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c64orinoco

Garage find - 1981 Sand Rover

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EDIT: Follow my restoration here: Sand Rover Restoration Part 1  Sand Rover Restoration Part 2

This used to belong to my younger brother, and a mate found it in his garage.

It's a 1981 Sand Rover, built around 1982, and has been lost in the garage for about 31 years.

It needs new tires, and the left suspension mount needs repair; but otherwise it's fairly intact. It currently has what appears to be a Hornet speed controller fitted; I think I'll replace this with something modern for convenience. The motor is a 540, for memory the original had a 380.

It's missing the headlights, but they seem easy to source. Hopefully I can source a new windscreen, as the old one is quite scratched and the screws are rusted in place. One of the body mounts is broken off - I think I might have to resort to some 3D printing to replace that.

It should be a fun restoration project.

IMG_0886.jpg

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It has the perfect teenage patina look! Those rear tyres have done a few burnouts lol I actually like the windscreen as it is authentic. I would buy the bits like lights etc, but try not to stray too far from the existing look by doing a full on resto etc as it’ll lose its charm & memories 

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The parts you need are still available from the Sand Rover / Street Rover re-release , should only cost around £30 for new parts plus spares  :) . As CH said , it's nice to keep most of it original if you can . Tyres and wheels are the rare parts on these right now , so possibly a good used set of tyres and restore your wheels . Fit ball races into the wheels and axles for a smooth ride , those plastic bearings are probably toast by now anyway . Great little find .

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2 hours ago, CoolHands said:

It has the perfect teenage patina look! Those rear tyres have done a few burnouts lol I actually like the windscreen as it is authentic. I would buy the bits like lights etc, but try not to stray too far from the existing look by doing a full on resto etc as it’ll lose its charm & memories 

Exactly as CoolHands says, leave most of it because it's all memories. Its survived 31 yrs in the garage, dont go changing it now, well not too much anyway.

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I had one of these at that same time period, my first Tamiya.

I found the model after say ten years and thought I  would renovate it. First job was to get the bad paint job off from the hard body. I thought I would use the nitromors my dad had in the shed!

Body turned to molten mess,right shame. That was the first time I went from 6v to 7.2v and could not believe the speed improvement. Good times.

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10 hours ago, CoolHands said:

It has the perfect teenage patina look! Those rear tyres have done a few burnouts lol I actually like the windscreen as it is authentic. I would buy the bits like lights etc, but try not to stray too far from the existing look by doing a full on resto etc as it’ll lose its charm & memories 

It's seen a lot of running on asphalt hence the worn tyres. I was going to give it a good scrub, but if the patina look is cool then I'll leave it as-is. It certainly has patina all over it! I have ordered some new lights though, and you can't see it in the photo but the driver is missing half his left arm.

The gearbox (which is open) does need a good clean-out, you could grow plants in it at the moment. It looks like there are dead creatures in it too, which is more patina than I would like. I'm in Australia, so most of our crawly things in garages are lethal; such as Funnel-web and Redback spiders. At the very least I'll clean the dust and dead crawlies out of it. The gears look to be in reasonable condition despite the open-air gearbox and dead crawlies.

One of the trickier things is going to be the battery - this chassis was intended for 5-cell 6V batteries, or the weird 7.2V hump-pack Tamiya used to make; does anyone still make 7.2V hump-packs?

For memory this car was actually pretty quick (with the 540 at least) and stable - the fiberglass torsion plate rear suspension worked surprisingly well. You can see from the bent front bumper it's had some hard hits. I think this car did get raced a bit, and held it's own compared to contemporary designs; probably due to the very low center of gravity (for that era at least). I had a Super Champ that was very prone to rolling due to the very high (and heavy) CoG and the lack of roll stabilization in the rear suspension. 

The tyres are super-glued to the rims, so I'm not sure they can be removed easily. They might withstand a few runs in their current condition. I think the modern version wheel might fit on it, certainly Frog or Buggy Champ wheels would, I might keep the originals for display and new wheels and rims for running it. Yes, the bearings are pretty worn, and the rear universals are pretty sloppy too. No diff to worry about, solid rear axle! 

