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mongoose1983

A tale of two Scorchers - RC project for 2017

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I got two Scorchers in some lucky local purchase back in November 2015. I actually went for a yellow one, and on the e-mail the guy said I could have "a lot of extra parts with it". Quite a surprise he implied a virtually completely 2nd vehicle in rough/dismantled condition!

Well last year I had a lot of different stuff to do, and while things are not so different now, I'm finally giving myself the chance to turn to these old VW scalers.

I'm particularly happy because just yesterday I did a little test of my old "wet t-shirt" enamel removal method and it took the old paint easily. :D Now with the older, beat-up one the fight is going to be real complex, as it has like seven coats of different type of paint all over it :(

Last Dec. 2015 I showed you guys my mystery RC project with this picture :lol:

 

IMG_4442_zpsynqh9w7c.jpg?t=1449001351

And these are the cars:

Sand Scorcher #1

Vintage Tamiya 1979 Sand Scorcher VW bug photo IMG_7695_zpsftsfh1kw.jpg

Sand Scorcher #2

Vintage Tamiya 1979 Sand Scorcher VW (restoration project) photo IMG_7675_zpsa5zfdox9.jpg

As I said before this one is going to be a total pita to strip:

Tamiya 1979 Sand Scorcher project (2016) photo the 2016 SS_zpsktjkcbbl.jpg

BUT... the yellow paint on the 1st one gave up real quick! :P Here's how the wet t-shirt method worked:

1979 Sand Scorcher VW ABS body restorarion photo IMG_9529_zpstirtlzjv.jpg

I decided to try some drops of brake fluid on a little area of the VW body with pieces of some old cotton t-shirt. Worked great, paint came out EASY. Wish I knew what type of enamel the original owner used in this one.

1979 Sand Scorcher VW ABS body restorarion photo IMG_9532_zps7c25fl5p.jpg

The t-shirt pieces here:

1979 Sand Scorcher VW ABS body restorarion photo IMG_9531_zpseivfmtu4.jpg

See? I have a reason to be excited. I wanna turn on the airbrush SOON, haha.

You all have a good week! :)

Edited by TWINSET
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I do like your projects, and look forward to seeing how this one progresses!

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Try caustic ovencleaner spray eg EzyOff on the green shell, after removing all chrome parts & steel hardware.

Bag it up to seal it so EzyOff doesn't dry off too quick, you can leave it long as you want won't hurt the ABS. Some "hi-temp" auto enamels & Hammerite might take 1-2wks to shift.

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The bodies are in great shape.. it will be another nice project soon.... Sent you mail.. 

:D:D

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Nice! I have to say the original owner of the orange/yellow shell did a pretty good job on those side window rubbers. Not often you see them that neat.

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2 hours ago, Fuijo said:

Nice! I have to say the original owner of the orange/yellow shell did a pretty good job on those side window rubbers. Not often you see them that neat.

Yeah, it's nice. Unfortunately the 2nd owner sprayed orange to the car and he did not a very good job with that, not to mention how he brutalized the body by installing leds throughout it! I hate leds, is nothing sacred anymore!? Then the guy traded it for a lot of Bruiser parts with the guy I finally got it from. So I had to rebuild the whole chassis, and only now I'm starting to work on the body to take it back to what I believe a proper Tamiya model should be.

Just for the record here's a picture of the vehicle when it was first sold in 2013:Sand Scorcher as 1st sold 2013 photo 01SCO_zpsoat6tflh.jpg

I know the original owner was very much into static models. And by the way if you want to achieve window rubbers like these you might want to try the regular flat black enamel marker by Testors:

Image result for testors paint marker flat black

Other than that, I haven't had a minute to resume my work on the VW body. Hopefully in a few days I'll be able to do more soon ;)

You all have a good Friday! :)

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Heh! Where Testors paint-pens available in the early 1980s? Nowadays it's fairly easy. Back then you had a pot of Humbrol and a brush made from finest road-kill squirrel. :)

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I had to manually paint those too before... I'm guessing you all know how it  turned out... :-)

 

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Been booking time with the 1:1 these days so I haven't done much with the scale cars.

Still, today I got half the VW body stripped with the wet t-shirt method:

Sand Scorcher 1979 bodyshell stripping photo Sand Scorcher paint removal process_zpsjfevbefv.jpg

1979 Sand Scorcher body restoration photo IMG_9607_zpsoklczdwx.jpg

1979 Sand Scorcher body restoration photo IMG_9605_zpsya9objco.jpg

Things do look promising BUT I happened to come across some more problems inherited from the 2nd owner of the car: not happy with having drilled the base for the rear lights, this notable A.H. thought it would be a good idea to get them back on the body using loctite. Now I have to deal with loctite remnants on the rear fenders! and not only that this guy drilled the original front indicators all the way to stick leds through them! :angry:

 

On 5/2/2017 at 5:57 AM, Grumpy pants said:

Awesome come back, keep it the photos and info coming please.

Oh, I'm trying, mate ;) It's actually a reluctant come back-I'm still a dissatisfied customer here. 

