gordb

I'll let others weigh in on the gears. But front knuckle slop and pogo-stick suspension are a hallmark of the Tamiya 3-speed experience. Enjoy!

I love this! I've been doing some shopping around for old stick radios to do exactly this kind of thing. The 2.4 GHz conversion is pretty popular on the RC plane side of things from what I've seen. A lot of them seem to keep most of the guts of the old radio in tact (so all the mechanical trims, etc still work) and then magically shift the modulated signal into the right bands to feed the 2.4GHz transmission circuit. But certainly this doesn't give them the model memories and controls you get from the modern radios. Really interested to see where this project goes!

You could definitely do a "58028 inspired" re-release with the parts that are shared or similar, but my guess is they're more different than the same. My guess would be that only common or inter-changeable parts would be: The gearbox and motor are different but probably interchangeable? (would need to confirm mounting holes) Axles probably (haven't check width and the front one-way binding on the actual axle shaft itself) Shackle mounts Much past that, and everything changes (from the solid chassis frames and cross members, to the radio box, to the body, to the steering/gear shift mechanisms, to the hubs and tyres, to the bumpers, etc). Again just my guess - would love a more scientific answer! Still, Tamiya have showed 3-speed re-releases are a thing - so bring on the original Hilux and the Blazer!

So a little aside: I didn't realise the hub design on this model was actually part of the real truck (but seemingly only on the front what what I've been able to find): Does anyone know if this has a function on the 1:1 truck (e.g. 2wd to 4wd)? Or they just decided to add this huge sticky-outy bits to the centre of the front wheel?

That was unfortunately my guess. I do plan to leave this one bone stock (as I have another modified one) ... but this is going to be a tough one to live with. I was thinking that just based on some youtube videos I'd seen, and just seeing how fast and shaky it was looking on mere 1.5V! Just so long as we're all being clear that my wife doesn't need to read this, I think we're good!

Into the home stretch now! Just the wheels, radio box and electronics to go (I can't even think about the body at this point). I'll happily admit putting the wheels on is my favourite part of the build - where all the little parts you've been putting together become a car for the first time, and you start to get a feel for this model's personality and performance. I've been tempted a few times in this build to just leap ahead and throw them on - but my resolve was strong: I was going to build this the way Tamiya told me to, down to the point of using side cutters to remove every part from its plastic prison! Unlike many kits that seem to save the wheels until essentially the last step, Tamiya obviously hadn't learnt that pleasure-deference trick yet, and we get to put them on before the radio box. Note carefully the block of text in the centre of the wheel assembly ... this will come back to haunt me. Here are all the parts for this step. Now importantly - those tires. I'll admit these (along with the radio box) were the two things I was most curious re: aging/deterioration. Were these going to be dried out and crack as I tried to squeeze the inserts in? Was the whitening on the tires part of the rubber, or was it just mould release that was going to come right off? Here's a close of up them as they came out of the box. My other Hilux kit has (or at least had last time I checked) lovely black tires, which was one of the contributing factors to building up this one). But despite the whitening, they're lovely soft and rubbery - hurrah! First stop was a warm soapy bath: Took a couple of passes, but eventually got into diminishing returns - so not perfect, but pretty good (I did some spot cleans on those first two as I went): Here's the inner tube put together: No problems squishing them into the tires: ... and then I tried to force the rims in. This is as close as I could get (note the gap between the two hubs - these are meant to touch). I tried lots of different ways to seat the hubs properly, but eventually, I opened up my English manual (which I should take a picture of at some point - I found this at the bottom of the box, so not sure if this is something a previous owner/importer added, or if this was what Tamiya did for the early kits). That important bit of text says ... Game changer! And get them on the chassis! Now, just look at this flex! This is genuinely as far as it goes before the back tyre lifts off the ground. Obviously adding some weight with the radio box and body will help a bit, but those springs are hard. Perhaps these will soften up a bit with some running ...

Speculation is that it might be a Ford Ranger on a ground-up new chassis. Would be cool if they went for a proper metal cage this time - the plastic tube frames in some of their older kits give me the willies.

Ok H, I have two questions for you: 1) Where is all the Tamiya? 2) Where can we watch the episode of the collectors you're in? I have just moved house - so my room is still half unpacked - but I'll get a picture up here as soon as it's back in fighting shape!

