Ferruz

Took the Mid out for a well deserved run. I've enjoyed admiring it on the shelf for the past year, but if feels even better to just drive it around in her real habitat. It's just a joy to drive, feeling simply impeccable. If only there were vintage oriented offroad competitions in my area, I'd join them in a heartbeat with the Mid! Unfortunately there's no such thing. It jumps very well, with sprint and composure

I've set up some Kyosho running wheels and tires for my Mid. I have once again used my own makeshift inner sponges made from packaging material, in order to save on some otherwise expensive OG parts. Ghetto meets genuine! And with good results, after just a few minutes of trial and error. Once in, they already feel like the real deal even before locking the tire into the rim. I did this to preserve the Bridgestone repro tires. They'll still see some action from time to time, but mostly on snow. Had to do some quick lettering while at it ...and done. Looking good and sleek, these pepperpot wheels are really a beautiful design. Loving them in white while still on the lookout for some proper gold ones 😅 Next now, a good shakedown run. This car hasn't seen much action in the past year, time to rectify that!

Thank you very much for your time and the photo @moffman, it's really appreciated 👍 and yes, the Turbo does look good with the Mid's rims on. Only news so far is that I've opened a return file on Ebay (first time doing this) for both wheels and nerf bars. Part of me still hopes that Pargu will agree to do another set in a lighter gold, but I know it's silly of me. It's probably not even possible. In any case, once I get my money back I will give something else a try. For now, the lighter Mid's alloys from Yeah Racing are first on the list.

I know, they both seem to match! Man, this game of matching gold shades is killing me, even if I work with colors I'm getting more and more confused 🤯 @moffman thank you for the extra photo. And well, at this point...I can hardly believe I'm asking you this, but here goes... if it's not too much of a hassle, would you mind posting a photo of the Turbo wearing the Mid's wheels, just to see how it looks with them on? I don't mean to take advantage of your kindness, and I would TOTALLY understand if this is too much to ask in which case forget it 😊 but if you do, it would help me a lot in this quest as right now I feel pretty lost 😅 thanks again in any case.

After further research, I'm not so sure about the re-anodizing route anymore: local companies only do huge industrial batches, plus there seem to be way too many factors and variables in the way of a good result first try, which would translate into way too much money thrown into this. Too bad, as the thought of anodizing the rims in my exact shade of choice was enticing. At this point, I could choose to be less picky and just keep things as they are as it's really not that bad, but given the vision I have of this project I still feel like trying to achieve a better result. I may return wheels and bars back where they came from, and look into the Yeah Racing alternatives. About that, thank you @moffman for these photos, I was really curious to see especially the lighter Mid rims mounted on a car Jackpot for me would be the Turbo Optima rims done in the lighter shade of the Mid ones, as that is what I had in mind in the first place (plus the decals are also that exact hue). Strange indeed such color difference, but both sets look fantastic 😍 What's your opinion Moffman on the Turbo rims? They seem to match nicely in the photos. Do they feel orange-ish in any way (which is what mostly bothers me about mine at certain angles)? Right now I am veering towards the Mid wheels, color is spot on and they wouldn't look bad on a Turbo. What's stopping me is just that I like the pepperpots so much, they are likely my favourite vintage rc buggy rims ever... after the ones that grace the Marui Samurai.

No, mine are from Pargu. The color is very much that one though

@Gebbly thanks. For the first -and likely last- time I am building the kit primarily for displaying purpose. It may see some light indoor running, but that's probably it. Painting would generally work, but I want the specific look of anodized aluminum in this case, so not an option I'm afraid.

Pretty interesting, thanks for sharing!

Double post. Will update later.

@Wystan Withers thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Unfortunately, just like you I am not much of a social media person. I never had Facebook, though I know I'm missing out on all sort of stuff, and will not start now. That being said, I'm still going to exoplore the re-anodizing route. Today I contacted that company I found yesterday and inquired for an estimate, curious to see what they say. I think I would be ok to spend some extra coins on these wheels, provided the result is good enough. Ps can't wait to be home from work and see how they look today, after the weird feeling of them looking better last night.