The intention is this will mostly be a shelf queen; it's certainly not going to withstand serious bashing as the plastic chassis is fairly brittle by now. Sedate driving on mild surfaces only for this old thing.

I'd love to use an original speed controller but I guess those things are rare as hen's teeth now. I think it was the coil / sliding arm type, not the Hornet-type as currently fitted. 

 

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The original speed controllers come up but they are also used in some other early, rare cars so they are reasonably sought after. Maybe £20-£30 for a nice used one from what ive seen.

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1 hour ago, c64orinoco said:

Tamiya used to make; does anyone still make 7.2V hump-packs?

I bought an aftermarket one for my Sand Scorcher for £20 , they are NiMh now not NiCd as they used to be but still compatible with the vintage Rover

1 hour ago, c64orinoco said:

I was going to give it a good scrub, but if the patina look is cool then I'll leave it as-is. It certainly has patina all over it!

Nothing wrong with cleaning it up , but not a full on restoration / paint job just to keep that patina / aged look . The drivers arm is on the same tree as the lights , so you can complete the driver and paint it in to match the original :)

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4 hours ago, KEV THE REV said:

I bought an aftermarket one for my Sand Scorcher for £20 , they are NiMh now not NiCd as they used to be but still compatible with the vintage Rover

Nothing wrong with cleaning it up , but not a full on restoration / paint job just to keep that patina / aged look . The drivers arm is on the same tree as the lights , so you can complete the driver and paint it in to match the original :)

I'm going to at least tidy the driver up; he looks a bit too worn. I might make him replaceable as I'm planning for the wheels - keep the original but have a newer version too.

One of the things I like about the old body is that the licence plate decal reads STOLEN rather than the more sedate modern BCHBUM. 

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10 hours ago, c64orinoco said:

It's seen a lot of running on asphalt hence the worn tyres. I was going to give it a good scrub, but if the patina look is cool then I'll leave it as-is. It certainly has patina all over it! I have ordered some new lights though, and you can't see it in the photo but the driver is missing half his left arm.

The gearbox (which is open) does need a good clean-out, you could grow plants in it at the moment. It looks like there are dead creatures in it too, which is more patina than I would like. I'm in Australia, so most of our crawly things in garages are lethal; such as Funnel-web and Redback spiders. At the very least I'll clean the dust and dead crawlies out of it. The gears look to be in reasonable condition despite the open-air gearbox and dead crawlies.

One of the trickier things is going to be the battery - this chassis was intended for 5-cell 6V batteries, or the weird 7.2V hump-pack Tamiya used to make; does anyone still make 7.2V hump-packs?

For memory this car was actually pretty quick (with the 540 at least) and stable - the fiberglass torsion plate rear suspension worked surprisingly well. You can see from the bent front bumper it's had some hard hits. I think this car did get raced a bit, and held it's own compared to contemporary designs; probably due to the very low center of gravity (for that era at least). I had a Super Champ that was very prone to rolling due to the very high (and heavy) CoG and the lack of roll stabilization in the rear suspension. 

The tyres are super-glued to the rims, so I'm not sure they can be removed easily. They might withstand a few runs in their current condition. I think the modern version wheel might fit on it, certainly Frog or Buggy Champ wheels would, I might keep the originals for display and new wheels and rims for running it. Yes, the bearings are pretty worn, and the rear universals are pretty sloppy too. No diff to worry about, solid rear axle! 

The intention is this will mostly be a shelf queen; it's certainly not going to withstand serious bashing as the plastic chassis is fairly brittle by now. Sedate driving on mild surfaces only for this old thing.

I'd love to use an original speed controller but I guess those things are rare as hen's teeth now. I think it was the coil / sliding arm type, not the Hornet-type as currently fitted. 

 

I have several sets of new old stock front wheel and tyres sets for these, if you are interested, send me a private message, and we can sort something out.

J

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I suspect all the REAR tyre sets got bought out by the RC10 racers BiTD ^_^

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2 hours ago, WillyChang said:

I suspect all the REAR tyre sets got bought out by the RC10 racers BiTD ^_^

I have been looking for rear wheel and tyre sets for years....

