Rejuvenating the Zebra Optima

[Coelacanth]

Hi Everyone, I've been following this forum for a while before registering--I've been looking around at a few forums to join and recent activity & knowledge is an important thing in my decision to join here. Don't you hate it when you register to a forum, post questions, and have to wait days to get a single response! Haha

Anyway, I'll introduce myself by saying I purchased a regular Optima brand new back in the day. For 3 or 4 years, it underwent numerous hop-ups and transformations as I got all caught up in the R/C dune buggy craze in the mid- to late-80's. It basically became a Turbo Optima with Option House gold anodized everything. (Hey, I worked at a hobby store in my youth and we got all that good stuff at cost + 10%!)

I've been doing a lot of research as I've been itching to get the ol' girl running again...the batteries are all different now, NiMH instead of NiCad, and provide more punch and triple the running time! And all this "brushless stuff" is bewildering...

Anyway, here's what my car looked like 2 nights ago, after unpacking it from a box where it's sat for over 10 years.

[Coelacanth]

And here are some progress shots. I don't want to bore you with all the details of the "restoration"--which isn't really the right word, as I'm the original owner. But things are looking good with 2 evenings of work well into the wee hours! I was originally just going to be lazy and clean everything up, but once I opened the rear gearbox hatch and saw crud inside, I decided I wasn't going to do it if I wan't doing it RIGHT. I have doubles of most parts and triples of quite a few, so I replaced all the plastic parts and mechanicals with new parts.

[Coelacanth]

I need a few things, perhaps a forum member can help me out...I just discovered my beige shock collars are probably Associated collars...would anyone here want to sell me some? It's an RC-10 forum, after all. A couple other items I need are a hard final pinion gear--the one that sits on the top of the rear gearbox, with the set-screw in it. I have 2 of the stock ones but one's really chewed up, and the other's about 7/10 and will need replacing eventually. I know the Option House part # OT-76 is pretty hard to come by, is something available from another manufacturer that has the same teeth, pitch & specs? And lastly, I could use a pair of stock white Turbo Optima wheels, if anyone has extras. I can't justify paying the prices for some of these repros....ouch!

I have quite a lot of spare Turbo Optima/Optima parts that could be part of a trade deal, in case anyone's looking for something in exchange.

And I have a technical question: What do you guys recommend to properly seal the plastic covers onto the chain guides? I had crud inside my rear gearbox and I'd like to prevent that from happening now that everything is being rebuilt from the ground up. Thanks for your help!

[Mr. ED]

a guy called pargu sells repro's of the that pinion on ebay

[Coelacanth]

a guy called pargu sells repro's of the that pinion on ebay

I've seen that, but is it hardened or just a stock repro?

And going back to one of my other questions, what is recommended to more properly seal the chain guide cover to the chain guide?

[Mr. ED]

silicon rubber as used to seal windows. I think the pinion is hardened: he offers different colors ; which would indicate anodising is involved and the original purpose of anodising is actually hardening, not coloring.

[Coelacanth]

Thanks for the info Mr. ED.

I was looking at some nice blue anodized shocks that would fit the Turbo Optima (70mm front, 100mm rear) made by Yeah Racing. I've heard conflicting feedback about this company regarding other parts, and the price is certainly cheap...does anyone have experience with their shocks? Are they at least as good-performing as the original T.O. gold shocks or should they be avoided? I like the threaded retainers.

Here's a link:
http://www.yeahracing.com/catalog/dp0004bu-alloy-70mm-damper-buggy-bigfoot-p-1251.html

[Mr. ED]

I think I read around here these shocks are good:
http://www.3racing-parts.com/shop/kyosho-lazer-zx5-chassis-aluminium-front-and-rear-damper-blue-color-for-kyosho-lazer-zx5-3racing-zx501bu-p-10001396.html

[Coelacanth]

I think I read around here these shocks are good:
http://www.3racing-parts.com/shop/kyosho-lazer-zx5-chassis-aluminium-front-and-rear-damper-blue-color-for-kyosho-lazer-zx5-3racing-zx501bu-p-10001396.html

I'd ideally want blue shock bodies, too. Optima House has a listing of various cheap alternatives to expensive, hard-to-find Kyosho parts, and the site's front page shows some sweet shocks...but there's no mention that I can find as to who makes them.

http://theoptimahouse.blogspot.com/

Anyone know what these are?

[Lefty421]

It's a Hot Bodies shock with a SS lower ball end from RC4WD.

[Mr. ED]

I just saw an old academy kit today: Mirage. It comes with blue alu dampers that resemble the kyosho gold shocks very much. It's for sale at 60 euro.
I had a look at it but other than the shocks I didn't see any other usefull parts on it and for 60 euro I rather buy a set of good shocks than a shot in the dark.

(Though I must say: the purple shocks on my academy griffin pro seem fine)

[Coelacanth]

It's a Hot Bodies shock with a SS lower ball end from RC4WD.

Thank you, Lefty421! Would you recommend them as suitable replacements for the Turbo Optima gold ones? My gold shocks are smooth as butter...I'd want something at least equivalent...thanks for the info!

EDIT: Hmm...I've spent an hour or so Googling and searching eBay and nothing I saw from Hot Bodies looked like the shocks I pictured above...

[Lefty421]

Here is the site that says it is a Hot Bodies shock.
http://rc4wdstore.com/2/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=185&osCsid=f251d1cd04aeb8ee6c3990b6a7691f2e

[Coelacanth]

I actually had checked their entire website, which is rather unintuitive and parts are non-functional. They don't really categorize their parts separately, you have to search by car (obviously I don't have a Hot Bodies or HPI car, so that wasn't too helpful). About all they had was a keyword search. Yesterday I searched "shocks" and there indeed WAS a shock like the blue one, but colored purple (and out of stock). All the other ones I saw were other colors, or the blue ones were threaded and not smooth-bodied.

I thought I'd write them a question using their support form, but that's broken and the submission fails (their "webmaster is aware of the issue", apparently). Sheesh...

http://www.hotbodiesonline.com

Purple shocks:
http://www.hotbodiesonline.com/piw.php?partNo=hb25000&lang=en

[Coelacanth]

I received my sets of wheels and tires today. I was very fortunate that the ones I really wanted to work, actually fit. As you can see, there's zero offset, so all the depth goes inwards. The rear tires came within a couple millimeters of the rear edge of the gold sideguards, and actually touched the shock retainers at the top of the shocks with full compression, but fortunately that was easily resolved by rotating the collars so that the adjustment hex screws were more inboard. Now, the wheels don't touch anything with any range of movement, and really look like they'll fit beautifully beneath my '69 Charger body!

They also have a bit more height than stock Turbo Optima rims, giving a bit more ground clearance.

Here's the link to them on eBay, pretty good deal for $25 or so USD, 4 tires & wheels ready-to-roll, and the seller "hobbyspare" has lots of other rims/tires for sale.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390217767587&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT