GW's Formula 1 Mania

[grip-wolrd 189]

Hi All,

Going through a periodic obsession of Formula 1 RC cars and picked this abomination up for 60 bucks; figured it would be fun restoring it and also learn a little more about these F1 chassis' and their simplicity;

From what I can tell it's an F102, but interestingly it has a vertical steering servo position.

Mechanically it seems really sound and nothing needs to be replaced chassis wise, but the bodywork is a mess mainly because of the paint job. It's supposed to be a Mclaren MP4/6 but the previous owner decided a fluorescent green / white mix would be his preferred choice. It also has a Footwork Mugen Honda rear wing somehow.

I've started stripping it all down and cleaning it, which took about 5 minutes given how simple they are. Dusty but all in good condition.

The plan: restore it to a reasonable example of a Mclaren MP4/6, by stripping the paint and repainting, and finding some good tire / wheel combination.

[grip-wolrd 189]

Started putting things together after cleaning all the parts and oiling the bearings. Seems to be in decent shape apart from the odd scratch, and the plastic parts next to the motor seem to have gotten hot and melted a little. It's been used well for sure.

The rear wheel / diff setup is quite special; wasn't aware of this thrust bearing layout.

My plan is to find some more appropriate black rims and new tires. I've tried to find F103 rubber tires but for the life of me I can't find anything online; they are all F104 sized so I might just stick with foam tires.

The previous owner had fitted a Kyosho Le Mans Stock Racing Motor (05); I might save this one for another build and fit something more Tamiya appropriate.

[grip-wolrd 189]

More updates as I've had time today; rebuilt the original shock and cleaned it all up. I decided to not do any sort of upgrade here as I have no idea how important the shock quality is on these cars and I don't want to invest any sort of money in to them.

I've also mounted an original Mabuchi 540 motor from another Tamiya kit, as I'll be saving the Kyosho Le Mans Stock 05 for something more appropriate.

Now I need to decide how to best restore the body work; I started with the front wing as it is in really bad shape and replacements are very difficult to find. I've stripped it down and will be trying to clean and repair the large crack it has enough that it is still usable.

For the lexan body, I tried seeing how nail polish remover would work and it seems to be relatively successful but I'm unsure if it will damage the body. Putting some on a rag and wiping away immediately seemed to work and wasnt really cloudy afterwards, I just need to be careful.

[Grumpy pants 4485]

Very nice find and a great price as well.

These look really cool when in use  👍

[grip-wolrd 189]

It wouldn't be a Formula 1 mania with just a single kit; there are more!

I picked up this old Kyosho kit from a local here for an absolute steal, and he even gave me a second 40 year old kit for free that I don't know what to do with.

I can't seem to find much conclusive info about these Kyosho F1 kits and I'm not sure what the kit is even formally called; I wish there was a "Kyoshobase" website to reference.

From what I have found it's a Kyosho Formula Racing 1:10 or a One Kyosho. I can't find any chassis number / name info online.

The kit is also in good condition considering it's age and it came with 2 body sets amazingly. Overall it feels more fragile that the Tamiya but might also be lighter. The design of the cars is very similar with the major difference being the Kyosho has a top deck as the chassis is plastic and way less rigid, requiring the upper deck.

Some rubber parts need to be replaced.

The tires have a few cracks but seems ok in general. Might replace depending on their sizing; I need to measure them up.

[grip-wolrd 189]

After cleaning all the parts and lubing the bearings, I've started putting the Kyosho all back together. And by the way, I also found that it's chassis designation might be SR-5.

I've replaced some of the grub screws on the rear axle as they were loose and very short (short thread engagement):

The rear axle height is not adjustable like the F102 is.

The differential is geared, as opposed to ball diff on the Tamiya, and there isn't a thrust bearing either. The diff is secured by a nut, and the rear wheel is bolted to the axle with a normal ball bearing. This is so that the geared diff cannot be compressed (or tuned) like a ball diff can.