J

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17 hours ago, c64orinoco said:

One of the trickier things is going to be the battery - this chassis was intended for 5-cell 6V batteries, or the weird 7.2V hump-pack Tamiya used to make; does anyone still make 7.2V hump-packs?

I bought 2 of these for my Sand Scorcher

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Carson-500608097-Akku-Sand-Scorcher-Champ-7-2V-2700-Nimh-Neu/401579721422?epid=1205161148&hash=item5d800442ce:g:svQAAOSwI2xbbWwJ

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On 1/5/2020 at 6:48 AM, c64orinoco said:

Hopefully I can source a new windscreen, as the old one is quite scratched and the screws are rusted in place. One of the body mounts is broken off - I think I might have to resort to some 3D printing to replace that.

Nice specimen! Gotta love these Rover buggies :)

You can use a CD case to replace the windshield. The plastic has the same thickness, so you can mark down the contour of the orig windshield and then cut it off to have a perfect one. Of course, you can get a replacement nowadays, too.

And you can also get body mounts from the re-release. Those still remain in the tree and are of no use on the new Sand Rover.

Good luck with the resto work. Would be nice to see pictures of the updates :)

 

 

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10 minutes ago, mongoose1983 said:

Nice specimen! Gotta love these Rover buggies :)

 

It's a pretty unique design.

Would you happen to know if the 7.2V hump packs fit under the body? I only ever recall running this with a 6V pack.

 

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29 minutes ago, c64orinoco said:

It's a pretty unique design.

Would you happen to know if the 7.2V hump packs fit under the body? I only ever recall running this with a 6V pack.

Yes. I've just tested a hump pack on mine and it works great. And you can fit the hump right or left side, no problem.

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7 hours ago, mongoose1983 said:

Yes. I've just tested a hump pack on mine and it works great. And you can fit the hump right or left side, no problem.

I'll just have to find one locally, the postage from Germany is really just too much.

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I'd update it mechanically but leave the cosmetics as-is.  I typically like to make things like new again, but this has a great vintage look to it.  Either way good luck with it, nice piece of Tamiya history.

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3 hours ago, c64orinoco said:

Ouch! The postage is a bit high from Germany to Australia...

I did a quick ebay search to find that link just to show you what I had. You can most likely find them elsewhere too. Isn't Carson a UK company? I could be wrong about that. I know I didn't get mine from Germany.

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These guys ship to Oz , very reasonable cost , just over £30 GBP shipped for a 3700mah 7.2 hump pack

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-2V-Battery-2200-5000mAh-SubC-SC-Premium-Racing-RC-NiMh-pack-custom-connector/361239081408?hash=item541b86f1c0:m:mx5ed9XFkwGlbdNxd5qQ9gQ&shqty=1&isGTR=1#shpCntId

I've used them a couple of times , great guys .

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On 1/5/2020 at 10:48 AM, c64orinoco said:

This used to belong to my younger brother, and a mate found it in his garage.

It's a 1981 Sand Rover, built around 1982, and has been lost in the garage for about 31 years.

It needs new tires, and the left suspension mount needs repair; but otherwise it's fairly intact. It currently has what appears to be a Hornet speed controller fitted; I think I'll replace this with something modern for convenience. The motor is a 540, for memory the original had a 380.

It's missing the headlights, but they seem easy to source. Hopefully I can source a new windscreen, as the old one is quite scratched and the screws are rusted in place. One of the body mounts is broken off - I think I might have to resort to some 3D printing to replace that.

It should be a fun restoration project.

IMG_0886.jpg

Any pics topless

The Rover that is - ;)

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17 hours ago, KEV THE REV said:

These guys ship to Oz , very reasonable cost , just over £30 GBP shipped for a 3700mah 7.2 hump pack

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-2V-Battery-2200-5000mAh-SubC-SC-Premium-Racing-RC-NiMh-pack-custom-connector/361239081408?hash=item541b86f1c0:m:mx5ed9XFkwGlbdNxd5qQ9gQ&shqty=1&isGTR=1#shpCntId

I've used them a couple of times , great guys .

I didn't see your post and got one from somewhere more expensive. *sigh* Oh well at least I've got one on the way.

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