retroman

Hi Guys. I have now rebuilt the gearbox on the Blazer, and it works perfectly. The manual I was pointed to was brilliant!! :-) The problem I have is the pinion on the motor looks worn, and the spur gear has chipped teeth. Looks like the motor might have come loose at sometime in the past. I've pushed it along the floor in all three gears, and in first / 4 wheel drive, it sounds like its skipping a tooth. Any idea where I can get parts from?? The pinion looks like it's driven onto the motor shaft, as opposed to being held on with a grub screw. Are the pinion, and spur gear interchangable wih anything else? Thanks, Rich :-)

The comment about "Under performing, overweight lump of weak pot metal" made me laugh. And very true!! Every time I run my Super Champ, or Scorcher, I always strip and rebuild them, to keep them tip top. You have to be so carefull not to strip any threads in the gearbox castings. Don't get me wrong, I love them both to bits, but my re-re Frog absolutely blows them away in performance terms. If the price tag of an "Anniversary 30th Rough Rider" was 500, then you can count me out. I'd want to take it home, build it, and run it! Not take it home, place it in the bottom of the wardrobe, and worry if the box is going to get damaged....... That is a very limited market. I guess at 200 they would sell quite a few, but it would still be quite a limited market.

I can remember hounding my Mum and Dad for an R/C car, must have been about 12 years old. I think I got the usual "Too Expensive", and then normally got Scalextric stuff, which was cool. They both worked hard (and still do), and bought me up well. One Christmas I was lucky enough to get a remote control car. it was some kind of gold porsche, and it steered via a little wheel underneath the car. the controller was a push button. Push the button, and it would go backwards and start steering, then when it was pointing in the right direction, press the button again, and it would go straight forwards!! LOL. I remember one of the lucky kids at school had a Frog, and I was really jealous. I'm now 36, and have a huge amount of fun with vintage R/C stuff. It's kind of I now have the money to just do it, and love trying to find those missing parts. I had messed with racing touring cars for a few years, after my lovely wife bought me a TL01 for a christmas present a few years back. I still have it, and have just restored it!! My first ever R/C car. What started me with the whole vintage thing, was "The Brat". I went into my local LHS, and saw the re-re kit. I just had to have it. It was one of those kits I always wanted as a kid. Had great fun building it, and had far more fun driving it than any touring car!! Since then I have bought a few more re-re's; Frog, and Hornet, and have also tackled 2 SRB projects, Super Champ, and Sand Scorcher, and current rescues include a vintage Frog, and a Blazing Blazer. I have to admit, I never thought I would ever own a Blazer as a kid, they were so expensive :-) I don't do the whole racing thing anymore, but I have recently joined up with the "Clumber Meets" crew, and have a great time. Any car I have gets rebuilt to fully working, and reliable condition, and it gets run. This will include the Blazing Blazer. There was a Clumber Meet at the weekend just gone, and it was first time out for the Sand Scorcher. It got absolutely filthy with mud, I was hooning it through muddy puddles, it even got ramped!! And I loved it. It took hours of cleaning afterwards though :-)

Only one way to find out!! Just need to find some 1/14 scale diamond mining equipment to haul :-)

Here's a thought......If we get some decent snow in the UK this year, who's up for doing "Ice Road Truckers"??? A nice spot of snow drifting :-) Could always find a nice frozen over pond somewhere, and fit some chains to the rear tyres! LOL I Love that TV show. On the first series, during the opening credits, the truck that goes through the ice looks just like a King Hauler, right down to the stripes on the bonnet!

Wow, that's one shiny gearbox. Looks lovely :-) It looks very similar to the Tractor Truck gearboxes. It's great to have some reference pictures, so I know what to expect. The Blazer is now a pile of bits all over the table. It's took a while, everything was well and truly thread locked.......Or seized!! A bit of patience, and penetrating oil got the job done. I've also stripped the rear axle down tonight, all the grease has dried out, and it was really tight to turn over. Luckily the parts look in good condition though. Unfortunately the tyres have dried out, and one of the rears has some splits from perishing, although they're luckily not split all the way through. I guess that new tyres are going to be pretty hard to get hold of, and expensive?? I've took plenty of pictures before I started, so I'll see if I can post them up tommorow:-) Thanks for the help Guy's

Thanks guy's, that's brilliant. Looks like I need to make a scale drip tray to go under it!! Not worried about it leaking, would just like to know that it has been done properly, and working correctly :-) I'll try and post up some "as found" pictures in a bit.

Hi Guy's, I've finally managed to get a Blazing Blazer, and it's quite tidy!! Very lucky find. I was wondering if there were any known "tutorials", or threads on how to strip and rebuild the 3 speed gearbox?? The manual shows the gearbox as prebuilt, completed with motor, ready to fit, but no details on strip down and rebuild. I want to give the thing a full strip down and rebuild before I run it, as I know that it has been sat in a loft for probably 15 to 20 years, and everything feels a little stiff and dry. Can anyone help?? I want to make sure that I do this one right. Thanks in advance, Rich :-)

If it helps, I normally clean mine by putting them in a small pot of white spirit, put the lid on, and shake!! Always had good results :-)

Same here, I had the same problem with Tamiya plugs when I first started with RC, now I just cut them off, and throw them straight in the bin, and fit Deans connectors. Tamiya plugs overheat, then melt afer a few uses............

Project Scorcher is ready for abusing :-) just a few little jobs left. The "W" word is cold, but clear and sunny. Anyone got any new toys to show off????

I found mine to be quite fiddly as well, but with patience they went on OK. Just take your time, and only remove a small amount of the backing at a time :-)

E-mail petition to Tamiya anyone!!??

