Finally a Bruiser project.

[Mr.Nismo]

Dear Tamiya lovers,

You guys normally don't see much posts from me here, but the restauration of my first Bruiser is something i would like te share with you.

Sinds i've started collecting vintage Tamiya cars the Porsche 959 was the car i fell in love with. At a sertain time i had 5 of them. In the meanwhile i bought an sold many cars like Avante's, 959's, Gr.B's etc. I also had bought a Hi-Lux wich needed much work to restore. I sold the car deu to a lack of interest. Some time later i bought a Bruiser at the local auction site Marktplaats. They show up sometimes and there always is a group of about 100 people wich are interested in these cars (like: Renken2000, MaxHiLux and me). I bought the car and was planning to restore it. Sadly it needed much work and i made the choice to sell it to a TC member (Steve).

Suddenly there was Renken2000. He sold a nice mint Bruiser. I called him and before i knew we were talking for over an houre about the 3-speeds, Tamiya, TC etc. We made a deal and we arranged a meeting at a petrolstation near Rotterdam. When i saw the Bruiser i was sold. Very nice. It was driven not very much. All the parts were there and in a good condition. The body was free of cracks end damage. I bought he Bruiser and the cleaning started.

I began to strip the Bruiser to the last bit. Everything was taken apart en cleaning was the first thing to do. I cleaned the chassis with Scotch&Brite. It looks like the pads you use for cleaning pots and pans, but it is much less "agressive". When you use the Scotch&Brite in combination with water you get a nice result. All of the rust, sand, scratches and stains are gone and the result is a very little scratched surface. Then i found some german polishing product. I used this stuff first by hand to see what happened. Wax it in with a cotton cloth and wax it out with a clean cotton cloth. I did and the result was amaizing!! What a nice shine! The scratches from the Scotch&Brite were gone and behind the fainted steel there was a nice, clean and shining surface. When i used a cotton disk on my drill the shine became even brighter. The chassis is starting to look chromed now. Very nice and cheap solution when you not want to chrome all of the metal parts. I must recon that the axle casings don't shine as much as the chassis but it still is nice.

The latest thing i have done is taken the gearbox apart. I have bought all ball bearing and shims i need to rebuild it. First thing to do now is cleaning and polishing the gearbox.

I have a long way to go, but i finally have got myself a Bruiser worth restoring. When i have completed some other work i will post it here. Pictures will follow.

[backtomyroots]

Congratulations - have some pictures to share [] ?

[Cul-Tech]

Excellent I love following other peoples progress, I wish I could

disipline myself to post my projects but it never seems to happen.

Mike

[Mr.Nismo]

Here are some pics of were i am now. As i mentioned: This is only the beginning.

It's time to get to work.

 

[Cul-Tech]

Wow thats cleaner than I thought, excellent base for a restoration.

[Shodog]

Wow thats cleaner than I thought, excellent base for a restoration.

I agree that chassis looks in very nice condition.  That body is begging for a stripping.  What color are you planning for it?

[Mr.Nismo]

I don't know wich colour i will use for the body. I'm a treu box-art fan, but for this beast????? I was thinking about some gun metal grey like colour. Using some parma stock car decals the Toyota should really get this rough outdoor apperance. But as i mentioned before, the bleu box art colour including the Hog Heaven decals also triggers my attention. Help me out on this one please

Thank you for the comment.

[Tamiya1/10]

the thought of all those parts... took me a year to put it back together (not my cup of tea for cleaning and polishing) as for the color I think the box color blue is quite nice even with out the decals. You may consider painting the fender flares and the bed liner.  You may want to keep an eye out for 1:1 scale pick up trucks colors to get some ideals 

[Shodog]

This would be a cool color and stripe paint job to replicate

[Mr.Nismo]

Nice retro pics indeed! I will consider the red coloured one with the stripe. Yesterday i cleaned and refilled the dampers. I was happy to found that all of the dampers are in 100% condition! Nothing broken or worn and all original parts were there. When the heat here in holland is gone, work will continue asap. It's over 30 degrees here the last 12 days. Today it was 35 degrees celcius. Sweat sweat!!

