Garage find - 1981 Sand Rover

[c64orinoco]

The question now is how much to clean it?

The body is an easy decision - I've given it a dust and removed dead bugs, but that's as far as I'll go. I'll add new headlights and repair the driver's arm, but that's all the work I'll do.

The chassis is a tougher question. It absolutely needs some modification to rebuild the broken stays - I think a piece of aluminium, folded at the top to take the suspension rod, and bolted to the side of the tub. The gearbox also needs a serious clean out, it really would damage it further to run it the way it is now. My thought was to dump all the parts in a bucket with some mild detergent and scrub them all clean; but this will certainly remove the grime muck dirt patina. All the bearings need replacing with at least solid metal, if not ballraces, the plastic ones are so worn the rear axles can articulate about 10 degrees independent of the wishbone. The universals are wobbly as a wobbly thing, but they'll just have to live like that I think.

The dirt certainly adds character (one could even say class? er, maybe not) to the chassis as a whole, but some parts must be cleaned if I'm going to run it.

[KEV THE REV]

If it were me I would strip everything down to the last nut and bolt where possible and wash / clean everything . There will be dust and grime everywhere especially in moving parts where it will cause more wear  , washing it won't detract from the aged patina and it will help when running it too . I would use rubber shielded ball races where possible.

[c64orinoco]

Yes I’ll be getting ball races for it. I have decided to throughly clean the whole chassis. I realised I can always add new patina by driving it! 

[c64orinoco]

First run in 30-something years.

[KEV THE REV]

Nice to see it running . The rear is sliding a lot because of the slick tyres against the 540 motor , but it is great to watch , nice one !! :)

[tilstad1]

How long did the gears last after that drive? Seems the thing to do, would be to replace the gear with the broken tooth, before it destroys the rest. These gears are like hens teeth, due to the open gears.

[c64orinoco]

On 6/20/2022 at 7:01 AM, tilstad1 said:

How long did the gears last after that drive? Seems the thing to do, would be to replace the gear with the broken tooth, before it destroys the rest. These gears are like hens teeth, due to the open gears.

That's the only time I have run it. The gears made horrible noises, but no further damage was done. I have downloaded some STL files of the gears and I hope to one day 3D print a set that means I can run it more often. I won't run it again on the original gears, I doubt they would survive another run.

[GeeWings]

What a lovely project buggy to work on. Will be great to see it bought back to life but hopefully with plenty of it's original aged charm intact!

[c64orinoco]

On 7/5/2022 at 7:13 PM, GeeWings said:

What a lovely project buggy to work on. Will be great to see it bought back to life but hopefully with plenty of it's original aged charm intact!

I still have to print a new set of gears for it. I doubt the originals will survive another run.

[KEV THE REV]

1 hour ago, c64orinoco said:

I still have to print a new set of gears for it. I doubt the originals will survive another run.

Original gears are still available.  You can also modify the bushes of a gear B to work as a gear A

[c64orinoco]

On 7/14/2022 at 9:56 PM, KEV THE REV said:

Original gears are still available.  You can also modify the bushes of a gear B to work as a gear A

Do you know where the orignals are available? Unfortunately I don't have any of the spare gears, I only have the 540 motor ones.

[KEV THE REV]

1 hour ago, c64orinoco said:

Do you know where the orignals are available? Unfortunately I don't have any of the spare gears, I only have the 540 motor ones.

These come up on eBay UK quite often . Look for a seller called tamiyabuyerseller he has lot of Holiday Buggy/ Sand rover parts, other sellers often have them too 

[c64orinoco]

I have set up a search to notify me on Ebay, hopefully some will come up for sale soon.