Blazing Blazer Resto Build

[Cooltoys]

Nicely detailed restoration work.. This will be of great help when i start restoring the blazer sometime.... Its been sitting for quite a longtime already... 

[KEV THE REV]

Yep - need to get my butt in gear and restore mine !! . I think the hole in the bonnet was to have - or had - a mesh grill in it , I've seen it done before , best filled in though .Great resto happening right now . I think back to when I bought my Blazing Blazer for £215 - no wait that was my school blazer b.i.t.d - laughs at own joke !!

[simensays]

Nothing more satisfying, than seeing a thorough resto job on a vintage classic such as the BB!
 

[casethejoint]

Sorry gang, I've been a bit slow due to family commitments last couple of weeks. But I got a couple of hours this evening, so have finished the gearbox and mounted the motor with some new soldered wires.

The wire slots on the rubber boot that goes over the motor had started to split and deteriorate. I used some heatshrink to try and nip that in the bud and that worked out better than I expected it to. A little loss in flexibility but I don't think it'll be a problem (in fact probably a good thing).

 

Dropped into the chassis:-

 

That's 13-15 in the manual done (I added the resistor cage just after taking the last pic).

Hope to get a little time mid-week to do the wheels + tires and tire lettering. Now that there are repro tires available I'm not sure whether to wait for those from Hong Kong or use up my NIP set. Will make a final decision tomorrow

 

[simensays]

Repro tires available? Please elaborate! Link, pics or both would be great - I did a quick search on eBay with no results...

[casethejoint]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282258069036?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[casethejoint]

The great radio unboxing. Got this pretty much NIB (looks like it might have been used, once, gently) some time ago:-

OK, it's 35mhz so technically I think I shouldn't be using it for a land based vehicle, but hey-ho you're all on 2.4ghz now anyway right?

If you look closely in the open box above you can see the stainless steel throttle/gear gate that I bought a while back also on eBay.

And look what I found at the bottom of the box (not seen this before and love little discoveries like this):-

[casethejoint]

Managed to get this stunning condition radio box a few years ago. It's not new but you wouldn't know it.

Step 1, get the Acoms battery and switch set in place. I'm missing the rubber switch boot but I think that should be fairly easy to source.

[casethejoint]

Next up is the servo tray system which goes together nice and easy and feels very solid. I like this - a lot of the earlier Tamiya servo stuff feels flimsy but not this.

Anyone know anything about this Acoms AS-3 servos? I'm familiar with the AS-1 and AS-2 but didn't realise there was a 3.

Bottom part of the radio box has the plastic connector things installed, a rubber boot for the cables and in goes the mechanical speed controller.

Slot in the servo tray and start to hook it all up:

 Mmmm... starting to look good

Bolt it to the chassis:

Connect up the motor wires:

Solder and heat shrink:

Starting to take shape now:

This is where I've got to and realised I'm a servo horn short, so off to eBay for a couple of bits.

In the meantime I'll start polishing the wheels and putting the new tires together and get the lettering done. Pics of that to follow (might get time tonight otherwise will be during the week).

 

[KEV THE REV]

looking good . If my memory serves me well the AS3 is a reversed servo so it throws the opposite way , pre- servo reverse on the handset days ,I might be wrong , but I think you will still need one of them to be opposite throw to the other 2 (as in - 2 x AS3 and 1 x AS2 or is it 2 x AS2 and 1 x AS3 )- long time since I installed the radio into a vintage 3 speed so I need to take a look .

 

edit - I think I saw the other AS type servo in your radio kit pic  BTW your set is 35MHZ so be careful when using it as it is RC airplane frequency cars would have been 27MHZ in UK

[casethejoint]

Bingo - that's it, "auto" servo reverse

Note who asked the same question nearly 10 years ago and cropped up on my google search

 

[KEV THE REV]

I forgot I asked that question  I guess the brains gone to mush  - hope it helps anyway 

[casethejoint]

It did, thank you

[casethejoint]

Today I managed to get the tires done. I used the set of repros I picked up recently thinking at least I can run this around the garden without feeling guilty that I'm burning through £150 worth of rubber

I have also got the primer flatted back to ~800 grit ready for paint.

Next week I should be able to get a few top coats on and start on the rest of the bodywork bits.

@wildwillydriver really kindly has swapped an AS-2 with me for one of the reversed AS-3's that I have too many of. So radio box stuff has taken a back seat and I'll finish that up when the other AS-2 arrives  (I have one already).

Right now I'm off to paint the wheel caps matt black...

[casethejoint]

Quick sneaky update from the office

I got a few coats of black top-coat on yesterday to the body and the grille. I'm now going to leave it alone for a few days before I rub it down and give it a second go at the weekend. So you probably won't hear from me now until Sunday.

I managed to get some Alclad II Chrome onto the rear light pieces also (I had already backed those in gloss black at the weekend). Awesome stuff the Alclad II - most "metallic" looking stuff I've seen. First time I've used it and I'm very impressed. These pics don't do justice - it really looks like Chrome.

My plan here is to overspray the light section with translucent red and then a really thick dose of lacquer. I've done this before and find it makes for a pretty realistic lens.

 

[zeppelin]

great build and photos.

I am glad to see my manual is helpful

[casethejoint]

Rear lights underway.

Masking off the chrome edges:

... and about 6 coats of translucent red:

 

The colour looks about right to me so I'll probably stop here, let it harden off and then give it a few gloss coats to protect. No idea how well the masking tape has worked - I'm expecting maybe a little bit of bleed, but I think I can touch up with a superfine brush. I'm also thinking I might run a really thin hand brushed line of translucent smoke around the inner corners.

