Tamiya Fox Restore

[pizazz57]

So my parents brought me my old Tamiya Fox that had been sitting in a box for 20 plus years.  I thought it would be a fun project to work on and it brought back some very good memories.  This is what was in the box.  Pretty much all the old parts were in good shape.  Had some missing screws and the ESC was fried.  Went to ebay for some extra parts.

Taking stuff out of the box

 

Disassembled everything.  Cleaned all parts, and then used a plastic polish to remove small surface scratches.

 

Front end is starting to come together.  New SAVOX Server.  Notice I still have the little rubber gasket seal thing to keep dirt from servo.  Its original and in good shape.  I let it soak in olive oil for a couple of days.  Also found on ebay a vintage RC Parts front end stabilizer.  

 

Rear gearbox and dampers.  Original dampers that were all cleaned and had new TRF #45 shock oil.

 

Midway through this project I rekindled my childhood desire for a Tamiya SuperShot.  So i bought a ReRe and used the Tamiya ESC and GT motor for my Fox Restore. Notice the short green and yellow motor wires.

 

So i bought some matching 14AWG Motor wire and some connectors.  Soldering is not my strong suit but I am happy with the end result.

 

Finished the build with some new NovaFox Wheels.  The original ones were in bad shape and not totally round anymore.

 

Onto the painting.  I really wanted to come close to the original colors.  I used a combination of Tamiya Trim Tape and liquid mask

I got the idea from another Tamiya Club Member Wood5tock to use PS16 as the first coat, and then back with the PS4 box art color.  I really like the metallic shine to it

 

The masking didn't work as well as I wanted.  Had to do a lot of touch up.  But I was able to paint the rollbars in black, the roof silver, and the body and wing in blue.  Also bought some reproduction stickers.

All in all it was the journey that was the most fun.  It brought back nice memories of my grandmother who bought this for me as a Christmas present.  Its a good runner, but I am not going to get it too dirty....that's what my Rere SuperShot is for.   Thanks for everyone's help on these forums.  I gained a lot of useful information on here.  

[Nobbi1977]

Great restoration 

It is fantastic to see memory's being rebuilt

[MAD RACER]

Nice work.

You are lucky that you have it still. My parents would have thrown it out ages ago.

Then again I still have my Optima Mid from 87 but I gave that to a friend who used it a little then put it in a cupboard on his parents dairy farm.and after 20 yrs I got it back complete with cow dun on  it too. Lol

Awesome memories and will hold special place in your heart I'm sure.

[pizazz57]

14 hours ago, MAD RACER said:

Nice work.

You are lucky that you have it still. My parents would have thrown it out ages ago.

Then again I still have my Optima Mid from 87 but I gave that to a friend who used it a little then put it in a cupboard on his parents dairy farm.and after 20 yrs I got it back complete with cow dun on  it too. Lol

Awesome memories and will hold special place in your heart I'm sure.

Nice! 

Yeah, i was lucky that they held on to it for so long.  It was a nice stroll down memory lane

[bullitt]

My first hobby grade RC was the Fox and I got it on Christmas in '86. I loved that thing and I always wanted a super shot as well, but I never got it. Bummer.

 

 

harry

[casethejoint]

Fantastic - you can't beat a nostalgia resto

[mad maz]

My friend had one back in the day and we were talking about rc from back then and too my shock he told me he cleaned out his mom and dads loft out only last week and chucked away his mk1 fox and mk1 sand scorcher  ....

A great job by the way..