Just found some of my old cars.
 

I Just thought I'd share what I've found this morning. These cars were put away in the early 90's in my mum and dads old barn. I've just pulled them out and I'm planning on resurrecting at least some of them, so any help pointing me in the right direction for parts and advice would be very appreciated.

Firstly is my Yokomo Super Dog Fighter YZ870. I used to race this car as a 10 year old kid (now 36) and would love to get it back up and running.
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The second car is an Optima Mid. I can't remember exactly which model this is but it has aluminium shock towers if that helps? I would also like to get this one back up and running to use at various meetings.
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The third car I believe is an original chain drive Optima? It has manual speed controller and the red collars on the option house shocks if that makes any difference.
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The fourth car is an early Hotshot.
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The fifth car is a Schumacher Top Cat.
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Unfortunately I had a terrible addiction to taking things in bits as a small child but I do have a big box full of various bits and pieces to go with the cars, so fingers crossed most of the stuff is in that.

Lol. Wish I could find my PB MINI MUSTANG and swb Cat. Its a nice find that buddy

Nearly enough pay for a bmax43 if that lot was sold i reckon. ;)

If he sold all that you could probably get 2

I'm want to run the Optima Mid at some indoor events like Worksop. Old school's cool ;) From memory I think it's a Turbo S/W base but I'm hoping someone can confirm this? I just don't want to order the wrong stuff on ebay.

The Mid seems to me like a regular one, so that version that comes with the white body and orange/yellow/red/black striping. I don't see any of the Turbo's upgrade parts, no stabilizers, no turnbuckles, just regular tie-rods. The rear shock tower is probably from the Lazer ZX series it clearly isn't stock. But it's SWB for sure. Hope the rear diff and idler gear are still in good shape, those can be pretty shot on a well used car.

got load of schumacher, yoke and kyosho spares, got lists in the for sale section, im not expert tho so part numbers would be needed :thumbsup:

Yeah after a bit of research it looks like an early standard Mid. Can you still get the rear diffs and idlers or are they like hens teeth?

I've still got the yokomo manual so I can hit you up with part numbers :thumbsup:

rear ball diff sprockets are cheap, but the geardiff sprocket is expensive. The middle gear you have choices of buying original, pargu2000 aluminium or mine in hard plastic.
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps7d947a27.jpg
Take apart the rear gearbox and have a look at the sprockets. I recommend a thorough cleaning of all the gears, inspection, and if usable, regrease and re install. If your vintage meet is indoors, you should only need the lower belt cover. If its outdoors get the complete belt covers from TBG.

Thanks for the info. I'll strip the gearbox down this weekend and post up some pictures and see what you think.

There is a 4th option for the middle gear, Thorpe also makes one. It would be great if someone stepped in to make a replacement gear diff sprocket. But if the current gears are not too worn, cleaning and re-grease will do. Looking forward to the pics.

Houston we have a problem!!

I've just stripped the gearbox which was absolutely packed full of 25 year old dirt including small stones. It has a gear diff which internally is fine but the gear on the diff is worn along with the idler.

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What are the best options from here? I see ball diffs available but are parts for gear diffs non existent?

This is the joy of restoring these old cars.
Now the hunt is on, I've spent hours and hours searching out old and very hard to find parts. It's like winning the lottery when the bits finally arrive that gave takers so long to find.

optima
 

That's what I want for my mid the chassis protector mine broke

I've bought a NOS rear ball diff so that's sorted until I can get find the parts for the gear diff. I just need the rest of the gears now.

I'm going to strip and clean the car over this weekend. I can see there's going to be a huge parts list and many hours trawling through ebay. I also noticed it must have had the anti roll bars at some time as the mounts on the front arms are still there. I'm sure the lad who originally owned this car told me it was a Turbo but unfortunately he's no longer here to ask.

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Does anyone know what this rear tower is?

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The normal Mid comes with mounts for front stabilizer. So that's not only on the Turbo. Just check if the front has dogbones or universal joints. The Turbo came with UJ's.

