Tamiya Sonic Fighter Restoration

[Jason1145]

Sorry Chicken my phone couldn't wipe that quote again lol

Update - cockpit painted gloss black now and finished priming the chassis and gave that a coat of black too.

Both will need clear coating once the colour takes.

The black reinforced front uprights arrived.

My MCI decals arrived and surprisingly the Orange colour I chose is slightly different to the yellow of the cockpit roll cage and  rear wing... strange that

To add to this mismatch my CRP front Chassis stiffener with red bumper arrived today... not the yellow one I ordered

 

Ahhh it'll all come together in the end, technicolor maybe but it'll come together.

Big thanks to Tamiyabigstuff with some essential parts this week, steering links with rod ends and body posts... I just realised these can all be painted too so might do those in yellow or orange or black or red

[Jason1145]

Some cheeky painting shots

[MadInventor]

On ‎08‎/‎06‎/‎2017 at 9:04 PM, Jason1145 said:

Sorry Chicken my phone couldn't wipe that quote again lol

Update - cockpit painted gloss black now and finished priming the chassis and gave that a coat of black too.

Both will need clear coating once the colour takes.

The black reinforced front uprights arrived.

My MCI decals arrived and surprisingly the Orange colour I chose is slightly different to the yellow of the cockpit roll cage and  rear wing... strange that

To add to this mismatch my CRP front Chassis stiffener with red bumper arrived today... not the yellow one I ordered

 

Ahhh it'll all come together in the end, technicolor maybe but it'll come together.

Big thanks to Tamiyabigstuff with some essential parts this week, steering links with rod ends and body posts... I just realised these can all be painted too so might do those in yellow or orange or black or red

Looks like you've got the brass washers in the wrong build thread

Going for the stealth fighter look I take it. Will be interesting to see what it looks like assembled. Work faster .........

[Jason1145]

4 minutes ago, MadInventor said:

Looks like you've got the brass washers in the wrong build thread

Going for the stealth fighter look I take it. Will be interesting to see what it looks like assembled. Work faster .........

lol I just realised your crafty brass washers escaped from my DF02 rebuild

[Jason1145]

Now both parts in middle stages of clear coating

[Jason1145]

Old front end..... needs some sprucing up with some black uprights, some new front arms and shock clean and rebuild.

Old arm has been repaired in the past, it's strong enough but I have new arms to replace with

Soft shock oil as this car is light in itself.

Cleaned shock on left, now the right hand side one to do

The front chassis crack has been JB Welded super strong, I didn't tart it up too much as this is hidden once the front shock mount is positioned

Front end test fitted... just waiting on the Yellow CRP Front bumper to come in and then to drill and fit that.

MCI Decals... the Orange is darker than I planned, should've gone with yellow but never mind.

 

 

[Jason1145]

CRP Front bumper needs to be adjusted somewhat to fit...... but this will strengthen the front end repair and I've drilled the extra hole in the chassis for support

These needed elongating to match the Sonic Fighter Chassis holes

Extra support hole drilled

This needed bending a bit to fit the contour of the chassis

Transformer pose

 

[taffer]

Is the large brace thick enough to countersink the bottom screws (so replace with flat heads) ?

[Jason1145]

You could countersink them but this SF will never jump and therefore should never scrape its underside in anger...that's the plan anyway.

I'd forgotten how much time these chassis take to prep and rebuild, any RC really.... today sunk another 90 minutes into this one.

[Jason1145]

Painted some bits black

Fitted the rear end and rebuilt the shocks

Chose a servo and fitted the mounts.... need to decide what motor and esc to use next.

[Grave Digger1]

Very cool!

It is cool to see these restorations take shape.

Lynn

[Jason1145]

Thanks Lynn, I'm not good at the patient stuff and don't have the skills to get perfect finishes, hence the lack of patience kicking in, but it might come out ok for the general user... I'd never dare describe this as mint condition (I haven't replaced a few of the scuffed parts too like the rear motor guards and under battery door).

