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I "finished" this a little while ago and only just realised I'd never shared any pics of it.

So this was supposed to be a "budget boomer build" - start with something cheap but mostly there, clean it up and get it looking and running nicely. ahem...

This is what I started with - I thought it was ideal: very cheap, looked 80% there, nothing drastically expensive missing, on to a winner here Rodney.....

s-l1600s-l1600 (1)

Obviously it needed a set of new rear arms, body, motor and tyres, but that was ok. I missed the fact it needed a new battery holder/cover and had zero driveshafts, body post and that one of the front shock mounts was not quite where it should be......

So I stripped it all down, cleaned it, sorted everything out and worked out what bits I needed to get it running....hmm, these parts are a little more expensive than I thought! Ah well, should still be less than half a new re-re......

A long (and expensive) story short all the hubs and arms were cracked, the front shock mech was toast, the drive hubs were crazy worn (surprising as the driveshafts were made of low torsion air) wheels were cracked and bumper bumped too much.

Chassis was ok though and the gearboxes actually looked pretty good, so that was a plus - yay!!!!

So after a bit of thought (and lots of deliveries I had to sneak past "Customs") I decided I would rebuild it with a painted chassis. This would make it a bit different looking (I liked it after having done the same with the Grasshopper 2 I did) and it would get around the fact the chassis was a bit scraped up and needed sanding filling to get it smooth. All good though this will save me buying a new chassis..............

So, a bit later, it got rebuilt and looked like this:

IMG_0555

Lovely..... apart from the fact for some reason I still can't comprehend the rear bumper mounts on the chassis were missing................you can just see it above the screw head on the front arm.....

See.....?

Missing..... :( 

I was a little miffed by this point, so it got shelved for a while as I thought about what to do. I refused to buy a new chassis on principle after spending a: so much on the rest of the car and b: spending so much time painting this one. I also couldn't be bothered with stripping the paint off, making and plastic welding new mounts on, smoothing it all out and repainting it. That just wasn't happening. So I was at a catch-22.

Then a while later I was browsing the interweb looking for something for my Rough Rider and stumbled across factoryworks website. By chance I looked at their non-SRB parts and found they did a chassis kit for the Boomer...... A few conversations with the smashing owner Jeff and I had a kit winging its way across the pond to me. 

By now the idea of a "budget build boomer" was well and truly gone, so I treated it to a set of ally dampers and got to thinking about a colour scheme for the body. 

It was about this time that Peter_B mentioned in passing to me about the Winger body there used to be for the Boomer. I'd never heard of this, googled it (as you do) and fell in love. I managed to find a repro body and decal set and set about planning out a cool, but sympathetic, colour scheme for it. The wheels just wouldn't work with what I had in mind, so they got swapped for some discs. This is what fell out of the paint cans:

btw, I completely blame Peter_B for this going so far out of the original spec...... ;)

IMG_0563IMG_0565IMG_0566IMG_0564IMG_0568

So it still isn't quite finished. I need to paint the insides of the wheels (so sloppy of me to miss that,) it needs a driver (kindly supplied by the aforeblamed Peter) and the radio gear fitting. I managed to get a Dynatech for it which I've got to replace the brushes on before it's ready to go , but it's not far now.

I have a rough idea of what I ended up spending on it and it makes me weep just a little. Moral of the story is just buy a re-re, but I'm super happy with it and promise to get it running before the summers out. (pushing it across the carpet counts right?)

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Don't you go trying to blame me! :P

It is not my fault that you spent the equivalent of the GDP of a small country in pursuit of the "Uber Boomer" :D

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1 hour ago, Peter_B said:

Don't you go trying to blame me! :P

It is not my fault that you spent the equivalent of the GDP of a small country in pursuit of the "Uber Boomer" :D

 

 

I think you'll find it is............. :D

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1 hour ago, jonboy1 said:

I think you'll find it is............. :D

You seem to be rejecting our reality and substituting your own :P

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Nice nice well worth all the effort you put in which was considerable.... did you do the tyre writing yourself too?

( hope you can squidge the tyres off the rims without smudging them.. I’ve done that a few times)

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Um I now need this! Link on how to aquire that FANTASTIC chassis please! You should add a set of the "new" MIP ball differentials.

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4 hours ago, GTodd said:

Um I now need this! Link on how to aquire that FANTASTIC chassis please! You should add a set of the "new" MIP ball differentials.

factoryworksrc on Ebay.com .

Theres two chassis types , One with shock towers $99.00 & one without $79.95 US$$ of course plus 

postage . 

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On 7/13/2018 at 9:22 PM, Jason1145 said:

Nice nice well worth all the effort you put in which was considerable.... did you do the tyre writing yourself too?

( hope you can squidge the tyres off the rims without smudging them.. I’ve done that a few times)

Thanks Jason!

I did indeed paint the tyre lettering, and yup, I've smudged them before doing the exact same thing! :rolleyes: I usually leave the lettering to the absolute last thing to do for that reason, as otherwise I could guarantee I'd find a need to remove them!

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On 7/13/2018 at 10:12 PM, GTodd said:

Um I now need this! Link on how to aquire that FANTASTIC chassis please! You should add a set of the "new" MIP ball differentials.

You are quite right - that would be a perfect way to spend a considerable amount more on this :DB)

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As you all may have noticed - my projects progress at a glacial scale, so it should come as no surprise that over a year later not much has happened with my Uber Boomer.

However, something has happened.....it's got new tyres!!

IMG_1079 IMG_1078

The motor is still waiting on me soldering on the wires, the driver (still kindly donated by @Peter_B) is still waiting to join in on the fun and the radio gear is still waiting to go in, but little by little eh, you can't rush perfection now can you! (as I keep reminding my customers! ;) ) And I still need to paint the insides of the wheels!!!!!

I also thought I'd take a picture of my dear, lovely Astute wearing its new rear wing which I bought off the very nice @Baddon and the semi-period correct radio gear. I really wanted a CPR unit, but just can't justify that at the moment. Oh, and a threw a wet rag over the body. I've got the other body to strip and paint still, but well, you know, these things take time!

IMG_1073 IMG_1072 IMG_1074 IMG_1075

 

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Love the Astute.

 

I would also be interested to know how the Boomer drives with the new chassis?

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4 hours ago, Snappy1 said:

Love the Astute.

 

I would also be interested to know how the Boomer drives with the new chassis?

Me too!! ;) I will get around to running it soon - promise!!!

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5 hours ago, jonboy1 said:

Me too!! ;) I will get around to running it soon - promise!!

Never happen :D

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22 hours ago, Baddon said:

Wing looks well, glade to see it put to good use.

It's very much appreciated in it's new home - thanks again! :) 

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you may not believe it - but the steering servo is fitted and connected and the ESC is stuck in place!!!!!! :mellow::o:o:o

Considering this involved removing the front gearbox twice (once probably would have been sufficient but I don't like to over think things and therefore bolted it all back in place only to realise I didn't have quite enough access tot he servo horn so had to take it all apart again) this is probably more monumental an event than you may realise! ;)

Just the motor, receiver, driver and wheels to go!

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The boomer/winger is absolutely gorgeous! I think one similar is definitely going to be added to my 'want' list. 

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