TOPIC:

I put out some feelers on my local motorcycle forum inquiring about obtaining vintage Tamiya's. A fellow member said he would give me his for the cost of shipping.

Turns out, it was A Hornet! I was stoked because this was my VERY FIRST car back in the day and of course, I no longer have.

So for $11 I got the Hornet and all the electrics (including radio/charger) that went along with it.

Now how do I go about fixing the cracked chassis? Clear Epoxy? Plastic-weld? Or get a new re-issue hornet chassis for $13?

i would either try shoe goo or try your hand at plastic welding with a soldering iron

jtf

Shoe goo over 30 minute Extra Strength epoxy?

Never done plastic welding. Might have to give it a shot

J-B Weld steel hardened epoxy is great stuff too.

i use shoe goo for my poly bodys mainly its clear,flexible and strong,i do plastic welding mainly for hard bodies and plastic parts then some sort of plasic filler if needed.
if its a flat surface you can smooth it out gently with a small piece of heated metal or ally then rub it down working throught he grades of wet and dry,i finish on 1200 grit then polish with a plastic polish,i use the novus range which was recomended to me on this site.
dont heat the matal to hot though just enough to heat up the plastic part your working on.

heres some pics of a boomerang bumper i fixed with a soldering iron,i didnt smooth this one as its my boys runner and is going to get battered

just tack the plastic together then in the line your welding kind of push the plastic into itself then smooth off with the side of the iron and rub down,i hope this makes sense

this was just a fix for a runner so i wasnt too worried about appearance so i didnt smooth it

nice hornet by the way good price too

Thanks for the advice!

I will try to repair it. However, last night on FeeBay a seller dropped the price on a re-issue chassis to $7 w/ free shipping! So I picked it up

Nice job,your cleaning up on these cheap parts
If you did want to fix your old chassis to keep as a spare I would clamp it together first where the screws have pushed the moulding out,then weld it for a neat job

Jtf

Just restored.. woohoo! (still have some wiring to connect)













Including the $11 price for the Hornet, I am in it $70 total (includes remote and all electronics)
New chassis
Rear shocks
Body
Original Sticker sheet from eBay
Wheels
Tires
Misc parts tree for rear
Paint
Bearings
Heat sink (had one laying around)
540 Stock motor (had one laying around)
Black balloon

The only purchased parts that appear to be different than the originals are:
-Chassis (doesn't have the cut out for the old style hump battery)
-Body (doesn't have the cut out for the heat sink)

I left the old manual speed speed control as well as the servo batteries for nostalgia. The car won't be bashed on and mostly just admired. Really brings back amazing memories of my dad.

I use pull tie strips for plastic welding. What do you use?