Tamiya Striker Restoration - Project completed.

[Jason1145 3986]

Bought this second hand and absolutely love the look of it, there will be lots of work to be done, some great ideas are in store for it and any help along the way is appreciated.

 

As it came to me, very dirty and yellowed, smelled a bit iffy too..... ahhhh musty!

 

Before any work is done I researched the badword out of it and found the front end s weak and it can be strengthened with a CRP front bumper....

Thanks to Grastens who guided me through the ins and outs of fitting this as it is not meant for the Striker but rather for a Kyosho FX10 and the holes line up slightly differently to the Striker.

I needed to elongate one of the metal braces holes to line up with the chassis, and even the plastic bumper needed adjustment too as the two holes pre drilled were out of line and would've meant a bent bumper once installed.

CRP Front bumper brace

 

 

[Jason1145 3986]

I've got some decals on the way for a totally new colour scheme for this Striker and if it turns out half as good as I imagine then I'll be happy, I know this is quite a basic and very old buggy but it will be a runner, I just need to temper the speed I normally drive at with this one.

Net jobs will be to strip its decals off, remove all parts and start cleaning up and see how it goes from there.

I'm not a restoring type of person, much prefer to buy the finished article and run the badword out of it but this Striker has found a place in my heart already so I will give it some time and care which  I don't normally give to RC's..... lets see if it will love me back!

I'll be grateful for any tips on cleaning this up and prepping it ready for a new colour scheme, I need to look into the gearbox which is sticking so that will be coming up soon.

For now, shall I just peel off the decals and wash the body and plastics (arms etc) in soapy water? (see... noob!)

Metal parts (Shocks, springs, screws?? To be soaked in WD40 or some special cleaner?

[chickenman242tk 266]

Depends how dirty the bits are ,spray on degreaser works well for me .

I restored my striker a while back and for a simple car it was satisfying seeing it finished , mine was in a very sad state but a few coats of primer and paint it looks great.

If you need any bits let me know i still have stuff leftover .

Dont forget bearings and a steel pinion 

[Pintopower 1456]

I love the striker. I can't wait to tear into mine but I fear that when complete, it may look a bit different. I look forward to watching this build. Any idea for scheme yet? MCI could do custom colors.

[Jason1145 3986]

1 hour ago, chickenman242tk said:

Depends how dirty the bits are ,spray on degreaser works well for me .

I restored my striker a while back and for a simple car it was satisfying seeing it finished , mine was in a very sad state but a few coats of primer and paint it looks great.

If you need any bits let me know i still have stuff leftover .

Dont forget bearings and a steel pinion 

I'll look into a spray on degreaser thanks.

Looks like it's had the oil mixed with dirt in all the nooks and crannies, some areas aren't too bad though.

Good to hear it's not a massive project, thanks for the kind offer too.

It takes normal 1150 bearings throughout I think but is there 1 odd size bearing somewhere?

[Jason1145 3986]

1 hour ago, Pintopower said:

I love the striker. I can't wait to tear into mine but I fear that when complete, it may look a bit different. I look forward to watching this build. Any idea for scheme yet? MCI could do custom colors.

Yes I've already got a set from MCI on the way, I'm going for a black Striker hence the front bumper staying that colour

Im sure yours will be good when done, just don't do a Hornet style Striker

[Pintopower 1456]

16 minutes ago, Jason1145 said:

Yes I've already got a set from MCI on the way, I'm going for a black Striker hence the front bumper staying that colour

Im sure yours will be good when done, just don't do a Hornet style Striker

Oh nice! I cant wait to see!

No hornet striker!? No deal. Hornet Everything

[Jason1145 3986]

Got my MCI Decals in this might spur me on to start stripping the Striker!

[Supercoolnothing 721]

Those decals are stunning, I can't wait to see the end result. 

[Grastens 2795]

Whoa, this is going to look great! Such is my confidence in that statement that I am not adding the "for a Striker" disclaimer

I am happy to be of assistance for your project, and am glad you managed to get the CRP front brace sorted out. I had forgotten how difficult it was for me to do the same thing on my example.

I will be following your progress keenly on this one!

[Jason1145 3986]

So colour wise I was thinking a black chassis and cockpit, then have the gold and silver decals to contrast.

However as you can see the main "Striker" word is in Black which goes on the rear wing,  I think I have to paint the rear wing gold to contrast this black decal, and I won't be able to use the two " twin star Racing" decals as I'm not using the original bumper which housed these.

I found some general kitchen degreaser at home, meant for kitchen use but I don't see why it won't work on this car, plus it smells orangey so it's a win win I think.

Oh, not sure if I mentioned this but I pulled a new set of white Grasshopper 2 wheels , I want to paint these black to match the black chassis, can normal lexan paint be used or do I need to use acrylic paint ( like for a hard body ABS shell?)

[Darat76 265]

lexan paint can be used, it's just flat as it doesn't have the lexan to give it a glossy look, lexan paint is a little rubbery, so it will flex more, which might make it a little more resilient to scratches caused by impacts on the wheels

[Jason1145 3986]

35 minutes ago, Darat76 said:

lexan paint can be used, it's just flat as it doesn't have the lexan to give it a glossy look, lexan paint is a little rubbery, so it will flex more, which might make it a little more resilient to scratches caused by impacts on the wheels

Excellent I don't mind a flat look if it is a bit flexible.

Just out of curiosity could I spray clear coat lacquer over the lexan paint would that scratch off?

[Darat76 265]

6 minutes ago, Jason1145 said:

Excellent I don't mind a flat look if it is a bit flexible.