 

On 2/2/2017 at 3:31 PM, Fuijo said:

Heh! Where Testors paint-pens available in the early 1980s? Nowadays it's fairly easy. Back then you had a pot of Humbrol and a brush made from finest road-kill squirrel. :)

Myself, I got to learn about enamel markers just a few years ago :)

Anyway, I'm not 100% sure Testors had them available back then (and I know the original owner of this Sand Scorcher painted the window rubber lines using a regular brush), but I know Tamiya had them alright by 1984:

Here's a informative insert from the first gen. Grasshopper kit package. That's 1984 (if not earlier actually), as the catalog also mentions the lexan bottles that were another "new" offering by Tamiya back then. I presume this is from 1983. Some photos:

FCAAGR1.jpg

 

On 4/2/2017 at 3:21 PM, Cooltoys said:

I had to manually paint those too before... I'm guessing you all know how it  turned out... :)

I know I did the same thing myself, Nelson. Not easy! :rolleyes:

 

I'll continue stripping the VW body this week, and then I'll go down to detail and overall preparation of it.

Can't wait to get the airbrush to work!

You all have a good Tuesday :)

 

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The wet t-shirt method seems to work really well i will have to try that sometime. A nice shell compared to the one i have missing pieces on the fenders. The taiilight holes you can easily fix compared to missing body pieces on the one i have.  Mine will be a long project...  more updates & photos... 😉

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16 hours ago, mongoose1983 said:

Here's a informative insert from the first gen. Grasshopper kit package. That's 1984 (if not earlier actually), as the catalog also mentions the lexan bottles that were another "new" offering by Tamiya back then. I presume this is from 1983. Some photos:

FCAAGR1.jpg

 

Fantastic! Thanks for posting that. I really had no idea. You couldn't even get Tamiya spray cans at my local hobby shop, just the PC and X/XF range. Even just with those, getting them as well as the kit was a big ask

on newspaper-round money.

But hey, I'm stuck firmly in the past where Tamiya is concerned and I'm still painting my Scorcher rubbers the old fashioned way.

Although admittedly with a somewhat less steady hand and less acute eyesight. Still, the advantage is it looks ok from an increasingly closer distance, and it's a good deal better than the alternative. :)

 

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Well last Thursday a local buddy and I we got together to try and test the caustic soda paint removal method. Fortunately it worked removing most of the many layers the body of the Sand Scorcher #2 was painted with. Thick as you can imagine, the brake fluid wet t-shirt method did not do much with the... red, silver, blue, green, gold, white and dark red that was all over it. Incredible. The caustic soda did pretty good, although there's some remnants I hope to remove sometime later. The previous owner thought this was ready for the trash can-I'm in hopes I can prove the guy wrong. Actually, I think I'm going to make the car look not just decent but good.

The caustic soda doing its job. I'm very well impressed. Too bad rubber gloves are so darn expensive. I combined costs with my buddy here, he had to strip a Bruiser cab, and I had to strip this VW body, so I purchased the caustic soda, and he got the gloves, so we could keep costs down to minimum. Pleased about it.

Sand Scorcher orig. bodyshell Caustic Soda (1979) photo Sand Scorcher Caustic Soda_zpsytngritf.jpg

The results. Still some remnants to remove but I am very very happy with it. After that there will be lots of sanding and repair work to do to this one. I'm excited, and very much looking forward to get it painted.

Sand Scorcher #2 body restoration (1979) photo Sand Scorcher IMG_0388_zpscq0uxmvh.jpg

More updates as I go. I have tons to do here workwise, too bad I can not go back to the cars as often as I would like. Snail pace, also I have more RC projects here :D

You all have a fantastic Sunday! :)

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That looks like it's in great shape!

I often find that some paints come off with brake fluid, others caustic soda, others this graffiti remover stuff we can get in the UK. They all vary and sometimes you need to use a combo.

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Any updates on this? I'm really interested to see how the body turned out after a bit more work 😊

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12 hours ago, max69vk said:

Any updates on this? I'm really interested to see how the body turned out after a bit more work 😊

Too busy the last couple weeks with the huge students strike here. That means I have the double amount of work to do, you know paperwork and also the online stuff is definitely not like the traditional lecture. But I'll resume my work on these as I can.

I've seen your orig Scorchers on the other thread. They look much better than my VW bodies so I don't think you'll have as much work to make them look good. Don't leave them in a box, even if you don't have much time, you can try and go ahead snail pace. The reward of turning some old beat-up RC car into something nice is great.

Have a good Tuesday! :)

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Lots of hard work stripping bodies

but it will all worth it in the end 

good job look forward to more pics.

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4 hours ago, mongoose1983 said:

Too busy the last couple weeks with the huge students strike here. That means I have the double amount of work to do, you know paperwork and also the online stuff is definitely not like the traditional lecture. But I'll resume my work on these as I can.

I've seen your orig Scorchers on the other thread. They look much better than my VW bodies so I don't think you'll have as much work to make them look good. Don't leave them in a box, even if you don't have much time, you can try and go ahead snail pace. The reward of turning some old beat-up RC car into something nice is great.

