When's A Hotshot Not A Hotshot ?

[Percymon]

All this recent talk of Hotshots sent me onto the dreaded 'bay...


...and came up with a sad excuse for any Tamiya. Thought i'd put a stupid bid in, on the basis the wheels/tyres were worth the amount, and hey presto i landed it for £10.50 !

Oh boy what a mess - the front end looked 70% correct, the rear about 40% correct and the middle, well lets forget the Falcon chassis tub !!

Stripped it down to realise the job lot of builders screws holding 'it' together were right through both front and rear gearbox cases, one metal bevel gear in one 'box was sheared and chewed up, the nylon spur in the other 'box had a screw through the outer edge ! Nothing that can't be replaced

Now i probably should have just binned 90% of it and just kept the wheel/tyres for use on other cars, but not me - i get kick out of bringing things back to life, even if they do cost me more than buying the whole thing as a new kit I seem to find enjoyment from scrolling through parts lists and trawling the net for the best prices (thanks GoldStarStockists) - God help me !!

So here it is as it arrived.. will put some more pics up once the recovered parts are cleaned up...

Plenty of parts on the way , gears, ball bearings, shafts etc - the wishbones are about the only black plastic parts that won't be replaced !

Not sure what i'll do motor/esc wise - i've got a few other restos on the go, and to date i've stuck to silver cans or mild upgrades.

Wish me luck lol!!

[sosidge]

I think you should leave it like that as a testament to "innovative" modifications!

That could almost be passed off as a well thought out customisation to improve the performance... unfortunately it's just a complete bodge. Odds are the original owner didn't even realise that he had screwed the drivetrain together as well as the chassis!

[merckx]

holey moley! what a frankenstein! yeah that is quite some project...enjoy, it will be rewarding when you get it back to its proper state..

[Percymon]

Odds are the original owner didn't even realise that he had screwed the drivetrain together as well as the chassis!

If the noises from the rear drivetrain were anything to go by, it was nothing more than a shelf queen monster lol! I'd love to know what the previous owner did to end up with the bitza they binned.

Will keep me busy over Chistmas

[MrUnlimited]

Very inovative repairs Would be a nice project to restore.

[Percymon]

Would be a nice project to restore.

Having to strip down and clean, prior to building has a bit more satisfaction to me than just bolting all new bits together - gives me, as a new comer, more insight into how things are built and how they work together.

[30cms]

nice!

part falcon and part hotshot? a hotcon?

[Percymon]

nice!

part falcon and part hotshot? a hotcon?

Well the Falcon has flown - striaght into the refuse truck this morning

[WW-nut]

Well the Falcon has flown - striaght into the refuse truck this morning :(

Probably a wise move, as not much you could have done with it.

Though hope you stripped it for any reuseable parts before the dustmen took it away!

[Percymon]

hope you stripped it for any reuseable parts before the dustmen took it away!

It might have been ok as a sieve, but not much else !

[aldebaran]

The rear shock tower is an original HotShot suspension hop up, so that's worth keeping.

[Percymon]

The rear shock tower is an original HotShot suspension hop up, so that's worth keeping.

Thanks for the heads-up; although it looked a bit of an abortion to my eyes andnot something I'd have thought tamiya would be proud of. Rebuild on hold at the moment awaiting bearings from japan (£100 of parts already in place !!).

Managed to complete the manta ray resto in time for Xmas day and built sons rising storm in about 7 hours today.

[Tamiya King]

That is awsome! LOL

Reminds me of the days with my Striker.

They would break right behind the bumper as it was a weak point.

I ended up just doing an Aluminum chassis brace homemade.

It worked and served its purpose, but looked like ****!

Thanks for sharing.

[aldebaran]

Thanks for the heads-up; although it looked a bit of an abortion to my eyes andnot something I'd have thought tamiya would be proud of.

I saved the box from my upgrade 24 years ago. Here's proof!

[Percymon]

I saved the box from my upgrade 24 years ago. Here's proof!

I spotted your pic in the other thread but thanks for posting again. Given I need to buy all the front and rear monoshock metal parts still I may be better going the hop up route since I already have the rear set up.

Anyone know the part numbers for the front hop ups?

[Percymon]

Rebuild ongoing, front and rear gearboxes done, front wishbones, hubs and driveshafts installed.

Now hit on a problem...

The car as bought came with what appears to be an original (but incomplete) Hotshot front end, and a hopped up / Supershot rear suspension (carbon upright and twin long yellow dampers).

I have been pretty much buying the later Hotshot parts for the rest of the car (chassis, A, B & D parts etc), but now unsure what to do with the suspension

1. If i stay true to the original Hotshot then i need new front n rear spings and metal dampers, assuming i can use modern D parts for the damper ends etc, plus stabiliser bars and stabiliser balls (can't find part numbers for the stabiliser bars themselves ???).

