casethejoint

Hi gang, Sorry about the long delay - work and family stuff took over for a while (you know what it's like). Anyway, after a few months away from this awesome buggy (at least I know the paints dry by now!) I finally got around to taking over the kitchen sink and giving it a rub down with Micromesh. I'm about 3/4's of the way there. Wanted to give you a couple of pics to show you I haven't forgotten about this buggy or this thread. I do hope to finally have a decent chunk of time back next weekend and will look to finish it off. I need to paint the seats, other than that it's ready for final assembly.... Sorry the pics are not best quality - it's really really hard to get decent shots of something dark and shiny in artificial light.

Looks fantastic Erich - love that colour!! Really suits the Manx well. I think I might have found a couple of those front headlight bits as I noticed one in my spares box a few weeks ago. Thought of you but wasn't sure if you had one yet. Will have a look in there later and let you know...

Superb, gentle restoration. The radiobox looks amazing! What did you use to wetsand - micromesh?

Hope everyone had a great Xmas! Managed to get the driver done:- ... and have rubbed down the first clear coat and given it a second:- ... fair bit of orange peel and overspray on that shot, but that'll all flatten down. Will be doing that and final coat 3 of the clear later today I hope. In the meantime I've been working on the grill. Haven't decided yet how to best mask the headlights (going to be tricky) for the chrome. I've done 1 coat of very very thinned matt black for the inner grille so not looking too even just yet, but another coat should do it (it's also still slightly wet in this pic). The Chevvy badge is a highly thinned Tamiya lemon yellow which I dripped in with a brush and let it self level (few drops of Tamiya Retarder helps). Here's my man getting an early preview of his new ride:- I've also cleaned up those rear lenses which are now finished and ready to do:-

Nope, no backing out now. This definitely has to be run on the beach My experience is it's fine as long as you're sensible and clean it up afterwards.

Nice build :). Haven't seen one of these before... look forward to seeing progress!

Building quite a nice TamiyaClub playlist here - talk about eclectic....

@chevelle - neat trick! What media do you use for that?

There's also the older 6V connector for the regular sized pack. A smaller plug. Tamiya 50039. That's the one Yonez - thanks @Tamiyabigstuff, thanks but those are the Tamiya minis I think.

I can't seem to find one in the usual places (eBay etc). It's the battery end that I need to replace (for a vintage 3 speed 4000mAh battery). Thanks!

Awesome.

Thanks Kev, you're right - the racers don't need indicators Looking at some real racers it seems a useful spot to shove a decal. So I'll probably do that instead. Haven't tried the Rust-oleum but had a look and they do some nice looking effects. Will give some a try. The lenses have come out pretty well - a bit of bleed under the masking which I expected because I had to spray this on pretty thick to get the lens effect I was after. It'll clean up with a bit of acrylic thinner and a toothpick though. Worst case I can touch up the chrome with a fine brush (don't think I'll need to though). Having flatted the first coat the body has also now had it's second coat. Don't know if I'll need a third, but I'll rub this back and flatten it tomorrow and see how we're looking. Then it'll either be coat 3 or clear gloss. This black is really nice btw - for those of you in the UK it's Halfords "Audi Brilliant Black" and it's one of the nicest non-metallic blacks I've seen. Has a real depth to it - very rich. I hope to get to working on the front grille today which is good to go for clear coat. Once that's done I'll flat and polish the clear before chroming the chrome bits (which is going to be a tricky masking job by the looks of it). Have started to think about how to black the inside of the grille - I think once the chrome is done, I'll thin some matt black and try and flow it into each of the rectangular sections with a brush.

The stripes make it. Nice addition Are you keeping the chassis stock ?

Rear lights underway. Masking off the chrome edges: ... and about 6 coats of translucent red: The colour looks about right to me so I'll probably stop here, let it harden off and then give it a few gloss coats to protect. No idea how well the masking tape has worked - I'm expecting maybe a little bit of bleed, but I think I can touch up with a superfine brush. I'm also thinking I might run a really thin hand brushed line of translucent smoke around the inner corners. Pics of these with the masking removed when it's dried off in a day or so. In the meantime I'm going to start to flatten the painted body which has hardened off and I've given the grille a second coat. Speaking of grille, I found this which is I think about the closest I've yet seen to the Tamiya styling:- I've noticed there should be indicators beneath the front headlights, which is why there's a space there for them, but don't think any came with the original Blazer kit? I think they'd look good so thinking I'm about making something.

Quick sneaky update from the office I got a few coats of black top-coat on yesterday to the body and the grille. I'm now going to leave it alone for a few days before I rub it down and give it a second go at the weekend. So you probably won't hear from me now until Sunday. I managed to get some Alclad II Chrome onto the rear light pieces also (I had already backed those in gloss black at the weekend). Awesome stuff the Alclad II - most "metallic" looking stuff I've seen. First time I've used it and I'm very impressed. These pics don't do justice - it really looks like Chrome. My plan here is to overspray the light section with translucent red and then a really thick dose of lacquer. I've done this before and find it makes for a pretty realistic lens.

Today I managed to get the tires done. I used the set of repros I picked up recently thinking at least I can run this around the garden without feeling guilty that I'm burning through £150 worth of rubber I have also got the primer flatted back to ~800 grit ready for paint. Next week I should be able to get a few top coats on and start on the rest of the bodywork bits. @wildwillydriver really kindly has swapped an AS-2 with me for one of the reversed AS-3's that I have too many of. So radio box stuff has taken a back seat and I'll finish that up when the other AS-2 arrives (I have one already). Right now I'm off to paint the wheel caps matt black...

I did the lettering on one of these today. Good news and bad news... Good news : they look great :). I actually prefer the font to the originals. I'm going to use these on my Blazer restoration. Bad news : the originals are hard enough, but the thinner lettering is even harder to paint

Nicely colour co-ordinated there mastino

I'm short 1 x AS-2 servo for my vintage 3 speed if anyone has one to sell ? Alternatively, if you need an AS-3 (which is the servo-reversed variant you need one of for your 3 speed) I have one I can swap. Thanks!

Neat trick on the decals :). Do you then laser print them to waterslide paper ? My tires also arrived today. As mentioned by Shodog, the quality is fantastic, nice supple rubber, and the lettering is just a tiny bit taller so you know they're not original but they'll still look fantastic. Will try to get to lettering them at the weekend and I think I'll use this set on my restored Willy

I like something on in the background - either an old nostalgic favourite or something more up to date. For me the nostalgic one is Supertramp live in Paris, as that's what was on while I was building my first scorcher in the early '80s. Great double album and one of the best live band recordings ever IMO. Recent builds I've had on the latest Richard Ashcroft album "These People". What's yours ?

Is that a custom decal work in progress there Shodog?

It did, thank you

Bingo - that's it, "auto" servo reverse Note who asked the same question nearly 10 years ago and cropped up on my google search

Next up is the servo tray system which goes together nice and easy and feels very solid. I like this - a lot of the earlier Tamiya servo stuff feels flimsy but not this. Anyone know anything about this Acoms AS-3 servos? I'm familiar with the AS-1 and AS-2 but didn't realise there was a 3. Bottom part of the radio box has the plastic connector things installed, a rubber boot for the cables and in goes the mechanical speed controller. Slot in the servo tray and start to hook it all up: Mmmm... starting to look good Bolt it to the chassis: Connect up the motor wires: Solder and heat shrink: Starting to take shape now: This is where I've got to and realised I'm a servo horn short, so off to eBay for a couple of bits. In the meantime I'll start polishing the wheels and putting the new tires together and get the lettering done. Pics of that to follow (might get time tonight otherwise will be during the week).