Have a good Tuesday! :)

The white & blue one is fairly solid, although the paint looks like it been put on with a roller close up, the black one has had a massive front end smash at some point & the bonnet is split, its also about 0.5cm shorter one side somehow. Following this thread as some inspiration to get me going! :)

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The driver head for the Sand Scorcher is ready, and so are the Hornet's (not in the picture), and the Hilux dude that will go on my IH pulling tractor (over the bonnet, with the stupid mustache). I also wanted to have a look at how the Scorcher body #2 looks over the chassis as it is now. That's a Monster Beetle full window that my buddy @beefmuffin gave to me a couple of years ago. I'm excited, these baja VWs are oh, so cool.Sand Scorcher 1979 drivers photo Scorcher und drivers 16-5-17_zpsu1ibilgb.jpg

I'd like to give the caustic soda another go to remove the last enamel remnants, but I don't have gloves -sadly. I'll try to borrow a pair from someone to do it.

This specific body has a crack/split right in front of the bodypost, and also some deep marks on the roof and on the left side of the bonnet that were done by some previous owner seemingly with a dremel with some type of disc. It will require a lot of work and a bit of Tamiya putty to return to make it look good, but I do have some idea for it. Hope to have some time next weekend to try the wet t-shirt with it. Some breakfluid now that most of the nasty enamel is off will hopefully take the rest off of it.

You all have a good Wednesday! :)

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On 5/17/2017 at 3:52 AM, mongoose1983 said:

That's a Monster Beetle full window that my buddy @beefmuffin gave to me a couple of years ago.

Hey @mongoose1983 this looks great!  I haven't even logged onto the board in months b/c of non-stop work pressure... but am working my way back to 'normal'.  I'm not sure if you remember but I actually have a bunch of stuff of yours sitting in my den waiting the lifespan of the average gerbil so far for me to send it down to you.  I'm going to try to do something about that soon.   :‑/

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Really looking forward to seeing your progress with these - I've got such a soft spot for old SRB's and I know you'll do these the justice they deserve ;)

 

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22 hours ago, jonboy1 said:

Really looking forward to seeing your progress with these - I've got such a soft spot for old SRB's and I know you'll do these the justice they deserve ;)

 

Thank you for the kind words. Nowadays I'm focused more on finishing other RC projects, but I just happened to get a bottle of liquid masking for these buggies today, so I see me working on them not too long from today. Have a good Tuesday! :)

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Going through some problems here, I don't have internet at home anymore, and using the phone it's not that easy. ANYWAY, I have been working a lot of hours on my 1979 Sand Scorcher #2 bodyshell project this week. Countless hours... I scrubbed it with caustic soda for the 2nd time so I got all of the remnants of the SEVEN layers of nasty enamel, then time came for me to fix the terrible damage done to its roof and one of the sides of the bonnet. Oh, and a crack at the front hole! Come to think this was given to me as "extra" back in dec. 2015 when I went to pick up some Scorcher on a local sale. As a buddy here said a few days ago "this was literally trash". But now after some serious elbow grease it is looking super nice and gorgeous. I decided to leave untouched damage located at the center of the roof to keep it as a remainder of what I fixed. No problem with that because that will be covered with a piece of leatherette as a ragtop, and over than a Pro-Line roof-rack that was given to me by a good friend.

I stop the chit-chat here to let you see the pictures:

1) This is how the bodyshell looked like when given to me. Seven enamel layers all over it. Silver, blue, green, red, yellow, baby blue, and white. Brake fluid --my favorite paint removal method- didn't worked. It was very hard, I almost gave up. So happy I have not!

I0CYdXT.jpg


2) This is how far I got when I first got it through caustic soda...s6XtJN8.jpg

3) Because of the damage on its roof, I was not expecting the Tamiya putty to be the wonderful solution it is, so I thought about ragtop options or perhaps a roof-rack. I started wondering about the rack available, and w even working on a custom one when this fantastic piece was given to me. Super happy with this Pro-Line rack, fits and looks the part!

fell7B2.jpg

4) After all the heavy putty & sanding work was done time came for the airbrush to work! Here's a unpainted/painted comparison picture:

bt5KYtM.jpg

5) Roughly completed painted/unpainted comparison pictures:

FM0wAfp.jpg

6) I had this broken exhaust that I worked on tonight so I completed it to make it useable. After some drilling and a lil more work it looks good. Now it only needs a little paint!

ZjY4WTl.jpg?1

7) Overall looks of what is standing over my bench waiting for the detail to be done. I am super happy and excited. Hard for me to think there are some folks that doesn't LOVE this fantastic Baja VW model!

mqCRLvi.jpg

I'm off to do the license plates tonight. All I know is I don't want CA plates on my car. I'll return with something from some nice place East coast, wait and see ;)

You all have a fantastic Sunday - BEST day of the week! :D

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Great work, that roof rack looks great! Out of curiosity have you had to do much work with repairing the roof gutters? Any tips on how to fix them if you have?

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