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Ray_ve

Marui Samurai restauration

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Quite some time ago, end of 2017 I think, I bought a used Marui Samurai.

In the 80's, when I got my first Big Bear, I always thought the Samurai was really cool because of the 4WD, and the chain drive. :wub:
But back then, it was 3 or 4 times more expensive then the bear so never had one.

 

The purchase:

BEXFATz.jpg

 

First thing I noticed was how small it appeared to me. I thought it would be bigger. But ok, I finally owned one!

 

After the usual tear-down 3 months ago (this is a slow-pace project!), I found that this particular car has quite some milage on it. Als it had not been run in a while.
The original rear wheels are ugly (made blue with permanent marker and full of CA glue) but in one piece, the original fronts are badly cracked. That is why it had the Ninja wheels on it.
Also, the space frame plastics have some dis-coloration from age, and are really filthy at the bottom.

So, all the work now is to start cleaning the parts, and re-assemble.

 

This weekend, I finally managed to get the gearboxes back together.

The rear gearbox had broken plastics where a bearing should be...

uHLwFkN.jpg

 

Modelled a fix for it, and printed it in PLA (left) for a test fit (this is the 3rd attempt), and finally in ABS for the final piece.

uD88xa1.jpg

 

Glued the fix in place, sorted!

ueUnCoD.jpg

 

Next, rebuilt the front differential (old one was quite worn, because the chain was worn) with new plastics from Ebay, and added a brand new chain I was able to get.
Put it all together with another motor I had, as the old one sounds like a bag full of angry cats. :D

aqi440c.jpg

 

Next order of business, the wheels.

I love the originals ones, very beautiful for that time period and really suit the car.

jSx7uFP.jpg

 

But WHY are the fronts and rears a different diameter? Aaaargh.
I'll use standard modern wheels when it gets done, but modelled wheels to hopefully print a set of new front and rears, that are compatible with present day standard tire sizes.

4Kezbfo.jpg

c0ecLGw.jpg

 

Thats all for now, Updates will follow! :)

 

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Yes , these have always been a major task to restore . The gearboxes and gears were always weak , and replacement gears are hard to find . The wheels are also a bad design , a inner and outer beadlock would have made a lot of difference to these beautiful wheels . That said , they are an amazing buggy to look at and run . Good luck with the resto. and have fun with it .

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Thankfully, all the other gears are fine. Only the aluminium pinion was badly worn, but the idler only suffered 25% wear from that. The 2 diffs in the rear box are also OK. Since this will be mostly a shelf queen, with limited runs in the future, thats all I need to have.

Given the state of most plastics, it will never be an A+ showcase model anymore. Just simply enough for nostalgic value.

I''m thinking if I should sand the chassis so it will be a bit smoother, and paint it?? Decisions, decisions.....

Edit:

Beauty! :wub:

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Little progress as I was deciding on the paint job.

But I'm going to keep it simple with a modern touch. 

All red plastics will be metallic red, as will the body and wing. The frame aluminium silver.

 

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On 11/18/2018 at 4:23 PM, Ray_ve said:

Quite some time ago, end of 2017 I think, I bought a used Marui Samurai...BEXFATz.jpg

Wonderful buggy, and GREAT work!! :wub:

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I too have a Marui ninja - it's in superb condition.. I had always wanted one...the only downside is that the chain has always seemed really tight with no real way to slacken it based on the screws to hold the front drive cog into only one place.. It's not very fast as a result - at least I think that is the problem anyway... any ideas anyone at all??..

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11 hours ago, Malakite said:

the only downside is that the chain has always seemed really tight with no real way to slacken it based on the screws to hold the front drive cog into only one place..

u5ZfqqR.jpg

I haven't gotten aroud to finishing mine, so some blasts in the dark here...

Are you sure the right screws are in there? Maybe the ones fitted are too short?
Is the chain guard in the right way and sitting correctly in its mounts?

