Life & times of a Hornet

[Andyrt200 201]

It’s been just about one year now since I got back into RC so thought it was time to get my old first car out & try resurrecting it.

This was a very happy little me back in 86

The build pics were by my mum so she only found the decals to be interesting enough for another pic!

Showing off to my friend

Out for a spin (before waiting 16 hours for the pack to recharge again, didn’t you just love that!)

It was very well used over the next few years, I modded it up a lot. This was how it looked in the loft (sorry for rubbish pics) when I went to get it out again.

Back in the 80s the front end & the gear box mounts snapped off first chassis so I got a new one & braced the gearbox mounts but when the front end snapped off again I made my own, partly also to make it much lower for that body I was running by then. Not sure why it got tape stuck all over it, note the original body in the back ground with the front end wrapped in parcel tape that was then painted back! More on that later.

Just for old times sake I cleaned up the body & stuck the body back together with a hot glue gun & some fibreglass mat added in.

Wheel base extension for the body & brace to stop the second chassis snapping at the back.

I lived in a housing estate with nice new flat roads back then so it went ok with no suspension, or maybe that’s rose tinted specks! It was unsurprisingly rubbish on a road with small bumps in it, just span out tring to go in a straight line. I was surprised how the old tyres came back to life once they had worn in a bit they got rather a lot of use back in the day!

As you can see it was rather low, (even with new boots on the newly refurbished wheels) back in the 80s I had to add those plasic bearing under the shocks to get a little more ground clearance as every time I caught a bit of gravel it pulled off the battery plate. That's why it rides so high at the rear.

Was fun for about two minutes but got silly quickly, so I’m now on a mission to restore it back to one of it’s earlier states, with suspension this time!

I read about plastex on here it seems really good, but I’ve not had a chance to really test it yet. I’m rebuilding my first chassis that I thought was beyond repair but kept just in case, glad I did now! It had snapped though behind the left suspension mount, the back plastex bends in very well.

This will be the ultimate test, with the bumper mount long since snapped of & lost now cast completely from plastex

Hopfully I’ll be able to get the body done tomorrow, again I found a good tip on here about stripping the paint back & sanding the inside before laying some new paint down to then use the glue gun on…

I do have one question though – did the original have the friction damping O rings on the front, I don’t remember them & certainly don’t have them any more if there were ever there, I guess they would be good to add now though?

[markbt73 5311]

Great pictures, thanks for sharing! I'm so envious of the folks who managed to hang on to their original cars. I'd love to have my old cars back. Best I can do is find replacements...

The original Hornet did have the friction dampers, they're on the D tree. They don't do much, but they help a little.

[Andyrt200 201]

Great pictures, thanks for sharing! I'm so envious of the folks who managed to hang on to their original cars. I'd love to have my old cars back. Best I can do is find replacements...

The original Hornet did have the friction dampers, they're on the D tree. They don't do much, but they help a little.

Thanks , funny what you forget, I'm sure I didn't know they were friction dampers when I was ten, probably why I don't remember them!

Luckily I get my hording (keep it just in case it will be useful) jean from my dad, so he didn’t mind keeping all my old RC stuff in his loft (roof space) till I got a loft of my own to stuff it in! My old planes are still in his loft at is much bigger than mine, & would be far too dangerous to let my 2 year old lose with them just yet!

[Max Power 5]

Great thread, I can't wait to see the next instalment!

[Torquer 0]

Fantastic thread and great pictures! Thanks for sharing your story. I enjoyed it.

[30YrsL8r 97]

Wheel base extension for the body & brace to stop the second chassis snapping at the back.

How old were you when you did these mods?

[Andyrt200 201]

How old were you when you did these mods?

I think I was about 12, could have been earlier I was 10 in 86 when I got it up in those top pics. I remember wanting to turn it in to road racing car with a full body rather than a buggy very early on. I got fed up with it always rolling over & found extending the wheel base lowered it a bit which helped, so I realised lowering it stopped that. It got steadily lower & lower then! I forgot to say that was the other reason for fitting the alloy front end. It had a 17T double in it at the end (sold my first RC build – a boat to buy that motor), how on earth I kept the thing on the road is beyond me now!

