Restored?? More like given a cleaning, then reassemble

This is a long story, of course, when was the last time I made a short docudrama showroom post??? ;)
On to the story, get some tea and biscuits. I found this chassis sort of partially badly represented on eBay a few months ago. It wasn't high on my list to add another TA-02 to the stable, but there was some cool looking HOP UPS on the auction chassis and so I thought, I would like the hop ups for the long in the build TA-02 that I have been tinkering around with for ages it seems. More on that 'stock' TA-02 later, perhaps this year, in another post.
Moving on, the auction photos showed just enough to tease, but not confirm that there might be an alu motor mount involved, so I bid my highest based upon what I SAW and not anything buried in the build. I won the auction really cheaply, almost cheaper than just the rear sway bar goes for by itself these days on eBay, if I am to believe that they are selling for that price now. It arrived quickly and I was so excited, I locked myself into the lab and ripped this thing apart in order to document all the hop ups on it and then clean it and make my TA-02 a hop up monster. Well, that is when it got sorta weird, it had staggered wheels that looked like white Honda S2000 wheels, I hadn't seen those before. I also noted some hardened parts like the prop shaft and the front wheels only moved in one direction when I spun them all. I finished the carnage of decimating this chassis and then I went to TC to find out where these wheels belong. That is when I stumbled onto OCD's description IN DETAIL of the 58157 TA02RS special kit. I confirmed all the special parts according to his write up and that was when I knew that I could NOT scavenge parts from this to put onto my stock chassis, so again, NEW PROJECT.
Not to be undaunted, I figured out I would begin searching for the manual in paper mode since I am old school that way and like to touch the manual, turn the pages and measure the parts on the pages to confirm I am doing things right. As I was making things ready for our very short vacation(nearly half of it spent driving), this kit BOX shows up on eBay and I can't believe what I am seeing, there are two extra gears and a few misc trees that have a few parts still attached as is the norm when building the shocks etc. A bonus was the seller had the assembly manual in the box too along with a newer looking servo, so I set an alarm on my little tablet thingy and watched in earnest as my bid was accepted, then next road stop, eclipsed, then a rebid and then next thing I know, wifi was TOOO slow to live bid, so my last bid was my last number. Luckily, I did win the auction for the box, but would you believe it cost me more than the chassis, by like $30usd, but I am a weirdo and REALLY like having the kit box and assembly manual, so it was still good to me as all in, I am close to the $120 mark for a relatively low hours special kit.
The tires are cracking and checking all over and I will hopefully rectify that one some day, but I won't worry about that too much. Minor scratches are on the chassis tub, but this car had little dirt on it aside from the shocks and drive line at the wheels, so it cleaned up fast and then I sorted out what I wanted to add to this build. I still wanted to sort out a use for the Tamiya Adspec Plus that has been with me for ages and since it was shown in the assembly manual as the preferred electrics, well that made up my mind on that. Along with the hop ups spattered into this kit, all I really added was simple metal shielded bearings and a Sport Tuned motor with the somewhat faded pairs of pink low friction shocks. I simply transferred the kit springs onto the 'new' shock bodies and went from there. For those of you paying attention, there was NOT an alu motor mount hiding in there, and Tamiya didn't include one in the kit, so I left it alone and plastic, just like the build manual. I think I kept the hop ups relatively low compared to the other cars shown on TC under this kit number. Not to pick on those, but with some of the amount of Hop Ups shown on those cars, might as well have started with a box stock TA02, not a special kit that Tamiya made, but I realize sometimes a budget is in mind or perhaps what you find on eBay, but I wanted to keep a lot of the integrity of this weird combination of cool bits Tamiya decided to throw in the box. What still blows me away is that fact Tamiya didn't include bearings at all!!!??? What were they thinking? You want a good running chassis and car, but you won't run it very much thus not melting the plastic bearings??
To make a long story longer, I have a touring body on it in the photos, had bought that body over 2-3 years ago and then slowly amassed the correct build manual for the vintage TA02 kit to build a stock version, but now that I want to top this special chassis off, well my special treatment on this body should do just the trick. I have a set of Tamiya BBS style wide and standard width 2 piece wheels that will sit under the shell when all done and the white wheels with slicks will stay in the trunk for weekend rallycross racing and track days. I will use a rescued body on the 'stock' TA02 chassis that has been hanging around here for like 8 years. It is unpainted and not Tamiya, but I think it will suit the chassis just the way it should. More on that in another long and lengthy post, hopefully before the end of the year.
Enjoy and comments always welcomed.
Chris