2. I could replace the lot with new Hotshot parts, necessitating buying red damper parts, new springs and again stabiliser bars n balls.

3. Go for a Supershot front end - not sure what this involves, appears to be high metal uprights and the twin yellow dampers. Are there stabiliser bars ??

What do people suggest a a way forward ??

Can anyone clarify part number for the stabiliser bars , as all i can find so far is a complete damper parts bag at £31 !

[Percymon]

Have managed to locate front and rear stabiliser bars, stabiliser balls and original hotshot damper and spring parts via europro.

If nothing else i can rebuild the front as original. If i can tidy up the current original damper i may use this at the rear (less visible) or use the hop-up rear set-up

[Percymon]

And today i've managed to buy another original hotshot metal damper and a full inner damper kit. Plan is to build up with original monoshock set-up front and rear initially. I'll keep hold of the HP rear set-up and maybe buy the supershot front suspension at a later date and see how they compare handling wise.

[Percymon]

Really should get some more pics up as its pretty unrecogniseable from the opening post now! will try to take some tonight.

Front end rebuilt - i think the only original parts are about half the gearbox internals, the propshaft coupling, the drive shaft couplings and the upper and lower wishbones. The rest has been replaced with original or rere parts.

Rear end partly rebuilt - as per the front, only original bits are a few internals from the gearbox and the propshaft coupling plus upper and lower wishbones !. Still got the stabiliser to fit, held up as the ball connector bag i bought only had 2 of them (should have been 4 !). Fitted the original 540 motor it came with, but might swap this for a new Ansmann 21T or 23T as they are cheap and i ahve one in the Manta Ray and it goes well enough for my driving talent in a 4WD buggy.

I've put the hop-up rear suspension to one side, and built new monoshocks for front and rear using the new original hotshot metal cylinders, inner parts and springs coupled to rere plastic end caps, filled with Schumacher 60 silicon damper oil.

Driver head and the upper body contained on the chassis have tested my hand stability and painting skills (probably not done anything like this in 30 years !), but as a first attempt i'm quite impressed with my result albeit its nowhere near as good as others i've seen here

Awaiting new body and decals, plus a second body i bought from mikef350 here - one will no doubt be boxart, the other i really don't know and i got little inspiration from viewing the cans of Tamiya aerosol yesterday at the LHS (maybe racing green with union jack decals ?)

Wheels need a clean, degrease and then i'm going to chrome them with Fastrax chrome paint (awaiting guidance on primer/backer from Fastrax).

Will drop in a mtroniks auto sport ESC, nice n cheap and 21T limit, and again works well in my Manta Ray.

I'm not totting up the cost - i know i could have bought a new rere for the same outlay, but another Tamiya would have been in landfil and i've enjoy rebuilding and restoring this one.

[30cms]

Hey percymon

I have a set of the front metal uprights (as found on supershot) going spare.

If you are interested, PM me!

[Percymon]

Hey percymon
I have a set of the front metal uprights (as found on supershot) going spare.
If you are interested, PM me!

PM sent, although having researched a bit more this afternoon, i don't think i'll bother thanks.
I can't find any online UK Tamiya spares place listing the bottom brackets or the full damper parts.
If i manage to find the bottom brackets chances are they'll be sold as part of the whole front system. Many thanks for the offer and a very reasonable price.


Managed to get some poor quality pics when i got home - sure looks better than the opening post lol!!

[Old Falcon Lad]

... i got little inspiration from viewing the cans of Tamiya aerosol yesterday at the LHS (maybe racing green with union jack decals ?)

Great! Glad you think my idea's a good one - are you going to go for that scheme then? I think it would be mean in BR Green!

P

[Percymon]

Great! Glad you think my idea's a good one - are you going to go for that scheme then? I think it would be mean in BR Green!

P

Really don't know is the honest answer - BRG would go OK with the red shocks, or any future alternative shocks (such as yellow CVAs), and theseflag decals would also be fine, if not necessarily race buggy authentic...

[Old Falcon Lad]

Really don't know is the honest answer - BRG would go OK with the red shocks, or any future alternative shocks (such as yellow CVAs), and flag decals would also be fine, if not necessarily race buggy authentic.

Go on, it would be ace. And at the rate mine's going you'll beat me to it by several years!

Repeat after me, I must stop buying ebay wrecks, I must stop buying eBay wrecks....

[Percymon]

Racing Green aerosol purchased at lunchtime !

edit 27/01/2016

not sure what happened to the rest of this thread, but a few finished photos added to help future readers.

The green never happened, nor the union jack decals - went boxart, but with an EZRun 4300kv (9T) brushless motor/esc kit.

finished with the original wheels resprayed in silver/chrome..

with Seben Racing wheels/tyres (£18 a set)..standard 12mm hex drive, so swapped the triangular wheel adaptors fro 12mm hexes

Still have it, its covered all of 100metres since it was 'restored' lol!