Hi-Rider Corvette refresh

[markbt73]

This arrived the other day, and I'm happy to say, it's in even better shape than the eBay photos let on:

Nothing is broken, the tires are soft and crack-free, the body is in great shape except for the paint falling off, and all the electronics work! I think the MSC's resistor may be burned out; it only seems to get full-throttle. But the old Airtronics Vector radio gear snapped to attention when I put fresh batteries in it and switched it on. There is some play in the steering and suspension, and the bushings are obviously shot, but I already have a set of bearings ready for it.

I'll dig into it more this weekend, but overall, I'm very pleased. Always liked the looks of these, and it's nice when something is as good "in the plastic" as it was in your head.

Now to go back and find those threads about stripping paint off Lexan...

[Saito2]

Very nice! Having good tires is half the battle with one of these. The steering is naturally sloppy, but not too bad when running in the 2WS variants. The 4WS trucks are a handful. They have pretty huge inner suspension arm pivot pins but the ball joints seem to get sloppy unfortunately. Kyosho Car Crushers are fun to run, very big and vintage feeling but totally unlike anything Tamiya made at the time.

[RichieRich]

The fact that the truck is complete is a huge score. Nice job! Yeah, hopefully the pivot pins are still in good shape. I had a Big Brute and that had plastic half shafts. If they used the same part for the corvette, hopefully those aren't too worn. Maybe you'll be able to find a vintage aftermarket set that is more robust.

[markbt73]

Update: This thing continues to impress. Plastic outdrives and dogbones are a bit worn, but good enough for the occasional driving this thing will see. Gears are all spotless, and I have yet to find a broken part on it. It is, however, filthy. I think they ran it half a dozen times in the mud, and that was it.

Electronics all work, but I need to test the resistor to see if it's bad. MSC servo needs to be re-mounted; its tape isn't very good. I also need to change the battery plug - Kyosho used to do their connectors "backwards," with what we think of as the battery side on the car side, and vice versa. This came with an adapter, but I'd rather not have two hig-loss connectors in a row. It also included three old NiCd stick packs; I'm going to try charging them up to see if they're worth keeping.

I also ordered a set of foam inserts for the tires, to help them keep their shape. The wheels don't have air holes, but they aren't quite sealed either, which means you can squish the tires, but then they stay squished. Not ideal. So I've got firm crawler foams coming, and I'll add some small air holes as well.

This is already one of my favorite restoration projects I've ever taken on. If it turns out half as nice as I hope, it's going to be a real jewel. And I can't wait to see how it drives, either.

 

 

[markbt73]

Update: Chassis is finished. I decided to go ahead and replace the electronics with modern stuff, because I get the feeling I'm going to want to drive this one quite a lot. But that MSC visible through the window on top of the chassis is such an iconic part of these trucks that I didn't want to get rid of it entirely.

So everything around it is updated, and the MSC and resistor are just along for the ride:

And with the lid on, everything looks like it should, except the switch, of course:

Now, on with the hard part: the bodywork.

[markbt73]

Ok, calling this one done for now.

Body isn't great; I had to repaint it on the outside because it got all foggy when I tried to strip off the old paint. And then the masking tape ruined the blackout windows. Oh well; TBG offers a repop body, maybe someday I'll replace it. For now it's good enough.

Only had a little life left in my test battery, so I only got to drive it a little. It's encouraging, but I did have an issue with the steering getting stuck at full lock when I hit a rock with the wheels turned; might need to revisit that steering setup. And the gearbox is much louder than I'd like, but I don't know what's normal for these, so maybe it's OK. Regardless, I won't give it too hard of a time anyway. (That's what Traxxas Stampedes are for.)

[Saito2]

Give us an update after you get some more runs in. I'm curious whatcha think. The steering is quite sloppy in these (I've got a Double Dare and the 4WS is even worse) and the gearboxes do tend to be noisy. Some have found the gears to be a bit out-of-round. Doesn't seem to affect its durabiltiy though. They're quite the beast for a 2wd truck.

[markbt73]

Will do. We've got a camping trip to the beach at the end of September. I usually take a car along, and I think this might get the nod this year. Usually it's the Stampede or the Lunchbox, but it could be time for a change.

[RichieRich]

If this has the sliding plastic steering rack like the Big Brute, I remember having the same issue. So, I would put a bunch of grease on it to keep it from getting stuck. I seem to remember doing some filing too so there weren't any sharp corners that would hang.

[PJD454]

Nice job. I am about to restore my Double Dare that has been sitting in the attic for 30 years. What brand and size foam inserts did you use?

[markbt73]

I honestly don't remember the brand.Whatever the cheap ones were at my local hobby shop. Integy, maybe? They're 2.2s, but I had to enlarge the inner hole, because the locking ring wouldn't fit in them otherwise. I think these wheels are actually around 2.4-2.5 inches.