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Pandawilks

Getting back in to it with a Falcon and a Boomerang

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Hi all

After 25 years I have managed to get my old Falcon and Boomerang up and running. Rear wheels and tyres on the Falcon have seen better days (put new tyres on the front and wheels are fine).

I'm thinking of an upgrade away from the four point hub fitting. Could I go with a set of hex adapters presuming 12mm width, 5mm depth) and then use any compatible wheels?

Thank you in advance. The kids are thoroughly looking forward to trying 'daddy's old cars' later today. Fixing them has sparked the old enjoyment for me, even down to 3d printed replacement parts turning up for the Falcon!

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7 minutes ago, Pandawilks said:

Hi all

After 25 years I have managed to get my old Falcon and Boomerang up and running. Rear wheels and tyres on the Falcon have seen better days (put new tyres on the front and wheels are fine).

I'm thinking of an upgrade away from the four point hub fitting. Could I go with a set of hex adapters presuming 12mm width, 5mm depth) and then use any compatible wheels?

Thank you in advance. The kids are thoroughly looking forward to trying 'daddy's old cars' later today. Fixing them has sparked the old enjoyment for me, even down to 3d printed replacement parts turning up for the Falcon!

Welcome, and lucky having your old cars around to restore.

I can't say for the Falcon but I have used 12mm hex, 5mm thick hexes to convert my boomerang to run modern wheels. As long as the Falcon has the pin through the axle then I don't see why it wouldn't be the same

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DONT let the kids loose with the Vintage restores, quick way to break them again. Happened with my Midnight Pumpkin (still not got the Pumpkin fixed) and Thundershot. 

Get a more modern buggy for them to learn with- I got 2 Madbulls that were virtually indestructible before upgrading to Traxxas bashers. We have 3 Stampedes now as they go anywhere and a lot tougher and faster than Tamiya's.

But restore and enjoy the vintage ones gently or looking at them....

Oh and I was were you were about 2 and a half years ago. Its an addiction (hobby) for most of us.

2019-04-27_05-38-31

 

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Nogo for the falcon, brilliant car but due to its age and some design failures the plastic bits will fall apart just by looking at it. Drive it with care. Or better not.

The places to watch are where all the screw in pins attach, plastic cracks very easely.

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Thanks all.

Yep the suspension struts had snapped at the shocks on the Falcon so got 3d printed ones and fitted them along with new front tyres.  It's actually running fine (apart from the tyres starting to come off the rears) and the kids did have a go with both with no damage (other than the bumper screw came out of the Boomerang!).  The old Acoms electrics are a bit shot on the manual speed controller and the boomerang capacitor likes to heat up.  I have ordered a Hobbywing 1060 esc to replace and try and correct those problems.  Steering servo seems OK.

There's no pin for the falcon rears.  They are the four point hub connections so I was wondering whether hex adapters with a grub screw to hold on to the axle would work.

And nice collection Baddon!

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@Pandawilks Glad they are running nicely. On the rear of your Falcon, prize the 4 point plastic part away from the suspension upright and you will probably find a pin through the axle. If so, a 5mm or 6mm thick hex will drop straight on once you pull the 4 point connector all the way off first. 

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8 minutes ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

@Pandawilks Glad they are running nicely. On the rear of your Falcon, prize the 4 point plastic part away from the suspension upright and you will probably find a pin through the axle. If so, a 5mm or 6mm thick hex will drop straight on once you pull the 4 point connector all the way off first. 

Ah now I couldn't remember if that was the case and was too nervous to try!  Should have looked at the manual online and checked that.  Great advice, cheers ThunderDragonCy

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Like you, I had a falcon itch that needed to be scratched and just picked one up for ok(ish) money and now in thee process of cleaning it all up

i remember how poor the bathtub chassis was and how easy it was to snap the whole front end off - but this one is pretty solid

Just the shell thats wrecked in the standard places (front suspension area, rear suspension area and spoiler.

I won't be running it though ;)

JJ

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I think it’s awesome getting your children involved.  With so many other distractions for children today that’s an impressive feat to accomplish.  When I first started that’s all I could think of was getting out of school and hitting the off road. I must have been one of the lucky ones but I use to jump my falcon pretty high and never broke anything.  Still one of the coolest looking buggy’s in my opinion.. Tamiya did a fabulous job incorporating the look of the animal into the body design.. I.E the Frog and Falcon looks just like the animal it was named after lol good on you

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While I agree that for the kiddies, it’ll be safer buying either a newer buggy or a remake, and letting them loose with that...because they will likely smash it...

