MadAnt

I may have been harsh calling the Hotshot II the Hotshot 1.5 in my Hotshot II upgrade thread, but the Hotshot 2 is an improvement to consider. Like mentioned before, the front mono shock situation has been improved with the mounts on the lower control arms and the shock being compressed the proper way. The rear suspension is pretty much another upgrade by ditching the mono shock setup for the traditional shock per wheel and the battery compartment is improved by having a lower skid that covers and protects the battery. Since I own a vintage Hotshot 2 runner, I know of it's flaws, but if I had to pick between a new re-release Hotshot or Hotshot 2 to have proper offroad fun with, I'd go for the Hotshot II. Here's mine for a bit of inspiration, it's been modified and improved. https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/107234-the-hotshot-ii-cool-but-flawed-improved-with-traxxas-parts/

Use spacers or a stronger fan.

I will have to dig it out of storage. I will sell it if you can pick it up in person, it's just the way I do deals(for now). DM me if you can travel to north NJ or NY.

I'm gonna say it depends. As someone who has done some modifications, I do have standards that I follow. I will not do anything that hurts the value of an original vintage RC, and certain modifications must be reversible sometimes to maintain the value, but there is also condition and rarity to consider as well. My modified Hornets and Hotshot II are some good examples, not rare and not valuable enough and had condition issues, so no harm is done, even if they become scrap, they are cheap and plenty. However something rare like my Porsche 959 which is mostly complete will not be modified and I will restore it to original one day. Yeah, sometimes hotrodders hack up pristine nice cars, but we do have hotrodders who save give new life or meanig to what would be junk. There is a guy I met who has a real nice 50's Chevy pick up, I mean solid car show and driver ready. He is going to replace the chassis and engine with modern stuff. It's freaking terrible that he is going to do this, it's just too nice of a truck, so nice that I would leave it as is. I would understand some tasteful period customizations that's still reversible, that's fine, or if the truck was a bondo bucket or something with sketcky repairs hiding underneath, but gutting a mint example and spending money just to feel modern should be reserved for that junk in worse shape and needs a new life. But whatever, it's their money. I guess I'm a different kind of hotrodder.

I don't have experience with the TXT-2, but I do know of the huge aftermarket support for the Clodbuster. You can pretty much build a Clodbuster without starting with a Clodbuster just using aftermarket parts, lol. The TXT-2 is a closer representation to a modern monster truck, but yet I don't know if parts support will be an issue. Tamiya has temporarily discontinued products in the past, I don't know if that is the case with the TXT-2 or if it's done for good, or if we should be expecting something new, but you can see that these factors will make your decision harder... sorry. If it were my decision, I would find a used but clean Clod, then modify it with axle mounted steering servos and do some chassis and suspension modifications. I do see the attractiveness of the TXT-2 and TXT-1, but I can't justify the expensive price IMO.

I thought the vintage MK2 Hotshots had the hatch like the Hotshot II, the earlier Hotshots had no hatch(correct me please). You said the car is in rough shape, so if you go down the more expensive restoration path to bring it back to original or a prestine period correct example, you may not want to have the car as a runner. Of course this depends on the current condition and cost. You need to go over the car and catalog what it needs, then determine if it's worth yor time and money to restore to original/period correct or just have an old runner.

I've only bought a couple of used RC's online, which is my vintage Sand Scorcher and 2nd Clod. The rest of my used collection has been from in person deals, like from swap meets and trades/deals with friends. For the most part I know what I'm getting into, but there is always the chance that something could be worth way less than what I paid for it because of unknown issues. Not every deal was a good deal for me. I bought a used HBX TL01 clone which was and is such a complete pile of junk, that I built a new Tamiya TL01 from new and upgrade parts, I even replaced the screws. So now I have this beautiy in the pic below. Anyway, for the most part, I've had great success with buying used RC stuff.

Perhaps I should insure some of my collection 🤔

Wheel choices for the Hornets, Hoppers and anything alike are somewhat limited depending on what you are looking for. So when I saw these 1.9 inch one piece wheels from Tamiya (part number 22077), I thought of the potential possibilities for different types of tires that can be used. These are apparently the same wheels used on the CW01 Pajero, which means they should fit many other Tamiya RC models as well, in fact they are advertised for the Hornet, Grasshopper and Frog. Hmm... interesting. The front wheels accept the same 5x11x4 bearings as the Hornet and Grasshopper, and the rear requires no special adapters at all. I have some Rock Crusher tires, so let's see how this looks on my Grasshopper. Umm... it looks cool, but unfortunately the front tires have clearance issues with the bumper and the beetle body I have. Ok, I have another idea... Lol, the Rough Rider re-release looks a bit funny, but I bet it will work well in the trails with some better crawler tires of the same size. Let's see with some rally block tires in the front of my old beetlehopper. It don't think it looks too bad on there. My only criticism is that the front wheel offset is too wide, but with the proper rubber I think it will look pretty rad.

