Striker restoration

[kontemax 1725]

Ok, today I stickered the car. The job is almost finished and I need to glue some little sticker parts with clear nail polish.

Also driver helmet needs some job. I'll paint the stripes and will not use the stickers cause they never fit well.

The blue painted nose is almost perfect and I'm really happy for the result.

The last problem is the wheels.

I own new rear rims, new front tires and today I bought new rear tires. I miss the new front rims to complete the set.

I also own these old wheels and I'm thinking about a restoring job also on the rims (the tires will go to the rubbish anyway).

What do you think about?

Max

[biggamehunter 127]

max , i think the car has come to far to use those rims , it would be a shame to put those on , in my opinion you need new ones , but saying that you made the whole car that was ready for the trash like new , so have a go with the wheels ! you do a great job on restoring things so they will probably turn out like new , i also think the wheel centres up to where the spoke meets the inside edge of the rim would look great painted in the same blue as the nose and leaving the whole rim inside and out white, as there is lots and lots of white on the car , try blue on one of the spare ones to see how it looks , it wont spoil the box art look either max ,

shaun

[Grastens 2795]

I too agree that you should attempt to restore the wheels, as I am positive you will do very well with them!

[kontemax 1725]

Ok, I'll try to restore these wheels. Probably can't do it until September because I need a machinery.

A friend of mine have it but probably is on holiday so I must wait.

I'll try anyway to find the new front rims I need to have a nib set.

And yes, dual color rims is an excellent idea imho.

Stay tuned.

Max

[kontemax 1725]

New minor news today.

As I said the car has been already stickered and now I finally choose for the car number.

Searching in my boxes for some spare decals I found these:

Original Grasshopper decals. The original decals had 3 numbers to apply, 3, 5 and 6. So, the remaining numers after my Grasshopper restore are 6, so will replace original poor squared Striker numbers with these rounded ones.

Also found these extra sticker sponsors from Grasshopper too. Probably I use some of them on the Striker to give it some more racey look.

Max

[kontemax 1725]

Some more minor progress today. I'm a little bit tired and lazy due the heat. Yesterday there was 38° Celsious in Turin.

Anyway I started to assemble again the Striker and noticed that the front dampers were too long and gave positive camber at front wheels (something like the Lunchbox). Obviously this doesn't like to me so I checked with other spare mini yellow damper I own and noticed the other ones are shorter due a spacer inside.

So today I disassembled the front dampers, serviced and added a 3 mm spacer inside. Now the camber should be neutral or negative.

Tomorrow will try to do the driver helmet and some minor detail on the body so the project will be finished before my holidays.

I will drink a lot of redbull to do it tomorrow...

Stay tuned.

Max

[Grastens 2795]

Hanging on to your every post, Max! I do look forward to seeing how the body looks with the extra stickers!

[kontemax 1725]

I had been on holidays, just come back yesterday night.

Will continue the job on the Striker but we all had the big great news that our movie "2 di Picche" (2 od Spades) has been selected in the Rome Fiction Festival so probably will have no time to dedicate to the hobby until the end of September, who knows?

Max

[z00ter 392]

I have just read through this whole post and found it inspiring to say the least, the amount of hard work you have put in so far is amazing! I And the results also say the same.

im learning as you write mate!

Keep up the good work

[kontemax 1725]

Thank you.

Will add news asap, I hope I will have the time this month. This Festival is too much important for us.

Max

[mongoose1983 3335]

Thank you.

Will add news asap, I hope I will have the time this month. This Festival is too much important for us.

Max

Wishing you the best of luck at the Festival this year, Max!!

[SteveU30 1011]

Oooh nice resto so far Max, I'm not really a fan of the Striker but just watching this resto happen makes me appreciate it a little more. I agree with the others about restoring the front wheels and painting them two-tone. Keep up the good work.

[kontemax 1725]

Ok, here we are. The work for the Film Festival is done so now a little new progress on the Striker.

The helmet decals are impossible to apply so I decided to do them with paint. The spray can colors are always the same you have seen before here on this post, the TS-41 and TS44.

The TS-41 doesn't match perfectly to the light green decal color but anyway is better than a bad decal.

This project is almost finished but the final pictures will depends from my free time. The wheels are yet to do but a new set in on the way to my home anyway.

Max

[kontemax 1725]

Ok, this morning the new wheels are arrived from New Zealand (thanks Bruce) so the project could be quickly finished.

The only remaining thing to do is choose for brand new wheels or restore the original ones.

Anyway soon there will be the pictures of the complete car.

Do you have a cheap vintage modified motor (not silver can)? The car is so nice now that the silver can will ruin its look. No matter if the motor works or not, this will be a display car.

Max

[biggamehunter 127]

any updates please max

[kontemax 1725]

Sorry guys,

the movie festival is driving me crazy. On 2nd of October I'll be in Rome for the red carpet at 04:00 PM, then my two episodes will displayed at 05:00 PM and at 06:00 PM everything will be finished. Today I spent all my day to buy some decent dresses for the festival. I had a lot of things to do but if I'll be able will post some news here this night or tomorrow.

