Kyosho Turbo Optima Mid

[WillyChang 1816]

10 hours ago, JNSD1 said:

Anyone ever re-anodised their gold shocks? It feels like a risky move (colour matching, thread issues blah blah) but man mine look tired and thrashed. Also the actual springs look terrible... Can you spray them or is that futile?

Also saw this on the bay: http://ebay.to/2BWXA0J

Restored new anodised chassis.... be very curious if anyone's done that! Seems far less risky than the shocks

ReAnodising is possible but yeah it's labour intensive & risky. You need to burn off the existing anodised colour (caustic bath) then cleanup the gunk after that (which might lose some meat), only then reDye the bare aluminium.

For precision parts that rely on correct dimensions to seal properly, it's a big risk.

For us downunder there's another issue - thanks to the greenies dirty industry like chroming and anodising have been chased out to extinction in recent years. Pretty hard to find anyone locally to do such stuff anymore & all that work won't come cheap.

 

Springs you can repainted or powdercoat.

Helps if you've got mate in that trade... otherwise nobody wants tiny fiddle jobs like these.

[JNSD1 288]

30 minutes ago, WillyChang said:

Yup, White & some came silver I think. Mid, Turbo Mid, SE, sSE etc etc 

 

Hahahahahahaaha

[JNSD1 288]

24 minutes ago, WillyChang said:

ReAnodising is possible but yeah it's labour intensive & risky. You need to burn off the existing anodised colour (caustic bath) then cleanup the gunk after that (which might lose some meat), only then reDye the bare aluminium.

For precision parts that rely on correct dimensions to seal properly, it's a big risk.

For us downunder there's another issue - thanks to the greenies dirty industry like chroming and anodising have been chased out to extinction in recent years. Pretty hard to find anyone locally to do such stuff anymore & all that work won't come cheap.

 

Springs you can repainted or powdercoat.

Helps if you've got mate in that trade... otherwise nobody wants tiny fiddle jobs like these.

Yeah, rang an anodiser today. He could do it - so he said. But starting price was about $80-100 and matching the colour was going to be tricky. You're right, unless you had a close mate in the industry or a known vintage RC guy who did it, too hard basket. I had an 80's BMX restoring guy who ran a powder coating business in QLD. Years ago (like 9) when I was restoring old 80's BMX's he was the guy. He knew more than I did and was more pedantic about matching the old fluro colours. It was amazing. Shame we don't have the same kind of people in RC that we know of!

[Wooders28 4860]

Try and do your own?

This guys using aloominum, but i'm sure it'll be the same for aluminium 🙄😂

 

https://youtu.be/TGi-nqNnENE

[JNSD1 288]

9 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

Try and do your own?

This guys using aloominum, but i'm sure it'll be the same for aluminium 🙄😂

 

https://youtu.be/TGi-nqNnENE

That looks surprisingly easy... 

[Wooders28 4860]

1 hour ago, JNSD1 said:

That looks surprisingly easy... 

Looks.... 🤔

[JNSD1 288]

Ok so just got this bad boy this morning!!!

First thing I did? Measure the belt and the knuckles!

The 120 tooth Kyosho Turbo Optima Mid belt is a completely different tooth pattern, and marginally smaller *sad face* (I'm putting the full name of the buggy a lot in this post so that people googling in the future will find it and be saved the pain I went through trying to work it out)

HOWEVER!!!! The Kyosho Javelin re-re knuckle arms are EXACTLY the same as the OEM Kyosho Turbo Optima Mid knuckle arms! *happy face*

The King Pins also fit! (However the King Pins are so expensive on eBay now I'd prefer to use other screws)

 

Strangely though the L & R stamping is now on the opposite side of the original ones... The moulding and finish is far better on the new ones, which is not surprising...

This all HOPEFULLY means that the Optima re-re ones I ordered are the same as the Javelin ones that are the same as the Optima Mid ones!!!!