Wow, this is funny. And a bit weird. I just came home after a couple days away (I wasn't here when I started the discussion, and only had the photos to look at). I went to the hobby room to look at the Pargu parts again, and... well...all of a sudden they don't seem so bad! I don't know what to say, maybe it's just me. Most definitely it's just me 😅 but anyway, whilst not the same as the kit's parts, they now look to be just a little darker (like @Killajb said) and calling them Orange was a bit too much. Even in a photo they look better (same light, same everything) I am so confused 😳 I never thought that alloy wheels could start acting as some reverse portrait of Dorian Gray. Better just sleep on this whole thing for now. But hey, if tomorrow they still look like this, it is something I could work with.

@Killajb thank you for the bold idea. Leaving them out in the sun might work, but I am afraid that whatever result I get wouldn't be consistent enough around the rim, and there's four of them 😅 I am tempted to do it anyway. No reply from Pargu yet, but not surprised lol

It's definitely an option, thank you for the imput. I thought about it this morning actually, and even found a place that does anodizing even in small quantities. I am definitely going to inquire for an estimate with them, although I don't think it will come cheap which is why I was hesitant in the first place. I wouldn't want to end up paying double the price for the wheels, and counting that they would also have to remove the existing anodized surface before re doing it it would probably be the case. But yes, let's see what they say: if the color can be done to match the other parts, it could be well worth it.

I have been on the lookout for some proper Kyosho pepperpot style gold alloy wheels. Something genuine, whose color shade looks as close as possible to the golden Option House parts included in the rere Turbo Optima kit. Here is a perfect example: This is exactly what I am after The above photos are also included in the fleabay listing from Pargu. The name itself has got a great reputation amongst the RC community so, after asking the guy just to be sure whether it was the same gold as Kyosho and getting a resounding yes as an answer, I clicked on buy thinking I'd found what I wanted. I also added the nerf bars, which on the listings look just as stunning. The parts came in the mail a couple days ago. While the quality of the pieces is absolutely top notch, unfortunately the color is nothing like the pictures on the listing. It is too saturated and it veers towards orange, resembling more the color of a gold pan RC10 rather than the light gold of the Kyosho parts. At first, blinded by the fantastic quality of the items, I thought whatever, I'll get over it, and this is something I can "work with" after all, it will "grow on me" and so on. But I am starting to change my mind. I do generally settle at some point and don't make a big fuss about things, especially in the case of a hobby, right... but if I have to be true to myself and to the vision I have of this project, I should try and get what I actually want this time instead of settling for less. I am going for an "ultimate shelf queen" kind of look here, so there shouldn't be much room for compromise in the aesthetics department or it will easily defeat the purpose. If I look at all the gold parts at once like in the below photo, my eyes have to do a little too much gymnastics to tie them all together with the wheels. This doesn't happen with the decals and kit's parts alone. It's too bad really, given the fantastic quality of the items, but by now I think these wheels need to go. I contacted Pargu with a polite complaint to see whether by any chance he can dye another set for me in the right gold, but I don't expect to even get an answer. Fortunately, it appears I can just simply return the items which is likely what I'm gonna end up doing, although this is only going to get my money back without solving the situation (better than nothing, of course). Reason why I have asked him if he can anodize a lighter gold is, apparently Pargu's wheels used to be bang on color wise, at least until sometime not long ago. While researching I have found a few examples online of happy customers sporting pepperpots of exactly the hue I want, and they were from Pargu. I wonder, where did those wheels go? What happened in the anodizing process that made him shift from that almost perfect light gold to this coppery/amber thing I am holding today? By the way, I know his products are great and all, but if I may vent for a moment, I find it not very nice that in the listing he conveniently left the photos of what I now assume was his old, light colored stock instead of updating it with something that portrays the actual duller item. Not cool. I am aware that I may have set the bar pretty high this time and that others would be perfectly fine with this, and I really hope I won't come across as unreasonable or too hard to please here, but I work with hues and colors every day and well, this is no small detail. I am going for great results so for this time I am ok spending relatively big bucks on a set of alloy wheels, but at least they've got to look the part. Anyway, enuff with the rant now and back to problem solving. Again, this is the look I am after: It's at this point that I started falling deeper into this sort of gold plated rabbit hole. Upon further research last night, I got the impression that these wheels are nowhere to be found nowadays, at least not in the light shade I am after. There is a bunch of other brands out there, but none seem to really look the part: the plastic JC racing ones look gold plated but way too blingy, and any other alloy alternative has the same exact issue of mine, they actually look even darker. Fun fact, Yeah Racing offers alloy wheels in both pepperpot Turbo Optima and "Peugeot" Optima Mid style, but they are anodized in different gold: while the first ones are sadly in the darker shade, the latter seem to be in the color I want. If it's got to come to a compromise, I might consider Optima Mid rims to go on my Turbo Optima, as long as the color is good enough. I do ideally want the pepperpots though, and I'm still willing to go to a certain extent to find them. Now finally on with the questions for the Optimaniacs amongs us. Does anybody know about any good alloy pepperpots whose gold shade would be close enough to Kyosho? Did Option House ever produce them at all, or am I after something that never even existed? They do figure online, in photos like the ones above but by now, after researching extensively, I feel as if I'm going after Unicorn poo 😅 Are there other similar alternatives you know of? For instance, I could gladly settle for something like this below if the color was right like in the photo, but after further research and comparison it seems to be yet another case of Pargu going lighter in the past vs darker nowadays. Lastly, in the remote case anybody has a set of these apparently non-existing wheels he is willing to part with to contribute to my gold rush here, they can send me a PM Any help is appreciated, thanks for reading and thanks in advance to whoever wants to chime in with their knowledge or opinions. Cheers, Ferruz

