casethejoint

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).

Managed to get this stunning condition radio box a few years ago. It's not new but you wouldn't know it. Step 1, get the Acoms battery and switch set in place. I'm missing the rubber switch boot but I think that should be fairly easy to source.

The great radio unboxing. Got this pretty much NIB (looks like it might have been used, once, gently) some time ago:- OK, it's 35mhz so technically I think I shouldn't be using it for a land based vehicle, but hey-ho you're all on 2.4ghz now anyway right? If you look closely in the open box above you can see the stainless steel throttle/gear gate that I bought a while back also on eBay. And look what I found at the bottom of the box (not seen this before and love little discoveries like this):-

That's looking pretty slick

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282258069036?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Sorry gang, I've been a bit slow due to family commitments last couple of weeks. But I got a couple of hours this evening, so have finished the gearbox and mounted the motor with some new soldered wires. The wire slots on the rubber boot that goes over the motor had started to split and deteriorate. I used some heatshrink to try and nip that in the bud and that worked out better than I expected it to. A little loss in flexibility but I don't think it'll be a problem (in fact probably a good thing). Dropped into the chassis:- That's 13-15 in the manual done (I added the resistor cage just after taking the last pic). Hope to get a little time mid-week to do the wheels + tires and tire lettering. Now that there are repro tires available I'm not sure whether to wait for those from Hong Kong or use up my NIP set. Will make a final decision tomorrow

And Sand Blaster Juniors too:- http://www.ebay.com/itm/Front-tires-set-for-Tamiya-Rough-Rider-Buggy-Champ-Fast-Attack-Vehicle-/282258033307?hash=item41b7e3ca9b:g:584AAOSw4GVYLHQV

Very nice - this is the first time I've seen Repro blazer tires that have the Sand Tires Unlimited lettering. Two sets ordered

@matman it's called a "lapidary polisher" - if you search that it should show some options in your country. I think they're mostly used by people who collect stones/gems and use these to polish them. They come in different sizes - a 3lb barrel is long enough to take SRB gearcases. 2lb's is a little small for my liking, but if you only do small bits (SRB suspension arms, UJ's etc) then you can get by. I use the green cone shaped media for Tamiya pot metal and it comes out a nice "flat" polish. Not shiny, just new looking. It's important to get the smallest cones you can - it comes in different sizes. I didn't know that and ended up buying a batch of the larger cones, which is what I used on the Blazer gearbox above, and as a result it didn't quite get into the sharp corners. It looks like this:- You can get different shapes and grades too. There's some angled pointy stuff that I've been meaning to try which I suspect gets into all the nooks even better. It's a slow process - minimum I've found is a couple of days running to clean up a part. But it's low effort - put it in, switch it on, forget about it for a few days. The media lasts for ages. When I first got it I used to clean it each time, now I just leave it in there and re-use. It gets dusty and dirty but works just as well and you need to rinse parts when you take them out anyway to remove the swarf so it doesn't really make any difference. I have tried most of the other media you can get also - carbide grit, used both wet and dry, etc. Keep coming back to the ceramic green cones. The time I ran it wet made a total mess (it eventually dries and cakes all the parts with stuff that sets and takes forever to get off again). The different grades of media are coloured - you can get more course and also finer. I've found green to be about the right touch for vintage Tamiya bits. Going courser might make it faster and take less than a few days, but the green is really safe and not going to do any harm which is partly why I've stuck with it. Here's a pic of the Blazers driveshafts after 2 days in the polisher (I hadn't taken before pics, but they were in the usual condition - brass dark and dull and the shafts dirty and with nicks):-

Thanks for the positive comments guys Good news - success from the barrel polisher - remaining gearbox parts came out pretty well. There are a few spots where the media was too big to get in there and polish but I can finish those up by hand (actually, more likely I'll end up leaving them). I really can't recommend barrel polishers highly enough for Tamiya Pot Metal parts (second only to bead blasting in my opinion). I have flatted the facing edges where these guys all attach to each other using 400 grit on piece of scrap granite someone gave me a while ago (very useful if you need a very flat surface). My original plan was to try and make some gaskets, but I found that too fiddly, got frustrated and gave up. Having re-faced these though when I mate them up they do feel *really* good in terms of matching up smoothly. I may use some clear silicone to help sealing, or just leave them to drip - there's something appealing about this sitting on a shelf with an oil drop tray underneath it Re-assembly of the gearbox is pretty straightforward - I used the excellent guide that Zepplin put together (link in earlier post above). Step 1 I have re-assembled gear case C part already (hammer, vice + Tamiya tool makes this really really easy to do - only needs a light tap with the hammer). You see that nice needle ballrace in the pic that was my intended replacement for the brass bushes? Turns out it's too ******* small, by a fraction of a fraction of a mm. I'm really frustrated and annoyed that I messed that up.... and having got to this point and quite enjoying myself putting it all back together I decided to push forward and just re-use the original brass bushings for the flanged ones, ballraces for the stock 1150's. Luckily the originals were in good order, so didn't need anything other than a light clean to degrease and I won't be bashing this machine anyway - the tires are too **** expensive to do that. Light running only! So I soon got over myself and carried on... Stage 1 Completed Stage 2 This is just a case of putting the lid (case part B ) onto the previous step. Stage 3 Now we can drop all the main gear parts back into place. This is trickier than it looks - took me a couple of minutes to get it all aligned. Stage 4 Idler gear attaches to case part E. And that mates up with the rest of the box:- And that's it! I replaced all the screws with stainless steel while I was here (same with rest of the buggy). Not sure how much more I'll get done tonight but might be back later with some more progress (looking forward to getting this on the chassis and the driveshafts hooked up). Otherwise will be tomorrow

Looking good! No idea what that diff is. Looks interesting, could be rare - hopefully someone that knows will be along and can tell you....

PS @chevelle - if you ever want to sell it....

That's the one. I have one somewhere in the attic but so far haven't managed to find it. One day I'll come across it.....

Yep either a Thorpe and some brass goodness like that or, for me even better (because I used to have one and nostalgia etc), a Nodis diff.

Can you post pics of the differential please? Chances are, given the age of this buggy, you might have something special there... Yes, good deal. You swapped something that was fun in the day but will age badly for something that's classic . Good job.

Bumper... So, I have some nice cool funky bits for this for Pargu:- These are black alloy, and replace the black plastic ones. Heavy metal are us This all goes together quite easily. ... and with both sides done, on it goes to the chassis The original alloy tubes were a bit dented and smashed up so I replaced those with some new alloy tubing cut to length That's it I think for another week - I have the remainder of the gearbox in the barrel polisher for another couple of days and with a bit of luck I might start putting that together next weekend...

So all built other than the hub caps that need a decision... Next stage is to mount these onto the chassis, which is done with some U-bolts and a pressed metal plate. Again, stainless steel replacement nuts used here, rest of the parts are just cleaned - U-bolts were barrel polished. Mounted:-