That's a small win for saving money on parts for the short term!

 

[WillyChang 1816]

Measure again the distance between kingpin & steering link, sure they're identical?

 

Javelin is based on chaindrive Optima... not sure if the "bonus" beltdrive parts are same as the beltdrive hopup kit sold by OptionHouse BiTD, but it's not same as Mid afaik.

Haven't wrenched on any Mid for like 15yrs+  didn't remember belt was that chunky. Haha I should go pull the 4WD ScaleSeries down from its high shelf for a closer look. Hasn't been apart since originally built when new.

[JNSD1 288]

45 minutes ago, WillyChang said:

Measure again the distance between kingpin & steering link, sure they're identical?

 

Javelin is based on chaindrive Optima... not sure if the "bonus" beltdrive parts are same as the beltdrive hopup kit sold by OptionHouse BiTD, but it's not same as Mid afaik.

Haven't wrenched on any Mid for like 15yrs+  didn't remember belt was that chunky. Haha I should go pull the 4WD ScaleSeries down from its high shelf for a closer look. Hasn't been apart since originally built when new.

I measured it all prior to posting, it's identical. Didn't use callipers (they're not with me, unfortunately) but used a metal engineers ruler. We're good to go!

YOU HAVE A MID THAT HAS NEVER BEEN PULLED APART!!! Pics or it didn't happen... 

[WillyChang 1816]

3 hours ago, JNSD1 said:

YOU HAVE A MID THAT HAS NEVER BEEN PULLED APART!!! Pics or it didn't happen... 

Nah not a Mid buggy... never got one (daddy never bought me it but I did try, thrice!), if I did own it would've been raced & used/abused/trashed much like yours  & be FUBAR by now.

It's the F40 from the Scale Series, the 4WD is Mid based with gold LWB (SE?) chassis plate. I think the only concession is dampers are more laydown for shorter shock towers. It's slightly bigger than Tamiya's F40.

Built it in 1990 to mainly sit on the shelf  so yeah it's never needed wrenching since & that's the last time I saw my belt.

When I built it just so happened my hobbyshop was parting out a LazerZX kit for spareparts, so I scored a set of Kyosho ballbearings which went into the F40.

Plus a set of LazerZX yellow wheels if ever I thought about getting this off-road  hahaha

 

[JNSD1 288]

Look what the postman brought today:

The LeMans motor is stunning, what a great tribute to the old school. Love it. I'm yet to measure the Knuckles and see if the Optima re-re ones are the same as the Javelin re-re ones are the same as the vintage Turbo Optima Mid ones!

[JNSD1 288]

The goodies are coming thick and fast....

That centre gear for the rear diff is an expensive and painful one to replace. I simply just lost mine when the diff was dismantled, so annoyed with myself for letting that happen. The hot pink zip ties I couldn't resist - 80's freak!

[ubiquitous 0]

Hello Optima fans,

Can anyone confirm that OT-16 = OT-211 ?

Thanks in advance!

[WillyChang 1816]

On 13 February 2018 at 3:13 PM, JNSD1 said:

Nope got the Calsonic GTR 1/10 scale nitro -near impossible to find a photo online of it, this is the body:  

Has the Calsonic body. I made a bumper when the original broke and took the Optima mid shocks and steering, which have now all come back off!

hey hey, I just found a pic 

 

[mugenbulldog 3]

If those block tires say Dirt Paw on the sides, a few of us on another forum ordered some and a very nice fellow ordered and re-shipped to folks all over the world that the German site wouldn’t ship to. They are 2.0” and the tread pattern is identical to the Kyosho ones. MIne are on a restored Turbo Optima.