Next step is to install the speed controller, front body post and the steering rod: Here's everything ready to go: As mentioned earlier, I did go for bullet connectors here to make it easier to work on the car (though I was tempted to pull out a hairdryer and shrink some heatshrink onto some wire just to reminisce about my first Hornet build, which I seem to remember doing a lot of this in). I initially did run the motor wires through that hole in the bulkhead, but like a bad hair day, nothing I tried would get those wires to sit nicely as per the picture (and I didn't want to shorten the wires), so instead I decided to run them along the chassis rail with some zip ties (which I did take from some 80's tamiya spare parts ;) ) You'll notice I left the motor wires looping up out of the speed controller. I've noticed that a lot of older cars that do still have the speed controller have lost the rubber seal here. It might just be people have swapped out the internals and hence had to re-wire - but I'm guessing if this is a weak point in the car, then pulling half the wires one way (to the motor) and half the other (to the radio box) can't help things, so I've tried to keep them all coming "up" off the deck of the speed controller box as much as possible.

Thanks!

Before we press on, I decided I'd open up the beautiful transistor-based speed controller to see what sat inside the star-emblazoned case, as I've always wonder what's in there, and much like the gearbox, I figured this would be my one-and-only chance to see one of these new and used. A lot of older cars seem not to have these fitted - not sure if they break, or if they were just replaced with more modern mechanical or electronic speed controllers over time. I did hook it up to 7.2 volts to see if it still works (as unlike the old mechanical speed controllers of the day, I couldn't get any response with a C-cell), and it seems to be fine - but I have no idea how long it will last. I personally love the look of this box on the chassis - so even if it packs it in, I'll be keeping the case on there. This part alone sold for a list price of 5800 yen back in the day! I'm sure some of you are much more knowledgeable about the history of speed controllers - but it's interesting to see Tamiya's R&D experimenting with early "electronic" speed controller options here, where kits for years after came with seemingly less sophisticated 3-plate or reostat-based variable speed controllers. Here's how it comes bundled up in the kit: Here it is unwrapped: Here's the bottom. That metal arm is rotated by the speed control servo. The neutral position is "spring loaded" (you'll see how in a second), and it seems to have some proportional control. (though without any drive train hooked up, I was pretty gentle with my test). And here's what's inside: Remember I said neutral was spring loaded - this is achieved through a little "divot" in the plate the arm rotates along. That plate itself is under torsion against the arm, so it "snaps" into neutral (as can be seen in all the pictures above). Now what I haven't done is try to work out how this speed controller actually works (and a quick google didn't turn much up) - so that might be an exercise for another day! The instructions tell you to seal this with the same silicone sealant you use on the gearbox. Given I don't plan on full submersion on my first few drives, I'm installing this dry for now. If I do decide more protection is required, I'll probably try making a rubber seal from the rubber gasket material I didn't end up using for the gearbox.

Great pictures - thanks for taking them. Very interested to see how it runs and what you make of the quality of it (though agree that "heavy" is usually a good sign here). Have you noticed any/many differences from the Tamiya kit? Mine is unfortunately in a box right now, but just going from your pictures and the Bruiser re-re pictures on Tamiya.com, it looks like: steering rods are black instead of silver hex bolts instead of phillips black motor + deans plugs metal used for the transmission and axles looks different (milkier and "less silver") ... perhaps just the lighting? and is it just the angle of the pictures, or does the transmission not have the holes + plugs on it? (it actually took me a while to see that ... I knew there was something that didn't look right!) But other than that, it does look suspiciously like they've just created their molds straight off the Tamiya parts doesn't it?

Wandy - I never took you for a sneaker collector! (not that there's anything wrong with it)

Here's a quick test run (and before you say it, yes, I know you're not meant to shift these while they're running, but I figured I'd chance it with one hand on the camera and an almighty 1.5V of C-cell power coursing through it's veins).

With the gearbox finally sorted, next steps are the gear shift assembly and then mounting it on the chassis: Here are the parts for the gear shift assembly: And here it is on the gearbox. The instructions are very specific about the measurements here (see the little diagram on the right in the instructions above), but given the shift rod itself has a bit of play in it at rest, it's hard to know exactly where they wanted these to land - but here is it assembled (and from this angle, I need to trim that gasket a bit more!). That spring is also way too thick for the rod it sits on and it tends to flop around at rakish angles - but like a child in a school photo, I've arranged it nicely for this pic Here are the parts to mount the gearbox in the chassis and hook up the drive shafts. Note that at both ends, the mount is "soft": the screws holding the back of the gearbox go through those rubber grommets on the centre plate, and the front of the gearbox just rests on the rubber motor cover on that C-shaped plate that screws onto the (otherwise unused in the stock build) front suspension mounts. Here's the lot put together. I think the rubber motor cover is meant to go on a tiny bit further, but given the number of these I've seen split at the motor terminals, I'm reluctant to be too forceful with it.