I've been told these need to have the rear aluminium hub upgrade as the stock plastic hubs will strip (I did this upgrade for my Striker a few months back, the part is listed as for a Tamiya Fox) , but to save myself £15 (from Pragustore) I'm going to try run it on the stock part, it won't be a speed machine so I hope to get away with a saving there  

[Jason1145]

I found a spare Tamiya TBLE-02S esc so chucked that in powering an Absima 21t motor with 19t pinion and a 2.4G radio set.

Took me a while to get it all working properly as it was going straight from forward to reverse.... and going from reverse to brake and stop and then forward..... I had it set up wrong but Youtube showed me how to re-calibrate the Tamiya esc and all fixed now working as expected.

Decals to apply

Possible new wing

Still need to paint the drivers arms and helmet.

[TeaMonster]

1 hour ago, Jason1145 said:

I found a spare Tamiya TBLE-02S esc so chucked that in powering an Absima 21t motor with 19t pinion and a 2.4G radio set.

Took me a while to get it all working properly as it was going straight from forward to reverse.... and going from reverse to brake and stop and then forward..... I had it set up wrong but Youtube showed me how to re-calibrate the Tamiya esc and all fixed now working as expected.

Decals to apply

Possible new wing

Still need to paint the drivers arms and helmet.

Great looking car, yellow and black suit it. Be good to see it with the driver completed and the decals applied👍

[Jason1145]

19 minutes ago, TeaMonster said:

Great looking car, yellow and black suit it. Be good to see it with the driver completed and the decals applied👍

Yeah wish I'd gotten the decals in yellow now and not Orange

[Jason1145]

Well this car is starting to look the part now, what a difference a new rear wing can make... I thought my Striker came out well but this Sonic Fighter is stealing all the limelight from it, very happy with how it looks.

Ive still to paint the driver head but that's my least favourite part.. I've ordered some new style driver heads which aren't the usual Tamiya affair, when they arrive from the States I'll get to work on them and see which one looks best.

For now I've got the original head it came with and it's awful green helmet... pics to follow.

[TheMidnight Pumpkin]

Its awesome to see someone restore one of these! I had one as a teenager. But mine had a rough life, as I launched it off a loading dock at speed. Which as you could guess, broke it in half. But it was a fun car prior to my Evil Kenevil teenage antics!  -lol

[Jason1145]

I hear alot of them snapped in half, this one too but it's had some sticking plaster to hold it back together ;p

Ok it's the wheels and wing that make this look so good, I figured it out.... but wait till the driver is replaced, I have a great one coming.

 

[nowinaminute]

Awesome job! Maybe not showroom perfect as you have stressed but I'd be proud of that for sure! Nothing I have ever done is any better, probably not as good either.  Unless you went over it with a magnifying glass it looks pretty much mint. I try not to get too obsessive with the tiny details.

I have a Falcon that I bought as part of a job lot a year ago when I got back into RC and the front end is snapped, it has sat on a bookshelf for the past year and when you get about 30cm from it you can see it's rough but from half way across the room it looks amazing, if that old thing looks good from a moderate distance then this is simply a masterpiece by any reasonable persons standards.

[Jason1145]

6 hours ago, nowinaminute said:

Awesome job! Maybe not showroom perfect as you have stressed but I'd be proud of that for sure! Nothing I have ever done is any better, probably not as good either.  Unless you went over it with a magnifying glass it looks pretty much mint. I try not to get too obsessive with the tiny details.

I have a Falcon that I bought as part of a job lot a year ago when I got back into RC and the front end is snapped, it has sat on a bookshelf for the past year and when you get about 30cm from it you can see it's rough but from half way across the room it looks amazing, if that old thing looks good from a moderate distance then this is simply a masterpiece by any reasonable persons standards.