The steering arms are super tiny and fragile, and it looks like they've stripped out before and have been glued back in. I'm going to leave them as is, unless they cause issues in the future.

The original servo works well so I won't be replacing it.

Now just waiting to make a new shock support, likely machine a shaft with o-ring like the F102, and I also need to buy a pinion for the motor.

[Badcrumble 4204]

If you can, it might be worth sourcing some Tamiya polycarbonate cleaner for paint removal from the lexan shell. Hope that helps!

Enjoying your restos, really like the F1 cars.

[grip-wolrd 189]

1 hour ago, Badcrumble said:

If you can, it might be worth sourcing some Tamiya polycarbonate cleaner for paint removal from the lexan shell. Hope that helps!

Enjoying your restos, really like the F1 cars.

Yeah I'm going to try and find something a little more appropriate; either what you've suggested or the Carson Paint Killer. I was trying with acetone-free nail varnish remover and while it was very strong it was also making it a bit opaque. I was able to polish the small test areas I was trying back to being nice and clear, but I'm not gonna do that for the entire body, so I will wait.

In the mean time I made a little progress on the Kyosho SR-5; this is what I was saving the Kyosho Le Mans Stock 05 motor for!

I will use these wheels and tires on the Kyosho as the wheels are in good condition and I dont want to source new tires for it yet; I will see how these run and then evaluate if fresh ones are needed.

I brought the F102 and Kyosho SR-5 to a RC local shop here to help find a Lipo battery that will actually fit in both, as the packs I had were way too big. They managed to find a 3500mAh from Powerhouse than fit perfectly, and they also had an Orion 3000mAh which fit well and looked retro, but I chose for higher capacity.

More surprises coming...

 

[grip-wolrd 189]

Some small progress on the F102 wing; the new glue has now dried up well and is pretty strong but you can still tell that this crack is the weak point when flexing it.

I decided to add a metal rod glued with epoxy underneath to make it stiff, and now it is very stable and as strong as the intact LH side. 

I'm cleaning up the surface on top so that you cannot feel the crack or glue and then I will touch it up with white; it will hopefully not be visible.

[grip-wolrd 189]

Made some progress on the Kyosho SR-5 by cleaning up the body and wing.

As I mentioned earlier, the Kyosho came with an additional body set and wings, and they are easily much nicer and more colorful than the Sauber C12 bodywork it came with; a lovely Benetton Ford from 1992. 

Some of external paint needed touching up and I also cleaned and polished the body when it had some older scuffs and dirt:

Some of the decals had to be glued down again but overall it looks really clean; happy that it was kept in a good condition.

[grip-wolrd 189]

Just when you may have thought that 2 F1s were enough, another has popped up!

It's a Tamiya F201 in the Sauber C22 guise. I think it was a steal for it's condition and what it came with; it's basically brand new, never used, but the body was oddly unfinished.

Whats the condition:

• Body needs finishing; it has been poorly painted and seems like a decal was removed from inside after painting for reasons unknown (on this Sauber C22 body you need to apply a decal from the inside). The paint is uneven and blotchy but it seems to look ok from the inside. It will need more coats to even it out.
• The front diff wasn't working correctly and has been damaged.
• Needs new electronics and servo; the servo had a connector I've never seem before.

I started dismantling it to see what condition the diffs were in and also because the front drive didn't seem to engage. I thought it was either not assembled correctly or it was damaged.

The good news is the ball diff was loose and just needed to be tightened, but the bad news is that the previous owner decided to put a long screw in and it damaged the diff gears.

It's salvageable as the damage only appears to be superficial and the engagement is good and still smooth:

Putting it back together:

It came with Sport Tuned motor, which I think was stock for the F201 kits.

The servo will be replaced for something more modern, but it needs to be compact.

Oh and did I mention the guy sent a brand new set of F103 tires too?! Just what I needed for the F102.

[grip-wolrd 189]

Back to the F102; finished up the front wing and mounted it back on.

A little before and after:

After applying the glue and the support rod underneath, I sanded and cleaned the upper surface and gave it a coat of white paint. I used polycarbonate paint so that it remains flexible.

