Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Higrades

ANY IDEAS?

Recommended Posts

Your options are simple:

  1. Tear it down, clean every part, and rebuild it back up into a nice looking runner or shelfer.
  2. Sell it as-is on a forum like here and/or on eBay or FB marketplace or whatever.
  3. Throw it in the garbage.  (don't do that)
  4. Toss it back up into the loft.  (don't do that either)

Not sure what else you want us to say.

What do YOU want to do with it?   Did you buy it with the intention of restoring it?  Did you find it in the loft and wondering what can be done with it?   Do you want to spend the time and money to restore it?  If you want to know if you can just slap a modern brushless motor+ESC and LiPo battery and go on a tear with it, the answer is no.  It was never intended for brushless power.  Get a re-relrease kit if you want to do that.

I know what *I* would do with it:  I would tear it down and clean every piece, look for broken and worn out parts and replace them, then build it up using the original manual.  I would buy repro decals and body/wing set from eBay and cut/trim and paint it into something reasonable.  I would use a vintage Kyosho LeMans brushed motor and modern brushed ESC and modern radio system plus a NiMH or LiPo battery.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I was hoping for the first option of restoring it. I guess I just wanted to hear some encouragement. My wife suggested option "3" about 5 years ago and now she tried to revisit the thought during some spring cleaning. It was my first RC kit when i was younger and I remember how happy I was when I assembled it. Anyway, just wondering how hard will it be to get my hands on any necessary parts or upgrades? 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
15 hours ago, Higrades said:

I remember how happy I was when I assembled it.

This right here is the reason to do #1 - restore it to its former glory.  You will be happy and smiling again.

OK, so what I would do is find the manual for it.  Hopefully you still have it.   Then get your tools and tear it down, screw by screw.  Put everything into a parts tray.  Open the shocks and be prepared to use a paper towel or two to capture the old nasty oil and throw it away. 

For the plastic parts, go to the sink and use a small bucket or half-gallon plastic ice cream container (what I use) and fill it with warm water and some dish washing soap (fairy liquid).   Dump all of the plastic parts into the container to soak.  Make sure you use a sink drain strainer/stopper or otherwise keep the small parts from going down the drain if you accidentally drop it into the sink while cleaning.   Nothing worse that having a critical part go down the drain.  Get an old toothbrush and take each part and scrub it to remove the old oil/dirt.  You will have to constantly put a drop of fairy liquid on the toothbrush bristles in order to absorb the grease/oil or else the bristles will get coated in grease/oil and just smear a mess all over the parts instead of actually cleaning anything.  Yes, its a pain in the butt to do this and very time consuming, but it does work and the results are worth it in my opinion to get the best looking parts possible.  As I clean each part, I put it into another tray or container.   Once all parts are cleaned, I rinse everything in clean water one final time to remove any soap residue.   Then I put all of the parts on a towel to air dry.

For turnbuckles, I generally leave the rod ends on the threaded rod just because they are a pain to twist off and you'll just be putting them back on again anyway.  Just reference the manual to ensure they are all the correct length.

For the metal parts, I use a spray can of motor cleaner which is like brake cleaner to remove the dirt/grease and oil.   You can use other stuff like Simple Green too I guess.   I wouldn't use water and soap unless you don't have anything else and can dry the parts off quickly.  They will rust again otherwise.

The shocks.  After dumping out the oil, take them apart.  Removing the e-clip on the bottom of the shock is a pain, but worth doing.  Take out the o-rings and plastic spacer.  Give everything a thorough cleaning.  I usually replace the o-rings with new ones to help prevent leakage.  If the shock shafts look good, you can re-use them.  Just try to be careful and not use pliers to grab the shock shafts and damage them.  You will need a bottle of silicone shock oil to replace the oil you dumped, so add that to the list of parts you need.

The gears.  They can be plastic gears and metal gears.  They are some of the hardest parts to clean because of the grease.  Don't clean these in the above steps.  Instead, keep reading.

