Kingfisher

I'm going to go against the grain here and suggest getting a cheap soldering kit from radio shack or something similar. They start out pretty cheap. Watch a how-to video on Youtube and you'll be good to go. It's a skill that can be of benefit to you in the future.

I'm looking to do some offroading and puddle-hopping. I have a waterproof ESC, servo, and I plan to put the receiver in a bag or balloon. If I drive through mud or water, what preventative maintenance should I do afterwards? Should I re-oil or re-grease anything? When the car gets covered in mud, can I just rinse it off with a garden sprayer?

Got most of the stickers on and decided to take it for a first run. I ran 2 battery packs through it without an issue. I haven't cut the body posts down yet because I plan to change the front shocks to oil shocks. I'm waiting to see if the change to a softer shocks causes the tires to rub the body. ...and the Lunchbox, which my girlfriend now refers to as "hers".

I trimmed the body with a hobby knife using the scoring method in YT videos. This was my first time ever doing this. I was afraid that I would mess up and ruin the body, but am now pretty confident in doing it again. I used the supplied stickers to mask the windows. Then, I used masking tape to mask off the bumpers. I painted the body with Tamiya PS-17 Metallic Green. Once the green dried, I removed the masking from the bumpers and painted everything inside with Tamiya PS-5 Black. I painted black over the green on the inside to help cut down on transparency issues when taking photos of the Jimny. Does it look good? Bad? Room for improvement? Stickers come next. I posted this in the "what the postman brought me thread", but my reason for painting it green was because I used to have a Samurai. After looking at the picture of the real thing, I now see where I forgot to mask and paint the trim under the door black. Oops!

I found this link which explains how to choose gearing. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-electric-off-road-trucks-buggies-truggies-more-147/2587132-mystery-solved-how-select-proper-gearing-your-electric-rc.html

Yeah. I said servo pitch, but I may have the terminology wrong. What it looks like to my eye, is that the gear on the servo has rounded teeth, while the Tamiya servo parts have more pointed teeth. So, a little bit of force and it just slipped right around. Thanks. In the future I will make some videos. I have a gopro that I could put to use.

I'm still very new to all of this, but my understanding is that now that you have more power you should upgrade to a different pinion gear for more top speed.

Got the body painted, put it on and took it for a test run. I had the wheels turned when I came down from a wheelie. This cause the servo saver to jump teeth on the servo. I took it apart and lined everything back up. I went for another run and drove onto the slight 1.5" step from the street to my driveway. When doing so, the same thing happened, and I was stuck turning left when the wheels should have been straight. The servo is a Hitec HS-646WP. Any ideas on why this is happening? I've followed the instructions exactly, so I know I am not missing any parts or anything like that. Got it figured out. The servo pitch does not match the Tamiya servo parts. It's a close fit, but not close enough. I swapped the servo out with another of a different brand and no problems.

My guess is that the motors turn at the same max RPM, limiting you to your gearing. With the Saturn you will get up to speed faster, but still have the same top speed. Am I right?

I know it's not the best place, but it's in a spare bedroom that we don't use, in the corner. The room is completely empty, except for the cars. It was only temporary placement until I come up with something better. Impressive! Thanks for all of the idea's everyone, and also thanks for allowing me to see just how you keep them.

I got this off of the TamiyaUSA site for $99 USD. It said that it came with free bearings. At the time, I didn't know that it was only 8 bearings. I assumed a whole set. There's 8 bearings in the gearbox, and 8 more to the suspension/wheels. I figured that it would be much easier to put the bearings in the gearbox now and replace the suspension/wheel bushings later. I also replaced the factory silver can for the Sport Tuned motor. The gearbox came pre-assembled with the motor already attached. The screws holding the motor to the gearbox were so tight, that I destroyed the heads of them trying 5 different screwdrivers until I finally got them out. Luckily, I had an extra pair of matching screws leftover from the Lunchbox. Partially completed: I'm using a waterproof Hitec servo. I didn't use the supplied ESC. Instead, I used the Quicrun 1060 since it's waterproof. I don't care much for the air shocks that came with it and may be replacing them with oil shocks soon. All I have left to do is to clean up the wiring and finish the body. I have the body trimmed, washed, and drying at the moment. I'll update more once I start painting it.

I had to have this one because I used to own the real thing. With a Chevrolet V6 in mine, I could get the front wheels up. Maybe not as much as the RC version, but enough to call it a wheelie.

TurnipJF's thread left me with more questions. Where do you keep all of your cars? How do you store them in between use? I ask because it's hard to have only one, and size comes into factor here when you have multiple. Currently, I am up to three cars with more to come (2 unbuilt at the moment), and am keeping them on the floor of a spare bedroom.

I'm pretty new when it comes to building these. Let me know what you think of the handling after you try it out. I kept the soft springs in the rear on oil shocks and don't see a need to change.

The original springs are stiffer, but also longer. I compressed mine onto the shock anyways and gave it a try yesterday. No more sagging when reversing, and it feels like it corners better, which makes sense because the front is stiffer. My testing was done in a flat concrete parking lot. At full trigger doing a wide circle, you can see the front tire trying to roll off of the rim. But, I think it's a bit too stiff with the stock spring because it flips over much easier. I know, it's a Lunchbox, but it wasn't as tippy with the softer spring on the front. I'm going to play with the valving of the shocks and see if I can find a happy medium, or possibly even source out some other springs to try.

That's the truth! There's so many build threads and pictures here that I have a feeling that I am going to end up with a stack of unbuilt kits.

3rd picture says it all. Look at his expression.

I saw a video on YT once where they showed a bunch of old American cars in Cuba, and all of the self-engineered things they did to keep them running for all of these years. I think the car in the first post came from Cuba. Nice work making it a usable car again.

Nice. Plan on posting any pics of it getting dirty?

What is the purpose of the springs on the servo horn?

Mental note: Add one Blitzer Beetle to my "next to build" list.

Nice work to both you and your son.

Very nice. Following this thread because I am about to build a Jimny wheelie. Also WR-02.

Great idea, and nicely done. While I think it's perfect as is, the builder in me feels the need to over build it. Some idea's. How about some handles on the sides to make it easier to pick up and move? You could have a shallow drawer on the bottom, that slides out and holds misc parts. Oh, and you could wire it up to have some led work lights around the perimeter of the box.

Great looking car! Considering the age of the car, as well as the lack of mileage, have you checked to see what condition the tires are in? Can you find a date code on the sidewalls? Just tryin' to help prevent another ride in a tow truck.