bruiserbuilder

In my opinion, the bruiser chassis when fully restored and/ or detailed is simply a work of art.

Hey guys, I do have to say that I have seen a very sluggish interest lately in the vintage RC forums out there. Well, as its pertains to the vintage 3 speeds. I have also seen the number of ebay auctions and products related to the vintage 3 speeds decrease as well. It does puzzle me a bit because I have seen an outstanding amount of traffic and purchases this whole year direct though my e commerce site! I am definitely not complaining as my sales volume has reached never before seen numbers and percentages. I am very happy to say that Ebay only accounts for 5% of my sales volume these days but a lot of folks around the globe still like to use paypal and thus the Epay monster is still laced with 65% of my sales. as for the vintage forums in general, well Tamiya has done an exceptional job with the re-re of the buggy champ that a lot of the vintage thunder has gone there. It's nothing new as I saw this with the introduction of the F-350 high lift several years ago. The good thing about thunder though, is that it always returns to your area sooner or later. have a great Labor Day!

rc4wd sells good aluminum ball connectors and threaded rods. you can make your own.

DHL, Holy Cow! I bet that is expensive. You should not have any issues with the DHL services because they issue tracking numbers and can locate packages as the arrive and exit each transition point during the journey of the package. The concerns and woes that this topic relates to is the lack of quality service AFTER the package leaves the hands of the USPS. I can add this bit of information to everyone reading this thread. Ask your buyer if he/ she would like to insure the package? Priority mail international and global express mail include both insurance and tracking. Its important to know that if a claim is made on priority mail international, the payment of the claim will be made to the buyer and NOT THE SELLER. further more, 10 years of experience and frustration with either less than honest buyers or horrific international postal carriers has taught me to live and die by the following rules when shipping out side of the us. 1) ask the buyer if they would like to insure the package. 2) have the buyer acknowledge that there is no guarantee of delivery or "survival" if insurance is not purchased. If the buyer chooses not to purchase insurance 3) keep record of the customs label number 4) purchase a "Certificate of Mailing" from the USPS at the time of shipping. THIS IS PROOF THAT THE ITEM WAS MAILED AND IS BACKED BY THE POST MASTER AS PROOF OF SHIPMENT. 5) print and staple the buyers email stating the package has arrived.

which ball joint are you after? looking at the ball end bag there are a few to choose from.

what size is the ball joint?

I would not ship to Italy for a long time. I found serious issues with the packages arriving literally 3 months late or broken and sometimes both. One time I lost BIG $$ on an sale though Ebay and Paypal over a mint Bruiser that I mailed to Italy. THE BRUISER NEVER MADE IT TO THE BUYER and Ebay pretty much forced me to pay the buyer back his money. Its been six years now and as far a s I know the Bruiser has yet to turn up. What did I learn from that experience? Never send a Bruiser oversees during the month of November and I also learned that I do not sell any item out side of the US without offering the buyer insurance and tracking. If they turn down insurance and its in writing via email, then the damage or non receipt is on them. aside from that experience, I mailed a package to Italy this past May that did not turn up until early August.

the question at hand is not how Wikipedia would spell or pronounce "license" plate but rather how would Mr. Bean pronounce it?

slow and steady. thats vintage RC

Alistair, I think that he mentioned in his first post that he is in NE England.

You may consider using a shift gate with a stick type radio gear. I find that most folks in the US are using the spectrum DX-6 radio gear for the high lift trucks. the futaba 4wd is a close second in demand for use with the high lift. techniplus 4 is called on by the folks primarily in the Uk

it does not appear that you reversed the screws and nuts on the rear of the chassis. Other than that the truck looks good so far.

well, answering you question asked in you topic, then the answer is simple. you should buy a Bruiser!

Hi Mark, please see the attached pictures. First let me say that the pictures are from Kope.com and secondly, the gear part shown is for the bruiser/mounty and not a BB or vintage Hilux. The vintage gear for the BB and hilux is much smaller and does not feature the functioning slipper gear. The pictures do however show you the plastic counter gear that I am referring to. I believe that the smaller gear is worn out or possibly stripped. It's very common for me to see nearly new vintage 3 speeds with this gear stripped out. It was very easy to tear this gear up if a shift gate was not used.

Hi MArk, I'm in south Louisiana. i would be very interested to see the plastic slipper gear in the first chamber behind the motor. I'll be glad to get the chassis running if you want to send it my way.

you need to turn around the screws related to the rear leaf springs and leaf ends. having the nuts on the inside will create problems when you go to take the bottom servo cover on and off.

don't know about the chassis but it would seem to be an anodized aluminum after market upgrade. The decal seems to be middle east. I could be completely wrong. its just my 2 cents.

Id be down with an Old school Ford.

singapore, I'm not asking for current technological performance, I'm just saying that I would prefer that the shocks function properly.

I got blown off by Tamiya... didn't see that coming. This is the answer that I received when I asked for help. Dear Tamiya Customer, Unfortunately there are no expanded instructions for the shock assembly. If they're contracting, that's an indication of not enough oil in the shock, they should be neutral or push out a bit. Tamiya America Customer Service What does Neutral mean for a shock?

so, we are "back to the future"? I do not understand why they would have changed the design from the original if the new design does not work either.

and I though that the shocks in the kit are tricky........... just joking.... cool concept

not sure what look you after but I do have a highly modified F350 body that I was going to make a street rod out of. it features a chopped top, hood scoop, shortened bed, relocated gas door, removed bed, and shaved door handles. oh, the true fire paint is stunning in it's self. the dimensions are nearly the same as what you looking for. I also have custom side mirors to go along with it

Mark, I have a few ?'s. 1) How much lubricant did you put in the tranny? 2) are you sure the winning noise is coming from the tranny and not the rear axle case? those are the easy ?'s now for the hard ones and costly ones. 3) will the truck sift though the gears when its "in the air" 4) will the tires turn when the truck is "in the air" it sounds to me that you have a gear mesh problem in either the tranny or the axle pinion. you can send me the chassis to get it rite for you. Forrest

Lucasan, basically the spring (coil) on the outside of the shock body will be doing the compression and extension of the assembly rather than the oil.