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LoweR131

Celica GRB recomission

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Hi All,

My son has just reached an age where he is interested in remote control cars and i'd like to get my old Celica GRB up and running again. It hasn't turned a wheel in 30+ years but was in good running condition when i stopped using it.

Other than putting a new battery in it, are there any other steps i should take before running it again? It looks fine and everything moves freely. Is it worth replacing the speed controller with a modern electronic one? If so, what type should i be looking for?

All help and advice appreciated.

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Replacing a mechanical speed controller for an electronic one is always a good idea. Look for a hobbywing 1060 which are cheap and are pretty good.

You may want to think about replacing the battery, its pretty amazing you got the old one (presumably nicad?) to work at all. I would avoid lipo for now, the modern nimh batteries are cheap and will provide much more power/run time, go for something like a 3000mah and stick to 7.2v ones to make it easy and cheap.

Hobbywing 1060: https://www.modelsport.co.uk/hobbywing-quicrun-1060-brushed-waterproof-esc-sbec/rc-car-products/404964

Battery: https://www.modelsport.co.uk/overlander-3300mah-7-2v-sport-stick-pack/rc-car-products/376164

Keep n mind that battery probably has a bigger capacity than the existing one, so you will probably need to charge it for longer. It may be worth investing in a newer charger. Something like this will not only charge the battery but condition it too. https://www.modelsport.co.uk/overlander-vsr-mini-ac-lipo-balance-charger-60w-6a/rc-car-products/425241 that will beep when the battery is charged correctly. Cheaper option would be somehting like : https://www.modelsport.co.uk/etronix-powerpal-peak-plus-ac-nimh-lipo-1-3-5a-charger/rc-car-products/388544 you will have to manually charge time and it won't look after the battery..

 

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Thanks for your reply and the info on the speed controller. Presumably, with an ESC,  the servo is not longer required. So does the speed controller receive the input that would have gone to the servo directly?

The original batteries are long gone as i disposed of them years ago to avoid any risk of leakage. When i say everything moves freely, i mean that everything moves freely by hand. I've got a new battery on order, but thank you for the suggestions for a charger. I still have the original trickle charger and a 12v fast charger that i used to connect to a car battery charger instead of a car battery :) I won't be doing that nowadays!

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Yes the ESC plugs directly in to the receiver just like a servo does so the throttle servo is now a spare :)

If you have one you also no longer need that little 4 AA cell battery pack either.

When the battery turns up I would just try the car and see what sort of noise it makes!

Not sure on spares availability - worth an email to JK-RC or tonystamiyaparts on ebay. I have a feeling they are quite scare.

Depending on condition the car could be valuable - that chassis also came with a Porsche 959 body. The 959 is one of the most desirable vintage Tamiyas, there's one on ebay right now for £750! - IMHO not worth that but I've seen them sell for 2-300. Celica probably doesn't have the fame of the 959, but its certainly a rare one.

Final thing - the old 27Mhz radios are pretty old hat nowadays, everything is 2.4Ghz now and you don't need crystals to select bands - handsets automatically sort that out. If you have radio issues you might opt to replace, suggest flysky - GT3B is cheaper but needs 8 AA batteries to power it. GT3C comes with a rechargable battery.

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Battery is arriving today :) It had a battery eliminator system so didn't need the battery AA battery pack. That being said, the BEC system was responsible for my previous Boomerang been run over by a milkfloat. The NiCad was nearly flat, stopped powering the radio control, so the speed controller stayed in the position it was in and i had no control of the steering. It drove itself right under the rear wheel of an old battery powered milk float :(

The car itself is in good condition. The Polycarb shell is cracked and scratched from use as you'd expect, but not badly. I see that you can buy new shells and decals on ebay! I've still got the box and the instructions. I could have done a better job painting the shell and i didn't bother painting the driver and co driver. Amazingly, the tyres are still round and i have spare set of 959 wheels with slicks which from memory were the cause of the cracks in the bodyshell. The slicks had a lot of grip and the car would tend to roll rather than skid if i turned too fast at speed. The only thing that seems to be missing is the clear plastic tube that the aerial went in and the clear plastic cover for the speed controller.

