TOPIC:

Hi everyone, My name is Lee and i'm from the UK. I have a few cars that I got in the 80's, Mostly Tamiya and a couple of other brands. I used to race them with a group of friends at our local bmx track just for fun. I last used my cars in the early 90's and then put them in storage. Someone asked about painting shells on an airbrush forum I am on I mentioned I had some cars,  coincidentaly one of my friends messaged me to tell me about re releases of some of the old Tamiya models and I said I would go and see what was in the box. So I put some shelves up for them in my garage and I went and checked out what I had in storage at my Dad's. I'd planned on doing this anyway at some point but hadn't gotten around to it. 
In the box:
2 x 58036 Audi Quattro's, One complete that I used to run occasionally and one i brought for spares.
2 x Lunchbox, One thats well used but workiing. And one in bits that I didnt realise I had.
1 Falcon good condition
1 Hornet, sadly in pieces. 
1 Ford Ranger in bits, I think!

I've got them home now and they are now on the shelf in the garage. They're not in as bad condition as I thought they would be, mainly just dirty.
The 2 Quattro's are good and really clean inside, the bodies are good but not perfect, no cracks or splits though, my original one being in better condition over all, its just flaking paint on the inside of the bodies. I've read I can get that off and repaint. The Quattro I brought for spares has no electronics and has a damaged chassis where the bar is behind the rear shock mounts. I'm sure I could relocate or make 2 mounting brackets for the bar and body mount as a temporary fix. 
Lunchbox is reasonably good inside, Body is cracked, one wishbone is broken and tyres have gone but I have spares as I found out afterwards. The other Lunchbox that I didn't know I had is in bits but the chassis looks ok and body is ok but tatty and just needs painting. 
Falcon is good but dirty/dusty otherwise is complete.
Hornet is in boxes, chassis had cracked so I stripped it down. I found 3 broken chassis and 2 bodies also with damage. I still have the box my lunchbox came in and it was heavy, I thought it was the Ford Ranger I thought I had in bits but very sadly it wasn't. However, its is packed to the brim with wheels and tyres so I will be able to change what have perished on the other cars. Some of the tyres on the cars are good but feel hard so will look at how best to restore rubber (I've seen it done with vintage motorcycle carburettor and air filter rubbers by soaking them in  Wintergreen Oil) so theres a chance it will work. I will try it on some of the more worn tyres.
I also have a fishing tackle box full of the spare parts, servo's, rx box's, speed controllers, connectors, motors, screws, shocks, even found an unused Tamiya grease tube in there from the 80's.  It's certainly brought back a few memories for sure. So now I am looking forward to getting them all cleaned up and working again. All the complete cars have the radio gear and servo's inside apart from the 2nd Quattro I brought as spares. There are 5 transmitters which marry up with the amount of cars I used to run, but sadly no batteries or chargers, so they will be on my list. I'm happy I found this place, it has a lot of info. 
What's everyone using now? I am totally out of the loop. Is there a multi battery charger so I can charge more than 1 battery at a time?
I'm hoping to get my Grandsons interested, I know the eldest has a car but not sure which model it is.

Sorry for the long intro. 

Lee

Hi Lee,
Welcome on TB and vers nice cars you have there. I'm sure all of us would love to see them in pictures... we love pics in here...

Welcome on board Lee. For your vintage you can find nimh sticks 2000mA or more and for the charger 1 imax B6 . Cheap and very efficient. And you can charge all battery type. 
you can post some picts of your cars. It's always cool to see. 

Welcome on board

Dual & four channel chargers are available, but they come at a cost, check out www.modelsport....ts/1330500 for example.

I have a pair of Imax B6 chargers, they need a separate power supply (although there are "AC" versions), and can be fiddly to set up - but they will charge pretty much anything you can throw at them, including Lipo (lithium polymer) if you want to go that route in the future.

Battery tech & capacities have moved on a lot, entry level is NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride), I'd recommend either something like www.vapextech.c...ech-tamiya (unless you want to spend more for greater capacity) or www.ebay.co.uk/...SwE8daXh9y for the Ranger.

Radio gear standard is 2.4ghz (no more crystal swappery & much less interference), but stick controls are comparatively rare, with steerwheel sets being cheaper.

Bearings are ludicrously cheap compared to what they used to be, check out rcbearings.co.uk

The other big leap forward is brushless motors -  they can be capable of IC engine level performance without the stink, noise & difficulty starting, but don't have to be. Higher turn brushed motors (for greater torque and lower speed) are much more available than they used to be.

Please post pics of your collection



 

Ok I've taken some pics of the offending articles. First off all of the working cars on the shelf, my box of wheels and tyres, the other lunchbox and hornet with a few more wheels and transmitters. 

Then we have the Parts Audi not in too bad condition. very dirty and needs a repair to the bar. 
 

Then we have the other Audi which is my original one. Used and dirty, the tyres are starting to lose their spring so flat spots are starting. Maybe I should put them on stands?   Then we have the Falcon, probably the cleanest and in best condition of them all.  

And finally the beaten up racing lunchbox. Its got a faster motor installed, Like is said its just fun between friends so we were all pretty much running the same or even standard motors. 



As you can see, the tyres are totally shot, I put the regular Lunchbox tyres on Monster beetle wheels which gave them a lower profile and so was more stable for racing against my buddies. 



The red stuff is a baloon that has dried out, I used to put one over the speed controller to try and keep the water and dust off it. 



I do have a Kyosho Turbo Optima buggy but thats not a Tamiya so I've not uploaded pics of that. 

Well thats it for the moment. Hard work ahead to get these looking nice again. I think its something that can be achieved. Might cost a bit but hopefully not too much. 

EDIT:  Sadly NO Ford Ranger, I could have swore I had one and almost brought new parts for it  a few months ago. Good job I didnt..  

I do have one of these chargers I got for a small helicopter, I believe this is the same as what you said would charge my batteries (when I get some)



How long does it take to charge a 3300mah and how long do they allow the cars to run for? Can you suggest any better than stock OLD motors that I could swap for the old motors but not something that will drain the battery in 5 minutes? 

Sorry for all the questions, its been such a long time ago.  

Lee

Wahhhooo nice models. The falcon needs front shocks. The lunchy you can find cheap wheeles and a better body for low price because of rerereleased version. And your audis are awesome. You can easily make 1 shelfqueen with your 2 and have a runner. For your tires, a good bath of glycerin and foam inside, and let's go. (I think that theese tires are rere available) . 
congrats .
Your kyosho looks fine too. And if it is what I think, easy to restore.

Yep it's the b6. The runtime depends of the battery capacity. And the state of the motor. I have approximatively 5 7 minutes with old 2000mAh nimh and sport tuned motor and with a cheap chinese esc. 

Welcome to the forum, we are a friendly bunch 

Great lot of different vehicles and you Falcon seems to be in very good condition.

If you are charging a 3000mAh battery with 3A it will take around 1 hour if it's completly empty.
I just recently drove my Striker in -6C with 4000mAh Lipo battery with Technigold motor and I got over 30min of driving time, about that time I started to get cold.
Got inside and the battery was about half empty.
So I guess I would have driven easly for 50min or so.
Benefits with lipo batteries is that they deliver power to the very end of the charge in very linar maner.
But with lipo batteries the is a need to know the safety rules as they can be dangerous in wrong hands.
I won't go into that here.

Btw I have also a Imax B6 charger, but the Ultimate model.
It have done me good for many years now.
You may spot it in some of my threads.

Again, welcome 

Richard