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burakol

1st Hotshot tear down and rebuild

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Hello, 

I recently acquired an original Hotshot. It has a few hop-ups and still runs on the stock MSC. It appears to have no damage to the plastics, but due to the age, I am planning on doing a tear down and clean it as much as I can... 

This will be a work in progress. I don't intend to spend more money on it, but maybe just buying essentials and any broken pieces as I move along... I am still learning the ins/outs of this specific chassis so any comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated... 

For now, I will do my best to salvage the shell... besides a minor tear where the antenna hole is, the shell doesnt seem to have any other serious damages... the paint is already cracking and I could peel some of it.. it is obvious that the prior owner did not use a PC paint but maybe a household enamel paint... there are multiple coats of the paint and it looks like it was painted using a hand brush. Anybody knows what the best paint stripping method for an enamel paint on plastic? 

Day 1 - 

As it sits right now...

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Started with the wheels and tires and inspected both front and rear hubs... it looks to be in decent shape with no cracking or whatsoever. 


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As you can see on the photo, the wheels have yellowed and has a lot of nicks... overall, there's no significant damage to the plastic but there are obvious signs of wear and dirt... as for the tires, they were not glued so I was able to take them off carefully... One of the front rubber had some cracking by the sidewall so I need to glue that part prior to "dash milk" treatment (still not sure what a dash milk is but I'm assuming its the same as a dash cleaner we use for car interiors?)
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After removing the tires from the wheels, I bagged them up and soaked in water and hand soap. I am planning on treating the white wheels using Volume 40 cream. I've used this whitening method on my sneakers, so I am hoping it will yield some results... 
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Some updates - 

After soaking the tires and the wheels, I was trying to think of what glue to use for the rubber tires... I didn't want to use CA glue so I rummaged through my tool box and found this... it smells like rubber cement and the consistency is like rubber cement.

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After soaking, scrubbing, and rinsing, the tires and wheels were sun-dried... 

Here you can see the cracking on the sidewalls... 
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As for the yellowed wheels, I placed them all in a ziplock bag, and slathered them with some Volume 40 creme. Since I do not have a UV lamp, I used natural sunlight... I had this baking under the sun for 2 days... FWIW, I think it worked well...
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After gluing and tires, all four were kept in a ziplock bag and sprayed with WD40. It was kept in the bag for 2 days making sure to check the roundness 

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After 2 days, here they are... Looks new IMHO and you couldn't even tell it has been used. The tread looks new and it feels a lot softer than it was... the only thing was the glue I used did not penetrate all the way through the cracks of the sidewall so i will need to redo some of it... 
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That's it for now... I've started stripping the car and I could not believe how many screws this car have! 
 


 

 

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Got some more work done. All parts are now in pieces. This model is amazingly designed, considering it was first put into production back in 1985. There are more metal parts that actual plastic, and the feel of the plastic is different compared to the newer models... 

Glad to see that the original stand was in the parts box. I thought this was pretty cool that they thought of it. 