For the moment I can display this (no Tamiya related but explains why I'm so busy this month...). Hope you like and sorry, no English subtitles yet, no time to do them on the trailer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B84H0A7OVCU

Stay tuned!

Max

[kontemax 1725]

Ok, finally today I had the time to do the last details so I can say that the project is finished.
I painted the last details on the driver like the zip on the suit and the safety belts chrome parts. Also painted the air intakes on the sides, mounted the wing and painted the missing parts on the side radiators, where the side screws are located.
At the moment I decided to keep the original wheels and not the Wild One ones.
Also decided to keep the ruined wheels for another future project I've in mind, a runner, so I at the end used the new original wheels and tires I had.
I also decided to not apply the extra sponsor stickers. I've seen that the Striker graphic design is not so bad and I supposed that some extra colored sponsors would ruined the look of the car
What can I say? This has been the most difficult restoring job since I become a collector but now this Striker is come back from the badword and is alive again. The car will be a shelf queen forever and will never touch the ground again.
And now 20 pictures of the finished car. Hope you like it.



Sonic Fighter front damper stay with oil dampers all around and blue shield ball bearings.

The only differences between mine and the boxart are the orange suit in front of the red one and the numbers. I didn't lke the squared original numbers so I used some Grasshopper spare ones.

Front nose is painted because the sticker doesn't match very well with the body curved surface.

Also the helmet stripes are painted for the same reason.

The fake starting button on the right side.

I also worked on the steering wheel as you can see.

Don't lke a lot the silver can so I mounted a 27T modified motor.

[kontemax 1725]

Other pictures:

Max

[Grastens 2795]

Not often a word used for a Striker, but: gorgeous! All your hard work and attention to detail are in clear view in this exceptional car. You certainly have done your part to give the Striker the love it deserves!

And knowing such a good-looking example will be preserved, I can thrash mine with even less guilt Once I get it working again, that is...

[SteveU30 1011]

I think I mentioned it earlier but I'm not a Striker fan in the least but I'll make an exception for yours Max simply because of the attention to details you've afforded it!

Can I ask what paint brush you used for the zip and harness buckles please?

[kontemax 1725]

Yes SteveU30, I used a simple brush number 0 but I have also the triple 0 (000) for smaller details. Maybe exist also five 0 if I remember well.

You can find them easy in the hobby and graphic shops. They are also cheap.

The secret is wash them with solvent after use and then wash them again with soap and make the tip to the brush without rinse it. Let them dry with the soap and they will keep the shape next time you will use them.

Max

[Jason1145 3986]

I'm a fan of the Striker, Max you did a great job with this, how many hours did you spend in total????

Hope you still have this car it's beautiful

 

I like the idea of oil shocks and you said you fitted them to yours, from a quick but if searching can you confirm it was the F Parts of the Sonic Fighter that had the new front shock mounts to allow oil shocks and what length shocks? Does it come with friction ones in the rear too?

Lastly I was thinking of adding a CRP 3038 Fromt bumper chassis brace, good idea or not for £20 in the UK, I read one guy said these chassis are vulnarable in this front area?

[Rb4276 803]

25 minutes ago, Jason1145 said:

I'm a fan of the Striker, Max you did a great job with this, how many hours did you spend in total????

Hope you still have this car it's beautiful

 

I like the idea of oil shocks and you said you fitted them to yours, from a quick but if searching can you confirm it was the F Parts of the Sonic Fighter that had the new front shock mounts to allow oil shocks and what length shocks? Does it come with friction ones in the rear too?

Lastly I was thinking of adding a CRP 3038 Fromt bumper chassis brace, good idea or not for £20 in the UK, I read one guy said these chassis are vulnarable in this front area?

The rear are friction too, I had a futaba fx10 which was the same as the striker. You could look for the CRP oil filled shocks too to fit. My friend did the same as me as kids. The crp set probably isnt cheap though

[VagabondStarJXF 350]

On ‎30‎/‎09‎/‎2013 at 0:28 AM, kontemax said:

Max

Nice job on the decals. That nose sticker is the one decal that kept unsticking itself on my Striker. It's like that Edgar Allen Poe Raven... it just kept annoying me... coming unstuck... sticking it back down... coming unstuck on one corner... sticking it back down... then the other side... sticking it back down... ... ... ... ... ... ...  [goes to window and screams at the moon!]

But seriously, nice job!  

[kontemax 1725]

2 hours ago, Jason1145 said:

I'm a fan of the Striker, Max you did a great job with this, how many hours did you spend in total????

I spent weeks, not hours ahahah!!!

Hope you still have this car it's beautiful

Absolutelly yes!

I like the idea of oil shocks and you said you fitted them to yours, from a quick but if searching can you confirm it was the F Parts of the Sonic Fighter that had the new front shock mounts to allow oil shocks and what length shocks?

I Confirm, Sonic Fighter F part and CVA Mini shock dampers.

Does it come with friction ones in the rear too?

Striker comes with friction dampers at the rear, Sonic Fighter comes with CVA long oil shock absorbers if I remember well.

Lastly I was thinking of adding a CRP 3038 Fromt bumper chassis brace, good idea or not for £20 in the UK, I read one guy said these chassis are vulnarable in this front area?

Yes, it's a good idea and worth the price.

Max