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ReRun

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My son dug out my old RC and we’re going to resurrect it.  It’s an original Turbo Optima Mid last raced in 1988 when I was 15. Need some advice...

 Anyone know where I can get a new body (I’m in Canada)?  

Any parts that are likely to have not aged well and I should expect to break? 

Are split pack NiMH available (3 cells per side)?

Thanks!

16E25123-01A8-49E8-849E-5B512A53CD88.jpeg

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Team Blue Groove on eBay (actually based in Canada, but supply the world with Re-pro bodies) should be able to hook you up with a body, MCI Racing (also in Canada) for decals.

Not sure about 3 per side (saddle packs) nimh batteries, but you could source the cells and battery bars and assemble one without too much struggle if you have a soldering iron.

fully disassemble the car and inspect clean every part looking for broken bits, check and if required replace the bearings, rebuild it, put in some modern reliable electronics and enjoy everything about such a great car. These are quite robust so unless anything is obviously broken I would think you’d be good to go without absolutely thrashing it.

Keep this thread updated with your progress, and any questions you may have as you go

Enjoy it and good luck

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Well, a few years ago saddle pack NiMH batteries were quite available, I can't see why you shouldn't still be able to get them. Try Ebay.

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6 hours ago, Pablo68 said:

Well, a few years ago saddle pack NiMH batteries were quite available, I can't see why you shouldn't still be able to get them. Try Ebay.

Only found a source in UK from an online search. Looks like I’ll just cut up a regular pack and resolder. 

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Another thing I’d do is look for some more modern wheels and tyres for bashing around, those on the front look like original tyres which are very rare and worth good money now

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All of the plastics used in popular RC kits seem to degrade and grow brittle with age, but Mids seem pretty robust in this regard and there are several members here who have original Mids that they still run and even race regularly without too many issues. But as @mtbkym01 suggested, strip it down, clean it, see what condition it's in and replace or restore as necessary. I raced Mids around the same time as you in the UK aqand in my experience the Mid was fairly tough. The only things that used to go on it with any regularity were front suspension arms (and only because the front bumper was stupidly small and I kept hitting things) and idler gears, which I believe are now being remanufactured through various 3D printers.

You might also want to swap out the old wheels and tyres for new ones – possibly in 2.2" sizes – and get some new electronics, as modern ESCs and radio gear are cheap as chips and there is a market for retro ESCs, especially if they are in good condition.

Good to have another Mid back in the fold, though. They are a great car. I really should get one of mine going again.

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18 hours ago, ReRun said:

Any parts that are likely to have not aged well and I should expect to break?

Fantastic cars! Mine is been fairly bullet proof, only breakage has been front shock towers, my fault 🙄🤷‍♂️ (replaced with carbon fibre copies), guess it depends how it was built, if bearings are worn etc (I always throw new bearing sets in anything I buy now, bearings are cheap these days)

I would replace the elecs, a modern goto esc is the hobbywing 1060 for brushed motors, it'll run down to a 12t, and I would really consider purchasing a 2.4ghz radio system, i ran 30+yr old radio in one of mine, and, well 30+ yr old elecs aren't the most reliable.

If you're feeling you want to embrace the whole modern world elecs, there's Lipo batteries which took over from nimh (which took over from nicad), I run these saddle holders in my mid now,  and have a pair of LCG (Low Centre of Gravity) lipos (basically means, thinner!)

https://www.muzzoommodels.co.uk/other-brands/kyosho/lipo-saddle-holder-kyosho?fbclid=IwAR0bccG3QAAQlEDE_fhnn7F7HJcyA_fImQYCKDrwOZKSZ7yER48uiELMK78

Lipos maybe a big jump and a bit daunting, but have a read.

https://rogershobbycenter.com/lipoguide/ 

Wheels / tyres wise, I've stuck with the original wheels (as i think the 2.2" look wrong 😬)  and gone for Schumacher tyres, there's blocks as a good all rounder (yellows are a softer compound so good grip, blues are a harder compound, less grip but last longer), spikes run well on grass and on a slippy church hall floor (as I found out last week!) And the mini spike work on carpet. (There's always copies of the original Bridgestone tyres kicking about if need be)

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/index.php?CategoryID=9960&SubCategoryID=996010&ManufacturerID=51&CategoryID=9960&MSAttributeID[58]=713&MSAttributeID[63]=871

 

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Thanks for the tips everyone. Tracked down a new body and decals with the suggestions provided. I’ve got the two sets of the original wheels/tires (also had a chain drive Turbo Optima at on point).  Also have foam slicks and my former race go to Schumacher rears and Hotshot fronts that I died yellow.  Unfortunately one of the fronts has warped while in storage.  

Will stick to the NiMHs as I don’t trust my 11 year old with Lipos. You should have seen the smoke when Intried to charge the 30 year old NiCd’s!

Two new radios and hobbywing 1060s are on order with a Konghead and King Yellow that are going under the tree for Xmas for my son and I so will have backup electronics if I can’t get the vintage electronics back online. Lots of family bashing in my near future!

 

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FCF76BED-C28B-4D28-B3E0-4564B6DCFA8C.thumb.jpeg.ba76db7e3fd0a22689e04b724d466f34.jpeg‘86-87 photo of my Turbo Optima and buddy’s Javelin, both with MSCs. This was after we graduated from a Grasshopper and Hornet.  Note genuine green shag carpet as evidence of photo authenticity 😆🤢

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18 hours ago, ReRun said:

‘86-87 photo of my Turbo Optima and buddy’s Javelin, both with MSCs. This was after we graduated from a Grasshopper and Hornet.  Note genuine green shag carpet as evidence of photo authenticity 😆🤢

When @Wooders28 said mini spikes work well on carpet, he didn't mean that carpet.

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1 minute ago, Yalson said:

When @Wooders28 said mini spikes work well on carpet, he didn't mean that carpet.

You'd need full spikes for that bad boy! 🙄

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18 hours ago, ReRun said:

Will stick to the NiMHs as I don’t trust my 11 year old with Lipos. You should have seen the smoke when Intried to charge the 30 year old NiCd’s!

Maybe a good plan for a while! 

As for saddles, if you want to make life a bit easier, the mid did come with the option of running a stick pack, 

2019-12-03_10-56-07

 

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7 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

You'd need full spikes for that bad boy! 🙄

You'd need stilts.

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2 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

As for saddles, if you want to make life a bit easier, the mid did come with the option of running a stick pack, 

It surely did. We used to use sticks in our Mids, as the SWB with the Dural chassis could only run sticks, so we had to use sticks on both to allow our batteries to be used in either car. Off road the difference in handling was minimal between saddles and sticks on the LWB car, but the higher CoG was noticeable when running on tarmac during the winter and you were scrapping for every tiny morsel of grip and balance.

We eventually phased the sticks out when I got a Lazer ZX-R. I stopped using the SWB Mid altogether and the LWB one only came out when the Lazer was irreparably indisposed for the day.

Incidentally, does anyone else here think the standard Kyosho method of retaining saddle packs with bits of plastic clipped in between two posts was completely rubbish? We binned it very early on, but we never came up with anything else that did the job as well as we'd have liked. 

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7 hours ago, Yalson said:

When @Wooders28 said mini spikes work well on carpet, he didn't mean that carpet.

T

 

7 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

You'd need full spikes for that bad boy! 🙄

Personally I feel that rug really tied the RCs together. 

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On 12/2/2019 at 8:17 PM, ReRun said:

Note genuine green shag carpet as evidence of photo authenticity 😆🤢

Haven't you heard? That's called off-road racing these days ;)

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