Stadium Blitzer Restoration

[Champ85]

Hey everyone, here is the result of my latest project.

I bought this on eBay:

And restored it to this:

This was a very enjoyable project from start to finish.

Painting the body box art was very difficult for me. I made some rookie mistakes, but my hope is to get better with each body I paint.

Many more pictures (including detailed chassis and body) plus my comments for each picture are available here (Photobucket albums):

Original seller's pictures

My before pictures

Restoration complete!

I'd post all of the pictures directly and include comments but I think some people might get mad waiting for 30+ pictures to load.

Anyway, let me know what you think!

- Brian

[berman]

Hey! Thats mine!

Just kidding!

Very good resto man, My restoration was very similar to yours.

Although I had problems with the junk pactra black paint turning to chewing gum and not wanting to dry properly.

Looks really good! Painting the cage and the silver right to the back of the tray was the hardest (trying to get

masking tape on the inside of tray and then masking off the rest of the rear with paper! )

[Tamiya1/10]

good restoration works. did you used any new parts or just clean them up? Now after x number hrs of elbow grease and $ dished out... dare you to take her out and run and jump her hard. I think one of the best way to enjoy RC is get a current model, put her through the ringer and if you are still attach to her in the end, fix her up and retire her like one would do with a good sheep dog. Still take her out once in a while run her gently as she is now a lady.....

[Old Falcon Lad]

Well done, you've done a great job there. Neat electrics set up, but how long will the tread on the tyres last if you run her hard? However, this vehicle just needs to be driven and enjoyed. Perhaps a spare runner shell is called for?

P

[Novastar]

A brilliant restoration !! Reminds me of mine, well how it looked in 1996 anyway lol. I hope you run the Blitzer sometimes even if its just on the grass to preserve the now perfect condition.

[Champ85]

Thanks everyone for the kind words!

berman,

Yes, masking the body for the black paint was by far the most time consuming task. What a nightmare! It came out ok with only a couple bleed-through parts that should not have happened. I must get better at masking and ensuring no tape lifts where it shouldn't!

Tamiya 1/10,

I really should have taken pictures of everything as I was taking it apart and cleaning. It would have helped to show the story of the restoration. Next time...

I used all of the original parts that I could, which was practically everything except:

1) The left rear shock was missing a lower spring retainer (part #X5 in the manual), so I bought an X tree to replace it.

2) The front shock tower had a permanent forward 4mm bend on the right side that made the shocks look misaligned, so I bought a B tree (for part #B9) to replace it.

3) The original plastic bearings were replaced with ball bearings. (twelve 5x11mm)

4) I bought a new manual from TamiyaUSA because the truck auction didn't include one and I wanted it to feel like a brand new build (and it did!).

5) The body was in bad shape, so I bought a new one (Tamiya, not repro, which was cool to find and not too expensive).

6) The stickers didn't come with the auction or the new body, so I got a set of those too (also real Tamiya, not repro, again not too expensive).

7) The rear tires were the wrong width, so I bought a set of front and rear Blitzer tires and a set of Blitzer rear wheels. All of the pictures are showing the original (yellowed on one side) wheels and original front tires that are cracked and new rear tires. I plan on either spray painting the original wheels with TS-26 (white) or using hydroden peroxide in sunlight to remove the yellow color from the wheels.

8) The motor wasn't original, so I decided to use a Trinity Midnight that I had laying around. It might not work well with the TEU-101BK ESC, but we'll see. Both the motor and ESC get pretty hot fairly quickly. Not many gearing choices and I'm using the original 13T pinion. I originally wanted to use a Sport Tuned, but the motor shaft is too short for the pinion to reach the spur gear effectively. Really disappointing.

9) A couple of missing screws that I had exact replacements or bought new screw bags for.

Really, that wasn't much to replace if you look at it. I was very happy with how all of the parts cleaned up. The metal parts weren't scratched, bent, rusted, or worn. The plastic parts, except those mentioned above, weren't abused or stripped or cracked. The gears were in excellent shape. The most obvious signs of use were and still are underneath (front bumper, main chassis, rear gearbox shield).

Here was the best part for me: Because I totally disassembled the truck all the way down to individual components, then cleaned them all in a 4-stage cleaning process to make them look as new as possible, it felt like I was building the truck from NIB. Add to that the brand new manual and all of the plastic flashing left on almost every single plastic part, it literally felt like the only steps I missed were the opening of the box and the initial cutting-off of the parts from the plastic trees! Awesome, just awesome fun to build it up from scratch.

And no, I will not be jumping this one. haha

Old Falcon Lad,

Thank you for the kind words on the electric set up. I spent some time thinking about where to place the three components, including trying the receiver underneath the tray where there is plenty of room, but I decided that I wanted easy access to the receiver in case I needed to unplug something real quick. The Novak BEC circuit was a necessity to get the raw battery voltage sent by the Tamiya ESC down to 6V so the receiver doesn't burn up. I've been using the same configuration for all of my recent builds and it works very well. The Tamiya 101 is a low-end ESC, but I still like it because it's so cheap and it works really well.

A runner shell isn't a bad idea too, I was thinking maybe I'll just use the yellow one for bashing around after fixing the rear body mount points. It's ugly, but so what. lol

Novastar,

Yes, this is not a shelfer, so I will be running it, but not too hard. Do you still have yours today? The guy that sold me this one said he was the original owner and that he bought it in late 1996 or early 1997. He said he never raced it - just played in the yard for bashing.

[berman]

Yeah mine has a couple of bleed marks, but this is from the paint pulling when I took the masking tape off

I went to get an original manual from our national distributor and he sold me a photocopy... pretty sure that's illegal!

You should have put a trade request up, I probably had most of the parts you needed

Just be careful not to do wheelies with it, as catching the rear of the shell on the ground is what destroys the rear body holes. I have a 13 turn in mine and it will wheelie from a standstill on grass!

I would recommend a Robinson Racing 13t 32dp pinion too.

Love the Stadium Blitzer! have fun!

[jay-ta02]

Lovely looking truck, I miss mine so much! if anyone has one for sale let me know!!

[highflyer]

Great resto Champ85!

@Berman- Yours looks great in action

I was thinking about restoring mine the other day, but its alot of fun to drive. So, I just put a Novak ESC in and plan to race it On-Road in "Gearbox Class" locally.

[Novastar]

Yeah I still have mine and am currently rebuilding the gearbox as the seal failed and let some very abrasive sand into it. Should be ready to go running next week though

[hoppi05]

I no this is an old post but what a great read and great restore! i am currently starting a Stadium Blitzer restore myself and you have helped me so much with the tips you pointed out cheers and congratulations on a super restore! i hope mine can live up to this!

cheers