New member saying Hi

[Sami911 0]

Happy new year everyone.

New to Tamiya club and look forward to chatting with you people. I have some vintage RC cars: The Bigwig, Porsche 959, Avante, Clod buster and Top Force which have been in boxes and untouched for over 25  years. 

Hope some of you experts can help me restore and get them back running again.

I think all my 7.2v 1200 mah batteries are dead. Should I buy the same batteries or are there upgraded/better versions? I wish to use them occasionally.
 

Are there any methods to remove the flat spots on the Clod busters wheels? 
 

Thanks,

Sami

[DeadMeat666 1675]

Hello Sami, and a happy new year to you too.

For batteries, you can start by getting a few NiMh batteries; you can find brands that already have Tamiya plugs attached, and they come in much higher capacities than 1200mah. 3600mah is very common and quite cost effective, and they slot right into the battery compartments of pretty much any vintage Tamiya that used to take standard NiCad batteries long ago.

As for Clod tires, they're readily available online, so I suggest you buy a set, and from now on see if you can store your RCs in a way that avoids the tires touching anything so you can prevent flat spots in the future.

Cheers,

[Baddon 860]

Sami, hello and welcome to the slippery slope that is vintage Tamiya.

I started out to restore my old 3 buggies (Boomerang, Thundershot and Midnight Pumpkin) and now have a collection of over 20 on display.

For modern batteries go for NiMh, they last about 15-20 minutes for a Tamiya buggy. Also get some modern electronics as they have better range and virtually NO interference. A simple no nonsense electronic speed controller will also be a must if your going to use them regularly.

 

On your profile if you add what part of the world your from (useful when buying and selling) 

[Sami911 0]

Thank you DeadMeat666 and Baddon. I still have many vintage Acoms battery chargers. I think they are trickle/overnight chargers.

What chargers would you recommend for the higher capacity batteries? Any type/ brands you could recommend? 

[Baddon 860]

you want a fast charger that lets you do two packs at once. That is programmable and charges all the main types of batteries so its future proofed for LiPo and LiFi.

Modern NiMh packs want to be fast charged in 1Hr, with a twin/dual charger you can do 2 packs at once. I have 2 kids as well so we charge up about 6-8 packs in a morning or evening then go bashing.

[Dakratfink 965]

Welcome to the forum. 
I second what other members here say about NiMh batteries.. Once you do decide to go with modern electronics the Hobbywing 1060 esc is very inexpensive and reliable  (usually less the $30 USD, so whatever that exchange rate equates to in your part of the world ). 
Also, modern 2.4Ghz radios can be had for a song and are a night and day difference from our old crystal radios from BITD.

good luck with whatever you decide on and happy modeling! This forum is a wealth of knowledge and everyone I have dewy with here is helpful. 

[mud4fun 1696]

Welcome!

We have alot of cars between myself and my kids so to save money we settled on a standard package of electronics for all the buggies:

• 3300 NiMh racing packs with Tamiya plug for the kids cars (Overlander packs cost about £16). 
• Hobbywing 1060 ESC with Tamiya plug (typically about £18)
• Futaba R202GF 2.4Ghz Receiver (approx £26 individually*)

*We bought three complete Futaba T2HR radio systems (approx £50 each) which gave us all a new 2.4Ghz transmitter each plus three receivers and we then bought additional receivers for all the other cars. They are cheap and cheerful radio systems with no fancy memory storage etc but they are light, comfortable to hold for long periods, have the basics such as servo reverse, steering adjustment and can be configured with a 25%/75% throttle lever setting. The four AA batteries last ages too.

I use Lipo batteries in my buggies with Deans connectors (and my 1060 ESC's are fitted with Deans so are a few £ more expensive) but to be honest for a basher Tamiya buggy the NiMH's are fine. My daughters can get as much as 30mins run time from a 3300NiMh when using silver cans or sport tuned motors and even with a 19T motor they still get 15-20mins. We always fully disharge ours after use and then store our packs fully charged so they are available for use whenever the kids fancy taking their cars out. This is much better than my LiPos which have to be stored with a storage charge which is typically 40-50% capacity so if I fancy running a car I have to wait 40 minutes to charge a battery up, this has meant I have missed dry weather windows so many times in recent months in changeable weather conditions.