wtcc5 4896 Posted September 27, 2021 Thanks to @Quincy and his talent to find vintage Tamiya stuff, I got this car from him for a fair price. I love Formula cars a lot for their look and chassis design. What I don't like is the way they perform, especially on unprepped surface and in comparison to other R/C car classes (like tc). So I rarely drive them and except for one, all are shelf queens. Seeing the F189 my hands are itching again just to see this car running. I am also a big fan of the designer John Barnard, the designer of this car and many other race winning chassis. Unforgotten is his reaction, when the F189 won its first race with Nigel Mansell at the wheel in Brazil 1989: John Barnard is the guy on the right with his arms raised in disbelieve (picture taken from his biography "The perfect car"): The F189 was revolutionary at his time for the first semiautomatic gearbox and unfortunately infamous for the failure of this system in nearly every race (a result of a vibrating crankshaft according to the book and the reason why John couldn't believe the car finished the race after failing in every pre-season test). The F189 had many more cool features. I love the design for its look, the slim chassis, long curved sidepods... for me personally (together with the F190) one of the greatest F1 cars of all time. So far my personal connection to this car. I was very happy when @Quincy said he had it after I asked. The initial motivation to ask came after I rediscovered a Hop-Up I bought months ago (will show later). Now the project will take the normal "wtcc5" route, with adding Tamiya recommended Hop-Up parts and restoring as far as possible. Lets start with the current condition: The "outside": Under the hood: Chassis underside: The car was used by its previous owner. The body has a dent on the rear left sidepod and a crack on the left side next to the air intake. The nose has little scratches, but luckily is in a good condition. Again (seems to happen too much) the wrong paint type was used, resulting in the paint not sticking well to the Lexan. The paint layer is also very thick and was put on with a brush. As most of the paint still sticks on the body, I think I can let it there and come away with minor retouching. The rear wing therefore has the paint very loose on and will need more attention. The chassis has scratches as well. Overall it is in great shape and has just accumulated dust and dirt. The rear tires are Tamiya F1 rubber tires in a medium compound, that look very good for their age are undriven and not glued to the rim. Are these worth something (because the car will get new foam tires front and rear)? Next chapter: Disassembly and cleaning all parts. 10 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4896 Posted September 27, 2021 The disassembled car: My cleaning routine: Dusty/dirty plastic parts --> Soapwater and old toothbrush Greasy parts --> Brake cleaner Dirty metal parts --> White spirit Wrongly painted metal parts --> Methoxypropanol In this case the previous owner painted the rear wing base black. Methoxypropanol is perfect to remove ABS- and Lexan-color. Unfortunately it will brittle and blind Lexan, so I only use it for rims and metal parts. The result (without screws, ball bearings and tires): 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hIghQ 149 Posted September 27, 2021 So, foam tires in front and rubber rears? And that is driveable? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4896 Posted September 27, 2021 @hIghQ: I don’t think so. They also weren’t glued to the rim. It looks like these were only put on for the shelf. As written above, the car will get new foam tires on all four corners. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beetlemankurt 676 Posted September 28, 2021 Love it! Beautiful car and a good score. Looks like it's come to a good home and will be well looked after . Cheers Kurt 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4896 Posted September 28, 2021 @Beetlemankurt: Thanks for your kind words! Today, some of the maintenance/replacement parts arrived: I am not going to use them all as some parts seem to have changed a bit… like the servo saver is grey (not white like I thought) and the diff-spurgear-parts (the spur gear changed its design). I was surprised that the F189 front rims have an unusual big diameter compared to the F103… Now I have to think if I force the foam tires on these rims or try to get the right ones… The Hop-Up part that caused all these activities here is this one: I am looking forward to break the seal on this one. The carbon will suit this chassis (even though just the outer layers on the main plate are carbon). 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
InsaneJim69 1584 Posted September 28, 2021 As regards the wheels those are non kit standard. Those are the optional 50386 RD Dish Wheels. So run different front tyres to the standard kit. Should be 4430 fronts and 3645 rears. 👍 James. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4896 Posted September 29, 2021 19 hours ago, InsaneJim69 said: As regards the wheels those are non kit standard. Those are the optional 50386 RD Dish Wheels. So run different front tyres to the standard kit. Should be 4430 fronts and 3645 rears. 👍 James. Thank you for the detailed information Are you sure that these wheels aren’t those of the kit? They look exactly like the ones shown on and in the manual. Were there two different F1 dish wheels? Picture from the manual: The last parts arrived: This means I can start the rebuild soon 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
InsaneJim69 1584 Posted September 29, 2021 You are indeed correct, they came with the racing dish wheels as standard. How bizarre. Anyways, those spoked wheels you have there look far more realistic. 👍, Probably alot easier finding tyres for them too. James. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4896 Posted October 1, 2021 I started the build today. After building so many FF-01, this definitely felt like something else. It even felt like something else compared to the other F10X cars I have build up to now (F103GT/F104v2 pro/F104W). A quite simple design, yet effective. Topplate and Hop-Up chassis: Power pod and motor: Shock and spring: Front suspensionand wing: Servo saver: Differential and tires: The chassis completed: Some topics I wonder about and/or need to adress: 1. For the front tip of the T-bar of the Hop-Up chassis the manual says to use an O-ring too. That makes the tip stick out underneath the chassis, because the original T-bar was installed without an O-ring. 2. The Hop-Up chassis is a bit longer and requires new rear body post holes. Did Tamiya made the car more stable here as reaction to driver feedback? 3. The ride height in the rear is quite high (no adjustments possible). That is maybe another explanation, why the previous owner used rubber tires for the shelf. 4. I could have sworn, I have a sheet with GoodYear tire decals at home, but I couldn't find it. So a MCI order will need to be done. Which isn't too bad, as the rear wing lost nearly all its color and with it the sticker. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
