Vintage Hilux 4x4 3 speed

[Nitomor]

I joined the vintage 3 speeder gang this morning!

After watching these for many months, it seems there is no letting up in interest making snapping up a bargain seem increasingly more difficult. By pure chance, despite searching for these every evening I came across an Italian listing this morning that my usual search had neglected to pick up. It was exactly what I've been after, a tidy box art vintage Hilux. The buy it now or make offer was a fair bit more than I wanted to pay but after putting my rusty italian to good use and a bit of back and forwards early this morning we came to an agreement and in a moment of madness I decided it was my time to bite the bullet. In fairness I probably paid £100-150 more than I would have been happy with but with the rarity of finding just what I'm after, such is the price of admission I guess and he who hesitates is lost.

Here are some pics, it will hopefully be making its journey from Italy tomorrow morning. I'm really excited about this, it is my first and will probably be my only foray into the truly vintage side of the hobby. Having enjoyed the whole build process with a rere Bruiser, which really made me marvel and appreciate these three speeders, I'm hoping it'll be that much more special owning a 35 year old real deal. I love the more scaler looks of the original Hilux and it'll compliment the Bruiser and Mountain rider very nicely.

A few bits I've noticed, seems to be some servo hardware missing and maybe the spring on the gear shifter, the gearbox rubbers look shot for some reason, the rubber tabs are missing from the latches on the electronics box, there are no electrics (transistor box looks empty) but that's cool because I wanted to fit a modern esc in the original casing anyway so this allows me to do that without guilt. The shell looks lovely and has been clear coated, I hope it's as good as it looks though I wouldn't have minded doing a refurb on one. There is some tyre lettering needed and I'll need to source a manual so I can strip and rebuild the Gbox.

It looks a nice one but of course I'm a little aprehensive now until it physically turns up!!

The countdown begins...

[Percymon]

Bruiser builder website has the gearbox information you're after.

Rubber grommets are easily sorted with the bruiser rubber parts bags (cheap banzai hobby). The rubber buts on the electronic box 'levers' are nothing more than sections of tubing or heat shrink.

What you have there is a very fine example by the looks of it, electro I box still has the front tabs.

[Nitomor]

Thanks Percymon for that gearbox manual info. I downloaded the Tamiya manual last night (courtesy of TC membership) for this model and saw that the latch rubbers were just 10mm long sections of rubber tube. I also noticed the tabs on the electronics case and their use for retaining the front section, I immediately went back to these pics to check it had them lol.

The rubber grommets as you say are readily available courtesy of the rere so I'll get some of those. I realise from the manual that the gearbox was a ready assembled unit from the factory, on the rere it is part of the build. I'm not sure whether I ought to strip the box and try to retrofit bearings, or leave it as is with stock metal bushings. I feel inclined to leave as is. I was thinking to use maybe a motorcycle chain lube spray through the inspection/lube access holes. I guess a strip down will depend on how well it functions and how clean it looks. I'll probably whip the motor out and inspect the spur as a first port of call. From the manual I can setup the shift gear and servo to factory specs as this currently isn't in ready to run configuration.

I bought some vintage Hilux wheels and tyres way back for my rere but they didn't fit so I have a spare set for this now. Might start polishing them /cleaning them up while I'm waiting for this to land.

Thanks for casting your eye over it, I wasn't on the lookout for those plastic electronic box tabs until I read the manual last night so hopefully that'll help someone else.

Cheers

Nito

[Badboy]

Sweet! Can't wait til the end result!

Badboy

[Percymon]

I'm no expert on these by any means Nito, I probably learn more after purchasing mine than when i did three weeks ago lol!

The manual is also available from www.tamiyausa.com - type in the model number 58028 and it'll find the model, select the model from the search results page and you get the original Tamiya videos, plus a link to the manual.

The manual on T-USA is slightly clearer than the scan on here, useful because you sometimes have to zoom in to see the actual screw/part numbers. It's a good idea to make a list of what the screw numbers are too..

c5 = M2 x 6mm

d1 =

d2 =

for instance; otherwise you will be constantly flicking to the back page to interpret the screw numbers.

On the gearbox front.. on mine I removed the motor and the first casing to check the spur gear and to be able to observe and slop in the bushings in the gearcase - i did get as far as removing the next section of gearcase, but then decided I was probably better off leaving alone as clearly there were no issues in mine. One thing i didn't do, and for some reason never do with used purchases is actually test it before stripping down - i will be running 3v through the motor/gearbox before I reinstall it (manually moving the gear selector for each speed) just in case I missed something with my initial inspection.

[Nitomor]

Thanks Chaps.

I looked on the T-USA site last night and could only find the video. Looked again using the model number rather than the name and it has come up so thanks again for that. Good advice re the screw referencing. I plan to remove motor, check spur, if all looks ok, run a test on the box manually changing and see what I can through the inspection hatches. If all is ok then I don't think I'll strip it, just lube it with motorcycle chain oil which is non fling. Would that be suitable?

Can anyone recommend a really good tyre lettering pen? I don't think a motorbike one will cut it lol!

[Percymon]

For the gearbox, the thinnest lube the better- last thing you need is extra resistance from greases etc -of course that means it also is liable to escape through the joints of the various gearcase sections (hence the silicone sealant).

Something like a wet or dry cycle chain lube would work well, just make sure its compatible with the plastic spur.

[Nitomor]

Yes, mine are all 'O ring' friendly so at a guess I suspect it should be ok with the spur, although is that technically outside of the lubed box area?

I have wet and dry chain lube's, most seem to be 'O ring' friendly nowadays but it's worth checking as you say, people used to use some lubes on O ring chains and it would melt the rubber!