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SimonDM

How original are your restored Bruisers?

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What were your goals when restoring your Bruisers, and what modifications from original did you consider acceptable during restoration? Were you conservative in your choices? Just bearings? Stainless hex screws? Plating metal parts? Or were you radical? Powder coating, different body choice, gobs of parts from RC4wd, or the like? I'm curious to know where people believe the lines between a good, better, best, and or to the screw restoration are.

I am more of a purist, to the screw kind of guy, but I just purchased a restored Bruiser where some decisions were made to change to bearings, plate the frame, and replace the screws with ss hex bolts and lock nuts. That was all, and I feel any more than that would be too much. I thought that I might be disappointed because the truck was not 100% original, but actually, this is the truck that Tamiya should have produced, with all of the items most would upgrade out of the box.

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I only have stainless screws all over, not hexs either, standard phillips. The only mods if you want to call them that are custom made steering links out of aluminum rod, custom steering rod, removed the front skid plate, Juggernaut universal joints, Juggernaut leaf springs, and I left off the front and rear bumper. I plan to get 9/12 hole? aluminum wheels to finish off my truck. I haven't figured out what color I want to paint it but I think i'm going with camel yellow or a nice blue.

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I'm not a purist by any means but with my mountaineer I stayed pretty close to stock. on my first restoration I did it box stock. Then after seeing all the killer creations on RCMT, I decided to step it up a bit.

I polished all of the Frame and axle parts. Chome painted the Radio Box. Installed working headlights, Taillights, Brake lights, turn signals and Roll bar lights. Instead of the MSC I used a Novak ESC. For wheels I went with a set of Mark Thomsons beatiful aluminum wheels. I painted the centers gold to make them look like vintage Enkei wheels. For tires I decided on a vintage set of Imex G-hawgs. Other hops include aluminum suspension mounts and dual rear dampers.

I have a new interior and Hilux driver. If i ever get ambitious, I have some real wood veneer, velour flocking and a few other nice doo dads to make a spicy interior.

I have seen some really nice creations and some really awful stuff. so bad that the owner should have been shot. It's all what you want. The Bruiser will never be a T-maxx but they can be some really killer realistic trucks

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For me, I added BB including the tranny, will add dual shocks at the back once I put it back together (that was 3 months ago) and will repaint it to a normal truck color, maybe to the original blue color. I will not add a hemi engine on the hood, paint zebra strips on the body, put even bigger tires on, jack the truck even higher or any similar of that nature. I like the keep the 3 spd Tamiya meant to produce. I will add parts if I think will make the truck look more real.

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I'm currently in progress of restoring my Mountaineer. I really like the looks of the truck as is, so I will be keeping it that way for most part. [8D]

I will be fitting hex screws and new lock nuts all around. Both can be had from any big hardware store. I buy all 20mm screws (only size they hadfor M3), and I just cut the screws to length. Cutting a screw every time before you put it back in can take quite a while, even when you are taking it apart anyway. But with patience it can be done. The Screws weren't very expensive either, for around €12 you will have a full set for a Mountaineer/Bruiser I think. I will also replace the rubber bushings with new ones that are slightly different. The old ones are getting dry... Will do similar for tranny plugs as those were long gone... [;)]

I have also lightly polished all the metal parts on the truck. Any automotive polish will do for that. Nothing overdose, it just gave the truck it's natural shine back... I also polished the transmission with a Dremel - I needed to as it was fully covered with nasty baclk sealant. This was the only way to get it off - and it turned out really good! [:D]

As I'm missing the origional lights from the rollbar, I think I will fit a set from the Juggernaut as Shodog did previously. I will also make working headlights, many of my other trucks have these as well if possible. They just look so great and realistic... [8D]

I also have a Bruiser to resore, I am not certain what I will do with that. I think hew screws, working lights (already fitted) and for the rest it will be about making it as stock as possible... [:)]

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If anybody's looking for the GENUINE TAMIYA 3mm flanged nuts

that's littered everywhere over the 3spd's chassis, drop me mail

and I might be able to hook you up with any qty that you may need.

(Not many LHSes carry them and if they do they aren't cheap.)

----------------------

If one is a true stickler for "originality" then one wouldn't add on

anything that wasn't an official factory option when the truck was new.

Prime example is bearings... genuine Tamiya bearings are now blueseal,

and they were already around when the Mounty was in production = ok.

But for the Bruiser you need to find the old-style steel shields like

those Tamiya sold 4-to-a-little-jewel-box or a Hotshot's bearing set.

The other drama is paintwork.

Mounty's manual tells you to use Mica Red, but that on its own gives

a pretty lack-lustre finish. You can get a much more interesting job

if the mica red (quite translucent) is painted on top of sparkly

silver or chrome, and clearcoated afterwards... but originality?

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quote:Originally posted by WillyChang

If anybody's looking for the GENUINE TAMIYA 3mm flanged nuts

that's littered everywhere over the 3spd's chassis, drop me mail

and I might be able to hook you up with any qty that you may need.

(Not many LHSes carry them and if they do they aren't cheap.)

----------------------

If one is a true stickler for "originality" then one wouldn't add on

anything that wasn't an official factory option when the truck was new.

Prime example is bearings... genuine Tamiya bearings are now blueseal,

and they were already around when the Mounty was in production = ok.

But for the Bruiser you need to find the old-style steel shields like

those Tamiya sold 4-to-a-little-jewel-box or a Hotshot's bearing set.

Mounty's manual tells you to use Mica Red, but that on its own gives

a pretty lack-lustre finish. You can get a much more interesting job

if the mica red (quite translucent) is painted on top of sparkly

silver or chrome, and clearcoated afterwards... but originality?


id="quote">id="quote">

I like the Tamiya screws the best. The easiest way I have found to get them is to buy vintage screw sets from cars that are not that popular. many of the screws are the same and you won't break the bank trying to buy that expensive Bruiser bag of bolts.

I hear ya about the bearings. what you describe is pretty anal retentive as you can't see the bearing from the exterior of the truck.

Mica red is a beautiful color but doesn't come close to matching the box art work. I think it looks worse when you use all the stripes that come on the decal sheet. Thats why I left them off.

img34_21082002201255_4.jpg

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quote:Originally posted by Shodog

I hear ya about the bearings. what you describe is pretty anal retentive as you can't see the bearing from the exterior of the truck.


id="quote">id="quote">

yep. [:D]

but the topic *was* "How original are your restored bruisers?" [:P]

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Im restoring my bruiser with the intention of running it so polishing the frame up would be a waste of time as i plan to get it dirty.[;)]

All my mods i have done or plan to do are to improve on the bruisers basic design:

Transmission 100% ballraced-improve running time

Dave engle axles-steel geared for durablity & strength

Rooster ESC, high torque servos-better control

Aluminum steering rods&steering arm-better steering performance

pro-line masher2k tires-improved traction

I restored the body to the box art, as i love the hog heaven livery.

I did consider 4link supension & dual shocks but i want to run it a while first to see the improvment these make on the bruiser chassis.

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the first time i restored mine i did bone stock with the exception of body color. the second time to replace busings with bearings every where i could easily get to and did a hand polish on all metal and added jugg springs. then i went wild after that ( got bitten by a bug or something[:D] i started looking around and seen pics of stuff different people have done and fabricated my own parts for a 4 link set up. every thing is a simple bolt on affair with no holes being drilled. then removed the "sleeper thingy on bruiser" and made the bed like a mounty with lighted jugg rollbar, and jugg tranny which adds a really slow crawl too a bruiser, truck is currently in this set up and love the crawling capability and scaleness of it all my .02

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