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Took out the canopy and steering links. 
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Got the front half off. 
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With the electronic box removed. I didn't realize how much cramped it is inside. If I decide to use and ESC, I wonder how lighter will this car be?
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Working on the rear half. 
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As you can see here, the prior owner must have stripped the screws and decided to improvise. At first glance, it looked stock to me. 
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I was so glad to see that the car already has ball bearings all around. 
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And of course, I spoke too soon... upon close inspection, there is damage to both rear upper and lower arms. I will try to remedy this by using some JB Weld until I can save up and source a replacement part. 
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And now the internals... Plastic gears looks good for its age. No cracks or significant wear whatsoever... Just plain messy...
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Not knowing any better, I was trying to pull the drive cup out. I did not see the C-ring initially and almost ended up forcing to pull the drive cups out. Good thing I remembered to refer to the manual. Removing this pesk c-ring was an ordeal and took me a lot of patience and finagling around for the best positioning. In the end, I was able to remove all four with minor setback... the last and final c-ring flew off and initially, I could not find it in my garage floor... when I was ready to call it quits, I decided to sweep the floor hoping that I'll be able to sweep it with all else... my luck, with one pass of the broom, it showed up! 
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Decided to put all screws, bearings, metal pieces, etc. in one bin. I then soaked it with some WD40 overnight and sprayed it down with some brake cleaner to remove all remaining grease residue. 
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And since I have the manual for the Technigold motor, as well as the brush removal and spring removal tool, I took the liberty in trying to clean the motor as well. The brushes and commutator didn't have any pitting or obvious damage. I used some rubber eraser per the suggestion of the manual. I also removed both the front and rear ball bearings for cleaning. 
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When I was un-mounting the motor from the chassis, I didn't realize that the Hotshot used metal plates as a spacer depending on the pinion being used. For whatever reason, I only removed 3 spacers... upon studying the manual, there isn't an option to use just 3 spacers. The pinion that was installed in the car was a 15 tooth pinion and it called for four spacers... I thought I lost one, but I was certain that there were only 3 pieces when I removed it... I didn't want to buy a whole parts bag for this... fortunately, I found a metal insert for replacing a wiper... it had a similar dimension (width and thickness) so all I needed to do was cut it to length. The top one is the wiper blade insert, the bottom one is from the kit. 
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As for the dogbones, scrubbing and dousing it with brake cleaner was not enough. It had a lot of pitting and lacked the luster of an alloy. I decided to sand it down. I used my cordless drill and one of the drive cups. I then used a 1200 grit sand paper. I was not able to remove the pitting, but at least it regained some luster. 
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I had the opportunity to work on the shell. The prior owner used some latex paint and brushed it on multiple coats to make it stick to the PC body... After a number of years, it has started to peel. My goal is to save the shell and re-use it. I realize I have to sacrifice the stickers, but I wanted to redo it anyway because it was done poorly. At first I thought of just peeling/scraping it off using some heat but that proved to be a pain... I tried to soak it with soapy water, the vegetable oil but still had issues peeling it off... I didn't want to use a scraper as I did not want to damage the fragile condition of it... 

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Nothing seemed to work... until I read that rubbing alcohol might do the trick... I really hesitated to use alcohol since we are saving it to disinfect during this time of pandemic... but heck, for the love of RC, I was left with no choice... so I took a gallon of ziplock bag, filled it 1/4 alcohol and soaked the shell... after a day, i was pleasantly surprised to see that the paint really softened... With some brushing and scarping with my fingers, the paint has started to peel away... eventually, I was able to rid of all the latex paint and what remains now is a clear body shell... 
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Next, I moved on epoxying the rear upper and lower arms. I just used a JB weld for this task. I am waiting to order some new R parts from StellaModels as they have the cheapest cost for the part at the moment, but I have to wait until they tell me they can ship using the standard delivery as I don't want to pay premium... 


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As it stands at the moment, the HotShot are now in bits and pieces, safely secured in a storage container. I will probably start the rebuild this week, after I am finished 3d printing a shell for my Mini M03. 
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More to come... 

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Here it goes... 

I wanted to start rebuilding the You-G dampers first. 

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I had these Associated silicone shock oils... I have three weight, a 40, 60 and a 70... I opted in using the lighter oil for the front, and medium on the rears...
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Nice to have these manual handy.. 
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I thought about lightly sanding the shaft to eliminate some of the rough spots due to age, but I was worried I may cause damage so I left it be... 
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The process was straight forward and actually a lot less complicated than the Tamiya sock units... I started with the front damper... manual says fill it with oil when the shaft is halfway down, but I decided to fill it with the shaft all the way down... I didn't have a proper damper holder so I improvised when waiting for all air bubbles to surface... 
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I thought one of the o-rings had to be replaced but it turned out I overfilled the unit and the pressure was immense that it was forcing the oil to seep out from the bottom seals... 

