rally1998

So the new shell for the TC turned up today all the way from Greece, only took a couple of days really. Not bad at all. Excuse the kitchen towel, is plugging up smelly nitro holes As this company have a few of those shells left in stock, I might buy another to just paint and not bother with decals so I can use it for bashing? As I can't find Decal sheets anywhere, I feel like I don't even want to use them! I think I have now found an engine that will fit straight in, side exhaust etc.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221422190620 Don't know how this will compare vs the stock FS-18..

Thank You, how would I get one of these to control 2 motors? or would I need to have 2 of them somehow?

Thanks guys, I have a plan for the Shell, Hopefully It's going to look amazing What would be a fairly cheap ESC and Motor setup that I could put into this that would be a bit faster than stock? Cheers Jamie

Thanks, it was taken with a Nikon DSLR D5100 It is a brilliant picture, you wouldn't believe that day was so windy, cold, sand blowing in your eyes, filling up your shoes, you couldn't stand facing into the wind, my missus had to take her contacts out when she got back and throw them away! I have a few more shots of that day: http://www.asonda.co.uk/forumpics/rc/beach1.jpg http://www.asonda.co.uk/forumpics/rc/beach2.jpg http://www.asonda.co.uk/forumpics/rc/beach3.jpg http://www.asonda.co.uk/forumpics/rc/beach4.jpg http://www.asonda.co.uk/forumpics/rc/beach5.jpg http://www.asonda.co.uk/forumpics/rc/beach6.jpg http://www.asonda.co.uk/forumpics/rc/beach7.jpg http://www.asonda.co.uk/forumpics/rc/beach8.jpg http://www.asonda.co.uk/forumpics/rc/beach9.jpg Don't want to clog your thread up with actual pics but there are a couple of other good shots from that day

Wicked, let me know what you have, I'm in the UK though. Would you ship stuff to me? I would love to buy bits and pieces to have spare.

Well I love all my RC cars equally right now. This is the best photo I have of my latest one, It's a fantastic action shot. HPi Baja 5B SS (Sorry it's not a Tamiya).

Thanks I'll do that right now

I don't have the money to go crazy with it, I have 2 electric Tamiyas and. Petrol Hpi baja, I would like to keep this Nitro. Whereeeeeeeee?

This is my HPi Baja on the beach, this is the first time I took it there, I have an outerwears on the filter and pull start, I have Shock Socks, I bought and enclosed clutch carrier and I thought I was sand proof. This looks like great fun right? I went out the day after and thought It'd be fun to just drive along in really really shallow water to try and get some decent pics, not only did it go wrong ending in it stalling in the water. My Baja now has it's 26cc Fuelie engine in pieces as I'm trying to get rid of every last grain of sand, I'm rebuilding the carburettor and I'm cleaning every last component of the buggy. Rust has set in so quickly it's unbelievable.. Shock socks, rubbish, outerwears helped a bit. Luckily sand didn't get in the engine but I was worried it did hence the rebuild. My baja looked new, from 2 runs on the beach. It now looks like this! The salt and the fine sand....nightmare. Once this is all cleaned up, I am going to go full mental at sand proofing it, I've already got mods for the Carb ready to go by using old cut down driveshaft boots, a special little filter for the breather hole and more... Luckily I like stripping and rebuilding!

Well, These turned up today Anybody got any ideas on the engine I could drop in easily for this?

I have a set of Detailing Brushes that I use on my real cars, I use one of them to flick all the sand off and I partly disassemble all the areas I can't reach to make sure I get it all out. The only way to be 100% is to disassemble the whole thing which for some is half the fun, others is just a hassle. If you get salt water on anything, you need to disassemble and clean everything from the ground up, it attacks everything but metals suffers fast, been there done that very recently My advice to myself now, is to sand proof as much as you can!

Thanks Guys for all the help and pointers so far , I guess it's one of those situations whereby we'll never know really what it was originally bought as, although we now have a very good idea. One thing that is bugging me, is long story short, mum and dad bought this for me off another family whilst we were on holiday in Newquay, we all become good friends and always ended up being on holiday here the same weeks etc, when they bought it the axles were just spinning in the wheels so they fitted those after market ones before my parents bought it off them (I think mum and dad paid £20 for the whole thing) and I cannot remember what style those original wheels were, that would have given us a good indication of what it is! I'm leaning towards it being a Hornet also but to me it'll always be known as a Grasshopper. What I'm going to do is get a new shell, as that is cracked and broken in quite a few places (keep this original obviously), I'm going to try and replicate the original colour it was when I got it, not what it looks like above. So I need to create a green shell with lighter green speckles in it, as if grass has been kicked up by the wheels all over it. Then the part around the windows will be red, that is how I remember it from when I first got it For the actual chassis etc, I think I'm going to rebuild with new parts that need changing but keep as many of the old parts as possible. I'm sure I have the original front bumper for it somewhere. This is going to be great fun, albeit a bit expensive in total with 2 other cars to go through and my current runner a baja 5b ss that needs an engine rebuild I've got RC parts turning up daily at the moment

