Fuijo

Don't be. You have. The contents of that picture look like gold to me. It even has that antenna ribbon. Value? I don't know. Quite a lot.

I would make a daisy-chain of holes close to the edge around the panel to be cut out with a reamer, and then use a file for the rest. Slow, but guarantees no mistakes.

Nice pictures, and nice truck! Does everything still work do you know? I would say that's pushing it a little from patina into fairly easy restoration territory. The body doesn't look too bad at all and most of the parts are there. Definitely a bonus to have the driver, interior and window glass looking ok. A complete undamaged radio box is a very good thing too. It looks like it could do with new tyres and a few other bits and bobs, but if I were going to restore one I'd say this was a very good place to start. It's still hard to value something like this that's between the extremes in value from basket case to mint display model, but prices are very good for RC stuff of any kind at the moment what with so many people at home and bored. For a wild stab in the dark from me I'd say it could go for somewhere between 300 and 500 USD. Maybe even a bit more on an ebay auction. Anyway, best of luck with whatever you decide to do with it.

It's impossible to say what it's worth without seeing detailed pictures, but these are always worth somewhere between something and quite a lot. Someone will almost certainly be interested as long as the price reflects the condition. If you don't need the money I would keep it, but only you can decide.

What about all the SRB's?

I have a new E parts tree, with part 6 missing. If that's any good to you make me an offer. P1010867 by James H, on Flickr

Hi @bjorklo How's things? Nice video! Did you ever sort out a sticker for some clocks on the instrument binnacle? I used a surplus Group C sticker for mine. I have a spare one (pictured). If you would like I could post it to you. P1010865 by James H, on Flickr

@Tamiyabigstuff Would you be prepared to part with the guidebook on the top right in your first pic? That's the '83 guidebook right?

If I had access to your workshop I'd be making the SS-50 ICBM Launcher from Spies Like Us. At least I would while making grand plans on the back of a beer mat. The reality might be different.

The body looks original to me. It's a darker colour blue than the rere, which makes it easier to tell when they're side by side. Also, on the front of the metal roof the corners are rounded on the rere, so that looks original too. Nice example! Edit: There is also a difference with the window netting. The original has a rope pattern, the rere does not.

A factory modified SRB as a stop gap while Tamiya were waiting to see if the ORV chassis worked out perhaps? It's great fun if you have access to sand, or a sand-like surface to play on. It also looks good on the shelf.

Did you fit the shaft MA8 in the diff? I forgot this the first time I assembled the gearbox, but realised before I tried to run it. So I don't know if the symptoms are the same.

I like brushed motors; the look of them, and also the smell, is it ozone? But after pretty much destroying a Superstock BZ at the beach in my Novafox, in just one day, I don't think they're worth it for the use I put them to. I don't run all that many of my cars, but for the ones that I do run I'll be using brushless from now on, unless the motor is fairly well protected like in an SRB.

Having the buggy in my hand and typing at the same time is difficult. I think it does, and yes it is different like I explained above. I don't know what this means. As you can see there are no bubbles in the oil pipe on my Fighting Buggy. Even when it's upside down. I have looked, and in my opinion your loop is far too short. That small piece of hose is going to be moving a great deal in use, and will stress the connections. You could tell us, but it looks like you've sold it. Remind me who needs to have the buggy in hand? I don't agree. Mine did. The red o-rings stick after standing for a while. But this might not have been helped by keeping it in a heated room. The blue TRF o-rings fixed it, and it hasn't happened again. You are talking complete rot and/or your observation skills are terrible. Either way I wont be disscussing this with you any more.

If anyone is confused by the apparent contradiction, you can see on the photo a few posts above of, erm, my Fighting Buggy, that the only place the oil hose sticks out from the body is by the left rear wheel. I believe that it's not really practical to make this loop any smaller without making the bend too tight. The Super Champ used a different routing. A direct route between the bottle and the shock. But the hose is only supported at the points where it makes a connection to bottle and shock. Every time the shock moves so does the hose, and at right angles to the bottle connection. So it was no great surprise that leaks were very common at this point. At least where it connects to the shock the movement is in line with the way the pipe fits to it, not pulling it side to side. The Fighting Buggy routing is much better. The bottle joint doesn't move at all with suspension movement because the hose is fixed up until a point much further away from the shock, and so the loop sticking out of the side of the car can be smaller. One can of course revert back to the Super Champ routing for looks or whatever, but it leaked. Once the Fighting Buggy o-rings have been replaced for decent ones, it doesn't leak.

