Losi JRX2 rebuild

[OptimaFan]

As my name may reveal, I am more a ?Kyosho/Optima lover. So what am I doing with a Losi? Well, it's like this. I purchased a used Optima Mid from a Dutch trading site, and it came with very odd looking, at least to me, shocks. I asked others if they recognised these, and was directed towards Losi. Turned out these were JRX2 shocks. I contacted the seller, and he did indeed have a JRX2, which apparently had the golden Kyosho shocks fitted. For a small fee, he was willing to part with it as well, as he intended to sell all his car stuff.

So I was looking for a spare Mid, and ended up with a car totally alien to me. It looked a bit dusty, and the Mid shocks and small wheels made it look even more strange:






So, after some doubt whether to just remove the shocks and store the JRX2, or invest more time and money and see what it can look like. The idea that this car was a pioneer in the Losi line of cars, and the fact that it seemed to be using quality materials, generally, made my mind swing towards restoring it.


I'll summarize the build process a little, as i already keep a full build log on RCG. First step was to strip the chassis for a clean:




It cleaned up nicely, and since all the parts for the traling link suspension were also bundled with the car, the plan was to get it back to that original setup.




I also wanted to do a new body, and chose the Team Bluegroove repro for that:




With the steering assy and other parts fitted, it looked like this:




Since the car didn't come with good tires, and the front wheels were pretty beat up, I started looking for other ones. Brett had a couple of nice ones, and for the first time it could stand on it's own "feet" again:




Meanwhile the body had been masked and painted in a 2-tone color scheme:






Then it was time to bring those 2 together:








A repro wing has also been cut and painted, in white, but I can't seem to get the original wing seperated from the wing clamps, without breaking the original wing, so for now I fitted the original wing to it:




If someone has a pair of wing clamps to spare, and some e-clips (the ones the hold the metal pins on which the front A-arms pivot), I can make it fully complete again. And naturally, repro decals are also present, so it will look more lively pretty soon.


Update 1 july 2014

Last week I got the repro decals in, and yesterday I finally managed to remove the wing buttons from the old wing, and install on the new repro wing. After piecing all back together, this is the result:





















Although this car came to me as parts donor just for the Kyosho shocks that had been fitted to it, I must admit I enjoyed rebuilding it, as it's different from my other vintage stuff, and it turned out nice, I think.

One thing remains, fitting a smaller spur, so it no longer rubs against the repro gear cover.