Value would be interesting, but i wouldn't sell it. My Tamiya RC cars where the best toys i had when i was around 10-14 years old. The Boomerang is long gone, but i'm glad i kept the Celica. If i can make it run, that would be great. But i'm inclined to use it a few times for nostalgia's sake and buy my son a repro kit that we can build together and where spares are more readily available.

Photos for those interested below:

IMG_2312.thumb.JPG.1df9fa21efeaeb30a2063a9659b9d6af.JPGIMG_2310.thumb.JPG.be129785959fc9cac1fcef75aeadf78a.JPGIMG_2311.thumb.JPG.03c3e5a1be2cee3d3dbdf641c8fd1ff0.JPGIMG_2313.thumb.JPG.c5915752549bdd9f1ee9242fd1b89483.JPG

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You've got a great and valuable example there.

So definitely get yourself a pair of modern cars to run together and reserve this one for your own enjoyment. You'd be gutted if you break a part that is expensive or hard to get.

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Please dont let him learn to drive with a GRB :S.

It will keep us all in sleepless nights.

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Battery did arrive today and the car still works :)

Shocks have lost all their oil, speed controller throw is too great so it over travels if you push the stick too far forward, and it bounces all over the place because the dampers aren’t working correctly, but it’s good fun! I’d completely forgotten how fast it was too. 

Anyone know where I can get new seals for the dampers and some damper oil?
 

I did let my son gave a quick go, but only under close supervision!

 

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Just bought a new tbg body shell, spoiler and interior + a set of original decals. 
The existing bodyshell is tatty so I’m going to use that one as the runner and build up a new one as the display one. 

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Decals arrived today. Would there be any interest in a high res scan?

I also noticed a brand new unbuilt Celica GrB on ebay with a buy it now price of £1k!

Lastly, any suggestions where i can get replacement tyres from? I've seen references to using a different tamiya tyre but with a foam innner to stop the tyre dipping in which i presume means the tyre isn't quite the right size.

PS for anyone still worried, i have a Hornet on order for to learn to drive with.

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To answer your questions - assuming the dampers are the same as the Porsche, the lower seals are non-replaceable, as fas as I can tell. It seems that there's a brass bushing with a groove machined into the inside of it, into which an o-ring is adhered. This whole assembly is then slotted into an aluminium sleeve, which is bent around to seal the bushing assembly in, and make the damper body. Unhelpful. If you're lucky it might still be sealed, though - but you need to be careful; those old oranges can have quite a bit of initial stiction, and overcoming this can break the (extremely fragile and impossible to replace) suspension arms. Oil-wise you'll need probably something like 20w - I've been using 30w and it feels a little over damped. 

Wheels and tyres - new tyres in that size are basically unobtainable. The wheels are unique. Of course! Thanks Tamiya. 👍

To get around this, you can buy Mad Bull/Vanquish 12mm hexes which will slot straight on, which will allow a much, much wider range of wheels and tyres to fit. 4 hexes will run you to around a tenner on ebay, and I got some cheap wheels and tyres for about the same price. Time will tell how well they last, but they're much, much better than the 30yo originals!

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Thank you for your reply. Your help is much appreciated.

The bottom shock seals are ok. It’s the fibre seal that seals the cap to the top of the damper body. Might be able to get away with ptfe tape, bug I’d prefer the original seal If I could find one. 
 

So do the mad bull vanquish hexes slot straight on to the original splines? The after market ones I’ve seen seem to clamp on. 

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On 6/8/2020 at 10:50 AM, Mark_C said:

Replacing a mechanical speed controller for an electronic one is always a good idea. Look for a hobbywing 1060 which are cheap and are pretty good.

You may want to think about replacing the battery, its pretty amazing you got the old one (presumably nicad?) to work at all. I would avoid lipo for now, the modern nimh batteries are cheap and will provide much more power/run time, go for something like a 3000mah and stick to 7.2v ones to make it easy and cheap.