Glad you all like the pics, I’ve got more to post up later but I’m in work on night shifts so have to do some jobs first.

[Andyrt200 201]

Some more old pics to start with, bit of topic but it’s my thread!

As I said I’m a hoarder, but I did sell a few things to buy more bits, this was my second car, but after I got my Blackfoot I didn’t see any point in keeping it. I think manly as I didn’t like the paint colour I went with (I was also into Mask toys at the time hence the blue). When my boy is old enough to help I’ll get a re-re to build with him & go with the yellow.

Right back to the Hornet, the body is really well beyond chance of actually looking good again, but I want to try to use it again for old time’s sake. The rear is obviously not original, but it’s how I remember it & that’s actually a bit of my old RC boat stuck in there, it’s all I’ve got left of that!

I didn’t get any good pics, but it was covered in blue over spray (maybe anther reason I didn’t like the Lunchbox’s paint!). A wipe down of the out side with a cloth dabbed with brake fluid cleaned it up really well, I was worried about the decals but they seemed fine. I wanted to do the brake fluid clean before staring work on any new paint inside, that old paint seemed ok, but it’s asking a lot of it when sticking the body together on top. So I scraped the old paint off round the areas I wanted to repair & gave them a good key with 600 wet & dry in soapy water, I was pleased till I turned the shell over & found my vigorous rubbing of the under side while holding the outer shell on the kitchen sink had taken some of the print of the main sticker

At least it looked good to start with underneath after a re-spray

I masked off a few areas under the decals so there was some virgin Polycarbonate for the glue to sick to, I’ve no idea if that will help or not but though it was worth a try.

As usual when rushing things it went a bit wrong, the bits of old brushed on paint I left on that seemed very well stuck reacted with the solvents of the new spray paint & wrinkled up a bit, should have taken all the paint off really, but with a two year old boy & six week old girl time is not on my side! It looks ok on the out side & the bad bits aren’t where I wanted to glue so I just kept going.

I stuck it back together on the out side with masking tape then used fibreglass mat with a hot glue gun for the repairs inside. Hot glue on the shell, mat down on that, then it’s very easy to work small bits into place with nozzle of the hot gun. Just don’t use fingers out of habit, it hurts & the fibres all stick to your finger making a right mess! For the large bit at the front I did it in sections laying a bead of hot glue & pushing the mat down into it with a parts bag over it to stop my fingers sticking, then lifting the mat up again & applying more hot glue under the mat working my way across, till it was all stuck down. The glue would cool to much if you tried to it all once with such a big bit.

The idea is the fibreglass mat give it the strength with the glue gun glue being much more flexible than fibreglass resin, time will tell if I’m right!

At it stands now it’s very strong, will be interesting to see how strong it is after I’ve trimmed off the excess, particularly round the front suspension cut outs.

Sorry about this last pic, I was literally running out of the door to get to work tonight as I took it, I’ll replace it with a better one soon.

The last problem I ran into was the number 7 has stuck to the masking tape, it was fine when I masked it to spray, so I think it must have been the heat of the hot glue, I don’t think I’ll be able to save it which is a right pain I don’t know if the brake fluid weekend them, probably didn’t help, but I still think it was right to do the brake fluid wipe first, just asking for loads more trouble doing at the end…

[30YrsL8r 97]

Is it just me, or do the Tamiya boxes in old photographs look like anachronisms (i.e. things that shouldn't have been around then)? Maybe it's because we can still see the (almost) exact same thing in shops today, but I think they stick out like a sore thumb in photos from decades ago. Maybe it IS just me. Great photos, BTW.

[mongoose1983 3335]

Is it just me, or do the Tamiya boxes in old photographs look like anachronisms (i.e. things that shouldn't have been around then)? Maybe it's because we can still see the (almost) exact same thing in shops today, but I think they stick out like a sore thumb in photos from decades ago. Maybe it IS just me. Great photos, BTW.

Haha, yeah. There you have your re-re side effect.

