1986 boomerang resto

[commiedoor 18]

hey , i couldnt resist this old boomerang ( i am australian after all !) , it came up cheap of eblah so i put in a winning bid and took posession of it yesterday .

despite the best efforts of the previous owner to pack it carefully , austpost shone though with the normal lack of care .. the box turned up flatter than a pancake , even half the bubble wrap had popped ! it came with a heap of spares which .. are of no use cause all the needed parts have been used . i sourced a R part suspension arms tree that have the rear lower arms and B part suspension tree that have the front shock links . once they get here it will be a tear down and clean up , with maybe a new body in the right colours with decals .

any body know if the re-re body fits the same ? i can get original decals off eblah ..

[commiedoor 18]

well the clean up has started . i am surprized at how thin and brittle the plastics are ! . the triangle drive plates on the outshalfs have all snapped in half , proberley from being over tightened , the front mount for the bumper has broken away from the gear case , the rear top and bottom arms have had any protruding bits broken off as well as the pivot points on the bottom arms . lucky they are cheap and plentifull .

the front shock pivot arms that mount of the front lower suspension armsare broken , mainly due to the hard action of the shock ! . again there are a few of those parts trees about . the good news is that because it broke a lot , the rest is undamaged and looks unused , just a few scratches on the front bumper and battery plate .

i thought the rear shock tower was broken but its so flimsey that it just flexes all over the place . this tamiya is defenetly going to be a shelf queen .

[Falcon#5 594]

Good stuff.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it comes along.

I had that same Boomer on my watch list!

[Percymon 2184]

At least parts are plentiful, although the cost does mount up, as i know from my Hotshot restoration (albeit i started with worse than you).

It'll be worth it in the end - i like the fact i have a model with the monoshock design, alebit its a compromise for serious running.

[commiedoor 18]

Good stuff.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it comes along.

I had that same Boomer on my watch list!

really , hmm notsure i'm glad i beat you to it ! did you see there 1 and a pile of parts on eblah ? i might try for them as these's a spare body ..

[Falcon#5 594]

really , hmm notsure i'm glad i beat you to it ! did you see there 1 and a pile of parts on eblah ? i might try for them as these's a spare body ..

I wasn't bidding on it.

If I had spare cash I would've!

Just keeping an eye on cars that I like, to see what they're worth.

Had a look at the other one, with parts lot.

Looks good for the right price. Good luck!

[KalEl63 695]

I did spy this one too but didn't watch it for long as I bumped the Boomer down the collect list due to me having the Terra Scorcher. Good luck with the build.... would the re-re parts be that same for it?

[commiedoor 18]

i have never regretted buying a old tamiya rc car ... but this boomerang who was the saki soaked fool that designed it ? , mr dodgeymoto noclue ! ,

the rear gear box moulding is a accident waiting to happen . the rear shock mount is held on by 2 ears on the tower that lock in to top of the box and are held in by strips of plasic 1mm x 1mm in thickness moulded in to the top of the box ! and if the single screw that holds it all together is loose the tower rocks and breaks out the thin strips making every thing wobble especialy if the suspension arm pivot pins are worn .

the front bumper is held on by 3 screws , the front one screws in to a brass hex that is held in to the front gear box by being resesed in to it , this is held by the thinest of plastic as well and a good nose landing will break hex out , taking the plastic pieces out with it , only you dont know about it till you pull the front bumper off and the hex comes off with it !

and the rear bumper mounts that attach tothe bottom of the rear gear box ! thats sharp thinking ! any sort of tail down landing results in --- you guessed it broken gear box cases ..

so far , i have had to replace the top and bottom rear arms as all the finicky sticky out bits and the pivot hole have broken off , the gumby hard plastic tri-drives have broken in half , from having the wheels nuts over tightened by the looks , and the front shock pivot mounts , well one of 2 parts to make the suspension work, have broken , again . these were replaced and broke on the first small jump according to the prev owner , mainly due to a overly hard spring on the shock . yes sir ree , this boomer is going to spent its day sitting quietly on the shelf next to my resto frog after a quick test run to see if everything works , and doesnt break ! ..

dont get me wrong . i think that its a fine piece of '' over engineering '' but totaly unsuited for what it was made for .. i had before and after this model and carnt remember them being this flimsy ! maybe i just dont wont to remember the bad old days ..

[TamiyaDan 8]

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[KalEl63 695]

The early cars are like LEGO you can mix and match them into crazy combination.

great way of putting it.

[Falcon#5 594]

Its a awesome piece of something isn't it.

the lack luster engineering follows because tamiya used the parts from the hotshot.

Basically you had a genelogy like

Hotshot->supershot->hotshot 2

supershot--> bigwig-> Boomerang -> Super Sabre

then you had a break in the chain that was redesigned on top of the basic elements.

Thundershot-> thunderdragon -> terra scorcher -> fire dragon.

you can see all the little influences on the later cars that came off the original hotshot.

