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This is a light restoration thread of a vintage TA02 chassis into a rally / rallycross runner. Probably a fairly short build as I have most of what I need and I know what direction I'm heading. The History This chassis came to me many, many moons ago from a local ex-TC member. I think his name may have been GazWilts, or something like that. He posted a For Sale ad here for a hardbody Robbe Jeep sitting on a TA02 chassis. As he was fairly local, I made the journey to his place by car, talked nonsense for a couple of hours and eventually gave him some cash. The Jeep only ever got one run in stock form, at a TC bash at a sandy site in South Wales. Even with locked diffs the stock Hummer tyres couldn't cope with the soft sand and, although it looked brilliant, the Jeep spent most of its runtime stuck chassis-deep in the gold stuff. After trying various options the Jeep body ended up going over a Losi MRC chassis (an old project that was shelved years ago and might be pulled out again before lockdown ends), and the TA02 chassis went into a box of bits, never to see the light of day again. Until Sunday. The Trigger Lockdown has meant I'm running exclusively in my own garden. I've made a rough track that incorporates a short lawn section and some rustic patio slabs. It's a little too tight for modern 1:10 buggies, but perfect for trophy trucks and rallycross. Although I already have a TB01 (in need of a little care and a new body), and have just recently purchased a DF03Ra, I felt the need to fit up something different for rally duties. I had a Celica GT4 ST165 bodyset NIP that I bought a few years ago when I had planned to do some local rally events. So when I finished my XV01T S10 build on Sunday morning and I had the rest of the day to myself, I figured I might as well grab down this old chassis and dust-covered bodyset and see if I could mate the two together. The Plan Keep It Simple, Stupid. A partial stripdown and once-over, replace anything broken, rebuild with a semi-hot brushed motor and some rally block tyres. Fit an old set of CVAs adjusted for long travel, and go rallying. The Build It started with the chassis. As you can see, it's exactly what it claims to be. A vintage TA02. Front arms were missing but I later found them (or something very much like them) while digging through a zippy bag marked "CC01 Misc". Shocks were missing but I had a set rattling around the bottom of a spares bag in the box that my vintage touring race cars were sat in (a TL01LA and a modded TB01). First thing I noticed was that the rear diff was locked. The previous owner (in building a scaler) had done the old trick of putting the stock ball diff up front and locking the gear diff with putty for a high traction rear end. I hammered apart the diff housing to find this. It looks (and smells) a bit like paint but I imagine it's some kind of putty, maybe a body filler. It flaked off the plastic housing well enough but wasn't easy to get off the metal parts. Fortunately I had a couple of sets of diff internals sitting in 99% IPA for a few weeks now, one set were almost clean, so I dropped the puttied diff into the juice and pulled out the older ones. An hour with a craft knife, small flat bladed screwdriver and a compressed air nozzle and they were clean enough to use.