Time to resurrect the infamous thread with a couple new hacks I wanted to share here. Since I started gathering parts for a massive restoration/facelift of my Manta Ray two years ago, at the same time I got an urge to try and squeeze as much life as possible out of the car before embarking on said restoration. Because of that, every time there is an issue or maintenace to be done on this buggy I'm invariably drawn towards trying to make do with what I have, and use ingenuity rather than going for a new part even though I already have them. This has lead to some exhilarating results lately. The first is about the front shock tower: following a bad tumble over rocks at high speed, it cracked badly on the right side. A quick search online for an aluminum counterpart did not help the cause (none available, exept for one in a horrendous off green colour for a premium price, nah thanks). I do have an extra parts tree with a new one, but because of what I said above I wanted to try and fix the old one first. I started with glueing it back together with decent quality cyanoacrylate Then, with the right tip and what I hope was a steady hand, I drilled through it like this... ...so to make room for a nice, long M3 screw to go right through the tower There's not much material to work with obviously, but the shock tower's thickness was just enough to make me want to have a go at it. First screw went in a treat, so why not a second one the other way to reinforce the piece even more. Here you can see the M3 screw heads circled, and the direction the screws are going This worked exceedingly well. The shock towers is now actually even stiffer on the righ side because of the screws, and all my butchering and stitching is not even that noticeable once the car is back together. I did run a few battery packs already and it holds one great: The second ghetto mod is pretty straightforward. Upon mounting a new set of Kyosho Sand Super tires on the Manta's rims, I noticed it was time for some new inner sponges as well. Old omes were just too munched up to be usable alone. After realizing the ridiculous cost of ordering some online, I just got creative. This small sheet of foamy-ish packaging material did the trick. With some trial and error I was able to cut stripes of the right lenght, one that would allow slight compression when inside the tire once it's glued to the rim, so that the padding material feels consistent all around. The feeling, once done, is the same as having new foams. Sorry I didn't take more photos of the material itself, but I'm sure you'll still be able to identify it (it's the very padding that comes in many of our RC parts deliveries). Feels good sometimes to save the coin and do with what you got in house. All the resto parts can safely stay in their packages for the time being ahah

I added the custom Optima sheet last minute, with the intention of using a bit of both. I think the regular gold JPS decals are going to look just fine. On my gold pan RC10 their color is way off compared to the aluminum of the chassis/shocks, but that seems to be easy on the eyes nevertheless. What wheels are these, if I may ask? I ordered mine from Pargustore and am now waiting for the delivery hoping, finger crossed, that they will be the same gold. They didn't come cheap, so a wrong shade would be quite the bummer. I messaged the seller before buying and he said they would be "Kyosho gold", so now I can't but hope for the best 😄

