Tamiya's First Nitro the TR-15t. Lets give it some love!

[acprc 1403]

One thing I simply can't do when browsing Ebay is overlook Tamiya Nitro that is down on its luck! Over the Christmas period I had been reviewing Ebay more than once a day as I know that loft and attic finds appear at this time of year.

Up popped this TR-15t on Ebay and it instantly went on the watch list. Roll on to the last few seconds of the auction and it was mine for £132. Three days later it was delivered to my house.

Now the TR-15t was first released in 1993 making this one nearly 29 years old. Kit number 44001 was Tamiya's first nitro, first nitro engine (FS-15) and a foray into something other than electric power. Nowadays a real collectors piece and good ones change hands for around £450.

So what did £132 buy me? Today I inspected the car and it;s probably 99% complete. The only things missing from the kit are the servo mounts and when fitted the servos. Thats a really good starting point. The body has held up well and apart from a good clean, another clean and then another clean coupled with some new decals it should scrub up well.

The chassis is a little dirty!

 

The tyres are all perished

Underside isnt too bad

The FS-15 engine is seized. No surprise looking at it but in my experience its unlikely it is locked due to damage. it will be old fuel. The plan will be to strip, clean and rebuild the old girl and assess compression etc.

The recoil starter will be rebuilt and I already produce and sell new labels for these.

Overall a dirty but dooable (is that a word) project

So the plan is simple. Get her stripped down into metal and plastic. Get everything through the ultrasonic and then start assessing each part for the bin, restoration or replacement. The chassis plate will be replaced for a new red (pink) original hop up set. Everything else we shall see as we go!! Wish me luck

 

[Grumpy pants 4243]

These are great looking models from every angle 👍

[acprc 1403]

12 minutes ago, Grumpy pants said:

These are great looking models from every angle 👍

Indeed they are.

[Grastens 2792]

acprc restoring a TR-15T? Iconic!

I have an incomplete roller lurking in the workshop, so this will be quite an inspirational project! Looking forward to seeing your work on this one 

[matisse 1569]

So good, really looking forward to this!

[Tamiyabigstuff 811]

I think I still have 6 of these...

[Collin 1937]

I mentioned this auction as well and was shure, there is a really nice base under all that dirt. It just looks like someone drove through wet sand once or bevor it was left in the shed.

Since the TR.15T was my very first Tamiya, got it in `93, so first year of the release, I am really emotional connected to this unique stadium truck. Great to see this one in your hands mate.

 

PS: If you consider using a 150cc tank, I still have a nice upper deck and tank adapter plate laying around somewhere...

[acprc 1403]

25 minutes ago, Collin said:

I mentioned this auction as well and was shure, there is a really nice base under all that dirt. It just looks like someone drove through wet sand once or bevor it was left in the shed.

Since the TR.15T was my very first Tamiya, got it in `93, so first year of the release, I am really emotional connected to this unique stadium truck. Great to see this one in your hands mate.

 

PS: If you consider using a 150cc tank, I still have a nice upper deck and tank adapter plate laying around somewhere...

Thanks, I think the starting point is good and I am looking forward to starting it. Tank will probably stay original on this one.

[acprc 1403]

So you have to start somewhere right?

I decided today to remove the engine, strip it down and start cleaning it. The FS-15 engine was a "white label" engine made be Toki (Shuwa Industries). Shuwa went out of business and were then purchased by Mecoa in the USA. I dont know the history of Shuwa but I would imagine thats why Tamiya swapped to OS and Force for its later kits. The very first FS-15 engines came with Toki written on the crankcase and would eventually morf into the Tamiya branded FS-15LT that would be used on the Mad Bison and TGX kits.

There is an issue with the motor mount on the TR-15t in that the screws react with the alloy in the mount and make them almost impossible to get out again. I knew this so my normal method of removal is to drill a very small hole in the head and then knock in a very small Torx head bit. This grips the screw and they wind out. This way its just the screws that then need replacing.