BTW, thanks Andyrt200 for sharing these pictures. I really enjoy old pictures of these classic Tamiya cars!

You all have a good weekend!

[moffman 5746]

Is it just me, or do the Tamiya boxes in old photographs look like anachronisms (i.e. things that shouldn't have been around then)? Maybe it's because we can still see the (almost) exact same thing in shops today, but I think they stick out like a sore thumb in photos from decades ago. Maybe it IS just me. Great photos, BTW.

i know were ya coming from ive got an old photo of me in the 80s holding my xmas present a new tamiya boomerang ! and in the background is our top of the range vhs video recorder (top loader!) i bet that would'nt look as up to date as the rc's still do now. i think it also could be because they were way ahead on the design dept at tamiya thats why they were soooo popular back then

[JWeston 493]

What an absolute quality post and totally what it is all about. My daughters love their Hornets and I've made sure I've got lots of photos too.

Brilliant stuff and thanks for sharing.

J

[markbt73 5311]

Now that is some serious dedication to preservation, bringing that body back from the dead. I've thrown out shells that were nowhere near that far gone. (makes me feel a bit wasteful, actually...) I love the old pictures. I think I have a few somewhere; has anyone started a "scan and post your photos from way back when" thread yet?

[skip665 169]

Great thread!

I still have a car from my youth but unfortunately not the one I started with - but still - its not going anywhere as it holds too many memories

[Andyrt200 201]

Thanks very much for all the kind comments, glad you all liked the old pics, I'll do another thread much the same for my Blackfoot soon, I found the old pics of that too.

I find the boxes out of place in the modern world as my memory's are from the time of that photo, going in to Hamleys & seeing them all there now is very odd, good but odd! Although I did, still do, think the designs were very futuristic.

I forgot to take a new pic before trimming the fibreglass, so I'll just have to leave that rubbish one - sorry. I actually didn't notice till looking back at this post that there was a bit of shell missing at the front, so I added that in with more fibreglass mat & hot glue, the hot glue is good as it melts into the stuff all ready there when adding a bit like that. With that added & the other bits cut out it was still very strong, so a test drive was in order before thinking about making it look any nicer. More of that darned blue paint of the bumper still to remove...

I thought a back to back test with the scorcher, or habar bug as my boy calls it would be good. As the Hornet is for him to learn with I cheated with the testing of the repairs a bit & stuck a 360 motor in it, but I was pleasantly surprised how good the acceleration was. Obviously the top speed is rubbish but it's quite ok for bashing round the garden. The main problem was traction on the wet grass, the scorcher was flying around no problem, the Hornet's open diff wasn't helping but it was spinning both wheels also.

So I tried a wheel swap but that made no difference, although the big & little combo on the Hornet looks good, think I'll have to get some proper Hornet tyres with the spikes. The big wheels look quite good on the front of the scorcher but it makes the rears look tiny. Gives me an idea though, where's my Blackfoot shell...

(Sorry this pic is rubbish too)

Mores to the point though the testing of the repairs went very well. My boys friend came over & gave it the kind of test only a 3 year old can, it had dried up a bit then so it was going ok & he crashed it in to everything he could then picked it up by the body every time & dropped it a lot too & it is still all holding together perfectly, which is nice!

Once we have "tested" it a bit more I'll report back on how the repairs are holding up.

[hotshot boy 0]

Awesome...!!! Just awesome... I wish i had of kept all my cars... =-(

[Torquer 0]

This is the best post I've seen is quite a while. I'm surly enjoying your re-ride thru memorylane. Please keep it, man...! Thanks.

[leg0man 0]

Great thread! Enjoyed the 'back in the day' pics, the childhood ingenuity and the restoration process!

[Andyrt200 201]

Bit of an update:

The bank holiday slowed down the delivery of the new wheels & tyres so to be able to get it to move on wet grass I tried this:

Looks stupid but worked very well, obviously faster with the bigger wheels, but I was surprised the 360 motor worked so well geared up with the bigger tyres. This enabled some higher speed testing of the repairs. All of which have held up very well, the chassis repairs are all still fine, there have been some big jumps with bad landings but it’s tough as old boots now. The only slight mishap was this:

(not the missing light, the bumper mount) I don’t think I had the screw in the centre when casting the new part around it, I sure a little more plastex will fix that though.