[smiffy]

That looks like a good restoration project, i do prefer box art on the cars but everyone has there own opinion on the colours.  Mine ( your old Bruiser ) is not going to be box art not really sure what to do it yet. steve

[Mr.Nismo]

Today i finished my gearbox. It was cleaned and polished and all standard bearings are replaced by ball bearings. Everything is in good working order! Great to see those gears shift. Now the rear gearcase is up te be cleaned. Pics will follow.

[billg4]

wow, that cleaned right up, almost better than new really

great job, your goingto have a real looker when done

[Shodog]

That is definetly one of the cleanest transmissions I have seen.  How did you get it looking so nice?

Jim

[Mr.Nismo]

I have first taken the complete transmission apart and cleaned everything with a very strong degreaser. Then i have given them a treatment with Scotch&Brite. The last step was using my german polishing cream with a cloth-disk. The hard to reach areas were done by hand. Yesterday i also have removed all sealant left-overs. What a job!!

I like the result because it's really making a "very clean" apperance rather than a "bling-bling" one. There is stil some room for improvement. Some very small areas can use a dremel-polish- job.

Today i will start the rear axle. Pics follow. 

[DeeMiller]

Very nice project and I love to follow these projects because they really add something to the knowledge of restoring cars and share experiences.

When I'm restoring I do pretty much the same about the polishing part.

After that I remove the polish and spray them all over with silicon spray and wipe it off again.

That way, moisture will not have any effect to the metal parts over the years (he, I don't want to polish every two years!) and give a nice deep semi-matt black shine to the rubber parts.

 

Grtz Dee.

[eek!]

I agree with Dee (and me a poet and didn't know it?[:|]) I enjoy reading these restos.

I'm tearing apart my Bruiser within a month, having the chassis

nickel-plated and will eventually re-paint with original decals

waiting.  Keep up the good work!

Best,

[Mr.Nismo]

Yesterday i finished the rear driveline. I have polished the gearcase only a bit because i found it more realistic when it's not to shiny. The axle came form the LHS. I picked them up today. They were ordered from Tamiya Netherlands and are the Jeep Wrangeler ones. The front axle wich isn't mounted is a original one that also came from Tamiya Netherlands. Sometimes these guys still have parts on stock! When i'm looking for parts i always check there stock first. My Loctite Nissan Skyline body also came from them as some MSC for the Porsche 959 and these axles.

 

 

[Badboy]

Awesome work!!!

I´ll follow this topic alot!!!

[Mr.Nismo]

@$#^%@!!!! Just broken my rear-back gearcase!!

I was allready looking for a new one, just to make it all perfect and new. Now the old one is broken. There was a very small tear in it but i didn't had the idea it was that bad. When i screwed the front and rear together the thing snapped. My restauration is over for today. Please help me out!

[Mr.Nismo]

I'm glad i have found a brand new front gear case. It's on its way from Belgium.

I also have other shocking news. Today i have bought a Hilux for ............75 euro's!!!!!!

[][][][][]

The Hilux is complete and original. Box-art body+cocpit+driver. No cracks. Wheels are 100% It comes without any more stuff, but what a bargain!!! I was the first one who spotted it at a local auction site. The guy didn't had his phonenumber included at the add, so i searched  the internet for all people with the same name in that village. When i called the first one...BULLS EYE!

He will send the car tommorrow. Till that time i have no pics, but you guys will be the first to see it.

Now i have another 3-speed wich is worth restoring. How things can go [] Scotch&Brite here i come!

Pics will follow ASAP!!

[maxHiLux]

This Bruiser is working out great. Superb work mr nismo!

 

Greetings,

 

Max

75 euro for a Hilux. Lucky you!!!

[Tamiya1/10]

After all the cleaning, rubbing and polishing, don't forget to give it a nice mud bath to seal the shine in and it will also test out all the running gears and waterproof box is tight.[]

By the way, she is coming very nicely and look fwd to your final presentation.

 

[Mr.Nismo]

Thank you very much []

When i'm done i'm want to arrange a meeting with some dutch TC members and drive around all those Bruisers, Hiluxes, Blazers and Mounty's!

The body will be the last difficult bit i think. It's my first hard body to restore.

I hope my front gearcases will be delivered this week, so the chassis will be finished.

Keep looking here.

[maxHiLux]

I like the idea of driving the Bruisers somewhere. Mine will not be as shiny as yours though!

Greetings Max