Vintage Tamiya budget build

[Crazy L]

Hi all

After a recent visit to the Iconic gig at the Surrey and Hants club, to which I've been a number of times before but this time I actually had a good day due to its relaxed atmosphere, I decided (again) that I needed a vintage car in my life. What to get however.

I thought maybe a Cougar 2 or even a Bosscat, but after my Nitro 21xtr a number of years ago, I remember vowing not to buy another Schumacher, so...

A Lazer? Pricey, and with a normal ZX sport going on that auction site for stupid money, not likely, so what about
a Yoke? Hens teeth.

I want to run the thing, I want to be able to crash it and know I can get spares with a browse on ebay or some shop in Hong Kong, so I peered through the rose tints and and plumped on a Tamiya as I had a Manta Ray when I was a kid, and having saved up my pocket money for about a year, it was a car that brought much fun, and was even the car I first raced with, having, by this point, become a Jamie Booth fan due to his, and RCMC ed Alan Harmans antics as Tamiya team mates.

A few cars came into my head, all the obvious ones but I decided on the Top Force. Common now as classic, and prices are frankly, stupid. Even a Re-Re goes for the price of a real car, absurd.
Upon having my Tamiyaclub application "approved" I discovered why. There are people out there with brand new ones in boxes. Not that I didn't know this sort of thing went on, but come on, it's a model, it deserves to be built at the least. If you want a box, sell the contents and keep the box, let someone get pleasure out of the bits you're not prepared to let see the light of day. Alas, that's the way I see it and I digress.

With such silliness in mind I set about a way I could have a Top Force and not spend daft money. I looked all around at the various incarnations and having watched them all go, again, for daft money, I found this Blazing Star and won it from a chap in Austria for about £30.


Let the project begin......

[Crazy L]

So, with the car in front of me and with it being only the basis for my project, I whipped the shell off to reveal what I was already aware of as it was shown in the auction, a hacked about chassis, which looked like a cack handed, hacksaw wielding buffoon had had a fit on it.


Not to worry though, as that was going to be sacrificed regardless, and with that in mind I set about the stripdown. So, with phillips screwdriver in hand and dinner still in the oven, it came to this.

[Crazy L]

With it all in bits, and having eaten my dinner by this point. It was time for the initiation of washing the plastics. This is a little thing I like to do with 2nd hand cars, as doing so makes the car "mine", if you will, silly bugger that I am.
Here we are, all nice and clean, having been scrubbed with a toothbrush and Unilevers finest.



Next up, was to marry up the gearbox' to the other ebay find. An OE Top Force chassis, which I got for about £20. It is missing all hardware though, no matter.


Aside from a couple of bits going on backstage, that is as far as I have got with it all for now.

Before I go, and while I remember, I'd like to give thanks to Trevor, aka J'mm'n, for the Top Force shell, wing and undertray, cheers mate.

That's it for tonight folks, stay safe and thanks for reading.

and remember, whenever a tree falls, an otter wipes his arse with a tabloid paper.

[bretts]

I love reading these ebay finds to racing machine rebuilds. Keep it up.

Might try this http://screwz4rc.co.uk/screwkit-request/ to make it top notch.

[OptimaFan]

Nice project. So if I get this well, you are going to fit the parts of the Blazing Star to a Top Force chassis? Can it still be considered vintage enough, as I understand the Blazing Star is a fairly recent car?

[Crazy L]

Originally Posted by OptimaFan

Nice project. So if I get this well, you are going to fit the parts of the Blazing Star to a Top Force chassis? Can it still be considered vintage enough, as I understand the Blazing Star is a fairly recent car?

Will it matter? The transmission, suspension and driveline are all the same. It's really only the chassis and shell which make a car. Otherwise, the dirt thrasher, terra conquerer, and this blazing star thing would all still be called Manta Ray.