It looks much better with its proper wheels on I think & they work very well, so it can go on wet grass fine now:

It’s been great taking the old car out again, trying to stuff the battery in brought back so many memory’s! Which brings me to the two same faults it always had, the battery tray coming off when landing a big jump or going over a steep drop slowly so it catches the underneath & the other; as my little boy said “back wheels VERY bouncy daddy”

I was toying with the idea of four linking the rear end, as the axel “winds up” effectually increasing the spring rate, but I think the un-sprung weight of it would make that a waist of time. I’ve also got quite a few complete rears with “proper suspension" that would graft in easily, but then it wouldn’t be a Hornet. The whole point was to make it back into a good first car for my boy to learn how to drive RC, for that I think it just about perfect. Best part is (so far at least) it can crash into anything & keep going, more than can be said for the Scorcher, I’ve just caved the nose in on that hitting something that was just above the height of the bumper!

For the Hornet, I think I’m most pleased with the body repairs, as I really didn’t know how they’d turn out but it’s perhaps stronger than it ever was now.

So I tried the method out on a spare bashing shell I’ve got for my new Blackfoot Xtream. The crack I "bashed" in to it:

Only the hot glue didn’t work quite as well on this:

I didn't do anything differently this time, I don’t know the shells origin, I got it off the bay, but the seller said it was a copy, so I guess made of inferior materials to the Tamiya ones.

Still it’s ok from a distance, ok as a basher shell:

The repair, although not looking as nice a the Hornets, is still very strong. I’ve fitted my first brushless motor to the new Xtream – amazing & can crash at very high speed now & just keep going. We take the new Blackfoot & Hornet out together to play now, but even with all the Blackfoot’s modern tech the old Hornet is still great fun to drive along side it.

Unfortunately all this fun means work on my original Blackfoot has stopped, but I will get around to it one day…

[Percymon 2184]

I didn't do anything differently this time, I don't know the shells origin, I got it off the bay, but the seller said it was a copy, so I guess made of inferior materials to the Tamiya ones.

Still it's ok from a distance, ok as a basher shell:

\the shell is from seben-racing - they come pre-painted at €10+shipping so great for bashing , but hardly worth the effort repairing...

http://www.mods4cars.com/sms/shop/index.php?p=b3JnYT1zZWJlbi1yYWNpbmcmZ3JvdXA9MiZsYW5nPTImY3Vycj0x&action=products&cat=412&mode=view&id=1044

[Andyrt200 201]

Been messing about with the old Hornet again, the repairs are still holding up well. It did have an unfortunate encounter with a large dog in the park who ripped the body in two but a bit more hot glue & fibreglass matt & it was back together again, just sporting a few teeth marks now!

That bumper mount has been fine with a little more plastex on it.

The only other thing that broke was the vintage servo saver, while I was fixing that I got around to fitting a third spring to the rear:

I found an old spare gearbox half that was better than the one I had so used that but the screw hole is a different place. Funny the little things that get changed over the years! I just drilled right though & sealed off the other hole.

That is a friction shock of my Blackfoot Xtream I had knocking about, it needed the little spring though as when the suspension compresses the box pivots up & just about touches the spring:

Fits under the body fine:

It’s a tight fit for the shock next to the gearbox but it works well. Out running it seems a little more stable & certainly has better traction as the rear wheels have a better chance of staying in contact with the ground. But the best thing is that it’s stopped that horrible cracking noise you get from the torque hammering the box up & down you get every time you accelerate. I think that is a large part of the failures you get with the mounts in the chassis back there.

It still has the classic rear end bounce over bigger bumps, it will always have that with all the unsprung weight from the gearbox motor combo in such a light car, but then that’s part of the fun isn’t it?!

[callisr 5]

What a great thread! I really wish I still had my old cars from a similar era to yours! Well done! You and your son are going to make great memories for both of you! PRICELESS!