbery, it is not stretchable. Shame.

This is not the end of the story. Should you take a look at the diameter of a touring car tire and the WW tires, they are close. So the plan now is to design a rim the fits the wheeler axles but accepts a standard touring car tire. I will do a faux sidewall on the rim and paint it black as I hate most low-profile tires. This will give the effect of standard wheeler wheels and tires. The rear offset can even be trimmed down by about a quarter inch so they won’t stick out. I will use wide rears and standard fronts. I think it will do the trick!

Now, onto the illumination! I love lights. The wheeler seemed to be begging for them. The car was missing the fronts when I got it and I didn’t like the brake duct vents on the lower bumper that were added to the race version of the Honda City Turbo; Road cars had fog lights. I decided to design them. The head lights are a direct replacement to the standard ones, though mine sport the unlicensed “Hella” branding on them. These pop right in there. The fog lights required me to mock up the bumper in CAD and then design an enclosure to clamp the bumper in place, avoiding damage to the car body. These units are embossed with my favorite brand of fog lamps, 'Marchal' (note the kitty). They accept super bright 3mm LED’s but can also fit a 5mm the bore is drilled out. These are all available for sale on shapeways:

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/AmPro

The rears made me sweat. I had to drill a ton of holes on a mint body. Sheesh. That was scary. I also added little walls so that the lights would not all blend together. Running and signals are in there, as well as brake lights and reverse lights. Reverse lights are powered by the Novak Rooster speed control that doubles as Willy’s co-pilot. Man these cars have no room for anything in that mechanical box do they? The car looks fantastic at night! I am excited to get some new wheels and tires on this car so I can putt it around!

Enjoy and let me know what you guys (and girls) think!