Mine had gotten onto the slow-pace build, I'm doing the simpler models first. And it does not help getting more Big Bears in the mail.. :D

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30 minutes ago, Ray_ve said:

u5ZfqqR.jpg

I haven't gotten aroud to finishing mine, so some blasts in the dark here...

Are you sure the right screws are in there? Maybe the ones fitted are too short?
Is the chain guard in the right way and sitting correctly in its mounts?

Mine had gotten onto the slow-pace build, I'm doing the simpler models first. And it does not help getting more Big Bears in the mail.. :D

Thank you for this - I will check it out and have another look... right now my Big Bear is in pieces all over the kitchen table lol ..so how many Big Bears do you have lol

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2 hours ago, Malakite said:

so how many Big Bears do you have lol

I got:
2 in the mail recently. Not started on them yet.
1 in the build phase, chassis is done. Body needs stripping and wheels cleaning and painting.
1 frankenstein-bear, running chassis with grasshopper gearbox and JAvalin front suspension. But mostly shelfqueen due to its bad handling. <_<
1 basherbear, not a real one but HSP Himoto 4WD chassis with a Team Bluegroove polycarbonate Big Bear body on it. Runs great and wild on 3100KV and 3S.
1 Tamiya-Marui Bullhead-Clod Big bear. A Bullhead with Clod body with custom 3D printed grille and tailgate, painted to resemble a big bear body.
And plans for 1 more..... Which is in the design-phase on the dining table right now.. :lol:
 

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36 minutes ago, Ray_ve said:

I got:
2 in the mail recently. Not started on them yet.
1 in the build phase, chassis is done. Body needs stripping and wheels cleaning and painting.
1 frankenstein-bear, running chassis with grasshopper gearbox and JAvalin front suspension. But mostly shelfqueen due to its bad handling. <_<
1 basherbear, not a real one but HSP Himoto 4WD chassis with a Team Bluegroove polycarbonate Big Bear body on it. Runs great and wild on 3100KV and 3S.
1 Tamiya-Marui Bullhead-Clod Big bear. A Bullhead with Clod body with custom 3D printed grille and tailgate, painted to resemble a big bear body.
And plans for 1 more..... Which is in the design-phase on the dining table right now.. :lol:
 

Wow thats incredible!!  SO where do you get your 3D printing done may I ask??

 

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5 hours ago, Malakite said:

 

I have my own printer, so that greatly simplifies this hobby as custom parts van be made at will. 

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6 hours ago, Ray_ve said:

I have my own printer, so that greatly simplifies this hobby as custom parts van be made at will. 

wow thats epic..do you have to program it yourself though or do you get the dimensions/scales yourself?

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On ‎6‎/‎2‎/‎2019 at 12:52 AM, Malakite said:

wow thats epic..do you have to program it yourself though or do you get the dimensions/scales yourself?

When I need a custom part I make a 3D model of it in Sketchup in 1:1 scale. Once finished, this 3D model can be exported as a .STL file.

Repetier Host, the 3D printer's main control program, loads this .STL model and 'slices' it. This basically means making thin slices of the model in vertical direction (like a stack of pancakes). These slices are translated into X-Y-Z and material amount feed coordinates for the printer head, which can then move to these coordinates and starts extruding hot molten plastic to build up the computer 3D model in the real physical world. The Repetier Host software is great, just a few pushes on a button is enough.

3D printers are great when you like to modify stuff using non-standard parts. :lol: 

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Finally found some time and motivation to work on this car again. :lol:

 

I planned to use a small high speed servo that I had for steering. Just one issue, due to the small servo size the servo saver is too much centered in the bulkhead and this disrupts the geometry of the (one long, one short) steering rods.

EQapHdG.jpg

 

So I moddeld and printed a small bracket that offsets the servo by 5mm, this puts the servo saver in the desired position closer to the car right side.

DyUy6Qe.jpg

 

One front gearbox completed for as far as I can do it for now. With a new front differential gear and new chain.

3Yu5pJi.jpg

FTOX8NB.jpg

 

The shape of things to come..... I'm missing the G-55 spacer, so need to model and print it too.

tOBinUa.jpg

 

 

If one quickly needs 3mm washers in black.....