Hey! So this is my 3rd Tamiya to get back into good condition. This is already in much better condition than the Wild Dagger and Grasshopper in the other threads. I paid around £500 for this and was 1 of 5 of the first in the country apparently to my local model shop (doesn't exist anymore). It was the last one and was in the window, I was 13/14 at the time I think, I got my first saturday boy job and was working for the full 6 weeks holiday, I went into the hobby shop and my friend had bought a T-Maxx a few months previous and I decided I wanted this beast, with its bigger size, automatic forward and reverse. I put a deposit on it and I went back in every saturday afternoon to pay more off until a few weeks had past and it was finally mine to take home All that time it had a big sold star on it in the hobbyshop window, proper boyhood dream at the time, walking past and seeing my tuck in prize place in the window Certainly a fond memory. Unfortunately these didn't have the best reputation in the world, lots of people couldn't set up the linkages correctly to get the gearbox working right, the slipper clutch would cause problems (I never had any of these issues) but the biggest bug bear of them all is the Engine, this still has the FS-18 in it from new. Out of the 5 that bought these from that shop, they called us all in together to offer us replacements or money back as the other customers were complaining so much to them and just before that happened somehow my engine stopped with a big clunk and wouldn't work. 4 of them took partial refunds and got Zircon Monster Trucks, I think 1 had them pre-order the not yet released first HPI savage and I said no, I wanted my truck back. My original truck got sent back to Tamiya, different engine put in (still the FS-18) all gone over and I got it back. It was used for that summer like nobodies business (only on tarmac) but after not very long engine issues began, not holding a tune, hard to start, constant cutting out. I got sick of it being a younger and there it's been pretty much ever since, tried it a couple of years ago and it frustrated me again, so I went and bought a HPI Baja 5b SS Kit and have to say I am enjoying the reliability of Petrol motors! I didn't realise until researching this beauty that the cylinder had a soft nickel coating right? So piston and sleeves needed to be replaced regularly. Dilemma further down the page. Sorry for waffling... looks like it's had minimal use with the tyres and plastics... The bodyshell has taken a little bit of a beating, is quite a heavy monster coming down on that fragile back bed. The engine is currently not bolted to the chassis but I do have the exhaust and all bits to fix it down. As you can see, apart from dust and the chrome coming off the wheels because of the nitro fuel and fumes..it could be nearly new. This is where the brace should fit across that holds the port/connection where you plug in the battery pack for the electric start. I have the electrical wiring and the top brace/mount but the plastic square/block that the terminal fits in aged and got brittle so I don't have it, so at the moment would just have a loose electrical connection. and a picture of that awesome front linkage and gearbox So far, I have ordered a new genuine replacement clear body for it from Greece (only one I could find anywhere on-line) and the decal sheet for it from ebay, again the only one I could find. Very happy I managed to nab those. Bit pricey though. I will use the new shell as a shelf shell really, not sure whether to paint it the stock blue colour, or go for something different? The engine...A piston and liner that I can find is going to cost quite a bit of money. The engine in this is in my opinion and many others is pants, with the liner issue and only 1 tuning needle etc and including the fact it squirts oil etc out the back of it rendering the electric start useless (I drilled a hole in the top and bottom of the started gearbox and when it played up I squirted tons of nitro cleaner down there just to get it started). I had bought a new backplate and done a bearing conversion like others had done but it didn't work out well for me I think I want to be able to use this as and when I feel like, what engine can I buy today that will drop in? I'm guessing there isn't any I could buy that would be compatible with the electric start? Also something more powerful than the stock one, I think people have used over .21 without problems with the gearbox? Cheers Jamie