No that's right. I don't have this buggy. Lol.

Not really, no. At least not by very much. The rear shock has a large range of movement, not only as it compresses, but as the suspension articulates the entire shock moves side to side by quite a bit. If you don't allow enough length of hose for this movement it will just get ripped off and dump the oil everywhere. It is not possible to keep the hose inside the confines of the body because of the large range of movement the shock travels through. You could change it to a black hose like on the original Super Champ so that it doesn't stand out as much, but that would make getting all the air bubbles out more difficult.

Thanks! They are yes. 1mm for the driver, 2mm for the trike body. The Avante Black Special makes me think of Tron for some reason too. I did like that film.

Finished all the mechanical work on my T3-01 Dual Rider driver. I just need to paint him now. Inspiration from PDC Designworks website. P1010864 by James H, on Flickr P1010857 by James H, on Flickr P1010856 by James H, on Flickr P1010840 by James H, on Flickr

They are all 3 much of a muchness. The gear ratios are taking into account that off-road wheels are significantly larger than touring car wheels, which is why the BZ recommends around FDR 10 and the other two around FDR 7. All three will work fine in the Egress with the BZ's recommended ratio, you just wont get the little sock thingy unless you buy the BZ.

The rear spool is actually something of a good thing on high-grip surfaces. Under power the understeer is so bad that it almost wont turn at all. Which is good because a roll at full speed could completely destroy the body. If you want to turn, you have to slow down and slow down a lot to avoid rolling it. Fitting a diff will just make it turn better and make a roll at high speed more likely. Like the full size vehicle, the on-road handling is dreadful. A combination of high ground clearance, very basic suspension and an engine fairly high up behind the rear axle do not make for a good handling car. But these same characteristics made it surprisingly competent off-road, or at least on farm tracks and rural unpaved roads. Which was a good thing like it was for the Citroen 2CV. So when these cars were changing hands for a few pints of beer, they made a great starting base for a inexpensive dune buggy. Some of the off-road ability was already there. Making one into a good road car is rather more difficult. It would be better and cheaper to use something else. Same for the 1/10th version really. £100 seems too cheap to me for an XB body. It cost me more than that to buy and paint my spare body in box-art colours. I think I've spent around £900 or so on my rere Scorcher to date. So if I wanted a box-art body and couldn't or didn't want to paint my own I wouldn't even blink at £300 for a rare XB one, unless Tamiya started selling them again.

Any excuse to post some pics of my favourite RC car will do. It's looking a bit less shiny than it was 4 years ago. Trips to the beach will do that I guess. Hopefully it will whet a few appetites for the upcoming re-release. P1010847 by James H, on Flickr P1010848 by James H, on Flickr P1010849 by James H, on Flickr P1010850 by James H, on Flickr P1010851 by James H, on Flickr P1010852 by James H, on Flickr P1010853 by James H, on Flickr P1010854 by James H, on Flickr P1010855 by James H, on Flickr

You may consider it profiteering in the context of the situation you find yourself in. But Tamiya have no clue about your situation and obviously wont be taking it into account in any way when they set their prices. Why on earth should they? It isn't profiteering when you don't have to buy it. And you don't. You have other cars. You could wait until this situation you find yourself in comes to an end. Or you can wait until the price gets reduced because everyone who wants one already has one. So please, enough with the profiteering! Did you get that from a reliable source, or did you read it in the entrails of a chicken?

Don't whatever you do! They're like little, tiny, relatively affordable**, Tamiya jewelry. Particularly when you get carried away with the hop-ups https://d7z22c0gz59ng.cloudfront.net/cms/img/usr/inst/parts/T301_PARTS_CATALOG.pdf They're just so stupidly funny to drive. Oh please do that. And have the rat holding a Go-Pro and post the vid. That would be awesome. **This might not necessarily be true. It's possible to buy far too many hop-ups. Even useless ones. Apparently.

Getting there with my Dual Rider. I haven't been this impatient with a build since my first RC kit when I was a kid. Painted in between rain showers for that professional look. The driver will have to wait though. Went a bit mad with installing the rear lights. Probably not road legal. P1010844 by James H, on Flickr P1010843 by James H, on Flickr P1010842 by James H, on Flickr P1010841 by James H, on Flickr