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Saito2

How to restore childhood Vanquish

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For the most part, my childhood cars have sat on shelves, untouched, as time capsules. Some, like my Lunch Box can't be truly restored because if I replaced all the worn out parts, there wouldn't be anything left of the original. My Vanquish is different on the other hand. It could be torn down, cleaned and restored. I did modify it as a kid, for various ridiculous reasons. The question is, do I restore to boxart original (how I religiously do all my cars now) or do I restore it with my modifications in place? My OCD is screaming boxart while some part of me is telling me to retain the modifications. There was a third voice calling me to modify it the way I truly wanted to as a kid (but didn't have the funds for). I wasn't able to grab the Avante Hicaps back when Tamiya offered them for 20 seconds because of financial issues (well, my daughter ;)) so that kinda quelled the notion of making it what I wanted. Suggestions?

 

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I would restore it how you wanted it as a child and spare no expense

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Restore it with the mods you did. Like you said, it is a time capsule. If you really wanted a box art one you could find another one to restore. Those mods were done by you, no other Vanquish will have that.

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I guess some history would help. I got the Vanquish on closeout for $99 (there was no way I was getting one at the regular $224.99). With much begging, it became a Christmas present (as long as I agreed it would be my only Christmas present that year). Now, truthfully I was in love with the Avante but a $99 Vanquish was as close as I'd ever get, in my mind. It was close, and probably technically better anyway. Naturally, some of my build choices down the line involved making it more Avante-like. I painted it straight up Pactra blue because that's the only blue they had at the local hobby shop. Certainly not Avante blue, but Tamiya paint wasn't around my area in those days, just Pactra and Testors. The windows were blacked out. I loved the Avante cockpit but hated the Vanquish driver. Its just a head and shoulders hanging in there and its plainly visible there's nothing else. I don't want the top half of a corpse piloting my buggy.

Later, for a birthday present, I received a set of Avante cam-loc wheels for it. The hobby clerk managed to track a set down (finding odd parts wasn't easy in the MRC days), but he couldn't understand what I wanted them for since the Vanquish wheels were "better". Well, I wanted them 'cause the look cool.

Then came shocks. Hicaps only existed in dreams and Kyosho golds were out of my range. For some unknown reason, I went with Kyosho black composite shocks. Don't ask why. I made some longer front towers out of ABS plate. By this time the Egress was on the market and was equally attractive as the Avante, so I might have been going for the more upright front shock look. I did get more travel out of it at least. At the beginning I probably wanted to approximate an Avante, but by the end, more the Egress. Oh what wouldn't have given for the Avante Carbon Graphite Chassis set back then. I put the CVAs back on 10 years ago but it still wears its Pactra blue shell and Avante wheels. Adult-me kicks myself for straying from boxart, but nostalgic me is undecided.

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Got mine in the fall of 1990 for $99 out of the back of the RC magazine also.  I remember the shock I felt when I found the add while sitting on the toilet.  Mine is still painted Testors blue spray (which flakes off with every crash) and Testors brush-on Gray canopy (clear windshield).  I ran a set of grey-painted Turbo Optima wheels till I scored a set of used aluminized ones.  Ran those tires bald on the street. Also ran bald a set of HPI Super RS4 rally tires & chrome Mesh wheels.  Eventually fitted a set of Kyosho gold shocks till I finally got tied of their inappropriate compression and droop lengths (vanquish rear shock length is pretty unique).  Next I pieced together some Hi-Caps later on when original Egress parts were still available.  Since then I've fitted Ball race bell cranks, original Egress front & rear ball diffs, original Egress blue front upper arms, square-wire hi-cap springs, and fully shimmed & ball-raced drivetrain.

These cars are so much fun to work on. Just take it apart and see what feels right putting it back together!  You can always change it later.

Sunset-1.jpg

BTW: The Vanquish Drivers head on an Avante cockpit looks fantastic inside the body.

D20_0119.jpg

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So a restore, painted Avante blue, with an Avante driver, high caps , Avante rims and cam loacks, 

 

Sounds like a nice buggy

 

I have one similar

An original Avante 2001, cam locks etc, vintage high caps, vintage ball diff hop ups and a centre diff , very under rated buggy

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10 hours ago, Snappy1 said:

So a restore, painted Avante blue, with an Avante driver, high caps , Avante rims and cam loacks,

This might be the way to go. There is no way I can swing unobtainium Hicaps money-wise. Perhaps I can use Avante shocks from kit breakers on Fleabay. I'll have to measure. The cockpit set is easy to get now. If I go the full carbon chassis route, I think too much of the Vanquish may be lost.

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ugh, I really wish I bought those Hicaps when they were out years ago

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On 10/9/2019 at 3:45 PM, Saito2 said:

ugh, I really wish I bought those Hicaps when they were out years ago

Me too, however the rere Avante shocks which although not hicaps are still very nice upgrades and easily found right now. 

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On 10/9/2019 at 12:15 PM, Saito2 said:

This might be the way to go. There is no way I can swing unobtainium Hicaps money-wise. Perhaps I can use Avante shocks from kit breakers on Fleabay. I'll have to measure. The cockpit set is easy to get now. If I go the full carbon chassis route, I think too much of the Vanquish may be lost.

YES!!! The Avante shocks are a drop in.

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....additionally I think the Egress wheels would look better than the Avante cam locks.

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Avante front shocks are very short and will only work if you remove the Vanquish front shock tower.  Even the Avante rear shocks appear to be too short as the Vanquish rear tower looks much higher.

Hi-Cap rears were also very tricky to setup to my liking on the stock Vanquish chassis.  I remember having to flip the rear lower arms over and swap them left/right to lower the shock mounts (allow longer shocks).  The shocks also required an internal droop limiter to prevent the dog-bones from binding up and breaking the upright while driving.

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Yeah, I was looking at that last night. I figured the front tower would have to go. I didn't realize the rears would be such a pain though. I'm still undecided what to do with the shock situation. 

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1 hour ago, 94eg! said:

Avante front shocks are very short and will only work if you remove the Vanquish front shock tower.  Even the Avante rear shocks appear to be too short as the Vanquish rear tower looks much higher.

Hi-Cap rears were also very tricky to setup to my liking on the stock Vanquish chassis.  I remember having to flip the rear lower arms over and swap them left/right to lower the shock mounts (allow longer shocks).  The shocks also required an internal droop limiter to prevent the dog-bones from binding up and breaking the upright while driving.

Hmmmm, I didn't realize that! What size shock does the vanquish use up front?

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I believe it's the standard CVA "mini" size of the era but it is special to the Vanquish. The lower half of the unique spring tapers down to a unique lower holder. Tamiya added a shock tower on top of the Avante's mounts which brings the angle of the front shocks up (about halfway between the nearly horizontal Avante's and the nearly vertical Egress's). The taper helps clear parts of the front suspension.

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That's right. The tapered front springs on the Avante & Vanquish were required to clear the curved arm of the metal uprights at full droop.  The Hi-Caps got around this by using a conical plastic lower spring seat that simulated the taper and allowed the shock cylinder to nest down inside at full compression.  Pretty unique. 

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I ALWAYS wanted a Vanquish (the Avante was just toooooo expensive and heavy Back in the Day)

Picked one up about a year ago and had intended to do a full strip and rebuild as I want to actually build it.

BUT watched this and reckon I may just do the cosmetic bits I can see and leave the rest as I dont want to ruin what I have got.

 

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