Turbo Optima Mid - Quick resto-mod

[tintin74]

Hey guys,

Been a long time since I posted something up on the forum.

Today, I will share the resto I did on this near mint Turbo Optima Mid.

This is the car as I got it from a buddy of mine:







The car was in decent shape, just took a hit in the front right, as you can see from the picture, the suspension arm is broken...

I dismantled the car for a thorough clean up and ordered the following parts NIP for replacement:
Front bumper OT-93
Supension Arms set OT-69
Chassis OTW-3
Suspension Shaft set OT-97
Wheels set OT-93
Tire set OT-66 (Original, no marwan repop)
Rear swing shaft OT-6
New original body

The only repro parts on that build are the wing (Given to me by a good friend from Belgium) and the stickers from MCI racing.

I paid an arm and a leg for the front bumper, most of the other replacement parts I bought for a good deal from the guy I bought the car from.

Here is a picture of the middle of the restoration:



Took a bit of time to finish, as I restore each and every screws, not re-anodizing them, but just putting a brush of paint, as this will be a shelfer. I already have two mids runner, thats plenty! Not crazy enough to run those brand new OT-66s!

Here it is complete:





















Hope you enjoyed it!

[XLR8]

Looks awesome.

I really like your choice of paint colors.

[Maxell27]

Nice work, I remember as a kid seeing this in Tower Hobbies catalog. I always wanted one. The RC10 bug bit me pretty hard and I have a few now.

Your Optima is clean. I think Kyosho has these out again right?

Max

[XLR8]

Nice work, I remember as a kid seeing this in Tower Hobbies catalog. I always wanted one. The RC10 bug bit me pretty hard and I have a few now.

Your Optima is clean. I think Kyosho has these out again right?

Max

Not the Optima Mid series -- not yet anyway.
Maybe never -- who knows.

[mikea96]

Very nice looking car! Still holding out hope kyosho brings us the Mid again. These were such a blast to run.

[XLR8]

With parts from the Optima re-re, Kyosho is about 50% or more to having a Mid. They just lack chassis plates, shock towers and trans cases and maybe an input shaft assembly and idler gear. And, of course, a body set.
I've probably said this before but I think a big sticking point with a Mid re-re is the belt covers.
Kyosho will need to develop a much better way to seal the belt than recommending the use of thread lock.
Honestly, what were they thinking back then??

[Sprocket]

I know they would get my money if they were to re-release the Optima Mid series. Trying to rebuild/restore a TOMS has been slow going with trying to find parts/tires

[optimaforever]

With parts from the Optima re-re, Kyosho is about 50% or more to having a Mid. They just lack chassis plates, shock towers and trans cases and maybe an input shaft assembly and idler gear. And, of course, a body set.
I've probably said this before but I think a big sticking point with a Mid re-re is the belt covers.
Kyosho will need to develop a much better way to seal the belt than recommending the use of thread lock.
Honestly, what were they thinking back then??

Actually, I wonder if a belt cover is really needed these days? the Lazer ZX-R got rid of it already and all the later cars don't have belt covers anymore. Probably because the dirt fun era has ended and all serious race contenders switched to indoor carpet conditions. I think Akira choose transparent lexan beltcover because it was sexy to see the belt (on the Optima too, he choose to show the chain though a trasnparent opercule)
Personally I sealed the beltcover by pasting a thick double sided tape on the radio plate and screwing the belt cover through it. Pretty efficient and it's reversible.

[XLR8]

I used clear silicone sealant on my latest build -- applying masking tape adjacent to the flanges on the covers to prevent the sealant spreading too far and creating a mess.
Then I applied a thin bead of sealant, fit the cover and added a few clamps to hold everything in place until the sealant fully set.
I messed up on the first try and had to remove the cover. I found that the cover was easy to remove and the sealant easily pealed away from the chassis.
Much better than using thread lock, in my opinion.
I have used packing tape in the past but it can be tough to remove completely when it's time to remove the covers.