Yeah, valid points Dazaa. I have to confess to being quite fussy about the build on my cars, and tend to just replace things if they look suspect. I know that the Frog will run fine with out the drive shaft boots on, but one of the things I like about them is they do keep all the dirt and grit out of the drive cups. The problem with the old ones, being hard with age, is they bind up the transmission to the point that if you turn one of the rear wheels, it will spring back on itself!! I also have to confess to being quite fussy about the bumpers on my cars as well. The way I look at it is five pounds worth of front bumper is quite a bargain, if it saves destroying front suspension and bodyshells :-) This was quite relevant on my Losi XXXS G+. The bumper in the kit had a habit of deflecting backwards in an impact, and snapping the front shock shafts!! And they were not cheap to replace. Upgraded it to the Team Trinity bumper, which is much stronger, never happened again :-) I have just stumped up the cash for a complete genuine Frog bodyset, and new wheels and tyres. My re-re Frog body has a few very small cracks from off roading, and the wheels and tyres are the same as my Hornet and Super Champ, so usefull spares really. I'm keeping my eye open on ebay at the moment for cheap spares lots :-) I bought the new body from the point of view of "one for racing, one for shelfing"!!

I'm looking forward one day to having a much bigger back yard. I'm going to have a lovely garden path, that if you follow it, you will mysteriously wind up back where you started! That's if you don't get mowed down by an RC car of course :-) I'm very lucky to have an understanding wife. I think she would see it as a garden featue if I done it tastefully. She has her own heavily modded TL01, which she occassionally takes out for a bash.

Wow, I didn't realise there was a difference between the Sand Scorcher and Monster Beetle shells in profile! I just thought it was down to the body mounts, and smoked glass. That's what I love about life, learn something new every day!! It would be cool if they would produce a batch of SRB spares though. I'm sure they could sell loads of front bumpers, rear cages, body sets, decal sets, motor/gear covers, etc. I wonder how many people would be worried about the residual value of their mint vintage stuff though?? Yeah, a re-re of the Holiday Buggy, and the Sand Rover would at least make the bumpers available again :-)

I'm going to give it a go. I have a final gear laying around with a tooth missing, so it doesn't really matter if I stuff that one up on a trial run!

I would love to see the Monster Beetle make a come back, as then i could put a proper body on my Sand Scorcher for sensible money!! I'm not paying the daft money they fetch at the moment, as I like to use mine :-) I don't really see that the too vintage thing stands up too well, as by modern standards, the Grasshopper, Hornet, Pumpkin, and Lunchbox are pretty horrible. Don't get me wrong, I think all those cars are cool, they're just dinosaur's from a bygone age. I cannot ever see any of the SRB's making a come back though. I would guess that the production costs would be very high, given the price of metal at the moment. I would have one if they did though!

Like I said, I haven't built mine yet, and not totally knowledgeable on them. I'm guessing that 4 channel is recommeneded so that other items can be operated as well as the gear shift. I'm sure that some of the more knowledgeable Truckers will be able to put me straight though! I'm not too embarassed to admit when I'm not sure on something... I would rather look an idiot for asking, than look an idiot for not asking, and breaking something!! LOL

yeah, I've noticed the price of SRB's is dropping a little too. IMO, the 2 cars that possible gave slightly better value for money in recent times where the Super Champ, and the Ranger. Rough Rider's seem to command good money for a good one, and Sand Scorcher's seem to be "Holy Grail" money..... Me personally, I'm looking forward to the bottom dropping out the market, I'll be snapping a few up!! I'm not too bothered about the value of mine, as I just think they're cool, and they make me laugh when I drive them. I've had a feeling that this was going to happen for the last month. Irresponsible lending by banks and building societies, people borrowing more than they can afford, maxed out on credit........ I went for a mortgage quote last year, as I am thinking of moving up to a bigger house, and the amount of money they were willing to lend me was just silly, and foolish. P.S--- I don't normally do politics!

Mark, that's absolutely brilliant!! i've just had a look at the "how to" instructions, very professional. :-) I'll look into doing this project myself, as the one thing I hate about my Champ, and Scorcher, is no rear diff. The fact that they are both rear end heavy doesn't help the steering very much either. Now where did I put my spare SRB final gear.......? Those internal bevel gear parts look similar to TL01. Are they the same?? I seem to have several TL01 gear diffs laying around. I also have some "Manta Ray" ball diffs laying around as well. Another possibility perhaps?? This has really fired my imagination!!

Like it! That's one cool looking Frog. I suppose I could always reverse engineer, and put the vintage bits that are different onto my re-re. How hard are those ball diffs to come by? Would love one of those!!

I haven't built mine yet, but they don't come with the box that makes the noises, and vibration, AKA the MFU- Multi Function Unit. They are "8" wheel drive if you are looking at it as they have dual rear wheels on the rear axles. On the twin rear axle models the axles are linked by a short propshaft. Another thing to bear in mind is that the kit comes supplied with bronze bushings, so I've bought a full set of ball races. most of them are the 1150 size, standard on most Tamiya cars, but there are 2 in the gearbox that are the 1260 size. By locking the gearbox in one gear, using the kit supplied locking spacers, it is possible to use a 2 channel radio system, but to use the three speed gearbox you will need a 4 channel radio system. As for what they are like to drive? I haven't a clue!! but I would guess that they're not very good off road, and aimed at a more scale driving experience.

Cheers mate, I'll keep it in mind. Not quite sure what I am doing with it yet :-)

Yeah, I love the Scalextric Camaro's. One of mine I scratch built, with the body from the model kit, grille and working headlights from the Street Camaro. It also has modified axles so i could get the wheels and tyres from the black GT40 under the arches. They just about clear, and look awesome. I did have to skim the front tyres down a bit, as the diameter was a little too big.