Hello NOOB From Down Under

[ELEPHT70 43]

On 01/03/2017 at 5:51 PM, WillyChang said:

there's various hacks with varying success, but you do need 2 bearings to properly support it

Care to elaborate 😀?

[ELEPHT70 43]

Soooo the motor arrived today so I used the opportunity to fit it along with the wheels I'm going to run and the Mad Bull uprights that allowed the front wheels to actually fit! 

Here's some pics. Can't wait for the ProLines to arrive... 😀

 

I'm digging it so far 👌

[WillyChang 1814]

On 9 March 2017 at 9:48 PM, ELEPHT70 said:

Care to elaborate 😀?

Some ppl have tried just stuffing 1 bearing into the wheel's hex then trying to bolt that onto the unspinning axle... seen a few attempts, never ends well. 

Even when a whole bottle of superglue is involved... 

haha you've gotten longer knuckle axles so you'll not be one of those ppl 

[ELEPHT70 43]

Haha yeah cool. 

I think what I'm going to do is get some hexes and machine the centres out to fit the bearing. It's the only thing I can come up with that will be remotely safe. 

Unless you've got another idea... 

 

Yeah those uprights where a "have to buy" purchase after trying to fit the chrome wheels to no avail. 

 

Which reminds me... 

What is the size of those Wild Willys II wheels? 

What good tyres are available? 

[WillyChang 1814]

11 minutes ago, ELEPHT70 said:

Which reminds me... 

What is the size of those Wild Willys II wheels? 

What good tyres are available? 

WW2 is just chromed version of MadBull wheel with hex at rear, long dead axle twin bearings at front.... isn't that what you've already got? 

Think only Lunchbox tyres fit those; lately there's some china tyres of that size appearing on fleaBay etc... they've got patterns other than chevron, like slicks to chunky treads

 

[WillyChang 1814]

these are they:-

 

[ELEPHT70 43]

Ahh cool thanks man. 

So they'd be classed as a 2.2" rim? 

[ELEPHT70 43]

So what I'm wanting to do is get some modern 2.2" buggy rims so I can use my ProLine Dirt Hawg tyres. 

Trouble is that any/wheels I like are 12mm hex. The rear is fine as the Fighter Buggy RX is equipped with the correct hex fitting. 

The front, however, is the older style twin bearing type design and I can't seem to find any solid info on fitting hex front wheels to my older style straight axles...??? 

Or am I missing something? 

[ELEPHT70 43]

Got given this by the ex this arvo when I collected my son for the long weekend... 

Seems to be in quite good nic considering the Ken Done style wheel paint lol. Would you trust paint striper to not stuff the rims or is there a better alternative to removing the old paint? 

[Jason1145 3986]

1 hour ago, ELEPHT70 said:

Got given this by the ex this arvo when I collected my son for the long weekend... 

Seems to be in quite good nic considering the Ken Done style wheel paint lol. Would you trust paint striper to not stuff the rims or is there a better alternative to removing the old paint? 

What a nice ex!

I should go visit my ex's ( gf's , no prior wife to the current model)  see what they give me

Cool GH 2 you got there, and if you find another solution to fitting hex wheels on bearing front axles I'll be dead interested too.

This is going to look killer when done

[WillyChang 1814]

6 hours ago, ELEPHT70 said:

Ahh cool thanks man. 

So they'd be classed as a 2.2" rim? 

No Lunchbox tyres are smaller. They'd be 2.0 if not 1.9"

if you want 2.2" wheels try 2wd truck wheels from DynaBlaster, Stadium Blitzer/Thunder, Blitzer Beetle etc

[WillyChang 1814]

5 hours ago, ELEPHT70 said:

Seems to be in quite good nic considering the Ken Done style wheel paint lol. Would you trust paint striper to not stuff the rims or is there a better alternative to removing the old paint? 

If that's an original GH from the 80s (looks like it, it's got MSC resistor!), the old wheels are nylon and can survive acetone... spot test first, just in case. Acetone would be quickest to dissolve any paint.

Acetone will dissolve ABS body so don't get any near it... usually use EasyOff caustic oven cleaner to strip these, in the Red caustic spray can. 

[ELEPHT70 43]

On 10/03/2017 at 8:22 PM, Jason1145 said:

What a nice ex!

I should go visit my ex's ( gf's , no prior wife to the current model)  see what they give me

Cool GH 2 you got there, and if you find another solution to fitting hex wheels on bearing front axles I'll be dead interested too.