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After completing the 3 oil dampers, I decided to give it a go and start on building the gears and diff case. Lucky to have the original manual handy... but I must say, I think the manual for the newer kits are more easier to comprehend and has higher quality photos... but being printed in 1985, I can't complain.
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Some of the tools I used... duh... I forgot the screw drivers...
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This is something new to me... I've been accustomed to building the "other" kind of differential case... I really enjoyed piecing the parts together.
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Since I had all the parts in pieces and mixed all in a parts bin, had to make sure I was using the correct parts... This is where my Vernier caliper came in handy... I must admit I could have done a better job when trying to store the pieces and not just mixing all up...
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Finished the rear gears... The thrust bearings and washers really makes a huge difference that using a regular bearings...time to mount them up to the rear case. 
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And then that C-Clip! I guess first time's a charm... with the suggestion of another forum member, I got the first clip locked at one go. 

Quote

@Biz73Put the car in a plastic bag large enough that you can put your hands in. If the clips going flying they stay in the bag.


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So there, the rear gear case is complete. 
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Front diff case, front and rear arms, mounting the Technituned... 

So after opening, cleaning and lubing the technituned motor, I chose to use a 16t pinion. I thought about thoroughly cleaning, repainting and buying a new decal for the motor but I wanted to keep its character (plus trying to save $) so I decided to keep it as is... 

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I must admit, my ignorance about the Hotshot lead to me to lose one of the motor mounting plate... but can you guess which part is the improvised one? I was able to cut a plate from a wiper insert... the width is a few micron small, but the thickness is about the same as the original mounting plate so this should do...

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Next on the manual was to work on the front diff case. 
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Here's the pesky C-Clip again.. this time I was smarter... Instead of putting the magnetic pliers inside the plastic, I actually clipped it from the outside eliminating the magnetic effect... 
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Gears positioned and greased, bearings lubed... I did not have a molybdenum grease so I just decided to use leftover ceramic grease... for a casual light running, I think this should do... 
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Both front and rear gear case completed... 

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Next page on the manual is for the front and rear suspension arms... 

This pic is not inclusive of all the parts I needed... I didn't imagine how many screws I needed to look for in the parts bin. 
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Uprights... 

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I almost forgot that I will be using these You-G's so I had to skip on some steps pertaining to installing the suspension pins...

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So there... Front and rear complete... Will be working on the next part today... More pics to come. 

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Chassis done. 

As I was getting ready to attach the rear gearbox to the main chassis, I encountered a slight setback. The manual aid to use a 3x30 head screw to attach the rear gearbox. There were two sets of head screw needed; one having the need to use a flange nut on the other end, while the other one just needed to use a plastic spacer. Apparently, the lower screw should tap into the plastic, but in my case, the hole was bigger and the screw could not bite into anything. There was also no space for me to use a nut on the other end because the propeller joint is on the way and there's no space in between. I also thought of inserting the screw the other way around, but it was not possible because the propeller joint is again, blocking access.... So to solve this issue, I was able to find a slightly larger metal screw in my box. This measured 3.35mm compare to the 3mm Tamiya screw. I was worried that it might crack the plastic so pre-threaded it before I actually attached the gearbox to the chassis and it worked like a charm! 

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After successfully attaching the rear gearbox, I moved on into installing the rear You-G Dampers. Then I realized that both upper arms had a crack by the hinge pin holes.. For now, I resolved it by using JB Weld Epoxy. A new Rear arms are on the way courtesy of StellaModels. After the epoxy cured, I reversed the hinge screws the other way around. 

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Next I moved on to the front gearbox... 

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Then proceeded in installing the front and rear dampers... 


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Next was the electronics box.... I decided to replace the MSC with the TBLE02S. I was able to squeeze the ESC switch to the stock location which I thought was nifty. 


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Wires were all tucked in and electronic box secured... 
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Then, I noticed that I had this one red part in the parts bin. The manual did not mention of this anywhere so I had to try and remember where this part came from... After a few minutes of figuring out, it came to my attention that this looks to fit in the front section of the suspension arms. Upon close inspection, I also realized that there is a significant play in the upper arms... fortunately, there was a thin red plastic washer in the parts bin that actually goes in between that space to minimize the play... 
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I also had to install the resistor caps to maintain the looks of the car... 
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Canopy and net installed... Reclaimed body test fitted... 
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And finally, some shots... 
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Next thing to do now is to repaint the shell... and maybe order some OG stickers from MCI???