I really don’t think we need to say “vintage car X should not be run because it will break just by looking at it”

Restore and run vintage cars gently. That’s all. But DO run them. Just remember they are historics. And like 1:1 historics, its nice to run them. It may even be nice for others to see them run. 

I don’t agree at all with the idea that people should avoid running vintage cars because of some myth about them being ultra fragile. 

It’s nonsense. Don’t jump them hard, smash them into trees, run them on stupidly rough terrain, or run them too long without servicing them... and there is nothing wrong with them. Even mechanical speed controllers will last for years and years with light running + a clean after each run. 

Some spares for Falcon are actually fairly cheap too, so keep some vintage spares handy if you like the idea of keeping the car vintage.

It’s all a scaled-down parallel to owning a 1:1 classic. And people take millions of those classic cars out for Sunday drives around the world, every single weekend. There is no need to keep our vintage Tamiya toys locked away or shelved only, never “daring” to run them. You should also not feel required to “upgrade” every vintage car just to make it “runnable”. Not unless you want to run it hard and smash it.

You can keep it original. But just need to be prepared to look after the car and maintain it with a few spares. But I argue that is a huge part of the fun of owning an historic car - provided your budget expectations around doing this, are realistic. ie. If you run the car a lot (once a month or more), you might need to spend a little money on it each year for tyres, or driveshafts or gears or something.

If you run a vintage car occasionally, you won’t need to spend much on it at all. Even plastic wheel bearings will last for years, if fitted with molybdenum grease and cleaned after runs. ;) I know because I grew up doing this, when I had zero money and had to make do with what I had. With care, vintage Tamiyas last forever.

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On 5/25/2019 at 3:36 PM, Hibernaculum said:

While I agree that for the kiddies, it’ll be safer buying either a newer buggy or a remake, and letting them loose with that...because they will likely smash it...

I really don’t think we need to say “vintage car X should not be run because it will break just by looking at it”

Restore and run vintage cars gently. That’s all. But DO run them. Just remember they are historics. And like 1:1 historics, its nice to run them. It may even be nice for others to see them run. 

I don’t agree at all with the idea that people should avoid running vintage cars because of some myth about them being ultra fragile. 

It’s nonsense. Don’t jump them hard, smash them into trees, run them on stupidly rough terrain, or run them too long without servicing them... and there is nothing wrong with them. Even mechanical speed controllers will last for years and years with light running + a clean after each run. 

Some spares for Falcon are actually fairly cheap too, so keep some vintage spares handy if you like the idea of keeping the car vintage.

It’s all a scaled-down parallel to owning a 1:1 classic. And people take millions of those classic cars out for Sunday drives around the world, every single weekend. There is no need to keep our vintage Tamiya toys locked away or shelved only, never “daring” to run them. You should also not feel required to “upgrade” every vintage car just to make it “runnable”. Not unless you want to run it hard and smash it.

You can keep it original. But just need to be prepared to look after the car and maintain it with a few spares. But I argue that is a huge part of the fun of owning an historic car - provided your budget expectations around doing this, are realistic. ie. If you run the car a lot (once a month or more), you might need to spend a little money on it each year for tyres, or driveshafts or gears or something.

If you run a vintage car occasionally, you won’t need to spend much on it at all. Even plastic wheel bearings will last for years, if fitted with molybdenum grease and cleaned after runs. ;) I know because I grew up doing this, when I had zero money and had to make do with what I had. With care, vintage Tamiyas last forever.

Are you suggesting there's a middle ground between keeping NIB kits sealed in a climate-controlled vault, and jumping your car over your mom's minivan so you can post the video to Youtube? Heretic. ;)

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On 8/19/2019 at 11:21 PM, Problemchild said:

Qs.... @Baddon

... whats that display cabinet???

 

JJ

Sorry been off here for a bit with summer other hobbies take over for a few months.

Its an Ikea Detlolf with extra shelves to double the number of cars. I have two of them strapped together with the joining walls removed so the buggies fit it. Hope this helps.

 

You can buy the additional shelf mounts off ebay as quite a few people 3D print them.

I saved a search on Gumtree and picked up four of them locally for less than one new one.

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