Lol just don't get 30cm from it then

I'd never even heard of the Sonic Fighter until about a year ago after id joined this forum but im glad I have now, especially as it's such an oddball car in the eyes of many but I know you love all the old RC cars, there's something about owning a piece of history, even if it's not box art.

If I was critical of my SF I could point out 4 or 5 things that aren't perfect about it but I'm also not a perfectionist purely because I am time poor and always flit from one thing to another. This SF must've taken about 15 hours of build time in total which isn't a lot but has got enough to please me, thanks for the kind comments too.

[nowinaminute]

On 09/08/2017 at 5:46 AM, Jason1145 said:

Lol just don't get 30cm from it then

I'd never even heard of the Sonic Fighter until about a year ago after id joined this forum but im glad I have now, especially as it's such an oddball car in the eyes of many but I know you love all the old RC cars, there's something about owning a piece of history, even if it's not box art.

If I was critical of my SF I could point out 4 or 5 things that aren't perfect about it but I'm also not a perfectionist purely because I am time poor and always flit from one thing to another. This SF must've taken about 15 hours of build time in total which isn't a lot but has got enough to please me, thanks for the kind comments too.

There's so much stuff I had no idea even existed either until I got I to RC last year. Even companies I never knew existed and toy grade manufacturers I never knew had made forays into the hobby grade market. A year ago I was surprised to learn of the Nikko Sprint and Dandy dash and just recently I learned even Tomy dipped their tow! 

The obscure stuff does have a charm to it. I love the Sonic Fighter and striker and the first time I saw the Thunder Dragon I fell in love with it's ridiculously 80's styling even if some consider it a wedge of cheese on wheels!

[graemevw]

8 minutes ago, nowinaminute said:

There's so much stuff I had no idea even existed either until I got I to RC last year. Even companies I never knew existed and toy grade manufacturers I never knew had made forays into the hobby grade market. A year ago I was surprised to learn of the Nikko Sprint and Dandy dash and just recently I learned even Tomy dipped their tow! 

The obscure stuff does have a charm to it. I love the Sonic Fighter and striker and the first time I saw the Thunder Dragon I fell in love with it's ridiculously 80's styling even if some consider it a wedge of cheese on wheels!

I remember when I was a kid, maybe 1989? Tomy released a top price 4wd buggy that Ionly saw in magazines. Cant remember anything about it other than the mag thought it was great and it was winning races.

[Jason1145]

3 hours ago, nowinaminute said:

There's so much stuff I had no idea even existed either until I got I to RC last year. Even companies I never knew existed and toy grade manufacturers I never knew had made forays into the hobby grade market. A year ago I was surprised to learn of the Nikko Sprint and Dandy dash and just recently I learned even Tomy dipped their tow! 

The obscure stuff does have a charm to it. I love the Sonic Fighter and striker and the first time I saw the Thunder Dragon I fell in love with it's ridiculously 80's styling even if some consider it a wedge of cheese on wheels!

I have a Taiyo Nissan Racing Truck I'm sure you would love, fully working RC that runs off 8 x AA's for the truck and a 9v for the remote. I had one from Hamleys as a kid, promptly broke it within a week and was gutted I couldn't fix it and eventually lost it along the way as time passed. Loved that truck, last year I paid way over the odds for a pretty good example of one but the novelty has since worn off.

Back to my SF, time to give it a run outside soon and see how she handles, I will use the old white wheels for that and keep the nice black ones for indoors.

The 3 new driver heads from USA arrived after I paid the Royal Mail Customs fees.. a  very unusual driver is headed for this unusual car.

[Jason1145]

[Jason1145]

Lots to update on this little car now... starting with some new wheels...... courtesy of the Tamiya Fox!

With Boomerang rear tyres and Traxxas 2.1 inch front knobbly tyres... I wanted knobbly front tyres instead of the usual ribbed ones.

Here is the old look........ for daily running.... of which this only gets out for once in a blue moon!

Some bling

Stock tyre against the taller Fox wheel with Traxxas 1771 tyre