casethejoint

Thanks all - really helpful. The Lidl one looks like a great deal - I'll go have a look at one of those this weekend. Aside from 1:1 stuff, I've also been thinking it would be great to be able to do things like bead-blasting at home, and looking around it seems you need 200+ litres/min delivery to do that. As an example the Lidl compressor (and Machine Mart one) is about 100 l/min, so half the required output. So I guess I need to have a think about whether I just plumb for something bigger....

Hi all, I'm looking at one of these:- https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-tiger-8250-2hp-24-litre-air-compressor/ ... and for the power/capacity seems like a good deal. Is there any reason not to use this with my airbrush? Noise is not an issue for me - my garage/workshop is detached and a long way from anything but I have been thinking maybe I need something "oil-less" and I'd also have to add a water trap? Thanks for any input!

Wow, this is really quite stunning. You have some mad-dog skills

Actually an advantage of hard bodies too is that if I don't like the tan seats when painted - I can just paint over them again

Ah yes, you mentioned you're a Manx fan Black would be more authentic I guess, but with this one I'm building it how I'd have one in real life if I had one. And had a beach I'm kind of working to this vibe, but orange instead of red:-

Humidity dropped this morning so I got the first two coats of clear gloss on... I've left it in a warm place so should be able to give that a light rub down and third and final coat by tomorrow night. I'll then leave it for a week before final cut and polish. In the meantime, rest of the bits are coming together nicely... The rear lights are Tamiya translucent red over silver. The photo doesn't quite make them look right - they look great in the flesh. I'll probably add some detail to the steering wheel and translucent yellow over the front lights, other than that I think these are done. The driver I've had sitting around for a while, waiting for his moment which is now nearly here... I'm thinking light tan for the seats, a little lighter than his hat. What do you think ?

Good point - thanks for the heads-up and prod on that. I'll change it for a steel one. MkII Acoms Not a lot wrong with it - works just fine...

It had to be built! I remember looking at these in the Tamiya catalogue back in the early 80's and thinking how great it must be to have proportional speed control. I ran the rolling chassis, now looking like this:- ... around inside last night and it's about as proportional as a switch Hey ho, it does look good though. BTW - the battery, which must be, what, 30 years old? Took a charge, without any problems, and to about 780mAh !! I thought that was amazing - they were only 1200 mAh when brand new 30 years ago. Don't build 'em like they used to! Do you like my yellow and green two-tone rubber bands to match the motor wires?

LOL - you guys crack me up - of all the things you want a pic of! OK, here you go, it's a simple barrel polisher:- ... I sit it on the garage floor, away from anything else as I tend to leave it on for several days at a time. Here's the media in the barrel (little green cones, they come out quite dusty after running). For stock standard vintage bits (SRB pot metal etc) I tend to run it for about 3 days. They come out looking like new. But a little better/smoother. I would say 85% as good as bead blasting, but if you really want high end you need to bead blast. Copper and brass parts come out fabulously - SRB universals for example. Highly recommended - if you get a 3lb+ one you can fit SRB gear cases into the barrel. They came in bags, like this. There were a bunch over in South Africa a couple of years back that ended up on eBay. I managed to get three of them . For some reason, no-one bid against me - so I assumed they were just not that in demand. I think I paid around £60 each. Impulse buy... one will end up on an SRB chassis. Back to the build, here's the current status of the body - had about 5 coats of Halfords/VW Brilliant Orange, then left for a couple years :). Gave it a rub down to 1k wet and dry and it's ready for laquer now. It's about 90%+ humidity here in the UK though, so I don't think I'm going to get to spray it for a few days and instead I'll work on the other bits of trim.

I did manage to get a few coats of VW Brilliant Orange on the body a few years ago that I suspect is about ready for a rub down :). I'll get some pics of that up and progress tomorrow. I seem to have hit a limit though on photo uploads so might need to do some trimming...

Electrics! I like the layout of this buggy - everything fits neatly in place with plenty of room. Better than an SRB in that respect.

Wheels and tyres. There was a period on eBay a few years ago where there were a ton of these, so I bought a few sets. For this build, I've started with a NIB set of both wheels and tyres as the originals were a little worn out. These have been painted Tamiya metallic Gray, which is the same colour I did my WW M38 with (http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=129116&sid=26801 ) as it was the closest I could get to the WW box art. Thought it would work well here too - it's actually very close to the original plastic colour, just not, well, plastic. I managed to get some Pactra Testors racing yellow the other day (getting rare as I don't think it's being sold anymore) and thought for a change I'd do the lettering in yellow this time. Not done this before, always been white. Figure it'll go well with the box art orange body that's coming up. Screws are currently stainless steel as I had some, but I might change these out for black later...