Just out of curiosity could I spray clear coat lacquer over the lexan paint would that scratch off?

if it was a lexan paint based clear it would be ok, not sure if such a thing exists tho, normal clear will flake off if the paint under it flexes, and that's provided it doesn't react with the lexan paint in the first place

[Jason1145 3986]

1 minute ago, Darat76 said:

if it was a lexan paint based clear it would be ok, not sure if such a thing exists tho, normal clear will flake off if the paint under it flexes, and that's provided it doesn't react with the lexan paint in the first place

Righto, think I'd not chance it then and just leave the wheels flat black,thanks for the help.

[Jason1145 3986]

Bah started to clean this up and now found some very small issues

Disassembled the whole rear end and replaced the 2 x gearbox 1150 bushings with rubber bearings, left the brass bushing there as I don't have that size but it spins freely so ok.

Putting it all back together I noticed 1 rear arm ( on the pinion side) was stiff to move up and down,this was with no shock attached so it should move up and down without resistance as the other arm did.

Bah turns out the dog bone gets jammed into one of the diff Drive cups ( Part E1, the longer of the two) and wedges itself solid, this causes the binding stopping the arm moving freely.

in the process of trying to figure this out I snapped a small piece of the chassis that holds the rear arm holder to the chassis, a small 5 mm square bit

IT's part number E1 - long drive cup

If anyone has the longer diff drive cup please let me know if you can spare it, otherwise I will have to drill it out to th same width all the way down the cup as it must narrow half way down causing the binding... I can feel the dog bone get stuck halfway into it then needs forcing in and it pops in but becomes bound jammed at that point.

 

[Jason1145 3986]

On 13/04/2017 at 7:10 PM, Grastens said:

 

I am happy to be of assistance for your project.

Any ideas why one of the Gearbox joints ( I call diff drive cup sorry) would be like this? Part E1, there are two, one goes rack side of the gearbox but I don't think it matters which one goes which side... in fact the manual shows then as the same part but one is longer because it has an extra length of than rod that slides into the other gearbox joint... the one of mine that binds is the longer one.

[Jason1145 3986]

On 07/04/2017 at 10:39 PM, chickenman242tk said:

If you need any bits let me know i still have stuff leftover .

Would you have the longer gearbox joint part E1, I'm having a problem with mine

[chickenman242tk 266]

I have a used set , ill have to dig them out.

I had issues with my sonic fighter , seems though the dogbone wont go fully into the cup and caused binding.

Btw I believe the cups are the same , the 2mm shaft should come out.

[Jason1145 3986]

5 hours ago, chickenman242tk said:

I have a used set , ill have to dig them out.

I had issues with my sonic fighter , seems though the dogbone wont go fully into the cup and caused binding.

Btw I believe the cups are the same , the 2mm shaft should come out.

Ha I didn't know that 2mm shaft is removable, that would explain the manual showing only 1 part as E1 for both Drive cups.

I was considering drilling that drive cup to widen it as it must narrow halfway down which is causing the dog bone to bind, it's strange no one mentioned this before though so did we both get badly moulded parts?

Looking back now this was the cause of what I thought was my sticking gearbox, turns out that this is fine and very smooth moving atleast

[Grastens 2795]

Agreed on the assessment of the dog-bones - I experienced similar binding problems with mine as I also used the aftermarket types. The gearbox was fine on all occasions.

[Jason1145 3986]

Oh yeah, I could just measure and find some different dog bones... who says I have to keep the original ones ;p

[Jason1145 3986]

Strip down the rear end was easy enough, all the parts got a quick degrease and clean, they weren't in a bad state just a little grim in places.

Bushings to be replaced with bearings

One cleaned wing and mount sat next to the dirty (ish) gearbox

Just 4 screws hold the whole rear end on to the chassis, two above and two below then it just slides away

2 x bushings in the gearbox were replaced with 1150 bearings, I left this brass bushing there as it worked well and I didn't have this size (850?)

Other half of gearbox

 

[chickenman242tk 266]

I had issues with binding but i wanted to use the crp dogbones I had and thought it was them causing it , seems it may be a casting issue with the plastic cup , small file did the job .

I have spare bones and cup plus a few sets of the crp bones if you want/Need them.

[Jason1145 3986]

21 hours ago, chickenman242tk said:

I had issues with binding but i wanted to use the crp dogbones I had and thought it was them causing it , seems it may be a casting issue with the plastic cup , small file did the job .

I have spare bones and cup plus a few sets of the crp bones if you want/Need them.

Thanks glad to know it's not just me as you guys found the same thing.

I think TL01 dog bones at 45mm length might work in the Striker as the stock ones measure 46mm.

Edit: Successfully drilled the gear joint cup to widen it with a 10mm drill bit... there was still a little binding and I used a 2-3mm drill bit to excavate the channels the pin goes down on each side and that seemed to work too.

Now the dog bone fits and moves freely in all directions. 

This is the little tab that broke off

 

Tonight I stripped the chassis and have it ready for painting tomorrow, will aim for a couple costs of grey primer and might get onto the black colour if all goes well.hitting the black.

I've found some new black Tamiya Reinforced front uprights that fit this Striker and will replace the stock white ones as it fits better with this black theme. ( the stock white ones came up pretty clean though and will make good spares)

I also test fitted the new front shock holder from the Sonic Fighter and didn't realise it is much taller it is compared to the Strikers one, this shoukd allow more room to find suitable front oil filled shocks.

Another advantage of the new front shock holder is it's brand new so will help the overall finished look, although the other parts have cleaned up really well, the front A Arms look almost brand new with their reinforced uprights attached.