Baja King

[Roguet]

Recently moved home and found my old Baja King hidden away in the cupboard. Hasn't seen the light of day in around 15 years. Had to charge the battery and give it a quick blast and was hooked again.

Bought the Flysky GT3C to bring it up to date as not keen on the old Acoms that originally came in the kit I bought.

Think the plastic may have got a bit brittle and the front knuckle broke today 😢. Car had some serious abuse back in the day, now have the excuse to upgrade to Aluminium parts and bring back to life. Only part I'm struggling to source is a new body, anybody know where I can get one ?.

[TurnipJF]

Sadly the Baja King body is very rare nowadays - keeping a saved search on eBay might yield one eventually, but don't hold your breath.

All is not doom and gloom though - with a bit of creativity you can get all sorts of shells to fit the trusty TL-01B chassis. You don't even need to restrict yourself to buggy shells. Truck shells also look good on it.

[ChrisRx718]

I recently converted a Chinese Baja King copy and have no use for the bodyshell:

It has no wing and I believe the lexan has that pattern 'printed' on rather than being painted, so not sure if you'll be able to strip and re-paint.

If you're local you're welcome to it?

Uprights are different from a regular TL01, rather than using the parts of the 'B' parts sprue they use part #0445572. You can use TL01 aluminium parts but I'm not sure if this will also mean you'll need to upgrade the steering links from the current plastic ones, as I think this will end up giving you too much toe-in...

[Roguet]

Thanks for the offer Chris  I am based nr Thurrock in Essex, I'm guessing you are nowhere near me...

[ChrisRx718]

12 hours ago, Roguet said:

Thanks for the offer Chris  I am based nr Thurrock in Essex, I'm guessing you are nowhere near me...

I'm in North Hertfordshire, I could post it, if you could cover the post? I think Hermes will do it for like £3.

[Roguet]

Hi Chris, that would be a massive help, let me know how you want the payment made,  Paypal ? and I'll sort it out.

[Roguet]

Well after parts becoming brittle and breaking and the ESC going up in flames this week, it was time to rebuild the Baja King with the parts that had recently arrived. I know this chassis doesn't have a lot of love and breaks easily, but was my first Tamiya so feel a bond and need, to keep it running. So here it is after a few improvements, only waiting on the new hobbywing ESC now to get it back running.

[ploots]

Looking very nice, I've also got a broken Baja king to rebuild I was thinking about some anodized parts for it where did you get yours from 

[Tudorp]

Just my 2 cents. If it were me, I would repair the body best you can, and embrace it as part of the cars history. I still have my original SWB Wild Willy, that has had one badword of a life. I posted about it's history, so I won't go into all that again, but, I had to restore the body several times, and had to take some "liberties" with it. I ended up over the years sourcing an really nice original body, but started to love the repairs I had to do to my original body because it is what it is, and part of the car now. So, I kept the original body on it, repairs and all, and used the other body on a recent "kit bash" project I built (also posted about it). Sure, it might bother the purists, and the "full factory restoration" & "Shelf queen" crowd, but I don't care. I like to embrace the history it has with me over the past 38 years, and love it. 

[TurnipJF]

Alternatively there is this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Haiboxing-Tamiya-Baja-King-Body-Shell-And-Wing-Set-only-chassis-not-included/174336942234

Not original, but at least it is the original shape?

[Roguet]

2 hours ago, ploots said:

Looking very nice, I've also got a broken Baja king to rebuild I was thinking about some anodized parts for it where did you get yours from 

I searched high and low to find some getting very rare, managed to find one place on Ebay doing them.

[Roguet]

1 hour ago, Tudorp said:

Just my 2 cents. If it were me, I would repair the body best you can, and embrace it as part of the cars history. I still have my original SWB Wild Willy, that has had one badword of a life. I posted about it's history, so I won't go into all that again, but, I had to restore the body several times, and had to take some "liberties" with it. I ended up over the years sourcing an really nice original body, but started to love the repairs I had to do to my original body because it is what it is, and part of the car now. So, I kept the original body on it, repairs and all, and used the other body on a recent "kit bash" project I built (also posted about it). Sure, it might bother the purists, and the "full factory restoration" & "Shelf queen" crowd, but I don't care. I like to embrace the history it has with me over the past 38 years, and love it. 

Thanks I kind of agree with you and have still got all the original parts including the body and some Tamiya replacement parts for the broken bits so far..., that I can put back on the car, once I've finished playing with it. So always have the option to return it to it's original spec. Just really don't want to damage the original body further, as this car does seem to like sitting on its roof or may be just my driving style 😆. For me this hobby is about driving the car and having fun with it, rather than just sticking it on a shelf to gather dust. I guess we all look to get different things out of it and am expecting some flack from the purists and shelf queens 😀.

[Roguet]

1 hour ago, TurnipJF said:

Alternatively there is this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Haiboxing-Tamiya-Baja-King-Body-Shell-And-Wing-Set-only-chassis-not-included/174336942234

Not original, but at least it is the original shape?

Thanks, yes I have also got one of them, that I obtained from a kind member on here 👍🏻.

[cosmix3]

Looking good mate :)

[Silver-Can]

I too have a baja champ/king with those aluminium bits and the same shocks too. I think they're sold by rcdamper on ebay out of Hong Kong. Don't know about you but I found the springs on those shocks a little too hard so swapped them out.

Re bodies - do TBG in Canada not do them?

[Roguet]

4 hours ago, Silver-Can said:

I too have a baja champ/king with those aluminium bits and the same shocks too. I think they're sold by rcdamper on ebay out of Hong Kong. Don't know about you but I found the springs on those shocks a little too hard so swapped them out.

Re bodies - do TBG in Canada not do them?

Looks good Silver-can, yes RC Damper was the same company I brought them from. Not run the car yet as still waiting for the new ESC, after the Crazepony went up in flames this week, hence time for the rebuild...