TOPIC:

Well, the topic title is the plan at least.

Bought this RC patient on eBay about a year ago :



There is more wrong with it than there is right...
Overall in poor state, body looks even worse with the most horrible accumulation of paint ever, bumper broke off and it arrived with hardly any screws in it. Then again, I also paid peanuts.

It can be a small Tamiya world because the seller was also Dutch and before that the car was part of a lot that was previously owned by TB member Spitfire who doesn't live more than 15 kilometres from where I do.

The plan is to once again make a beauty of this car. Will probably sell it as a complete hobby.
With that I mean a ready to run car with a Robbe ESC and new wheels with Tamiya hex adapters.
Also a Robbe charger and some NiCads in good condition.

First thing I started on was the body. What a disaster...
Not only the colour itself but the amount of different paints layered upon each other.
It took a fews days to get it clean, using both sodium hydroxide baths and breaking fluid.
This is the "before" picture - I already filled up the holes with some left over putty :



One would think the white from the body is already showing after the first treatment below.
But it is just another layer of paint with some other ones underneath - for example green.



Second step - breaking fluid that I applied on the car with a brush while I had placed it in a big plastic tub.
The white paint is now starting to crack and come off. All the colours together make brown, I guess...



More of the same approach, a few steps later in the process :




Then finally... after some sanding also, an acceptable result for now :



Still a lot of work to do on this one.
New colour has already been decided on. It is definitely not going to be box art.

More to come...

Edou wrote:

...

...

That is minging

He he, those are grose pictures!
But, brake fluid is an effective way to remove most paints. I learned that many years ago when filling up brake fluid in my newly restored and fresh painted 1964 VW Beetle... nuf said...

So, how does the chassis look?

-Lars

if you fancy the bling wheels i got, i will send you a set of front and rear hex spacers:)

Not pretty at all that body when I started. To say the least.
But now I have something I can work with. I'll need to use fiber glass here and there though.
The body will become all smooth - the spots for the headlights are already sanded off and the bulge on the side will be straightened too. Have an idea about fitting tinted plexiglass windows instead of a driver...

larbut wrote:

brake fluid is an effective way to remove most paints. I learned that many years ago when filling up brake fluid in my newly restored and fresh painted 1964 VW Beetle... nuf said...

So, how does the chassis look?

Oh my, that's learning it the hard way...

I have a pile of Grasshopper/Hornet parts and a few chassis. None of which are in perfect order.
Biggest problem with this model is either the integrated shock mount or the bumper breaking off.
I'll be using a vintage chassis but they all need some serious restoring. Hope I have enough fiber glass!

agemax wrote:

if you fancy the bling wheels i got, i will send you a set of front and rear hex spacers:)

Thanks for the offer but I ordered the parts for this build a while ago. Same stuff as I used on my other Grasshopper.




Also thinking about giving the car the mods from the other one I have.
Then I'll give my original specimen another overhaul later...

I will choose one of these chassis :



Who can spot the reissue? They all qualify as bashed btw...
And the pile of parts I was talking about :



Think I should be able to build a nice Hopper from all this...

Edou wrote:

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Who can spot the reissue? ...

The one on the left? - no hole for the hump on a hump pack to fit through.

Yes, the one on the left is the non vintage indeed.
For the reason mentioned, not that you could tell from the state of the chassis.
I might use this one later for a CRP FX10 mod since the shock mount is broken off anyway.

The chassis on the right will most likely be the choice for this build...

Indeed it will be (the chassis on the right)... only been about two years since I started this thread.
But it's on the move!

Of all the chassis on the image, the one on the right is looking best. Apart from the nose, that is.



The only complete front end (without anything broken off) is on the reissued one (on the left)...
So I'm going to do a chop and a nose transplant from that :



Pretty good so far I think :



Also repaired the shell a bit lately with some steel epoxy here and there :



And scored a nice new bumper not too long ago :



Soon to be continued!

Looking forward to how this turns out. I love these "phoenix from the ashes" threads