Vintage Sand Rover Resto Build

[casethejoint]

So, I dismantled this and put it in a box back in 2009:-

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=87315&sid=26801

I bought a few extras for it - a LighteningRapid roll cage, some NIB tyres and a NIB chassis etc. Oh, and a sport tuned RS380 that I thought I'd try out not having had much experience with 380's.

I've been waiting for years to get around to this. I don't know quite why it took me so long. Usual adult crap getting in the way of behaving like a kid

First job was to run all the metal parts through my trusty barrel polisher (these things rock):-

 

 

Mmmm, smooth and shiny!

Then the build begins....

Step 1 is the main drive. I couldn't quite get that first gear cleaned up so it's a little "rustic"

 

Bearings added throughout obviously.

Step 2 has them dropped into the new chassis I got for it. This is a noisy/rubbish drivetrain but I still love these things...

 

FRP is a great idea for a rear suspension spring. This actually works surprisingly well. OK, you're not going to win any races with this but I think we all accepted that already...

 

A rear bumper - retro

 

Step 4 in goes the motor. I'll be interested to see how this 380 Sport Tuned performs. Does anyone have data on it? I'll be honest and tell you I bought it because it has a cool sticker on it

[casethejoint]

On to the front suspension. Now this really is basic...

I had some NIP parts for this but decided not to use them as these are not bad at all after a clean up.

The joy of the Super Champ re-release - grey bumpers! I picked one up a while ago, thought I'd try it on for size here (I have a j-man front bumper that I suspect I'll switch out for later).

 

[casethejoint]

Wheels and tyres. There was a period on eBay a few years ago where there were a ton of these, so I bought a few sets. For this build, I've started with a NIB set of both wheels and tyres as the originals were a little worn out.

These have been painted Tamiya metallic Gray, which is the same colour I did my WW M38 with (http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=129116&sid=26801 ) as it was the closest I could get to the WW box art. Thought it would work well here too - it's actually very close to the original plastic colour, just not, well, plastic.

I managed to get some Pactra Testors racing yellow the other day (getting rare as I don't think it's being sold anymore) and thought for a change I'd do the lettering in yellow this time. Not done this before, always been white. Figure it'll go well with the box art orange body that's coming up.

Screws are currently stainless steel as I had some, but I might change these out for black later...

 

[casethejoint]

Electrics!

I like the layout of this buggy - everything fits neatly in place with plenty of room. Better than an SRB in that respect.

 

[casethejoint]

I did manage to get a few coats of VW Brilliant Orange on the body a few years ago that I suspect is about ready for a rub down :).

I'll get some pics of that up and progress tomorrow.

I seem to have hit a limit though on photo uploads so might need to do some trimming...

[mongoose1983]

I love what you're doing with that buggy!

I should have been doing something like this myself, actually have had the chassis and a new set of wheels & tires like forever, but finding the Sand Rover body has been difficult to say the least.

[mongoose1983]

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[chevelle]

Great build buddy  I love threads like these, Aahem Pictures of your barrel polisher please 

[mtbkym01]

20 minutes ago, chevelle said:

Great build buddy  I love threads like these, Aahem Pictures of your barrel polisher please 

Yes, pictures please 

[Hibernaculum]

Nice to see the original MSC, even if you are deviating in other areas

2 hours ago, mongoose1983 said:

finding the Sand Rover body has been difficult to say the least.

Original Sand Rover and Holiday Buggy body sets could be in the top 10 rarest Tamiya kit bodies to find NIP. Neither were ever sold boxed, and those that I've ever found  just seemed to be taken from original kits, or sold in bags. Correct me if I am wrong guys.

 

[casethejoint]

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 Pictures of your barrel polisher please

LOL - you guys crack me up - of all the things you want a pic of! OK, here you go, it's a simple barrel polisher:-

 

... I sit it on the garage floor, away from anything else as I tend to leave it on for several days at a time. Here's the media in the barrel (little green cones, they come out quite dusty after running).

 

For stock standard vintage bits (SRB pot metal etc) I tend to run it for about 3 days. They come out looking like new. But a little better/smoother. I would say 85% as good as bead blasting, but if you really want high end you need to bead blast.

Copper and brass parts come out fabulously - SRB universals for example.

Highly recommended - if you get a 3lb+ one you can fit SRB gear cases into the barrel.

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Neither were ever sold boxed, and those that I've ever found  just seemed to be taken from original kits, or sold in bags.

 

They came in bags, like this. There were a bunch over in South Africa a couple of years back that ended up on eBay. I managed to get three of them . For some reason, no-one bid against me - so I assumed they were just not that in demand. I think I paid around £60 each. Impulse buy... one will end up on an SRB chassis.

 

Back to the build, here's the current status of the body - had about 5 coats of Halfords/VW Brilliant Orange, then left for a couple years :). Gave it a rub down to 1k wet and dry and it's ready for laquer now. It's about 90%+ humidity here in the UK though, so I don't think I'm going to get to spray it for a few days and instead I'll work on the other bits of trim.