UFczljI.jpg

 

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I had a thought about a small servo to get the geometry right (I was thinking about reworking new steering rods with equivalent length)...

On the spacer, I'll have a look at mine, I should be able to model it quickly and push it on Thingiverse :-). I'm a bit busy on the Nichimo Spirit FF, but I'll try to find some time tomorrow...

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2 minutes ago, Ray_ve said:

Excellent stuff, Thanks! :lol:

You're welcome :)

Joke aside, I did thought about model the part of the sprue that was left over with the part for more realism :-D

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So, more work done today.

Printed the G55 model from  @silvertriple . Replaced 2 wrong sized screws for the chain adjusters to the right size.

Got up to step 18 in the manual, both gearboxes installed. The drive train runs smoothly on a bench power supply so job done so far.

7FWjGu8.jpg

pBVgi0K.jpg

yPbIgqE.jpg

Crazy part is that I seem to be missing a lot of screws... Not sure where I put those, maybe I lost something in the years it was stored away..
Luckily the Ninja and Shogun have a lot of left over screws, so I can continue for now.

I also don't have wheel bearings. I came across an unidentified pack of 11/7mm bearings, so I made a order mistake I guess.

Ordered bearings 10/6mm, an ESC and some motor wires. To be continued.

 

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55 minutes ago, Ray_ve said:

So, more work done today.

Printed the G55 model from  @silvertriple . Replaced 2 wrong sized screws for the chain adjusters to the right size.

Got up to step 18 in the manual, both gearboxes installed. The drive train runs smoothly on a bench power supply so job done so far.

7FWjGu8.jpg

pBVgi0K.jpg

yPbIgqE.jpg

Crazy part is that I seem to be missing a lot of screws... Not sure where I put those, maybe I lost something in the years it was stored away..
Luckily the Ninja and Shogun have a lot of left over screws, so I can continue for now.

I also don't have wheel bearings. I came across an unidentified pack of 11/7mm bearings, so I made a order mistake I guess.

Ordered bearings 10/6mm, an ESC and some motor wires. To be continued.

 

I'm not in state right now to mount my Samurai and post pictures of the G55 parts printed and in condition, so It would be great if you post a make in Thingiverse :-D. That's the first time I'm publish something untested as finished on Thingiverse, but it was quite simple, so I did not bother to test it (could not, as i'm still awaiting parts for my Samurais). Great you confirm it works :-D. Thanks :)

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On 2/20/2022 at 11:38 PM, silvertriple said:

I'm not in state right now to mount my Samurai and post pictures of the G55 parts printed and in condition, so It would be great if you post a make in Thingiverse :-D. That's the first time I'm publish something untested as finished on Thingiverse, but it was quite simple, so I did not bother to test it (could not, as i'm still awaiting parts for my Samurais). Great you confirm it works :-D. Thanks :)

Made a thingiverse account but for some reason sign-in does not work correctly... Will try again another time.

Currently working on my 'new' 386DX-40Mhz PC, so the samurai is om hold for today, but I have the 3D printer set-up for some more parts tomorrow...

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More Samurai work on the wheels.

The Hotshot tires fit on the front wheels just fine. As I have a new front wheel set, they only needed to be glued.

For the rear wheel set, I re-used the wheels that came with the car.

zVs47Gu.jpg

The left wheel is as they are after clearing away massive amount of CA glue. It looks half-decent but has a badly damaged front edge.
The right one is the same, but here I sanded away the lip to get a smooth cilindrical wheel.

Next: I 3D printed 2 new edges, and inserts to get the rim inner diameter to match the hotshot tires, and glued them to the rim.

i3P3nLj.jpg

A dash of silver paint is on the front to get it to look somewhat original with a small silver lip.

The rear wheels can now accept the hotshot tires, and (from a distance) still look like smaller diameter rear wheel (right) compared to front (left).

B6kBQex.jpg

One rear wheel done except for glueing the tire, now some more 3D printing for the 2nd.

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