On to the front suspension. Now this really is basic... I had some NIP parts for this but decided not to use them as these are not bad at all after a clean up. The joy of the Super Champ re-release - grey bumpers! I picked one up a while ago, thought I'd try it on for size here (I have a j-man front bumper that I suspect I'll switch out for later).

So, I dismantled this and put it in a box back in 2009:- http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=87315&sid=26801 I bought a few extras for it - a LighteningRapid roll cage, some NIB tyres and a NIB chassis etc. Oh, and a sport tuned RS380 that I thought I'd try out not having had much experience with 380's. I've been waiting for years to get around to this. I don't know quite why it took me so long. Usual adult crap getting in the way of behaving like a kid First job was to run all the metal parts through my trusty barrel polisher (these things rock):- Mmmm, smooth and shiny! Then the build begins.... Step 1 is the main drive. I couldn't quite get that first gear cleaned up so it's a little "rustic" Bearings added throughout obviously. Step 2 has them dropped into the new chassis I got for it. This is a noisy/rubbish drivetrain but I still love these things... FRP is a great idea for a rear suspension spring. This actually works surprisingly well. OK, you're not going to win any races with this but I think we all accepted that already... A rear bumper - retro Step 4 in goes the motor. I'll be interested to see how this 380 Sport Tuned performs. Does anyone have data on it? I'll be honest and tell you I bought it because it has a cool sticker on it

Fantastic - you can't beat a nostalgia resto

PS - the ultrasonics are very wife-friendly too. Mine uses it for her jewellery and says it does an excellent job of cleaning it.

Just to add a contrary view, I love mine! You can watch the dirt lift off as it runs. It doesn't do a better job than a toothbrush and some fairy liquid, but it does get into all the difficult places and you can just chuck stuff in and let it run. I use a diluted de-greaser in it ("gunk" is the brandname). I also love my barrel polisher which is something also well worth having if you're restoring older "more metal" vehicles. Some parts can take several days to polish up (using green cone media) but they come out looking amazing.

Use green slime and don't overfill them. I've got shocks in my SRBs that were last rebuilt several years ago and still going strong and doing a good job.

Looks like a nice resto startup I have the repro resin rear lenses on mine and they're fine - you wouldn't know once all painted up. Keep a watch for them on eBay as they pop up fairly regularly. I do recommend the stainless steel screw sets also, unless you're set on keeping it as original as possible. It's 99% patience with hard shells like the Blazer which has no complex masking and one main colour. Basically lots of rubbing down coats with micro-mesh in the kitchen sink and don't put it on too thick. There are also very few sharp curves etc - I would go so far as to say one of the easier hard shells to paint. So if you have patience it's easy to do a good job and it's pretty rewarding. If you have no patience then fair enough . Enjoy it. The old 3 speeds are amongst the nicest to restore and the Blazer definitely has a certain something that no-one can quite put their finger on...

Hi guys, I'm working on a basket case Willy that's needed loads of screws drilling out as the genius that built it mistook thread-lock for "stupid strength glue". Anyway, I think I'm there on all the replacements, but I'm stuck on B2 which is the countersunk ones 3mm x 8mm. They're part of the motor assembly. Any idea where to get replacements? Seems a slightly odd thread pattern for 3mm and different to the normal Tamiya 3 mm bolt thread. Thanks!

Thanks - I went with the allen key and worked a treat.

Hi all, I'm currently dismantling a WW1 M38 and the rear shafts have a couple of split pins (what Tamiya call in the manual "spring pins"). Any tips to remove them? I'm thinking of using a desk vice and something strong but slightly smaller than the pin (possibly an old drill bit), but wondered if there was a special tool available for the job? I love tools Thanks!

Careful with that - can cause problems with rubber parts (eg tires in particular) which you don't want *too* dry.

The RC Channel shocks are pretty good - an improvement on the originals.

I'm surprised by the comments from people not having much luck with ultra sonic cleaners, mine is fantastic and wouldn't do a rebuild without it. Couple of drops of washing up liquid, and 8-10 mins later everything comes out spotless. Kinder than running the parts through the dishwasher (and more wife friendly). I sometimes use a product called "gunk" which is an engine degreaser in it too, if it's heavily greasy. Stuff just floats off. Just whack it in, worst case it'll take a little longer and need a few runs. Yes, but as mentioned above it's best not to mix metals.