I originally selected the "mirror gold finish" (for a whopping 50% increase on price), but the next day I changed my mind about it, fearing that it might end up too shiny. I therefore contacted Nat at MCI and asked if he could revert the mirror gold to the simple "metallic gold" in the normal price range (same exact decal sheet that I got for my RC10 JPS). He agreed no problem and even issued me a refund right away for the extra cost of the mirror gold. Next thing I know, I received these beautiful decals. They are no doubt shinier than the ones on my RC10 (I compared the decal sheets side by side, having plenty of leftovers from the old one), but not as shiny as I'd expect mirror gold to be. All this blah blah just to say, I don't know whether I am looking at the new metallic gold or if MCI has just printed them in the mirror gold finish as a mistake, fluke or freelance decision. Either way, I lucked out as they are gorgeous, far better than anything I got from that company in the past. They look exactly like the gold of the aluminum parts, couldn't have asked for more. I'd like to take it as a good omen for this project 😅

Today I came home to a delivered Turbo Optima and some truly bang on stickers from MCI. Very happy with this 🤩 On another note, I also got the chance to bring the Manta Ray to a beach, albeit minuscule. First time on sand for her in all these years. Still have to sort out the photos and footage. @silvertriple those vintage oriented club events you go to sound like SO much fun. I wish I could partake. Well done going with your son and all those cars, gotta make it worth the while! Everything looks great, so many interesting and cool cars to look at besides all the action.

The decal sheets also have arrived! A neighbor picked up the package to keep it safe, he just gave it to me what a nice surprise. As many of us know, when dealing with MCI it can be hit or miss. I feel it's safe to say this time it's a massive hit. I am over the moon with this!

Came home to this

I have splurged out. I'll start from the beginning. It still feels a bit unreal, but apparently I have just pulled the trigger on a Kyosho Turbo Optima. I've been attracted to this kit since the rere came out in all her Option House golden glory, but the price was always too steep for me to be comfortable buying, no matter where I looked. Overpaying for my Optima Mid two years ago certainly didn't help the cause and in fact, I wasn't expecting another Legendary Series buggy in my fleet anytime soon. That was until yesterday when, almost by fluke, I took a gander on greedbay and found one for a very good price. Shipping was more than fair. I'll be turning 40 tomorrow, so a little treat to self is, I guess, justified... long story short, after checking the feedbacks and history of the buyer, aand after getting the blessings from Mrs. Ferruz on the matter, I decided to go for it. Not really an impulse buy, though it feels like it to an extent. Even with some obscure hidden tax added at checkout (a first in my experience) raising the final price by 50 $, the whole deal turned out to be well over 100 $ cheaper than any Turbo Optima + shipping deal I've ever found before, so I'm still happy I took this chance. So far so good, but the "little treat to self" did not end there. Unlike other kits, which can keep me stalled on the aesthetics for a very long time (for instance, I'm still not set on the color scheme for the cherished Sand Scorcher I won at the TC comp two years ago), I know exactly where I want to go with this one, so I started hunting for some of the extra parts right away, in the heat of the moment. I knew where to find the Pargu golden pepperpot wheels: click. Then the gold nerf bars to go with them: click. Then motor, esc, and a couple customized decal sheets from MCI to complete the splurge! I'll make no mistery of what I have in mind, also because I am sure I'm far from being the first with this idea: a John Player Special themed Turbo Optima. My ultimate goal is to have the gold of the livery working together with the gold of the metal parts, enhancing and complementing each other without crossing the line into becoming kitsch, overly eccentric and tacky (a risk I can easily foresee, with all that gold bling at hand). In order to achieve this, I expect a situation where less is more, but it's going to be hard to hold back with two full decal sheets to choose from. RC wise, this has been one of my wildest dream projects for a good while, and I didn't expect to get a go at it so soon. If this goes well, I see it it becoming some sort of ultimate shelf queen amongst my fleet, which also means that my other shelfer cars will get to see much more action. I think I have indulged like never before, but what the heck! We only live once, and I'm sure it will be worth it. And now, to wait for the deliveries...

I would be glad to, unfortunately I'm way too busy these days until Sunday included. I may be able to do it on Monday if by then you still don't have a track.