Old TA03R-S: fix up or replace

[Nafsten 3]

I dug out my old TA03R-S (911 GT1) kit a few weeks ago, and with a bit of tinkering and soldering, it works. I took it to a local car park with the kids and I had a blast! I’d forgotten how much fun it was. 
 

Here’s the but: it runs, but it is really, REALLY battered. Straight off the bat there’s a lot of things that need replacing, and I suspect the whole thing could do with dismantling, cleaning and regreasing. 
 

This is an old kit, what is the availability of parts going to be like? If I’m going to invest money in something, should I be looking at getting a new kit instead?

Any and all suggestions welcome!

[DeadMeat666 1675]

I believe that particular kit was rereleased a few months ago, only in 'street' trim, so with the exception of the sticker sheet you should be able to find most of the spares you'd need for a resto project.

I say go for it.

[TwistedxSlayer 1290]

Rebuilding is just as much fun as buying a new kit. IMO.

 

There are a gazillion spare parts still out there for the TA03. You should be able to find every item that you need.

[Nafsten 3]

Thanks for the suggestions. I had seen that the kit had been re-released, fortuitous timing!

What about upgrades though? Lots of websites are out of stock, but I don’t know if that’s due to COVID or just in general

[ChrisRx718 4470]

TA03 hop ups are really thin on the ground, exacerbated by the recent Porsche re-release!

Best places are eBay and Facebook marketplace now for TA03 spares - unless you try your luck with the Yahoo Japan auctions via a third party website, but they will end up being costly because of the weak £ and shipping costs.

Depending on what you enjoy most, it may be more effective to buy a newer kit with better parts availability and swap over the electronics if they're still good. Nothing more frustrating trying to fix your runner only to find the spare part which was once worth £4 is now worth £40 because it's collectable.

[Nafsten 3]

8 minutes ago, ChrisRx718 said:

Nothing more frustrating trying to fix your runner only to find the spare part which was once worth £4 is now worth £40 because it's collectable.

This is exactly the issue that I’m worried about. I suspect that straight away I’m going to need £45 worth of stuff, and I wonder if that £45 would be better spent towards a TT02S. I don’t know how much there is worth salvaging from the old car - there is an ESC (not original, it came with a mechanical speed controller originally) but it’s old and very battered. I never had much luck getting the electronics to stay in the car no matter what sort of tape I used!

[Manix92 121]

I'm finding a lot of problems on my TA03r-s at the moment. Seems a lot of the plastic is going weak, most of the basic parts are easy enough to get though. Some of the plastic trees if you have to get them off ebay are overpriced.