The early cars are like LEGO you can mix and match them into crazy combination.

like:

The boomerang is basically a Bigwig with 5 major parts changes that can bolt right up.

the rear shock tower stay isn't that bad, I've seen them break when things get really rough but otherwise the plastic used in the tower can absorb shock, if you notice the tower is actually sandwiched between the rear arms and upper mount on the gear box with the 2 suspension pins supporting it on the sides and just the one screw through the gearbox plate holder.

so most of the shock is actually supported through the upper rear arms on the boomerang. the wedge body shape helps in a roll over as well since the top of the body is basically flat the car will slide on the roof with nothing sticking up to catch the rear tower.

the good news is you can take the new hotshot gear cases and basically rebuild the boomerang since the entire car is built around those parts. so at least its easy to replace.

keep it up shes coming along.

What front end you got on that?

Looks good.

[TamiyaDan 8]

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[Falcon#5 594]

Big wig

The original boomerang actually shared the C parts and B parts spur with the bigwig, right in the box.

you even got the Big wig Rack and pinion steering setup.

now to complete the front end swap you need Big Wig F parts which is the front arms.

then a set of CVA medium shocks or after market to complete the transformation.

if you want to change out the Boomerang steering system for the Big wig rack and pinion setup then you need the bigwig main chassis so you can install them.

the rear end basically stays the same so everything can bolt right up into a big wig.

After i took the above picture I put the original boomerang front end back on for display on the shelf, because i wanted my supershot to show off the 4 shock configuration.

but i can easily convert my boomerang back to a big wig front end if i wish.

I'm guessing this will work on a Hotshot also?

[TamiyaDan 8]

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[commiedoor 18]

my other boomerangs turned up on friday . i checked out all the boomer and bits i got and found that i can finish the one i started to restore and then use the parts of the third one thats in bits to fix the second one and then with a bit of luck , build up the third one with the parts i orded for the first one that are on a slow boat some where . confused ? i am ... .

so , any way , here is the first boomer resto finished

here is the second boomer thats about to be restored with the first boomers body and wing .

so , when the bearings , rear arms , front arms , gear set , shaft set and decals turn up i, i will start on the left overs of the third boomer . actually , it was in better shape then my first one , it just has a striped gears in the rear box .. ..

[Falcon#5 594]

my other boomerangs turned up on friday . i checked out all the boomer and bits i got and found that i can finish the one i started to restore and then use the parts of the third one thats in bits to fix the second one and then with a bit of luck , build up the third one with the parts i orded for the first one that are on a slow boat some where . confused ? i am ... .

so , any way , here is the first boomer resto finished

here is the second boomer thats about to be restored with the first boomers body and wing .

so , when the bearings , rear arms , front arms , gear set , shaft set and decals turn up i, i will start on the left overs of the third boomer . actually , it was in better shape then my first one , it just has a striped gears in the rear box .. ..

Makes sense to me!

So you did end up getting the 2 Boomers and parts lot.

Nice score.

[commiedoor 18]

not really , i bought the first boomer , then because it was so full of broken parts , i bought the second lot , which had 1 complete boomer and 1 with no gears in the rear box or wheels . , so i have ended up with 2 complete boomers out of the 2 lots and a third i will do up when all the parts turn up . they are coming from the UK , the USA , HONGKONG and JAPAN , so it will be a while before they all get here . there , you where right , it was easy to understand !

[mcweee 0]

Wow, Boomers galore, They look great George. So now that you have ample will one be a runner? Hows the area across the road, a lake or a park?

rgds craig

[commiedoor 18]

Wow, Boomers galore, They look great George. So now that you have ample will one be a runner? Hows the area across the road, a lake or a park?

rgds craig

mate ! the whole lot of my dodgey collection are runners ! and at the moment , the '' tide '' is out the road , but that depends if it starts raining again .. a mate took pity on me and dropped of an old gas powered balsa wood boat . im in the middle of converting that to electric .. might have to build a boat trailer next !

[mcweee 0]

Hi George, have you still got the Hotshot arms you were selling?. If you have i'll grab them as a spare set for my Hotshot. Let me know and i'll call round one day and pick them up.

Thanks

Craig

[commiedoor 18]

nearly finished the resto's .... the decals and rear arms came today so i spent a productive , , arvo finishing off the red boomer .

its going to be a runner of sorts , its too fragile to bash around ! just gentle dirt car parks and stuff for it . i am fitting a esc and reciever soon as they turn up .

the white boomer is original right down to the msc and will be a shelf queen even through its will be in running order , just a test run for it .

love this pic .. '' TWO AND A HALF BOOMERS ''

not sure what to do with the half a boomerang , even though its all there apart for a rear gear set , a front bumper , rear arms and airiel . any offers ?

[Falcon#5 594]

not sure what to do with the half a boomerang , even though its all there apart for a rear gear set , a front bumper , rear arms and airiel . any offers ?

Hmmm, I shouldn't even be thinking about it...

[KalEl63 695]

If you are an Australian is it UnAustralian not to own a boomer? I hated using that "UnAustralian" as it gets used way too much but had no other way of putting it

[TamiyaDan 8]

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[commiedoor 18]

Big wig the Half Boom

i prolly would if it was the front end that was missing parts but its the rear end that snaffu'ed ... its only going to be around 30 bucks to fix it though..