Saito2 6686 Posted February 2, 2020 I received my Grasshopper 2 today . I dug out the shocks saved from my old, lost Super G too. Now for a couple questions on how I should go about building it. My original Super G did not come with o-rings for the shocks. In researching this. I've found, I wasn't alone in this case. So, I'm debating whether to use them this time around or go for the full retro experience I had back then. While on that subject, I never painted the body either back then. Should I this time? If I do, it means the car won't be completed till spring as its too cold to paint. I'm wondering if Wild One wheels will take dye so I can replicate the neon yellow wheels mine had. I have some of the genuine articles but they're brittle and this will be a runner. I may even run dyed DT02 wheels. Unsure. BTW, I did purchase a real Super G on fleabay last year that will be restored properly (painted body, etc.). Opinions welcome. Silly pic below. 20200202_144442 by Scott Weiland, on Flickr This time, my parents aren't forcing me to cut up the box and won't secretly throw the buggy in the trash when I'm not home. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LS7Heli 12 Posted February 3, 2020 Nice car. I had an original in 1989. For some reason, people always think something was wrong with the Super G because it didn't come with oil shocks. Its not supposed to. The Super G came with "racing" shocks that where the yellow ones less the o-rings and oil, RS540 motor with pinon gear and larger day-glo wheels. I noticed USA cars like mine had the bright yellow wheels and other parts of the world had dark green or dark pink. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saito2 6686 Posted February 3, 2020 32 minutes ago, LS7Heli said: The Super G came with "racing" shocks that where the yellow ones less the o-rings and oil, Yes! I remember them being called that in literature instead of CVA shocks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LS7Heli 12 Posted February 3, 2020 I remember this in R/C car action. Not sure what country you are in, this was USA. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderDragonCy 7878 Posted February 3, 2020 @LS7Heli I love that ad! Thanks for posting. I am paying attention to see if wild one wheels take dye. I am a bit obsessed with these wheels, but my rears cracked and failed between the holes after track use. The fronts are still running fine though. @Saito2 May i implore you to go the wild one wheel route. DT02 astral or star dish wheels are just the worst looking wheels IMO! They are also weird not-quite-2.2. I have found with the release of proper tyres for vintage racing the 2" wild one rears take one of these types of tyre and the front happily fit a modern slim 2.2 without gluing. I run Schumacher 2" mini spikes rear and 2.2 stagger ribs front. Works great on grass and astro. Can't really help on the shocks thing. As you probably know my Super G is now Ultra G and a "bit" modified 😂 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saito2 6686 Posted February 3, 2020 Oh, I remember that ad very well, "custom painted for photographic purposes" and all. Its what got me to buy the buggy. The story goes my birthday was coming up just as it is now. It had gotten good grades up until then in school (no "C's" allowed in my house growing up ). Tower had Kyosho Maxxum FFs on sale for a mere $79.00. I still remember my mother calling Tower, credit card in hand, and hanging up the phone all to briefly. See turned to me and said "out of stock and discontinued". That day, I came to learn the sad meaning of that term "discontinued", a word that would haunt the long time RC enthusiast I would become. I was in a bind. I could only select a buggy equal or lesser in value as I had to pull a lot of strings just for this one. Not knowing what else to try, I fell back on Tamiya's range. I knew I wanted a buggy as I didn't have a hobby-grade one yet. The Grasshopper had been discontinued and the Hornet was a bit more expensive and then I saw that Super G ad. I looked the price up in one of RCCA's many ads and it fell within budget. The rest is history. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
graemevw 823 Posted February 3, 2020 4 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said: @LS7Heli I love that ad! Thanks for posting. I am paying attention to see if wild one wheels take dye. I am a bit obsessed with these wheels, but my rears cracked and failed between the holes after track use. The fronts are still running fine though. @Saito2 May i implore you to go the wild one wheel route. DT02 astral or star dish wheels are just the worst looking wheels IMO! They are also weird not-quite-2.2. I have found with the release of proper tyres for vintage racing the 2" wild one rears take one of these types of tyre and the front happily fit a modern slim 2.2 without gluing. I run Schumacher 2" mini spikes rear and 2.2 stagger ribs front. Works great on grass and astro. Can't really help on the shocks thing. As you probably know my Super G is now Ultra G and a "bit" modified 😂 I have some tatty wild one wheels and some black dye ready to go, i can give it a try if no one knows. Its a shame, the wheels are nice, but painted. Half the paint has flaked off, the rest has resisted all my normal go to chemicals. God knows what they painted them with! Thinking about it, i have some fluoro yellow dye too. Might give paint removal one more try first then go for yellow. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WillyChang 1814 Posted February 3, 2020 Genuine original WildOne white wheels will survive acetone; that'll strip just about anything even engine crinkle enamel. The white material feels like waxy nylon, you can just about fold it in half and it'll barely even show stressmarks. (Think I've still g it remains of a Fox that looks like it's been run over by a car.) The fluoro wheels that came on SuperG and SuperHornet are ABS, they'll melt in acetone. Also stiffer & brittle. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
graemevw 823 Posted February 3, 2020 55 minutes ago, WillyChang said: Genuine original WildOne white wheels will survive acetone; that'll strip just about anything even engine crinkle enamel. The white material feels like waxy nylon, you can just about fold it in half and it'll barely even show stressmarks. (Think I've still g it remains of a Fox that looks like it's been run over by a car.) The fluoro wheels that came on SuperG and SuperHornet are ABS, they'll melt in acetone. Also stiffer & brittle. Mine are old originals so ill get a bit more aggressive with the stripping technique. So, originals dyed with tamiya fluoro yellow dye should look the same as super g wheels but be stronger? Will nylon survive normal paint stripper? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