[Yalson 514]

Ah, those Mid idler gears/center gears/whatever were a *****. I used to strip those with irritating regularity when racing my Mids BiTD and I have no doubt that they would still get regularly stripped now if I rebuilt one of them, only now it is impossible to source spares. They were the Achilles heel of an otherwise very well thought-out chassis, as every time you stripped one the whole rear gearbox had to come apart to replace it. I recall that somebody in period (Racecraft?) manufactured an upgrade in a stronger dark orangey brown material, but the problem with this was that if you were using a hot enough motor to strip the idler gear, then strengthening it would just potentially pass the damage on to the next gear in the sequence. If anyone out there wants to make a few currency units, then find out how to make replacement Optima Mid idler gears and the world, or at least a small Mid-owning proportion of it, will beat a path to your door.

[Yalson 514]

Also, a brushless 240S? But how? And more importantly, why?

[Barnoid 71]

Sorry for reviving a long-dead thread, but I've just restored my Mid SWB. I've put some Thorp goodies in the drivetrain: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thorp-5020-Gear-Set-OT-86-OT-85-Upgrades-Kyosho-Optima-Mid-series/254097585100?hash=item3b296573cc:g:HWoAAMXQnXFRaOd-:rk:4:pf:1 which seem to work marvellously...

[JNSD1 288]

8 hours ago, Barnoid said:

Sorry for reviving a long-dead thread, but I've just restored my Mid SWB. I've put some Thorp goodies in the drivetrain: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thorp-5020-Gear-Set-OT-86-OT-85-Upgrades-Kyosho-Optima-Mid-series/254097585100?hash=item3b296573cc:g:HWoAAMXQnXFRaOd-:rk:4:pf:1 which seem to work marvellously...

Never be sorry, this is Tamiya Club, builds take years and other priorities take over, but the threads always live on. I will be updating this again when I've done more on the build so no stress!

Post some pics! Would love to see it!

I also noticed that FINALLY Kyosho announced that they are releasing the Turbo Optima, albeit one year late at their own omission due to the issues they had last year. But none the less amazing news as that means:

#1 - Kyosho is alive and kicking

#2 - The Turbo Optima Mid is either end of this year or early next!!!!

Sadly they're not being completely period correct and using different shocks but WHATEVER!!!!

 

http://vintage.dirt-burners.com/2019/01/30/kyosho-turbo-optima-2019-first-details/

 

[khyzersoze 268]

That's the Turbo Optima, not the Turbo Optima Mid.

[JNSD1 288]

49 minutes ago, khyzersoze said:

That's the Turbo Optima, not the Turbo Optima Mid.

Yes I know it is, clearly a typo hence why my #2 point said that "The Turbo Optima Mid is either end of this year or early next!!!!"

Amended.

[khyzersoze 268]

2 hours ago, JNSD1 said:

Yes I know it is, clearly a typo hence why my #2 point said that "The Turbo Optima Mid is either end of this year or early next!!!!"

Amended.

Ah, you had me a little confused there LOL!   Because I really want a Turbo Optima Mid as well as this one.

[Barnoid 71]

On 1/31/2019 at 2:01 AM, JNSD1 said:

#2 - The Turbo Optima Mid is either end of this year or early next!!!!

I know! Squee! I"m totally fine with them not being period correct; I rebuilt my Mid to use it occasionally rather than to have it sitting on a shelf, and I think Kyosho has done the same. I'll def. be getting a Mid if they rere one; might retire my old girl if they do!

On 1/31/2019 at 2:01 AM, JNSD1 said:

Post some pics! Would love to see it!

Okay, here you go! :-)

[JNSD1 288]

My God, that is a thing of beauty! Thanks for sharing. 

I'm pretty sure that I am going to paint mine white as well, the yellow never pleased me and my OG shell was fluro orange with other bits in it.

[Barnoid 71]

You're very kind, thanks! I'm pretty chuffed with how turned out. Just waiting for some A&L steering parts to arrive to sharpen things up - although I'm pretty sure that this will be one of those 'never ending' projects :-) 

Not that you can see it on the photos terribly well, but I used a couple of very thin layers of Tamiya Pink/Gold iridescent before backing it with white. It just gives it a great subtle lustre.