I mounted the original servo back on as well and kept the vertical position the previous owner implemented:

[wtcc5 4897]

You did a good job on the wing!

I really like this thread. Keep up the good work 

[grip-wolrd 189]

Progress is happening.

I found some original F103 MP4/6 wheel kits and mounted the brand new F103 foam tires to them; they look fantastic on the chassis.

Just need some Goodyear tire stickers now!

[svenb 3778]

41 minutes ago, grip-wolrd said:

 

Just need some Goodyear tire stickers now!

Where abouts are you? I may have some spare

[grip-wolrd 189]

On 5/11/2022 at 10:22 PM, svenb said:

Where abouts are you? I may have some spare

Very kind of you, but I am located in Switzerland. I may likely buy a new decal set for the MP4/6 for the body anyway and it should include the tire decals.

I should update my profile.

[grip-wolrd 189]

Updates on the F201:

Finished rebuilding the F201 chassis and fortunately the previous owner had an extra decal set in the box.

Those F1 wheels look so good:

Installed a new low profile servo to fit in the chassis. 

I test fitted the electronics in the small side compartment; I will be using a Hobbywing 1060 Quicrun.

The plan is that all the electronics will be able to be transferred between my 3 F1s so I'm using this solid velcro like mounting. It is very stiff and sometimes hard to remove.

I had to extend the motor wires to match the routing described in the manual to fit under the body.

This kit looks so good!

[grip-wolrd 189]

Managed to get a hold of some PS-16 in Italy so I was able to continue working on the body and fixing it up.

The body was only half finished by the previous owner and as mentioned before they seemed to have painted (very badly) and then removed some of the internal decals:

I managed to clean up and reapply the internal stickers before painting the rest of the body as evenly as I could. I think the end results looks a lot better than I had hoped.

The internal decals are barely visible, but a nice touch from the designers of this kit.

Now with all the stickers applied:

Some of the decals on the curved surfaces were challenging, but a hair-drier worked really well in softening them up:

[wtcc5 4897]

Very beautiful!

[grip-wolrd 189]

22 hours ago, wtcc5 said:

Very beautiful!

Thank you!! The kit is definitely prettier than I expected at first.

[grip-wolrd 189]

So the first F1 in the collection is finally finished!

I finished up the body on the F201 and mounted all the electronics and it's now ready!

For starters I changed the helmet design to Nick Heidfeld as the sticker set was unused; it's a prettier helmet design.

The last decals remaining on the body were the barge boards, and I didn't want to apply them directly to the lexan body as instructed in the kit; I wanted it to have actual barge boards.

I applied the decal to a curved PET sheet (plastic bottle) and then bolted it to the body with some spacers. It looks really authentic and works well.

Overall the F201 is a fantastic kit, and this Sauber C22 edition is even more special.

For those that maybe are not aware this Sauber Petronas C22 kit was not an actual Tamiya kit, but a licensed version through a Tamiya retainer in Germany, together with the Sauber team in Switzerland. The F201 kits were repackaged and given a new Sauber decal set and instruction sheet.

Here's the finished kit:

[grip-wolrd 189]

I decided to take the Sauber F201 for a spin, as keeping as a shelf queen just didn't fly with me.

It was an interesting drive!

The stock tires are like plastic and the whole time it just wanted to drift; you need careful with the weight transfer. The tires also didn't really last much longer than 2 runs.

I think Tamiya makes some grippy versions that might be worth trying out!

[Mr.Dose 66]

Nice job restauring these beauties. I had a F101 back in the days.

The track looks nice too, where is it located? I’m from near Fribourg 

[grip-wolrd 189]

11 hours ago, Mr.Dose said:

Nice job restauring these beauties. I had a F101 back in the days.

The track looks nice too, where is it located? I’m from near Fribourg 

 

Its in Schaffhausen! I live in Bern but a friend is in Zurich so we travelled there. It's a nice track and has some decent facilities.