graemevw 823 Posted February 3, 2020 Just dig the wheels out and they used to be chrome, or gold. Will they be a different plastic? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
graemevw 823 Posted February 3, 2020 Well, they survived boiling. They survived acetone. The paint is mostly gone. Currently sitting in some bleach to try get the remnants of chrome off. Still look terrible but ill persevere. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LS7Heli 12 Posted February 4, 2020 14 hours ago, Saito2 said: Oh, I remember that ad very well, "custom painted for photographic purposes" and all. Its what got me to buy the buggy. The story goes my birthday was coming up just as it is now. It had gotten good grades up until then in school (no "C's" allowed in my house growing up ). Tower had Kyosho Maxxum FFs on sale for a mere $79.00. I still remember my mother calling Tower, credit card in hand, and hanging up the phone all to briefly. See turned to me and said "out of stock and discontinued". That day, I came to learn the sad meaning of that term "discontinued", a word that would haunt the long time RC enthusiast I would become. I was in a bind. I could only select a buggy equal or lesser in value as I had to pull a lot of strings just for this one. Not knowing what else to try, I fell back on Tamiya's range. I knew I wanted a buggy as I didn't have a hobby-grade one yet. The Grasshopper had been discontinued and the Hornet was a bit more expensive and then I saw that Super G ad. I looked the price up in one of RCCA's many ads and it fell within budget. The rest is history. Very similar as well. I got mine in March of 89/90 for "good" grades... I remember my mom calling CC in hand but it was R/C Car Kings in Minnesota. If I remember, it was $89.99 and I got the bearing set for $9.99. Today that would be $182/$21! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saito2 6686 Posted February 4, 2020 Cool. I got my Wild Willy 2 from RC Car Kings about 20 years ago. I want to say we wound up getting my Super G from Omni Models after the Maxxum/Tower deal fell through. Looks like we got ours about a month apart bitd. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saito2 6686 Posted February 5, 2020 On 2/3/2020 at 2:35 AM, ThunderDragonCy said: May i implore you to go the wild one wheel route. DT02 astral or star dish wheels are just the worst looking wheels IMO! Rest easy @ThunderDragonCy, Wild One wheels have been ordered. It looks like they'll come with some sprue I can experiment on too with some RIT neon yellow dye. edit: I received my Wild One wheels and the sprue says they're are PA as suspected. They should take dye. Experiments to follow. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Big Jon 684 Posted February 6, 2020 Saito, I scored a cheap Maxxum on that deal! I remember it as a beautiful kit that didn't perform as well as I had hoped, and I traded for yet another RC10. I'd love another, as I've developed a real fondness for front wheel drive RC. I'm interested in this build. The Super G is a very attractive car in the ad photo. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saito2 6686 Posted February 6, 2020 4 hours ago, Big Jon said: The Super G is a very attractive car in the ad photo. Glad you scored a good deal on that Maxxum back then! That Super G ad was a bit "deceptive" to younger me. I knew it was custom painted but really didn't know what the Super G looked like as it was brand new. So I guess you could say I bought it somewhat sight unseen, in a way. I didn't even realize the wheels would be quite so bright neon yellow because the ad lighting obscures that. When I got it, it was an odd kit for a Tamiya, being basically a Grasshopper 2 with some extra bits thrown in. Even the manual was simply "updated" with a simple addendum leaflet. I was happy all the same. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saito2 6686 Posted February 9, 2020 Update: I plunked my set of re-re Wild One wheels into some of the neon yellow dye that RIT brought back. They certainly don't dye in minutes at a low boil like RC10 nylon does. I've been letting them simmer for about 6 hours now at lower temps to prevent damage. They did take the dye but the color is quite a bit muted. I wasn't expecting them to have quite the brilliance the original hard Super G wheels had though. I'll let them in for another 4 hours and post up the results. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saito2 6686 Posted February 10, 2020 20200209_195047 by Scott Weiland, on Flickr Well, this is the result of sitting most of the day in simmering pot. Quite pale. I did ramp up the temp about 3 times close to boiling for brief periods to see if it made a difference, but no luck. I'll leave them in overnight, but don't expect much. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saito2 6686 Posted February 16, 2020 Well, here's the finished product. Just another Grasshopper 2 (albeit in Super G guise) so not all that special. Still, I'm happy to have one back after my parents threw mine out decades ago. Those shocks on there are the actual shocks from my original which were fortunately not on the buggy when it got thrown out. The driver is painted in the same yellow/blue combo that I used back in the day in an attempt to coordinate with the blue stripes and yellow shocks. There are differences of course. Being a re-re means there are all kinds of tiny details that are different like not having "Quattro Rally" text molded under the front bumper (I always found that neat after I discovered it when I was taking it back inside after a run one day after school). The wheels are more durable, neon yellow dyed Wild One wheels. They look a bit better in person but still not as vibrant as the originals. I also am running more common rib front tires and oval blocks in the rear. The oval blocks will hold up better on the various surfaces on which I'll be running the car instead of rapidly disappearing like the original pin spikes did. The rear lower shock mounts were also changed to a ball type. I never understood why Tamiya added the slot-type rear axle pivot over the fixed pivot of the original Grasshopper and then used step screws at the lower mounts which limit articulation. All in all, a simple kit that was a nice little trip down memory lane for me. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderDragonCy 7878 Posted February 16, 2020 Looks great! Hope it runs well for you. Love that you used your original shocks. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