This is going to look killer when done

Haha cheers bro! Trust me this is the first and only thing she's done for me basically since forever... And yeah it's an old '80's Grasshopper 👍

Meh. She'll use it against me one day... 😒 

Thanks man I'm super keen to get the Fighter Buggy going and I think I'm onto something regarding the hubs...

 

[ELEPHT70 43]

On 10/03/2017 at 8:22 PM, Jason1145 said:

 

Edited March 16, 2017 by ELEPHT70
Double post.

[ELEPHT70 43]

On 10/03/2017 at 0:42 AM, WillyChang said:

No Lunchbox tyres are smaller. They'd be 2.0 if not 1.9"

if you want 2.2" wheels try 2wd truck wheels from DynaBlaster, Stadium Blitzer/Thunder, Blitzer Beetle etc

I need to buy 2.2" wheels for another buggy now 'cos guess who bought the wrong tyres haha!!! 😂😂

[ELEPHT70 43]

On 10/03/2017 at 0:48 AM, WillyChang said:

If that's an original GH from the 80s (looks like it, it's got MSC resistor!), the old wheels are nylon and can survive acetone... spot test first, just in case. Acetone would be quickest to dissolve any paint.

Acetone will dissolve ABS body so don't get any near it... usually use EasyOff caustic oven cleaner to strip these, in the Red caustic spray can. 

Yep she's a definite survivor of the '80's mate 😀

I think the wheels aren't in good shape anyways as the screws seem to have been lost long ago and the holes filled with glue which poured out and left horrible bumps and bubbles and were left to dry like that. I will most likely just chuck a cheap brushless system into it and have fun which will call for a wheel upgrade anyways... 👍

[ELEPHT70 43]

Started the paint removing process... 

So Easy oven cleaner. 

[ThunderDragonCy 7882]

I have been looking into the front hex thing for my DT03. Although I have ended up sticking with Tamiya bearing fit 2wd slim front wheels as that works for me, I did see a GPM front hex conversion on ebay which I nearly bought. I have no personal experience but GPM seems to get a bad rap on the forums. However, the hex conversion only cost about 4 quid so maybe cheap enough to have a go with? 

Another thing I saw were Carson All Terrain wheelset which are bearing front.

[WillyChang 1814]

6 hours ago, ELEPHT70 said:

Started the paint removing process... 

So Easy oven cleaner. 

umm... better if you'd taken them apart first 

and its not instant, might take a week or 3. You don't want the liquid to dry up so seal it in a plastic bag or PLASTIC container that you can reseal. Worth checking daily, give it a fresh squirt of EasyOff.

[trexfan 56]

On Sunday, February 19, 2017 at 4:39 AM, ELEPHT70 said:

Hello guys my name's Craig, I'm from Melbourne, Australia and I think I'm going through a mid-life crisis of sorts at the age of 40 haha as I just last week picked up an old Tamiya off one of the local buy/sell sites and I now have another two cars coming in the mail lol. 

I was off work with a virus and started looking through the local rag with the search criteria being "VINTAGE TAMIYA" and I came across a 1996 (hardly vintage but old enough) Fighter Buggy RX for the princely sum of $25.00AUD!

I'd actually never heard of them and after some quick googling I found them to be on the DT-01 chassis which was shared by the likes of the Grasshopper and Hornet so I thought it wouldn't be too bad as I recognised those two models from my older cousins who had them back in the '80's.

The photos on the ad weren't the best but I made contact expecting it to have been sold already. 

I picked it up later that morning. I think it was a pretty good score. After checking it out I found the original manual to be in excellent condition, along with basically everything else. The stickers (sadly they're missing from the box) had never been fitted to the body which barely had a mark on it and the only thing missing was one of the hex drive nuts from the rear axle. The back tyres are worn below halfway and the front are hardly touched. 

I'm going to guess and estimate less than 10 batteries were put through the car before it was put back into it's box and forgotten about. The missing hex splined nut prolly got lost somewhere along the way and that was that for the little buggy's life. 

Until 21 years later I come along and start cleaning it up! 

Nothing in my house stays "stock" for long so I got researching for some good ideas on tricking out this little gem to go a bit harder. And look a little cooler as well. That's how I found this Web site and I'd like to congratulate all of you on sharing your knowledge, love and passion for the hobby. I'm truly grateful and was so pumped I felt compelled to sign up and say g'day! 

Right, where was I...