Grey primer, a few good even coats of the metallic green and lay the last coat on a little bit thicker for that shine or use a good clear coat. Sometimes a wet sand and polish is necessary, but that depends on how high of quality you want to go.

Alright, time to show off the damage from last night at the track. The front bumper did it's job and for the most part and protected the car from my bad driving. I'll make some more bumpers in the future, maybe with some different designs. The steering knuckle breaking is from hitting a large pipe at just the right angle. It was pretty much getting cold out making my driving worse. I think I will buy a few more sets of stock steering knuckles, it's better to have them break than something more expensive or complicated to deal with. In the pics below you can see the difference between the re re steering knuckle on the left and the vintage part on the right. It looks like the re-re part has been beefed up a bit in the arm of the knuckle with the gusset now much thicker. Just thought that detail would be cool to add. Well... It's evolving and turning out to be quite a better buggy now. Lol, it seems to be more durable than my RC10 B3 which has catastrophically broke almost every time at the track.

Sweet!

The chrome clod wheels and white wheels are the same wheel, just different colors.

What is it going on?

Had the Hotshot 2 at the astro turf track again. I broke a few things, but I got the results that I was looking for. Just the front bumper and steering knuckle are broken. The front bumper was just a homemade experiment, so finding it's breaking point was beneficial and it really did do it's job well. The front steering knuckle I should have replaced awhile ago, but I was just lazy and really I could just use the most inner holes. So with all off this, my bad driving and having some good track time in now, I consider this a success. I really got to see what the old Hotshot 2 can do with the modifications I've done so far and make some tuning changes. The buggy had some understeer or front end push and it was clear the issue was the front sway bar. I quickly removed the sway bar and it definitely had a more responsive front end. Those aluminum DF03 shock worked great so far, I'm not going to change a thing with them, they handled the jumps pretty well with the medium oil and kept the heavy Hotshot 2 in control for the most part, it was my bad driving that caused the crashes, lol.

In today's age a hobby shop can't just be a store, they need a pretty good reason for you to drive there and shop. Some shops have race tracks, host events or get involved with local clubs. Being just a store is not enough.

Prices here in the USA just go up, lol. Naw, some prices went down, but they went up first. The holidays be like that. 235 eur seems cheep to me converted to 252 usd, but you do have that 20% VAT so the price is similar to what we have in the USA of 302 usd from Tower, which also seems a bit down too. Very weird the similarities are.🤔

I've been using the stock axles shafts for years, never had one break, but also I don't have crazy steering angles to stress the joints, just too much power sometimes.

Wait a sec... I wonder if there is any relation here? They look the same as the wheels and Bandito tires from Duratrax.

I have a fix for that. https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/107289-hotshot-2boomerang-rear-control-arm-conversion-how-to-guide/

The evolution continues. The new shocks are now installed and it does not look too bad. I do feel better about not cheaping out on the shocks after assembling them, they are very nice in quality and spotless clean. Definitely a huge step up from the cheap Chinese junk I have handled in the past. Anyway, this buggy is almost ready for a test and tune session at the track, let's hope it can do more than 2.5 laps. Oh yeah, it's got new tires for the carpet/turf track. Proline pyramids at the rear and prisms at the front. This tire combo was recommended by the store and track owner, he actually races with those tires, so I'll take his word. The wheels are from DE racing and well... I messed up. I bought a set that had the center axle hole too deep. I don't like giving up, so out came the big drill bit and... it's a little ugly. Well... if you seen the other photos, it worked, lol. Just don't look close at it.

Alrighty, things are moving along slowly, but the Hotshot 2 is getting better and soon to be better than that. I picked up some new wheels and tires from the hobby store that has the carpet track, and I had just received a delivery from Tower Hobbies. I wanted red aluminum shocks, but my options were cheap Chinese shocks on ebay or cheap Chinese shocks from some other site. It does not seem worth to me to save 15-20 bucks for a performance sidegrade, then pay for shipping and other fees. So after looking for deals and some research, I spent a little extra on the Tamiya Aluminum DF03 Damper set. Since I had other stuff together in the cart, the order was eligible for free shipping. Sweet! I have to thank @Juls1for the write up on the "Buggy Damper Thread", those measurements help out a lot. I'll update later when everything is installed.

Got some paints and a servo saver too.

Probably plated, which will wear and sometimes flake.

If it works, it works. Me too...