Tamiya Mountaineer

[MelvinsArmy]

Here is my new (to me) Tamiya Mountaineer. I had a very nice custom Mountaineer about 5 years ago and sold it. The vintage 3 speed bug recently bit me again and I started looking for a nice Bruiser or Mountaineer. This is what I found. It was a very nice survivor with a box art paint job. When I got this truck I tore it completely apart, cleaned it and replaced the dry rubber pieces with replacements from bruiserbuilder.com. It had rotten Traxxas tires on it which I've replaced with a set of Imex G-Hawgs I had laying around. I plan to replace those with a new set soon as this set has two tires that the tread isn't properly aligned. No biggie, but I want this truck done right. I took out the mechanical speed control and replaced it with a vintage era-correct Novak 610-HRV. I made a mount for the Novak out of 1 inch angle aluminum.

The body came painted as you see it. It's far from perfect, (thin paint, not very glossy and plenty of scratches) but it is still quite presentable. If it was not a box art paint job I would likely give it a fresh paint job, but I just can't bring myself to strip a 18 year old box art paint job that has no real issues that has survived relatively unscathed this long. It even has the broken off mirror mount still on it, how cool is that? Right now I can't even decided if I should break out the paint bottles and fine brushes to finish the small details like the window trim and Hilux badges. Maybe if I get bored one day this winter.

All that's left to do besides getting that new set of Imex tires is to find the extra rubber switch cover I have left over from my Sand Scorcher and put it on the electronics box of this truck. I took it out for a test spin today, PURE FUN!

It's really hard to operate a 4 channel stick radio and take a picture of a moving truck at the same time. This was the best I could do:

[drbelleville]

Thats pretty nice. Its always sweet to see a vintage runner in action

[Synergy]

Love 3-Speeds, I have a NIB Mountaineer body set and a new unpainted Bruiser front and rear cab but only 1 original chassis I think they will both be getting the box art treatment.

A very nice example you have there

[shodog]

That looks sweet and your right very presentable. I doubt that it's the color specified by Tamiya in the manual The correct color is Mica red which is really more burgandy than the bright red on the box. If you really get a wild hair, look for one of the re-released body sets that Tamiya did shortly before releasing the hi-lift hilux and paint that one up even better.

[MelvinsArmy]

I was thinking I might wait for a nice Mountaineer body to come along, strip it and paint it box art with some Tamiya Club decals to have a minty shelf body for it. I'm in no rush though, this one looks pretty good as is. This one is regular old red, no mica or anything. It looks like one layer of paint. It's pretty smooth, not a bad paint job at all, but I'd have put a couple layers on, gloss coated it and buffed it out a bit for a super shiney finish and deep color. I actually really like this body as-is, it has a lot of personality and makes the truck look slightly used and well taken care of by it's original owner.

[tamiyadan]

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[shodog]

The mica red is a stunning color when out in the sun.
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg131/shodog1/RC%20cars/img34_31072002183458_1.jpg
I used it on several of my trucks and semi's. On my mounty, I couldn't bring myself to put the stickers on over the paint.

[mugen69]

Really nice Mel, you have all the nice rides...

[MelvinsArmy]

Thanks mugen!

Beautiful trucks you've got there Dan. That really makes me want to get a second body for this truck for when it's just sitting on the shelf. I think I used mica red on my Clod body. I used the Tamiya gunmetal color as a base and put mica red over it and it made a nice darker metalic red. This truck came with an instruction book, I looked but couldn't find the paint code, I'll have to look again, not sure how I missed it.

[tamiyadan]

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[MelvinsArmy]

Another small update. I was able to find some very rare Mark Thompson spoked aluminum wheels for my Mountaineer. I've wanted a set of these since I had my first Mountaineer 6 or 7 years ago. I had a set of the 12 hole style on my old truck. I've never seen any of the spoked version for sale so when these came up I pulled out the big guns. They were worth the wait.

Now I'm thinking about repainting the body. Still on the fence about that.

[SMOKE-DOG]

Nice! Those wheels look sweet with those Imex tires. And the body looks fine, especially if it's a runner.

[drbelleville]

THose are very nice, and the G-Hawgs are great too. I had them on my 2.2 crawler.

[Coelacanth]

I like the design of those new wheels more than your previous set, but I'd probably give them a good polish--unless you prefer the satin finish look. Nice looking truck!

[MelvinsArmy]

Thanks guys!

Definitely not going to polish the wheels. They're super clean and everybody does mirror polish for some reason. I prefer the crisp natural finish.