So after a bit of online research and chatting to a friend about some crazy things to do the first thing I did was order a FLY SKY FS-GT3B remote, the 12mm splined hex wheel hubs and a full set of sealed bearings for the diff and wheels.

I then read about someone using a turnbuckle kit from another model's hop up parts bin so I ordered it (#53300) for the steering link.

Then I ordered a better steering servo. A Hitech HS-5485HB digital jobbie that should provide a bit more reliability.

I then got an iMAX B6AC battery charger.

Then I got a bit excited. I ordered a 4300kV brushless motor and ESC combo lol. Nothing exotic just a GoolRC waterproof 3650 4300kV with a 60A ESC. I've read some pretty good reviews and for less than $61AUD posted I thought what the heck. 

Then a set of Wild Willy 2 chrome wheels which have an amazing negative offset to give some fat dish (and widen the track a bit - helps roll over prevention - learnt that one from someone in here) and the correct uprights with the slightly longer axle (#0445169 & #0445207) got the nod along with some blue anno nyloc wheel nuts. I just have to find some excellent quality tyres for the odd wheel size. Haven't managed to find a modern tyre in that size as yet... 

Some blue anno adjustable oil filled alloy shocks (100mm rear, 85mm front) are on order as well. 

I then ordered a MAD BULL body shell as I didn't want to destroy the beautiful original condition FIGHTER body shell as this thing is prolly going to be crashing alot... I'm going to paint it French Blue with a pearl clear. I've always loved the finish on the '95/6 Hoffman Bikes Taj model bmx in the baby blue colour so I loosely matched the colour off a pic on my phone to the colour of the caps in the Tamiya spray colour rack in the hobby shop lol. It won't stay pretty for long, though... 

Then, the silliest choice of all was a 4500mah 3S 40C lipo battery lol. I think I'll start this buggy off on a 2S lipo for now till I get used to it and get the chassis/suspension/steering dialled in. 

I'm prolly going to get some threaded rod and make a stronger, adjustable steering rod to replace the soft plastic ones it came with. 

I might even get into making a double wishbone front end in the future... 

When replacing the plastic bearings in the diff I cleaned it all out and repacked the center with sticky synthetic helicopter prop grease. Should do the trick in keeping both wheels humming. I hope... I'll need advice on gearing too, please guys and gals. Feel free to offer your knowledge... 

I'll be making a wheelie bar, installing some dune buggy lights and crashing the badword out of this thing hopefully soon! 

I'm still waiting on quite a few parts to arrive but in the meantime I've pulled the whole thing apart and given it a clean and I was pretty chuffed at the overall excellent condition of everything. Even the batteries still work perfectly after only one quick charge and a test in my mate's Stadium Thunder so I'd hazard a guess to say that everything is in working order. I'll prolly never know as I've ripped it all out lol. 

I'll try to include some pics and if any of you guys think I'm either doing the wrong thing or would like to offer some constructive criticism please feel free to get stuck into me lol. 

Really, I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Anyways I'll update this thread as parts arrive.

Cheers for now, 

Craig. 

 

Hi craig and a big welcome to another melbournian to the club,well you are onto a very addictive and expensive liking.Its got a hold of you now and it wont let go .Good work on the restoration im in chaddy if you need a hand with anything maybe we could meet up 😊

[trexfan 56]

On Sunday, February 19, 2017 at 4:39 AM, ELEPHT70 said:

Hello guys my name's Craig, I'm from Melbourne, Australia and I think I'm going through a mid-life crisis of sorts at the age of 40 haha as I just last week picked up an old Tamiya off one of the local buy/sell sites and I now have another two cars coming in the mail lol. 

I was off work with a virus and started looking through the local rag with the search criteria being "VINTAGE TAMIYA" and I came across a 1996 (hardly vintage but old enough) Fighter Buggy RX for the princely sum of $25.00AUD!

I'd actually never heard of them and after some quick googling I found them to be on the DT-01 chassis which was shared by the likes of the Grasshopper and Hornet so I thought it wouldn't be too bad as I recognised those two models from my older cousins who had them back in the '80's.

The photos on the ad weren't the best but I made contact expecting it to have been sold already. 

I picked it up later that morning. I think it was a pretty good score. After checking it out I found the original manual to be in excellent condition, along with basically everything else. The stickers (sadly they're missing from the box) had never been fitted to the body which barely had a mark on it and the only thing missing was one of the hex drive nuts from the rear axle. The back tyres are worn below halfway and the front are hardly touched. 