Rear shock tower looks Lazer ZX to me

It's a standard mid. No UJ's.

Hmm, that would indicate a Turbo, or it was installed later as upgrade. Still odd there are no turnbuckles, just normal tie rods...

optima mid
 

Looking at the gears and the gearbox, this is my csi verdict.
You used too much grease internally. Also because the drive line wasnt sealed , all the sand stones and dust went in the gearbox. I wouldnt normally say this, but the gears look like they can run at least another 10 packs.
Why not use zippo and clean all the gears and gearbox, grease with hobby grease then reassamble.use a tissue paper and a small - screwdriver to clean in between the gear tooth.
Or if you can wait for new gears,then wait till you get them.

It wasn't me that built it but in know what you mean about the grease. I've got the new gears coming along with a ton of other stuff.

I tried some associated hex wheels earlier and they fit.

with the ae wheels i found with my lazer the offset on the front was wrong as it made the car to narrow, your mid may be different? . i use ftx vantage snow flake style wheels, the offset front and rear are the same and at £3 a pair in black or white.:thumbsup:

and its a standard optima mid ..

no turnbuckles
no UJ´s
no turbo chassi

and it has frp mount on the gearboxside for the mechanical speed controll

verdict ..

standard optima mid

mvh isobarik

First it was posted that it had UJ's front, and dogbones rear, but that posting was edited to "no UJ's". Then it's clear it's a regular Mid, no doubt about it.

Does anyone know if you can get reproduction new arms or are they hard to find?

I've stripped the Optima Mid and cleaned a few parts tonight. Not sure I've made the right decision doing this as it's easily going to cost £200 to make it nice again and I'm not sure if I'll dare to drive it at the end. Attachment 73726

The Mid is pretty durable. Parts I saw damaged on the used Mids I bought are the gears, front bumper, bent wing mounts, and bent chassis plate.

Hi, i have many optima mid parts available. Let me know what you need and i will check for you.
Brgds
Oli

if you are doing a full clean up job get yourself one of these:-
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digital-Ul...item1e9003cfe8

A quick clean in soapy water to get the worst off then into the USC with hot water and a few drops of fairy.
When cleaning gearboxes and internals change the water for some engine degreaser, then another cycle or 2 with hot water and washing up liquid.

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x...pst36dcvzk.jpgI dont think its neccesary to spend 200£ to fix the mid. Your arms look fine so no need to blow money on those. I do have spare nip rear arms from speed model.
I also make my own arms and i do have the fronts.

All you need are belt covers..gears and body. If you want to drive this car best not to spend money on new parts. Sometimes used parts lots appear on ebay for cheap. You can go for those. Heck sometimes buying a used car is way cheaper.

It won't cost you £200 - I'll help out, drop me an email to [email protected] I may have a spare diff gear and other bits that you need to get your Optima Mid raceworthy.

I'm an Optimaniac - have around 14 of them SWB and LWB, NIB, shelfers and runners.

Dan :)

14 :o

What do you buy the man who has everything :p

Remember, his wife may be reading here as well, so he probably left out the 0 behind 14. :D


But joking aside, Dan is a great guy, and there are more good people on this forum that really love the vintage stuff, and truly want to help others out. Much better than some other people that sometimes pop their heads because they're just into the vintage hobby to make money, and buy vintage cars/parts, only with the intention of selling later for top dollar.

Annsman mad rat wheels are an exact match for the zx/zxr in diametre but look so much better. I use these on my race car.

Would you consider selling some spare front arms?

drop me a PM.

See picture, this is what you need right? They are in used condition but still ok for a runner!

Been really busy the past couple of days but I stripped the front shocks down last night and the Pistons have vanished :confused:

Attachment 73791

These are the kind of issues I've been running into all the way through. Fingers crossed the rear ones are ok.

Luckily the bladders are still there. These are much harder to come by then the pistons.