To remove the engine you need to unclip the roll bar, disconnect any old fuel lines and then remove the spur gear/brake holder and the engine is free

Dirty Underneath!

The engine is pretty dirty

Now to strip an engine I normally use the following. Ignore the Bicarb as generally I now use an Ultrasonic. Taking your time and using the right tools is key as its easy to break parts when they are seized or stiff

 

 

99.9% of the engine came apart including the bearings. As I expected the inside was full of sticky oil and thats what had seized her. Initial assessment is that the engine has compression however its hard to tell until cleaned and back together. The carb isnt completely original so will need to swap a few parts and the rubber boot over the slider was too far gone to save. The recoil has been stripped apart and will go in the queue for restoration and I will fit an already restored one from my stock. When rebuilt the engine will have new gaskets, front and rear bearings and screws.

So the parts look like this apart

and then into the first clean in the ultrasonic

more soon

[Collin 1937]

Oh this engine mount screws. Good to hear it is some corrosion issue, I always thought I tightened them too strong. Time to use some copper paste from now on.

[acprc 1403]

1 hour ago, Collin said:

Oh this engine mount screws. Good to hear it is some corrosion issue, I always thought I tightened them too strong. Time to use some copper paste from now on.

Yes when I put them back together thats what I use.

[Hobgoblin 1058]

Watching with interest! 

I had this one on the watch list too, though I'm glad it went into good hands.

[acprc 1403]

So,

The metal engine parts came out the cleaner with no issues. They are now clean. However they are not ready for reassembly.

What I now do is go through them all and check them for wear and/or damge and any part that required polishing get that treatment. For this i use Micromesh polishing sticks. They work wonders on things like the crankshaft, pull start shaft etc.

First impression on the piston and liner is that they may not need replacing. Only a final test will tell but I am quietly confident.

I now need to get a few of the parts into my media blaster though as you can see that the old oil sitting on parts of the alloy has damaged the surface. Once that is done very carefully (I dont want them to look blasted) I will then put them through the Ultrasonic again and they should be ready for reassembly. Remember this photo though as we can compare before and after!

Small fly in the ointment though! My Ultrasonic died tonight so need to get a new one. Two years of use has finally killed it!

 

[Collin 1937]

What model do you have? Happend to my chinese made ultrasonic as well. Opened it and spotted a burned voltage coile. 3€ replacement part and no issues since two years...

[acprc 1403]

22 hours ago, Collin said:

What model do you have? Happened to my chinese made ultrasonic as well. Opened it and spotted a burned voltage coil. 3€ replacement part and no issues since two years...

Its a cheap chinese model that already had a few issues (broken temp button and off off switch) so its time for a new one.

[acprc 1403]

So the new ultrasonic arrived and that meant I could carry on cleaning up parts etc.

I managed to get the main parts into the blasting cabinet and gave them a very light clean. I am happy how they came out. The aim isn't or wasn't to get them perfect but remove some of the heavy marks. This is a restoration after all. Once done I started reassembling the engine and it now looks like this

Happy with that. It still looks used and old however not really badly damaged. I now need a new carb rubber boot to finish assembling the carb (I have one in my spares I am sure) and then its just the cylinder head. The head has been blasted and now just needs polishing up. You can see the start of that below

It will eventually polish up super smooth and shiny but will take some time. I have been meaning to buy a bench mounted polisher for ages and this might just be the tipping point! The exhaust will need the same treatment.

Got the body off to look at it

Complete with no obvious real damage it will get a wash in hot soapy water, then a clean with Tamiya Polycarbonate cleaner. The red and silver will be touched up where necessary and then I will decide what to do with the damaged decals. Choices are a new TR-15t set, a repro set or do my own. I have a few new sets but really want to put them on new box art bodies so thats out. MCI Racing do a repro set but the quality always seems to disappoint me with their stuff so it might be down to me!!

Slower progress than I liked this week but been super busy with work.

[Grumpy pants 4243]

It’s coming a long really well 👍

[acprc 1403]

18 minutes ago, Grumpy pants said:

It’s coming a long really well 👍

Slow but steady. Hoping to strip the chassis this week

[acprc 1403]

So with my wife off shooting for the day i decided to strip the TR-15t down. Tools, containers and the chassis ready

Took about an hour to get it stripped. Screws and small hardware. A lot of these will be replaced due to heavy corrosion. The metal bushes will be replaced with bearings

The metal parts. These again will clean up well. The rear drive shaft are particularly bad though!

Some parts that need special attention. The tank will be stripped, go through the ultrasonic and then go in denture cleaning fluid. At this point I dont know how brittle it is as they can get really weak over time. The rear clutch pack and diff will be stripped on the bench due to the ball bearings in it.

Some bits for the bin!

and lots of plastic parts. Nothing appears broken which is nice but they have all been really badly removed from the parts trees. Lots of sharp pointy bits! As expected a few of the chassis bolts were seized. No different to the engine mount they will be drilled and removed. This chassis plate isnt going back on the car as I have a nice pink/red set that will go with the red body well. At this point the dampers just get an exterior clean, then they get stripped and rebuilt. Nicer to handle when the outside is clean. I may need to replace the rear damper shock shafts due to corrosion.

and lastly, the plastic parts into the ultrasonic. 50 degree's C for 1 hour

[acprc 1403]

First batch of plastic parts out of the Ultrasonic and looking much better. Rinsed off in clean water and checked over then left to dry naturally. You can see how bad the shock shafts are. I have a feeling I will have some but if they are pitted they will be replaced so the seals don't get damaged.

Really pleased how some of the white parts have cleaned up

Got the roll cage, bumper and upper deck into the Ultrasonic

and when all dry I know what I will be doing! Trimming all the parts....sigh

Some good progress today.

 

[Grumpy pants 4243]

Just gets better and better this thread 👏

[acprc 1403]

Last posts for today.

Got the clutch pack and the rear diff apart ready for cleaning in the Ultrasonic sunday

And sorted the now clean metal parts that need some polishing etc

[Collin 1937]

Hi. I had a bad experience using ultrasonic and CFK/FRP. I cleand the parts from a Predator lately and they came out totally foggy. Seems like the material suck water or the top/bottom layer lost its bound. I tried to dry them on the heater but it did not made things better. Since that I only clean this parts with hands.

[acprc 1403]

4 hours ago, Collin said:

Hi. I had a bad experience using ultrasonic and CFK/FRP. I cleaned the parts from a Predator lately and they came out totally foggy. Seems like the material suck water or the top/bottom layer lost its bound. I tried to dry them on the heater but it did not made things better. Since that I only clean this parts with hands.

Yes you do need to be careful on certain metals. The generic ultrasonic fluid I use is very good though. designed for things like carburetors its very forgiving.

[acprc 1403]

So spent some time today cleaning and polishing. Nothing magical here just a dremel a small wire brush wheel and then polishing wheels and metal polish. Happy with the results.

The drive shaft was just cleaned up with a wire brush in the dremel. Its pitted but perfectly usable. I have a new one if I wanted to change it but it is a restoration. The chassis standoffs polished up nicely and will go in my TR-15t spares drawer as I am using a new red/pink chassis set.

Diff cleaned up nicely

and was rebuilt with new grease and new bearings. The centre brass 850 metal bearing was replaced with a new 850 ball bearing

 

Started rebuilding the rear end. Gearbox was rebuilt with new bearings and grease. Again any brass bearings being replaced with ball bearings. The gearbox was then mounted on the new chassis plate with the rear arms. 

 

 

Spur gear cover and brake pad holder rebuilt pending going on the car. You cant fit this until the engine is in.

Carbon/FRP parts are going to need some love. These will be sanded lightly using wet and dry then polished

Shocks will need the shafts changing as they are badly pitted. Whilst I can get away with it on the drive shaft the pitting will ruin the seals. This will be the next task.

Good progress this weekend though.