I'm going to guess and estimate less than 10 batteries were put through the car before it was put back into it's box and forgotten about. The missing hex splined nut prolly got lost somewhere along the way and that was that for the little buggy's life. 

Until 21 years later I come along and start cleaning it up! 

Nothing in my house stays "stock" for long so I got researching for some good ideas on tricking out this little gem to go a bit harder. And look a little cooler as well. That's how I found this Web site and I'd like to congratulate all of you on sharing your knowledge, love and passion for the hobby. I'm truly grateful and was so pumped I felt compelled to sign up and say g'day! 

Right, where was I...

So after a bit of online research and chatting to a friend about some crazy things to do the first thing I did was order a FLY SKY FS-GT3B remote, the 12mm splined hex wheel hubs and a full set of sealed bearings for the diff and wheels.

I then read about someone using a turnbuckle kit from another model's hop up parts bin so I ordered it (#53300) for the steering link.

Then I ordered a better steering servo. A Hitech HS-5485HB digital jobbie that should provide a bit more reliability.

I then got an iMAX B6AC battery charger.

Then I got a bit excited. I ordered a 4300kV brushless motor and ESC combo lol. Nothing exotic just a GoolRC waterproof 3650 4300kV with a 60A ESC. I've read some pretty good reviews and for less than $61AUD posted I thought what the heck. 

Then a set of Wild Willy 2 chrome wheels which have an amazing negative offset to give some fat dish (and widen the track a bit - helps roll over prevention - learnt that one from someone in here) and the correct uprights with the slightly longer axle (#0445169 & #0445207) got the nod along with some blue anno nyloc wheel nuts. I just have to find some excellent quality tyres for the odd wheel size. Haven't managed to find a modern tyre in that size as yet... 

Some blue anno adjustable oil filled alloy shocks (100mm rear, 85mm front) are on order as well. 

I then ordered a MAD BULL body shell as I didn't want to destroy the beautiful original condition FIGHTER body shell as this thing is prolly going to be crashing alot... I'm going to paint it French Blue with a pearl clear. I've always loved the finish on the '95/6 Hoffman Bikes Taj model bmx in the baby blue colour so I loosely matched the colour off a pic on my phone to the colour of the caps in the Tamiya spray colour rack in the hobby shop lol. It won't stay pretty for long, though... 

Then, the silliest choice of all was a 4500mah 3S 40C lipo battery lol. I think I'll start this buggy off on a 2S lipo for now till I get used to it and get the chassis/suspension/steering dialled in. 

I'm prolly going to get some threaded rod and make a stronger, adjustable steering rod to replace the soft plastic ones it came with. 

I might even get into making a double wishbone front end in the future... 

When replacing the plastic bearings in the diff I cleaned it all out and repacked the center with sticky synthetic helicopter prop grease. Should do the trick in keeping both wheels humming. I hope... I'll need advice on gearing too, please guys and gals. Feel free to offer your knowledge... 

I'll be making a wheelie bar, installing some dune buggy lights and crashing the badword out of this thing hopefully soon! 

I'm still waiting on quite a few parts to arrive but in the meantime I've pulled the whole thing apart and given it a clean and I was pretty chuffed at the overall excellent condition of everything. Even the batteries still work perfectly after only one quick charge and a test in my mate's Stadium Thunder so I'd hazard a guess to say that everything is in working order. I'll prolly never know as I've ripped it all out lol. 

I'll try to include some pics and if any of you guys think I'm either doing the wrong thing or would like to offer some constructive criticism please feel free to get stuck into me lol. 

Really, I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Anyways I'll update this thread as parts arrive.

Cheers for now, 

Craig. 

 

Hi craig and a big welcome to another melbournian to the club,well you are onto a very addictive and expensive liking.Its got a hold of you now and it wont let go .Good work on the restoration im in chaddy if you need a hand with anything maybe we could meet up one day talk tamiya😊

[ELEPHT70 43]

Hi Trexxfan thx for the welcome mate 😊

I forgot to update the Grasshopper pics. I hit the wheels 3 times with the oven cleaner, the last was in a plastic bag. They're not perfect but, meh. 

I couldn't pull the wheels apart due to them being glued lol. 

[ELEPHT70 43]

Yes, I know the rear wheels are on backwards.... 😒 

[WillyChang 1814]

59 minutes ago, ELEPHT70 said:

 

oooh BMX  real Haro?

[ELEPHT70 43]

Yes it's a '98 Blammo 👍