InsaneJim69 1584 Posted October 1, 2021 As regards the ride height, there was a hopup motor mount for it. RD Adjustable Alloy Motor Mount, it also fits the Group C cars too. That came with plastic inserts that the rear axle slotted through to adjust the height of the rear pod. 👍 That's the only one I can answer I am afraid. Looks great though, very simple cars yet very effective, with a sport tuned and foams these really do shift even on a parking lot style surface. I remember fitting a Novak SS5800 brushless system to my old Group C Mazda 787b and it was crazy fast and surprisingly managable even on parking lot surfaces that I used to run it on. 👍 James. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
InsaneJim69 1584 Posted October 1, 2021 Here it is 53277 . 👍 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4896 Posted October 2, 2021 Thanks for the part number. It is an F103 part, but why not… I bought one just in case Today my 3d printer had to work for a similar goal: A shelfqueen ride height motor mount plus the other side mount of the power pod. Now I have 4mm ride height at the rear end and 2mm in front (just flipped the springs underneath the hub). That is a more realistic look now: 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
svenb 3778 Posted October 3, 2021 Very nice build well done👍 To use the adjustable aluminium motor properly you'll also need the matching height adjustable gear case parts 53257. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4896 Posted October 3, 2021 Thanks to @Quincy I now have a beautiful motor for this chassis I am lucky to have him 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4896 Posted October 9, 2021 Today I finished the car as far as possible at the moment. The first topic I had to address, was the rear wing. As seen above the color didn't stick very well, especially on the endplates. My effort using Tamiya TS paint wasn't successful. I guess these endplates are made of PE and nearly nothing will stick to this type of plastic. Painting the wing sections wasn't satisfying, too, with the old plastic surface the paint looked not good. So I had no choice, but to wrap both (endplates and wings). In hindsight the best solution. The surfaces look shiny and new. The second topic is about the motor... Luckily nothing serious like this The near perfect motor @Quincy sold to me, was used by its previous owner and the soldering was different from the Tamiya standard. The brushes for example were soldered directly with the motor cables. Maybe good for competition, but not for its new purpose. So I removed them, cleaned the contacts, added the cables and installed new brushes: And then I could install it in the F101: This "work" instantly increased the look of the chassis/car: The missing sponsor and number decals are ordered. I hope MCI will deliver soon. 9 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quincy 397 Posted October 10, 2021 Nice work once again! 👏🏻 👍🏻 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Collin 1956 Posted October 10, 2021 6 hours ago, Quincy said: Nice work once again! 👏🏻 👍🏻 True. I dont have any feelings for Formula cars but I like the way how it was restored. Tumbs up! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4896 Posted October 17, 2021 The sticker sets from MCI arrived. Again, I am not 100 percent happy with the quality. Especially the edges of the graphics are rough. What else bothered me today, are the ordered "Good Year" tire decals. The radius is to big for the foam tires... I had to use a car wrap trick to make them fit... The good news is, that the colors were pretty much spot on this time. And of course, that the car looks very good now. One last step will be to add a little paint where the color didn't stick to the body. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hIghQ 149 Posted October 17, 2021 For pure aesthetics and realism, I think rubber tires would probably look better than foams (not saying this doesn't look nice!). Driving is another story though... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
svenb 3778 Posted October 17, 2021 that looks a lot better. whats the car wrap trick? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Collin 1956 Posted October 17, 2021 Oh Cool. Just saw its Gerhard Bergers car. Maybe I have little feelings for F1 cars... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4896 Posted October 18, 2021 8 hours ago, svenb said: that looks a lot better. whats the car wrap trick? I cut them as usual, place them so that the middle of the decal sits in the right position and only the middle sticks. Then I cut between every letter from the outside, letting about 1mm uncut. This allows to angle and position every letter as you want, without losing the base line of every letter. That way it not only looks professional, but is much easier than cutting and placing every letter individually. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pylon80 2628 Posted January 28 On 10/1/2021 at 10:17 AM, wtcc5 said: 2. The Hop-Up chassis is a bit longer and requires new rear body post holes. Did Tamiya made the car more stable here as reaction to driver feedback? Hi Kevin, I am reopening this thread as I am doing something similar and I have a question. Is it possible that the deck and t-bar that you used are actually F102 parts, while the F189 was originally released as an F101 kit? I am debating sourcing an original body that will be drilled or build my own using a TBG repro (undrilled). I know that Tamiya never named their F1 chassis officially "F10X" until the F103 came along; rather the people driving those early cars coined the names F101 and F102 after the fact... Or something along those lines! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wtcc5 4896 Posted January 28 In this post on the package it says „Can be used with models beginning with F189.“: Over at Tamiyabase they say it is F102 only: https://tamiyabase.com/parts/1570-53105 So this is probably an F102 designed hop-up that fits older chassis too. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites