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Marui Hunters

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Hi all

I picked up a RTR Hunter in the US last year... the seller guaranteed it was ready to run, but when I first got it, it showed that the rear shock mounts on the chassis were broken... I then started looking for a new chassis, which I found. In the meantime, I tried different tricks to soften the rear damper, as this thing is so stiff that there is no way the new chassis won't break again. Lighter oil won't help, I changed the O-ring it doesn't help either, it basically looks like the metal piston is just too big to let any kind of "supple" damping happenl. So, here's my question - how do Hunters drive anyway? I'm wondering to which extent I shouldn't keep this one as a shelf "queen" (although the car itself doesn't look that fantastic), instead of trying to fix the rear damping issue and be disappointed by the riding characteristics anyway... I've run a few vintage cars recently, and as I also race modern ones on a regular base and at a decently competititve leve, I'm always disappointed at how they ride...

What do you think?

Paul

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Hi all

I picked up a RTR Hunter in the US last year... the seller guaranteed it was ready to run, but when I first got it, it showed that the rear shock mounts on the chassis were broken... I then started looking for a new chassis, which I found. In the meantime, I tried different tricks to soften the rear damper, as this thing is so stiff that there is no way the new chassis won't break again. Lighter oil won't help, I changed the O-ring it doesn't help either, it basically looks like the metal piston is just too big to let any kind of "supple" damping happenl. So, here's my question - how do Hunters drive anyway? I'm wondering to which extent I shouldn't keep this one as a shelf "queen" (although the car itself doesn't look that fantastic), instead of trying to fix the rear damping issue and be disappointed by the riding characteristics anyway... I've run a few vintage cars recently, and as I also race modern ones on a regular base and at a decently competititve leve, I'm always disappointed at how they ride...

What do you think?

Paul

Hi, I owned a Hunter in 1987 and I found it nothing more than a beginner plastic rc buggy, not stable at all, suitable only for very slow bashing. the body was weak and very badly mounted on the chassis. I quickly changed to Kyosho Ultima.

manual is here : http://www.retromodelisme.com/manuels_page...nter-marui.html

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Hi, I owned a Hunter in 1987 and I found it nothing more than a beginner plastic rc buggy, not stable at all, suitable only for very slow bashing. the body was weak and very badly mounted on the chassis. I quickly changed to Kyosho Ultima.

manual is here : http://www.retromodelisme.com/manuels_page...nter-marui.html

INTEGRA FAN is right about it not being a Ultima. But really that was the one of two of the best cars out at that time. I have a few friends that run a Hunter. But like everything from Tamiya at that time the springs are way to hard. Try a set of springs from the Tamiya DF-02 options parts. these are softer and would help it from destroying itself. An also check about putting O-rings inside the shock so it bottoms on the O-rings before whatever stops the shock now. Just a few ideas.

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Guys

thanks a lot for the input :) Bakaguyjean, any idea on how to fix the "dampening"? I am not talking about the spring here, but rather the hydraulics... even with Royal Oil in there, this thing is missing at least 10 holes in the rear shock piston... which is made of metal, so forget about the holes. Excellent tip on the inside o-rings, I should have thought about it myself, especially as the amount of positive camber when the shock is fully extended is absolutely ridiculous!!!

Thanks :)

Paul

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Guys

thanks a lot for the input :) Bakaguyjean, any idea on how to fix the "dampening"? I am not talking about the spring here, but rather the hydraulics... even with Royal Oil in there, this thing is missing at least 10 holes in the rear shock piston... which is made of metal, so forget about the holes. Excellent tip on the inside o-rings, I should have thought about it myself, especially as the amount of positive camber when the shock is fully extended is absolutely ridiculous!!!

Thanks :D

Paul

I have two shocks at home that i can open up and see what can be done. You might be able to replace the shaft and have a chose of Damper pistons if you switch to something for a 1/8th buggy.

Anyway i will take one aparts when i get home tonight.

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I have two shocks at home that i can open up and see what can be done. You might be able to replace the shaft and have a chose of Damper pistons if you switch to something for a 1/8th buggy.

Anyway i will take one aparts when i get home tonight.

I took a shock apart tonight and i was thinking of a few ideas.

First replace the shock. There are plenty of other new shocks that would work on your car. Maybe a rear shock from a Dark Impact. There are alot of people

that are running some sort of Aftermarket shock on thier DI and they might have the old ones for sale cheap. There is nothing wrong with using new stuff for a runner.

Second,i think i agree with you.the shock is stiff without the spring on!!! The piston is just the perfect size for the shock. You could try fileing the damper pistion on the sides instead of drilling holes. Some shock are done this way, and as you dont need to have a set of shocks you do not have to worry about making two shocks the same. So you can just try and see how much you need by fileing a little at a time. You could test fit it with out even putting the damper back on.

Third if you need a spare Rear shock i have two,so if you ****** up yours i can help you with my spares at a very good price.

I dont have a Hunter but you might want to keep your eye out for spares if you plan on running like its 1984. Im pretty shure that the dont have spares at your LHS

My friends that i have run with run on a circut,and the Hunters did a pretty good job keeping up with my Brat.

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I took a shock apart tonight and i was thinking of a few ideas.

First replace the shock. There are plenty of other new shocks that would work on your car. Maybe a rear shock from a Dark Impact. There are alot of people

that are running some sort of Aftermarket shock on thier DI and they might have the old ones for sale cheap. There is nothing wrong with using new stuff for a runner.

Second,i think i agree with you.the shock is stiff without the spring on!!! The piston is just the perfect size for the shock. You could try fileing the damper pistion on the sides instead of drilling holes. Some shock are done this way, and as you dont need to have a set of shocks you do not have to worry about making two shocks the same. So you can just try and see how much you need by fileing a little at a time. You could test fit it with out even putting the damper back on.

Third if you need a spare Rear shock i have two,so if you ****** up yours i can help you with my spares at a very good price.

I dont have a Hunter but you might want to keep your eye out for spares if you plan on running like its 1984. Im pretty shure that the dont have spares at your LHS

My friends that i have run with run on a circut,and the Hunters did a pretty good job keeping up with my Brat.

thanks a lot for all the input - my issue was that I could not find a file that was hard enough to make a dent in the metal piston! Sounds like it's the way to go though. I'd love to run the original metal shock as I like my runners to be true to the original, but I'll investigate other solutions as talked. I don't intend to run the car like it's 1984 again, but still, I want to see what it still has under the belt :D I do have a couple of spares, but I would love to know what you'd have for sale as I always like to stock up on parts for my runners, and indeed Hunter's are scarce. Feel free to email/pm me :(

I'll let you know how it goes - but no way I'll run the car with the damper as it is right now because it will break my brand new chassis for sure! If I really really have to, I'll mount a more "modern" one, but it won't be the same ;)

Cheers,

Paul

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Hi, I owned a Hunter in 1987 and I found it nothing more than a beginner plastic rc buggy, not stable at all, suitable only for very slow bashing. the body was weak and very badly mounted on the chassis. I quickly changed to Kyosho Ultima.


That's a harsh criticism, IMHO. :(
For what it's worth - I've always felt the Hunter was a gorgeous buggy. Great, chunky tail-end and great tyres, and a nice sleek design with it's two-tone colour scheme.
It was only the 3rd kit to come out of the Marui stable, and their first buggy. For it's time, I also have it on good advice that it was more than a match for a Frog. Which is quite impressive, because the Frog itself was great for it's time (still is!), especially in the window before the RC10 came out.

If you appreciate presentation, the Hunter kit is gorgeous too - very, very nicely presented, with quite a lot of blisters displaying all the parts. Whilst the car itself was pretty unique, and had some interesting metal engineering with it's universal joints and rear shock layout. Truly a wonderful buggy, and a bit underappreciated methinks.

I'll let you know how it goes - but no way I'll run the car with the damper as it is right now because it will break my brand new chassis for sure! If I really really have to, I'll mount a more "modern" one, but it won't be the same ;)


IMHO, very few R/C cars are particularly weak - if driven with at least a little care, they'll hold up. And Marui was no more, or less, weak than Tamiya. In fact they were very comparable, all things considered. In some cases, Marui's designs exceeded Tamiya's.

If you're interested in driving it with it's original spec, then go for it and have fun :) Just drive with a little care, and don't jump it off the roof of your house, or into brick walls etc etc. Modern buggies are far stronger than vintages, this is true. You cannot treat vintage buggies like modern buggies in most cases.
But IMHO that shouldn't mean every vintage car needs to modded up and reinforced to try to withstand modern buggy treatment. Run it at vintage spec and enjoy the history, but just don't thrash it too bad :)

Just my 2 cents!
cheers,
H.

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Hi Guys

bringing back this thread from the dead - the mechanical restauration of the car is complete, it got its new chassis, all plastic parts have been thouroughly cleaned up (in the dishwasher in most cases), all metal parts have marinated a couple of days in spirit, I have sanded and polished all conical metal parts big enough to fit into my hand drill, I've "fiberglass-stick"'ed the others and I've done some experimentation with the shock setup in order to get to sthing that makes sense. After multiple attempts I ended up doing two dents in the piston with one of my dremel tools (which looks a bit funny now, to be honest) and using 20WT shock oil. The damper feels about right, and so does the car on the workbench, I also added four shock o-rings inside to prevent hard shock extension hits. I also found out why all chassis break in the same place, ie the rear cantilever holders - the stock assembly bends the plastic as the brass tubes are a bit on the short side, and hence the plastic is already constrained there.