Hi All, So as I mentioned in my Grasshopper thread, I have 2 others to put right also. This being one of them. I got this as a kit one Christmas I believe when I was 12 or 13. I spent all Christmas day building it and also boxing day night (as we travelled back to where we originally come from to celebrate xmas time with the rest of the family) much to my mums disgust as I didn't bother with any other xmas presents, I just wanted to build my kit My dad liked it and if it wasn't for him, mum wanted me to leave the part finished kit at home, that upset me deeply, Luckily Dad was on my side (sadly passed away Feb 2013, I was only 24) so this has like the Grasshopper an massive emotional price tag associated with it. This one more so as when we were away I finished the kit and I wanted to paint the shell, Dad took me all over the city to find somewhere that sold Tamiya Paint, I know it's not the right colour as it should be a metallic blue if you go off the box pictures etc but it's the right colour for me. Here she is: I upgraded the motors and added an ESC unit (at the time they were still not mainstream like they are today and especially one that controlled 2 motors) I don't know what it was but it ran very hot and wouldn't allow the motors to run at full speed, I put the biggest fuse I could find in and it still wasn't any faster than the stock motors with the mechanical controller. So I cut a fuse up and soldered thick copper wire to each of the fuse blades and put it in the esc and to allow for better cooling, I cut this horrendous hole in the bed of the truck (my biggest regret with this truck)...alas it didn't help as I ran the thing for a few minutes and it ran like lightening, was mental fast, way too fast to be honest andd....the ESC caught fire Sorry about the dirty look of the black there, I used baby wipes to get all the thick dust off it. As you can see various bits missing, as I was fudging around with it, that ESC is from the Grasshopper controlling 1 motor, as I lent the other motor to a friend and never got it back.. I had 2 Team Orion Orbital 2 Mach-Mod, the hobby shop sold me a 15tx3 for the back and a 17tx3 for the front, said it'd behave more like a rearwheel drive... I believe now though that was tosh as don't these need to be 0 timed or something? If somebody could teach me about that or atleast give me an insight, I'd be most grateful. And this is how it's sitting really, as the back isn't screwed in at all. I do have everything to put this back to complete stock bar the white resistor block, I'm just bummed about the hole in the body, I think I'm going to perhaps upgrade this to use 2 decent motors and an ESC so that I can use this.. What would you recommend? Could I fix the body or do I have to live with that hole now? As I cannot find a new shell for this anywhere, although I may just grab a generic shell to use to save the memory of this one?

Thanks The shaft you mention, is that the rear drive shafts that go through the wheels, the metal threaded end? Also how would I go about removing all the paint from the chassis? Is that your work above? Did you cut pieces and then glue back? How did you do this? I've never restored anything like this before so this is going to involve lots of learning for me

Hi thanks for the reply. Have a look at this.....it was known that hornet parts were used to hop up a grasshopper at the time... on mine I have this: (where the gearbox locates locked in place) On the hornet, there is a slot there for it to articulate a bit, like this: (which mine doesn't have) So with that in mind...those gearbox supports can be changed... do you think mine was originally a grasshopper but in it's 10 year life before me was hopped up to Hornet spec? Or was it always a hornet and it had the gearbox mounts changed as reading other forums, the hornets articulation mounts would sometimes make the back of the car skip??

Hi All, I have 3 Vintage Tamiya RC Models that I'm going to try and fully restore. This has a lovely back story and I got this when I was either 6 or 7 years old. 20 Years later I want to restore it to it's former glory. It was probably 10 years old when I got it so was already in poor condition and the shell was already broken. I'll let the pictures speak for me. I'm going to need advice on the best way of restoring something like this... Here she is, the green paint on the side was the original colour when I got it, was green with bumpy bits of light green...over the following few years and with a young and innocent mind I painted over bits that flaked off etc... As you can see from this shot, the body is completely shot. One thing to note though, I was always told it was a Grasshopper but isn't that shell a Hornet shell? This brings me onto my first dilemma. I know this car and what it looks like and to ME it's a Grasshopper with that shell, I only discovered it was a hornet shell when looking into it. 1.) Would you replace the shell with a hornet one to preserve the childhood memory or 2.) Be a strict original resto and put a Grasshopper body on it? (and perhaps paint it the green it was?) I'm assuming this IS even a Grasshopper and not a Hornet...I had a look at pictures and by looking at the circular part where the back assembly goes in, this is a Grasshopper, perhaps one of you could clarify for me? When this was last used, I was still young and there were just no spare parts around, well before the re-release. Either the plastic gear or metal pinion had worn down so much they didn't make contact with one another, so I wedged this in to create an angle so they would contact and work...(Also notice the sharp self tapping screws for the shocks!!) Seems to be some servere twisting going on at the back there?: This chassis is shot to pieces, It's been glued, bits missing, I even electrical taped over cracks and pieces to keep it together at the front..this is in such a poor state A spring went missing somehow, I cannot recall but this is how in my pre-teen years I solved that problem.. The hornet body again, shot to pieces. The supports on the chassis are gone to even hold it down, the wing just comes off and it's cracked in numerous places... What would you guys do in this situation? All of my cars were working things for me to use and have fun with. I want this one, out of all of them to be able to be used now and again just for memories sake but I do want this to be fully restored. Should I just buy NEW Re-release parts or should I do all I can to source Vintage parts for it? And the body thing, shall I get a re-release body as I'm assuming this is all far too gone, and then...the dilemma about what body to put on it. The servos work fine, that motor works fine and the gearbox works but I have that issue with the gears/pinion, The speed controller and resistor is in a Wild Dagger at the moment (which is going to be another thread as soon as I finish posting this one) which will go back in this as it's the original for the car. Any thoughts, ideas are very very welcome! Jamie

Hi All, I'm restoring a few of my Vintage Tamiya Collection and I am in need of a few bits I need the Shell for the Terra Crusher. If you have clear or the RTR Blue Painted with Decals or without, I'm interested in anything! Let me know. Kindest Regards Jamie