[casethejoint]

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I love what you're doing with that buggy! 

It had to be built!

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Nice to see the original MSC

 

I remember looking at these in the Tamiya catalogue back in the early 80's and thinking how great it must be to have proportional speed control. I ran the rolling chassis, now looking like this:-

... around inside last night and it's about as proportional as a switch

Hey ho, it does look good though.

BTW - the battery, which must be, what, 30 years old? Took a charge, without any problems, and to about 780mAh !! I thought that was amazing - they were only 1200 mAh when brand new 30 years ago. Don't build 'em like they used to!

Do you like my yellow and green two-tone rubber bands to match the motor wires? 

[chevelle]

23 minutes ago, casethejoint said:

LOL - you guys crack me up - of all the things you want a pic of! OK, here you go, it's a simple barrel polisher:-

 

Hahaha  Yes I think we all want to know (when we see sparkly results ) The sorcery that has been used 

[MadInventor]

Nice to see this looking mint, not something You see often. This was my first rc car, so I can remember mine looking like this, with the same RC gear as well. I can't believe you're running it with an original aluminium pinion though, the teeth on it look quite pointy and those sand rover gears must be like hens teeth now !

 

[casethejoint]

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 I can't believe you're running it with an original aluminium pinion though

Good point - thanks for the heads-up and prod on that. I'll change it for a steel one.

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same RC gear

MkII Acoms  Not a lot wrong with it - works just fine...

 

[casethejoint]

Humidity dropped this morning so I got the first two coats of clear gloss on...

I've left it in a warm place so should be able to give that a light rub down and third and final coat by tomorrow night. I'll then leave it for a week before final cut and polish.

In the meantime, rest of the bits are coming together nicely...

The rear lights are Tamiya translucent red over silver. The photo doesn't quite make them look right - they look great in the flesh. I'll probably add some detail to the steering wheel and translucent yellow over the front lights, other than that I think these are done.

The driver I've had sitting around for a while, waiting for his moment which is now nearly here...

I'm thinking light tan for the seats, a little lighter than his hat. What do you think ?

[mongoose1983]

BRILLIANT!

As you know, I'll be working on mine in a few days. I think many of the real ones had shiny black seats, so that's what I plan to do with them. Oh, and lighter tan for his hat will look fantastic.

Keep up the good work.

 

[casethejoint]

Ah yes, you mentioned you're a Manx fan

Black would be more authentic I guess, but with this one I'm building it how I'd have one in real life if I had one. And had a beach

I'm kind of working to this vibe, but orange instead of red:-

[casethejoint]

Actually an advantage of hard bodies too is that if I don't like the tan seats when painted - I can just paint over them again

[berman]

Looking fantastic! I agree, do the seats a lighter tan, like the ones in the 1:1.

Also lead astray by barrel polisher... just reading the sticker... suprised you haven't 'hopped up' the nylon bushings to bearings 

 

[casethejoint]

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suprised you haven't 'hopped up' the nylon bushings to bearings 

Wow, I hadn't even noticed that... good spot!

I'll have to find out what size bushings now...

[casethejoint]

So, here's where we are so far.

The gloss has had a week to harden off, which in my experience is about long enough, so I spent most of last night and a bit of this morning working my way through the MicroMesh.

I tend to start with 3600 grade and work my way through to about 8000. If I want a super-gloss mirror finish I'll go up to 12000. I did that in this case, as I think a super-gloss somehow suits the Sand Rover (where it wouldn't for example on a Ford Ranger).

It came out well, no flaws.

 

The nice thing about the gloss is it also somehow manages to "deepen" the orange so that it looks a little darker and a little more interesting. I really love it.

Next step was to mask up ready for the black floor, which will then just leave the seats to paint.

Masking started...

Masking done

Will come back to painting later today. With a bit of luck I might actually get this bug finished by the end of the weekend

[mongoose1983]

Oh, wow. What a super paint job there, Dean! It's coming out so nice, that Sand Rover is going to look like a museum piece. Good job!

[casethejoint]

Certainly good enough for my museum Erich!

Some progress today - the J-Man roll-cage is on (these are fab, not sure if he's still making them?), interior painted with dark tan seats and a black floor pan.

Rear lights are also on (these are Tamiya translucent red over silver which worked really well).

There's some sticky residue left on the body from the masking tape (you can see it mottling the finish in the pics), so I'm pausing here to give it a good clean before I have a think about what I'm going to do with the dashboard (I have options - either kit sticker or some bits I've collected over the years - will get some pics up in a bit).

 

 

[casethejoint]

OK, dashboard..... 

I had some parts lying around from a while back (came from 4WDRC I think), and included a speedo and a rev. counter that I thought would work well here.

I also had an ignition key socket and some keys

I'm now onto the driver, after which it's front lights and rear number plate and I think we're pretty much there. Might start putting it on the chassis to see how it all looks together