Next step is bodywork - I asked a famous repro decal maker ;) if he could make a hunters one for me (btw still have to answer your email on mid custom body if you read this my friend :) ) but it seems that it won't be possible for the time being. I'll find another way :)

So, now, the car is 100% mechanically ready after a couple of months' work, but frankly it looks so absolutely gorgeous with the polished metal parts, especially the rear shock that shines like crazy, the tyre lettering and all, that I'm not completely sure I want to get it all muddied up after all the hard work. I guess it's the same dilemma again and again with restored vintage rc'ers, originally planned as runners but ending up as shelfers!

Thanks all for the help, and kind parts givers (you know who you are) - Will post pics soon!!!

Regards,

Paul

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Well i've just picked up a nice runner Hunter and i'm looking forward to running it. I used to run one back in the day, traded it from my Frog and remember it performing very well indeed (at the time remember what was about)

I'm hoping to get the little fella restored and running over winter -- if any one has some new rear tyres i'd be very interested

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Well i've just picked up a nice runner Hunter and i'm looking forward to running it. I used to run one back in the day, traded it from my Frog and remember it performing very well indeed (at the time remember what was about)

I'm hoping to get the little fella restored and running over winter -- if any one has some new rear tyres i'd be very interested

Let's see some pics

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That's a harsh criticism, IMHO. :)

For what it's worth - I've always felt the Hunter was a gorgeous buggy. Great, chunky tail-end and great tyres, and a nice sleek design with it's two-tone colour scheme.

It was only the 3rd kit to come out of the Marui stable, and their first buggy. For it's time, I also have it on good advice that it was more than a match for a Frog. Which is quite impressive, because the Frog itself was great for it's time (still is!), especially in the window before the RC10 came out.

If you appreciate presentation, the Hunter kit is gorgeous too - very, very nicely presented, with quite a lot of blisters displaying all the parts. Whilst the car itself was pretty unique, and had some interesting metal engineering with it's universal joints and rear shock layout. Truly a wonderful buggy, and a bit underappreciated methinks.

IMHO, very few R/C cars are particularly weak - if driven with at least a little care, they'll hold up. And Marui was no more, or less, weak than Tamiya. In fact they were very comparable, all things considered. In some cases, Marui's designs exceeded Tamiya's.

If you're interested in driving it with it's original spec, then go for it and have fun :D Just drive with a little care, and don't jump it off the roof of your house, or into brick walls etc etc. Modern buggies are far stronger than vintages, this is true. You cannot treat vintage buggies like modern buggies in most cases.

But IMHO that shouldn't mean every vintage car needs to modded up and reinforced to try to withstand modern buggy treatment. Run it at vintage spec and enjoy the history, but just don't thrash it too bad :angry:

Just my 2 cents!

cheers,

H.

FANTASTIC POST and one I fully agree with! These are absolute CLASSIC vintage cars, enjoy them and treat them well you will get far more enjoyment from running your Hunter than you would from building a brand new modern spec Tamiya, trust me on that!!

I must get a Hunter to join my collection at some point! :lol:

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Hallo ,i had a marui galaxy ( red version)

i bought it because it had oil shocks ,a diff and a fast motor ,looked great and was going to drive it at the local track

before that i had a sand rover so you understand that i was expecting a lot :unsure:

it was a disapointment :

the motor lasted about 20 packs before the bruses were totaly gone ,

the shoks leaked oil faster then i got new oil in them ,and they were so small that they hardy damped any bump on the track

heavy car ( those massive rear axels)

gear box was impossible to keep the sand out of it

i switched to kyosho after that ,last one was an optima mid turbo ( had 2 of them) and i'm very sad that i sold them some years ago

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Waaayyy back in 1987 my very first RC buggy was a Marui Hunter. It was my introduction into this craziness that we call a hobby, and for what its worth the Hunter was a blast. I will always have a soft spot in my hart for the Marui Hunter, bakaguyjean I would restore it to its original spec and have fun with it. :D Go Hunters

Oh BTW that photo of the Box brings back so many memories! wow wow wow :o

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Waaayyy back in 1987 my very first RC buggy was a Marui Hunter. It was my introduction into this craziness that we call a hobby, and for what its worth the Hunter was a blast. I will always have a soft spot in my hart for the Marui Hunter, bakaguyjean I would restore it to its original spec and have fun with it. :lol: Go Hunters

Oh BTW that photo of the Box brings back so many memories! wow wow wow :(

I'd definitely like to get my hands on one for sure! :)

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