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GTodd

King Cab Restoration

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Good Evening all.  I didn't ever plan to build or restore a King Cab.  I still have my monster racer that I got Christmas Day 1991.  I love that thing and only just recently replaced the transmision for the stealth as it was getting really hard to get spares for the ball differential, whose weakness is HEAVILY over exagerated.  Any way, through the years I collected alot of spares in order to keep the monster racer going.  As I ws going through parts for my Astute restoration I relized I had enough parts to build another monster racer other than the chassid, so I decided to do a King cab.  I purchased a chassis from ebay and got robbed, cracks and other issues made it unuseable for a build.  Everyday for a month I search ebay for kingcab stuff then last week I stumbled onto an auction with no views, watching, or bids.  It was listed a little odd, I stole the auction. I won the King Cab with a classic nearly perfect Magnum JR radio for 99.00 US!!!

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I won it on Monday and it was at my house Thursday!

I gave it a quick once over and other than the body which I'll try to use Tamiya Lexan cleaner on this thing looks perfect!

The differential feels new, the shocks are silky smooth, and the chassis looks mint!  Even the mechanical speed control works, which will stay.  The tires are gone, but whatever the plan is to get some prolines.  I dont need the radio, its perfect other than the door which of course is mssing its latch.  If you want it make an offer, I dont know what its worth.  Keeping the servos.  

The plan is to strip it down, clean everything, replace what I need with the spares I have and posibly upgrade with all AMPRO parts, keeping the stock motor and MSC, ordering TBG body and MCI decals. 

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3 Hours latter and the truck has been striped downed.  The transmision is still assembled, Ill do that tomorrow.  Ill completely clean the chassis tub and then follow the directions and assemble this beast.  It is absolutely perfect!!! So far one broken front king pin and two bent screws. Speaking of screws I lucked out, the kingcab has a nearly complete set of optional screws installed, they are lighter in weight and of a silver color vice the traditional bronze like color of the vintage screws.  They arent the grey color that thier titanium screws were of this vintage. The screws are specific to the car becaue even the odd rounded flat head screw that I believe is only found on the Kingcab is present as well, jut silver and super light. Ill post a comparison latter.  Here is the emaculate chassis, ready for a wipe down.

 

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Its finding those hidden gems that have not been listed correctly.

I just picked up 4 front Madcap tyres....like hens teeth from what i can understand. Listed as Super Gripper. There were others after them but obviously none as keen as me.

They have still to arrive so still not sure of their actual condition!

Look forward to seeing another King Cab restored to its full Glory. (Tires are the difficult bit if you want to go full original) I think I read somewhere the Blitzer Beetle ones fit and look pretty good on it as well.

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Did some more work, maybe I shouldve called this a rebuild and not restoration, not all of these parts are perfect.  The chassis is amazing however! Re-assembled the front end.  Shocks are soaking, front arms were a little chewed up but serviceable, I boiled the arms, flipped them and re-installed.  Hub caries and king pins are perfect. Im following the instruction manual step by step, cleaning the 4mm rods and rod ends as I go and re-assemblming.  

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The one deviation, I just had to see what the transmision and and ball diferential look like, they were pefect!!! Even the access cover is perfect!

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The re-build continues, Ive used all the spares Ive collected, none were NIB but they were in real good shape.  One of the rear arms were a little chewed up, I switched sides to get the fresh side to face down.  I still plan on ordering some AMPRO stuff.  I wont ordet the new parts until I get it up and running.  This is goinging quicker than the Astute becasue I have everything I need minus the body.  Anyway on with the pictures.

Here is an exampe of the screws, this one is a little dirty but you can see it has a shiny silver color to it, not the normal shin gold color that the fasteners were of this erra.  I used this type of lock nut to secure the rea suspension blocks.  Tamiya switched to a standard nut, probably as a lesson learned from the Astute (mmmm but why did they still use them on the Super Astute????).  I always had a problem with the screws backing out, lock nut fixes that. 

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Here they are installed

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Rear end getting there

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Transmision back where it goes, silver can for now, will move up to a black can once the little man gets good

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What a GREAT looking chassis, no wonder these were the Tamiya truck to get for a few years.

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I am very pleased at how well this has come out!!!!I just finished cleaning and rebuilding the shocks.  I set the shocks up based on an old article I read in Car Action.  Additionally the shocks are filled with 60 weight oil in the back and 50 in the front.

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It looks AMAZING

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My tires just arrived, going to clean up the wheels and set them up!!!

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I am VERY Happy how this re-buid turned out.  The wheels came up nice and white, the shocks are gleaming yellow, the proline tires are period correct and great for the yard, and heck I even got the MSC working!!!!  TBG body and MCI decals are on order, now I can get back to work on the Astute!  Ive also orderd the Super Astute re-re gear train, not sure if this will get it or the Astute, the Monster Racer utilizes the Stealth Conversion. Time will tell I guess!!!!

 

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I just took this out for a shake down run, man what good fun!!! Tamiya rere this thing already!!!!! Drop in the Egress ball differential in there and itd be Indestructible!! Seriously gang if you don't have one of these you need to get one! Great on the track and/or the back yard.

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I keep missing out on auctions for nice versions of these and monster racers.

Second the re-re of the series.

Truck looks like  great fun,  you did a nice job.

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