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Hi guys, it's been a while since I have posted here, but I do check in from time to time... During the Christmas break I took up flying RC helicopters and since then nearly all my hobby time (and money!!) has been spent keeping my small fleet in the air. However now winter is keeping me indoors so I have finally made the time to re-assemble my Boomerang. This car was one of those ebay purchases where the item seems too cheap so I placed a bid and then won the auction. The boomer was in fair used condition and missing some parts. Upon receiving it I disassembled, cleaned and inspected everything then started accumulating the parts needed to rebuild the car. Everything was packed away neatly in storage containers for the next few months. The re-build was quite enjoyable, it almost had that "new in box" feel as I worked through the manual (thanks TB!) assembling the cleaned parts. As the car had been in storage for a while I had forgotten a few details; I would be searching for some used part then stumble across an unopened parts bag or find it on a re-re parts tree thrown in one of the boxes. I was amazed that every part I needed was there, nothing was missing. Re-re parts used were the gearbox housings and e-clips, some suspension arms and those triangle things that drive the wheels. All plastic bushes were replaced with bearings. The polycarbonate body shell was in good condition, I just touched up the paint in a few places and glued the corners down on some decals. There is only one very small crack around the antenna hole.





The driver was unpainted so I had a blank canvass to work with here. "Eager Ted" is probably my neatest driver to date. His helmet is painted in a custom mix of silver, blue and white in an attempt to match the box art.


The car has not been driven yet as the 75mhz transmitter was a bit glitchy and now refuses to work at all. This frequency is uncommon in Australia so I will probably have to source another internationally, but for now I am happy just to display the car as it is.

Looks good

The Hotshot is one of my favorites. I have admired this buggy's bold red/gold colour scheme and aggressive lines since I was a kid in the 1980's. To me this buggy was larger than life with its oversized chunky tyres, exaggerated suspension travel big rear wing. Other points which stuck in my memory were the single shock rear suspension and the fact that when the body shell is removed it reveals no mechanicals!!
This car was sourced once again on ebay. I believe it is a very good example of a used car and a credit to its previous owner. It was complete with vintage radio gear and it was very clean and original. A previous owner had cleaned everything and assembled it dry as a display item.
The Hotshot arrived only last Monday and after 4 very late nights it had its first run on Aussie soil. The gearboxes were disassembled, suspension pivot points greased and the MSC set up properly. I gained an even greater appreciation for this car as I discovered more unique and quirky features. The suspension pivot points are hinged with a steel pin and e-clips rather than a simple screw and bush used on later cars. The shock housings offer three settings for suspension spring preload. The driveshafts are thick aluminium alloy units. The alloy shock absorbers have a little spring under the cap. I was quite surprised at how different the Hotshot is to the buggies which followed it.
The body shell and rear wing were taped and the inside given another few coats of PS-2 Red to cover some areas where the original paint was missing. I painted the driving lights and re-painted the driver. The vintage servo operating the manual speed controller had to be disassembled and its centre point reset. One plug where a wire joins a round resistor was not making contact so it was cleaned and soldered. Although I would like this car to be as original as possible and it will rarely be driven I still chose to replace the wheel bushings with metal roller bearings.






The 'power station' under the rear wing


This driver had been roughly painted by a previous owner so I re-painted him to suit my taste. The seatbelt decal on the right (the driver's left) was missing so I did my best to paint the seatbelt to match the decal.

The Hotshot had a careful run today in a park on short grass and it is functioning perfectly. The buggy now looks great, runs well and I could not be happier. If only all old rc cars were this easy..

Looking very good!

Another good looking car ... but I've got to tell you, I don't know about the eyeliner on the drivers