Hobbywing 1060: https://www.modelsport.co.uk/hobbywing-quicrun-1060-brushed-waterproof-esc-sbec/rc-car-products/404964

Battery: https://www.modelsport.co.uk/overlander-3300mah-7-2v-sport-stick-pack/rc-car-products/376164

Keep n mind that battery probably has a bigger capacity than the existing one, so you will probably need to charge it for longer. It may be worth investing in a newer charger. Something like this will not only charge the battery but condition it too. https://www.modelsport.co.uk/overlander-vsr-mini-ac-lipo-balance-charger-60w-6a/rc-car-products/425241 that will beep when the battery is charged correctly. Cheaper option would be somehting like : https://www.modelsport.co.uk/etronix-powerpal-peak-plus-ac-nimh-lipo-1-3-5a-charger/rc-car-products/388544 you will have to manually charge time and it won't look after the battery..

 

Battery chargers have moved on a bit... i bought the VSR mini you suggested and had to spend about 3 hours googling how to charge a battery :)

I also have a quicrun 1060 esc on order. Having built my son's new hornet with him and seen how much longer batteries last nowadays i can see the benefit. How much of that is battery and how much is the loss of the resistor for speed control i don't know. But my old MSC doesn't work very well so its the ideal time to see how much difference a modern ESC makes.

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Even the nimh's are significantly better than the old nicads. Lipo moreso, but a bit of a pain to look after and may be overkill for just a bit of fun.

Yes the chargers are a bit more complex nowadays! imho use nimh, stick it on say 3 or 4 amps and that'll do. What you can get now that you might see some benefit in id dual chargers that will charge two batteries at once, so if you and your son want to go have a play you don't have ot wait for batteries to charge one after the other.

The 1060 is a great little device.

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On 6/21/2020 at 12:17 PM, LoweR131 said:

Thank you for your reply. Your help is much appreciated.

The bottom shock seals are ok. It’s the fibre seal that seals the cap to the top of the damper body. Might be able to get away with ptfe tape, bug I’d prefer the original seal If I could find one. 
 

So do the mad bull vanquish hexes slot straight on to the original splines? The after market ones I’ve seen seem to clamp on. 

I was lucky enough to snag the last set of 12mm splined hex hubs from semiJoes RC truck store.  They work great and now I can use the readily available wheels and tires.

EF37CB64-115C-443B-822C-311C6DBB04EE.png

AF4E4AD3-BE56-4058-B8DE-964354F27E1B.jpeg

6080944E-96DB-4C44-A0CE-3F8E986FB383.jpeg

78B70941-CE82-47E5-AA56-D03885C4448B.jpeg

3DEC9832-E751-4C4C-95FE-E5737191C62F.jpeg

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Just had the mad bull/vanquish hex hubs arrive yesterday. Now i need to find a set of suitable wheels.

16 hours ago, Vladifresh said:

I was lucky enough to snag the last set of 12mm splined hex hubs from semiJoes RC truck store.  They work great and now I can use the readily available wheels and tires.

EF37CB64-115C-443B-822C-311C6DBB04EE.png

AF4E4AD3-BE56-4058-B8DE-964354F27E1B.jpeg

6080944E-96DB-4C44-A0CE-3F8E986FB383.jpeg

78B70941-CE82-47E5-AA56-D03885C4448B.jpeg

3DEC9832-E751-4C4C-95FE-E5737191C62F.jpeg

Thanks for your reply. I've just received a set of madbull/vanquish hex hubs which should fit. Now to find a suitable set of wheels with decent tyres that will grip on grass.

I've got the original white wheels with the rally block tyres, but they're wearing quickly and give minimal grip on grass. I've also got an original set of yellow wheels with slick tyres on that i can use on tarmac, but i'm trying to avoid using the car on tarmac because of the damage that you pick up if the car rolls.

Ideally i'll find a set of white wheels with similar rally block tyres where the spikes aren't worn away like my existing ones.

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