Pics of these with the masking removed when it's dried off in a day or so. In the meantime I'm going to start to flatten the painted body which has hardened off and I've given the grille a second coat.

Speaking of grille, I found this which is I think about the closest I've yet seen to the Tamiya styling:-

I've noticed there should be indicators beneath the front headlights, which is why there's a space there for them, but don't think any came with the original Blazer kit?

I think they'd look good so thinking I'm about making something.

 

[KEV THE REV]

Looking good there - tyres look great . I've not used Alclad but I do use Rust-oleum 'painters touch' chrome spray which looks good . The Tamiya Blazer is based on a 'racing truck' so I guess there was no need for indicators , but it would make a nice touch if you included them in the build

[casethejoint]

Thanks Kev, you're right - the racers don't need indicators

Looking at some real racers it seems a useful spot to shove a decal. So I'll probably do that instead.

Haven't tried the Rust-oleum but had a look and they do some nice looking effects. Will give some a try.

The lenses have come out pretty well - a bit of bleed under the masking which I expected because I had to spray this on pretty thick to get the lens effect I was after. It'll clean up with a bit of acrylic thinner and a toothpick though. Worst case I can touch up the chrome with a fine brush (don't think I'll need to though).

Having flatted the first coat the body has also now had it's second coat. Don't know if I'll need a third, but I'll rub this back and flatten it tomorrow and see how we're looking. Then it'll either be coat 3 or clear gloss.

This black is really nice btw - for those of you in the UK it's Halfords "Audi Brilliant Black" and it's one of the nicest non-metallic blacks I've seen. Has a real depth to it - very rich.

 

I hope to get to working on the front grille today which is good to go for clear coat. Once that's done I'll flat and polish the clear before chroming the chrome bits (which is going to be a tricky masking job by the looks of it). Have started to think about how to black the inside of the grille - I think once the chrome is done, I'll thin some matt black and try and flow it into each of the rectangular sections with a brush. 

[casethejoint]

Hope everyone had a great Xmas!

Managed to get the driver done:-

... and have rubbed down the first clear coat and given it a second:-

... fair bit of orange peel and overspray on that shot, but that'll all flatten down. Will be doing that and final coat 3 of the clear later today I hope.

In the meantime I've been working on the grill. Haven't decided yet how to best mask the headlights (going to be tricky) for the chrome.

I've done 1 coat of very very thinned matt black for the inner grille so not looking too even just yet, but another coat should do it (it's also still slightly wet in this pic).

The Chevvy badge is a highly thinned Tamiya lemon yellow which I dripped in with a brush and let it self level (few drops of Tamiya Retarder helps).

Here's my man getting an early preview of his new ride:-

I've also cleaned up those rear lenses which are now finished and ready to do:-

[casethejoint]

Hi gang,

Sorry about the long delay - work and family stuff took over for a while (you know what it's like).

Anyway, after a few months away from this awesome buggy (at least I know the paints dry by now!) I finally got around to taking over the kitchen sink and giving it a rub down with Micromesh.

I'm about 3/4's of the way there. Wanted to give you a couple of pics to show you I haven't forgotten about this buggy or this thread. I do hope to finally have a decent chunk of time back next weekend and will look to finish it off. I need to paint the seats, other than that it's ready for final assembly....

Sorry the pics are not best quality - it's really really hard to get decent shots of something dark and shiny in artificial light.

[SRB Bloke]

Your paint skills and attention to the finish is amazing. Loving your work and looking forward to seeing more pics. 

[jonboy1]

This is awesome!  Love your painting, this is a beautiful restoration, can't wait to see it all finished

[casethejoint]

Wow, thanks for the positive words of encouragement guys! I'm enjoying this build (patience is 99% of it).

Bodywork is done, rubbed down to the finest grade micromesh (12000 I think) and really pops now . Only took about 5 hours of work - this one is a simple bodyshell but there sure is a lot of it!

 

I then masked up just the floorpan area so that I could hit that with matt black with the airbrush:

I'm finding it really hard to get decent shots of black in both natural and artificial light (is that a "thing" with photography or is it just because I'm doing this with a smartphone?) but it looks really good - I like the contrast between gloss and matt black. It's subtle but it's there and it makes the floor look like a floor.

Once that was done I managed to get first coat on the seats too - they need another one and I need to clean the edges up a little:

Best angle of contrast between gloss and matt black that I can get with the iPhone - hope you get the gist (it's better in the flesh):

 

I then found these chrome guages in my box of bits and thought they're perfect for this build! So in they go, rev counter and speedo.

 

I think the hole in between the seats is just part of the mould release process, so I created a little plate from plasticard that sits underneath and I painted that matt black - I'm calling it a tray. Somewhere I have some 1/10 scale keys, coins and bits and bobs that I'll put in there at some point.

I also found a perfect gear shift for this (from a Sand Rover driver tree) which I've primed ready for paint. So this is as far as I've got this weekend, but I'm so close now I think next weekend I might actually be able to get it over the line and done!

Thanks for watching

[casethejoint]

Oh, PS - I think I mentioned this somewhere else in the thread, but I have to say if you're in the UK, the black paint I've used here is from Halfords and is called "Audi Brilliant Black". It is really quite the most amazing black I've ever painted with - the photos don't do justice but it has an amazing depth and richness to it. Highly recommended (would look awesome on a Porsche if anyone is currently building one of those).