The belt.  Do not try to clean the belt.  If it looks good, just leave it alone.  Don't wash it or spray it with anything.  As long as it isn't broken or split or frayed and the teeth look good, it's fine.  Just leave it alone.

For the motor, receiver, servo(s) and speed control, just clean them as best you can.   I use motor cleaner on the motor, spraying into the side openings and hitting the brushes/commutator.  If the motor is rebuildable, I take it apart and clean it, inspecting the rotor, brushes and bearings in the process.  I replace anything really worn.

The ball bearings.  You can try to use motor/brake cleaner on them.  Sometimes they can be cleaned, but often they just get gritty and sound/feel nasty.  They are cheap enough these days that buying replacements is usually the best option.  The common sizes are 5x10x4mm and 8x14x4mm for Kyosho I believe, but measure/double check yours.  You can find them on eBay.

Another thing that I do is I have a few old toothbrushes in my stash that I use for various specialize purposes.   I keep a couple of them to use to remove old grease from the gears.   The grease gets into the brush and coats all of the bristles, making the brush look gross and dirty and greasy/oily, but this is perfect.  I use the brush on metal parts after cleaning in order to coat the parts in the old oil/grease and remove the rust.   This works really well on the threaded rods like turnbuckles and driveshafts and axles.  Your steering rods and suspension rods look a bit rusted and could use this type of treatment.   I hold the rod/part firmly with my left hand and rather briskly stroke/brush the greasy toothbrush bristles across the rod and threads with my right hand, making sure to hit all parts of the rod.   I use short hard swift strokes to do this.  I am not gentle.  I have to grip the part in my left hand very tightly or else the part will go flying.  As you do this you will see the orange colored rust disappear and get replaced with a darker black/gunmetal color looking coating/sheen on the part.   This is the grease and oil coating the metal which protects the metal and makes the part look nicer (in my opinion) and more uniform in color and appearance.

Throughout all of this cleaning process, make sure to look at each part and check for anything broken or bent.   If you can bend it back to fix it, do that.  If the part is beyond repair, look the part up in the manual to see which parts bag contains it and then go on eBay and search for the parts bag or part itself.   Lots of vintage parts are still available on eBay.   Depending on what the part is, it might be cheap or very expensive or not easily found.  On the plastic parts, check for any remaining sprue tree molding burrs and remove them with a hobby knife.  When I am restoring someone else's vintage car that I got off eBay,  I often find that they did not do a good, clean job of removing the burrs from the plastic parts.

The body and decals.  You can get a replacement lexan body/wing and decals on eBay or from MarwanRC.

Paint.  I only use Tamiya paint for my cars.  For lexan, it's the Tamiya PS series of paints you want.  Lots of colors.  You can use other brands as you like.  Just make sure the paint is designed for lexan.

Tires.  You can get vintage originals for a lot of money on eBay, or get repros from MarwanRC.   Or get the re-release tires from Kyosho.

Once I get all of the replacement parts I need, I use the manual to rebuild the car just like building the kit for the first time.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh, I forgot about the radio. 

I would get a more modern radio (2.4GHz) and electronic speed control (ESC) rather than use the vintage radio and MSC.  I don't see a speed control on yours, so maybe you removed it to install on another vehicle. 

Modern radio systems are less glitchy so less likely to lose control of the car and they can be fairly cheap.  You should be able to re-use the steering servo, however.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Sounds like a plan! 

I still have my Magnum Sport controller and the speed control was hanging in the back of the photo but I will take your advice and start looking into some modern equipment. I am hoping I can find a manual online for this Optima Mid because I know I wont find the original. I will start to check MarwanRC to see what they have to offer. I probably have to wait until I complete this PC build project I just started before I can start on my RC. Luckily I have a lot of free time with all whats going on in the world. Anyway, thanks for your input and I probably will be in touch for bits of advice.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...