 

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1 hour ago, Grumpy pants said:

A quality thread, ingenious use of the original car and parts- superb 👍

Thanks! I wanted to keep it as it is the best I can,with the exception or replacing broken parts. Fortunate for me, it only had very minor damage to the rear arms. When I was putting it altogether, I actually thought of using the stock dampers instead but my son said he liked the blue... 

And I kept referring to the motor as Technituned but I have to correct myself... it is actually a Tehnipower motor. 

I still have to work on the shell, and the driver figure... 

FWIW, I am not sure if I should buy a full reprint of the OG decals or just leave it plain. I am still undecided on what color to paint it with. 

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The dampers are YOU-G period correct superb hop up parts. They are looking awesome on the Hotshot. 

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21 minutes ago, lowspot said:

The dampers are YOU-G period correct superb hop up parts. They are looking awesome on the Hotshot. 

Thanks... I'm thinking of cutting the lower mounting screw on the rear dampers... I think it is sticking out too much... I already scratched my ankle with it when my son backed it into my foot... 

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Agreed. Great restore/refresh of a classic. About the body shell  - for me I would leave the stickers on that you already have as to my mind they are the classic 'hotshot' stickers. They don't look tatty and you could always clear coat them once you've painted the shell for some added protection. 

But yeah, great job and love the rear suspension. 👍

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7 hours ago, Silver-Can said:

Agreed. Great restore/refresh of a classic. About the body shell  - for me I would leave the stickers on that you already have as to my mind they are the classic 'hotshot' stickers. They don't look tatty and you could always clear coat them once you've painted the shell for some added protection. 

But yeah, great job and love the rear suspension. 👍

That’s what I thought of doing but i had to peel off some of the older decal because it was poorly done. MCI of canada is selling a reprint of the set with the original logos and branding for about $20 shipped to me here in the US. 
 

Thank you all for the comments and suggestions. I welcome them all. 

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Great thread, some very helpful tips also. 

I totally agree with your restoration philosophy of saving as many original parts as possible. JB weld, sandpaper, time and effort can save most old parts I’ve found. 

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awesome rebuild thread. Will we get to see a video of this in action once completed?

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11 hours ago, yogi-bear said:

awesome rebuild thread. Will we get to see a video of this in action once completed?

I will do my best to make it happen... 

For now, here is what I ended up doing yesterday... 

 I opted to go with the red paint scheme to make it a proper rebuild...

Since I am trying to save as much as I can on this original Hotshot, I had to mask and protect the other shell from over sprays...  

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I've had great results in using plastidip to paint lexans. Luckily, I have enough leftover from prior builds... 

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My paint booth. Weather was great and it helped with the dry time. 

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After two coats and some dry time... 

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A little bit of overspray on the edges but since plastidip can be peeled, I had no problems cleaning it off... 

I have yet to work on the driver figure so that will be next...also, I'm trying to figure out how to best redo the fog lights... 

As you can see, the sticker is not centered and is already peeling on some areas... my plan was to peel it off, and reattached it using some spray glue and heat... 

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12 hours ago, yogi-bear said:

awesome rebuild thread. Will we get to see a video of this in action once completed?

Here it is... my 6yo daughter took the video so pardon the quality...plus I'm not the best driver so... 

 

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Finishing touches... 

Had the chance to finish off the remaining parts on the Hotshot. 

Fogs and driver figure painted... 

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The size of the driver head was bit challenging for a novice like me... I only used what I have and didnt really have a proper brush/tools for modeling  but I think it came our decent...

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My next challenge was retaining the original KC sticker... I think the decals give away the original from the ReRes and one the obvious one is the fog light sticker... I slowly peeled it off prior to painting... there is a slight damage/cut in the middle of the decal but overall, it was still in ok condition... 

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Here's a frontal shot with the driver installed...

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When reapplying the foglight sticker, I used a contact adhesive, the same glue I used for the tires... 

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So there it is..I think I can finally say that I am done with the rebuild... I also received the R parts from stella but I am keeping it as is for now... 

Overall, I am really pleased on how it runs on the Technipower. On to the next project... thank you!

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