Kyosho Salute Rebuild (1987)

[fidalgo]

Hi Guys,

I'm from Portugal, and I'm in RC for quite some years now. I've already had several models, from Offroad, to touring, 1/10, 1/12 pan car, mini-z, etc.. And, I think today we don't have RC car with the "Glamour" from the 80s and 90s.

So the story begins with a Kyosho Salute I had several years ago, that I sold to a friend, and recently had a chance to buy it back, all in pieces.. So I decided to rebuild it to almost full specs with original parts, and now I share with you the process.

I still have the original catalog!


So it started like this..



I had to disassemble everything, in order to check what needed to be replaced.

And after some cleaning ..



some parts where a bit used and "out of shape", So I bought:
- Diff housings
- Original diff cases
- Rear and front arms
- Original RIMS
- Full set of stainless steel hex screws (not original)
- Optional Steel Final Drive
- All the gears from transmission new and original
- New Tires..





The aluminium parts where a bit dirty, so I polished them by hand, and with a Dremel.





And The rebuild begins !






For the servo holder I couldn't find the original part so .. So I made a new one from carbon and aluminium!


What I did..


And the rebuild continued ..



I was missing the tires, so I've search the net I found this.. for 4,99 a pair !


Now almost completed!


After some work with the mecanics, I started to think what to do with the original body, that had a pretty ugly paint scheme..



Then I've searched the Internet to find if there was a way to take off the paint from the lexan, to recover the original body. .I came across .. DOT 4 break fluid !! So I tested.. and it worked !!

First test with the wing..


Final result

Not bad !!

To make a long story short, the process lasted for several days, but in the end I managed to take all the old paint..



And finally the paint ..


For the motor, a Friend gived me a Trinity RUBY 17T motor, And another friend a Kyosho 22x1 motor, but I think the Salute still misses the Lemans motor (I most search for the original 480ST). For now it is like this..







And the final result !




Next to a NIB recently build Kyosho Salute 1:20 Baja Bugs, with optional bearings, lipo, micro ESC, etc..


Sorry for the LOOONNG post, but just wanted to share with you this work..

Now I'm searching for my next project: Kyosho Ultima, but they are a bit hard to find (for a decent price !! ), and some people don't want to send them to Portugal .. Still searching. ..

Hope you enjoyed it.

Regards
Luis Fidalgo