Kyosho Sandmaster MK-II

[UserUnrelated]

I picked this up at a flea market today, got a pretty smokin' deal at $20, if you ask me.
There was also an original stadium blitzer, but I didn't have enough money with me.
I did a quick search around, and can't find too much info on this buggy.
I've done a quick once-over, and besides the rear A-arms being installed backwards creating strange shock angles, it appears to be completely intact... VERY dirty, but completely intact.
There isn't even any real wear to speak of on the diff outdrives or dogbones...
If it isn't really worth a whole lot, I'm going to get it running and have fun with it
but if it'd be worth my time to look into selling it, I'll clean it up and see if I can find a buyer.

Right now, all it needs is some new fuel tubing, most likely a glow plug, some various hardware for the throttle/brake linkage, an air filter, and a clutch.
I may run into more problems with it later, but I'll cross that bridge when I ge there.
The engine feels REALLY good, it's still moist with oil, and to me, someone who's never run a nitro engine, feels nice and tight, it spins nice, and has a nice little "pop-pop-pop-pop" when you pull the start chord. The carb is also very smooth, too.




LOVE the wacky old wheels


I just picked it up because it was cheap, I don't really know exactly what I want to do right now.
I've always wanted to try nitro, but I feel that maybe VINTAGE nitro isn't the way to go for a first-time experience
but then on the other hand, I feel like it'd be fun!

No matter what happens, I'll keep this thread updated as I clean it up and look pretty
Any advice? General tips? Info about this buggy? Info about the engine?
I've been around nitro, but never run one of my own. Is there anything besides the normal care that should be done for older engines?
I'm going to make sure I get proper oils, and after run oil and everything before I even run it (or TRY and run it) for the first time

[keithrc]

Ultima RB?


Keith

[UserUnrelated]

No, I'm almost positive it isn't, they look too dis-similar.
It's a Sandmaster MK-!!, it says it on the wing, and body, and looks identical to that vehicle.
I don't know what platform it is exactly...

I'm in the middle of cleaning it up right now, and besides being covered in shock oil (dry-rotted seals or something), and nitro fuel (someone must not have had a fuel bottle), it is ABSOLUTELY MINT. Probably driven once, and put in a box forever. There are some small scratches on the chassis, but other than that, it is pristine (once cleaned)

There really isn't all that much info on it out there.

[ron]

Thats a cool looking buggy, If you say it wasn't run that much than its good as new if cleaned properly. Any vintage kyosho will bring in good money. If its hardly run, it will be worth more.

It has kyosho all over, it gives assurance that all and every part was made with care, nowadays hardly any part is branded.

I like the red pull start and old style needle valve. Like I said, its kyosho, VERY WELL built. I want to see it all cleaned up
Yea those wheels are something!

[klavy69]

For some reason they usually don't bring much on ebay. Yours might bring more since its in really good shape. As far as running them don't have any experience in that dept. They are cool buggys for sure. I ended up with a NOS body a long time ago in a 'lot' and always wanted one of these to put it on. Pry won't though since I got too many irons in the fire already but they are a cool buggy

Todd

[UserUnrelated]

So here it is cleaned up!
I didn't touch the body, or the tires...
One new part I need to get is screws to bolt the exhaust on.
I'm going to head to my LHS tomorrow to see what they have as far as things to get this running.
I needed to use some Tamiya Sonic Fighter servo mounts, this didn't come with any. They are BLUE... I think I have some Futaba FX10 mounts that I could use, they are the same, but RED.










It looks GREAT! The pictures don't really show it well, but this thing just looks amazing
well, besides the body. I might have to do something about that.
There are ZERO broken parts, nothing is even cracked! All the plastic is still flexible, and everything looks in amazing shape

[ron]

One thing you look for when trying to figure out how much abuse and use a buggy had gone through are the tires and under the body for scratch marks, then you move onto to the A-arms etc. Wow from the box art, this thing is in fairly new cond.

Hey I personally dig the front ribbed bridgestone tires . You can be well assured that the the engine is quality, the whole thing is made in Japan!

I would think, its got bushing for ball bearings. I would recommend you hop it up with AL shocks, bearings and make those tires shine! But first fire up that engine! Is it a size 12?

You will get good $$$ for it if you decide to sell, I also got a turbo raider for $30 at the flea market, new cond, only built, I have put ball bearings in it, AL rod ends and bit of carbon fiber, nothing too fancy. Even though its plastic all around, its built beautifully, you will see that every part is flawlessly molded.

PS, the underbody or chassis looks very similar to the raider series

[UserUnrelated]

The transmission already had full bearings, but I replaced the bushings in the rear bearing carriers with bearings. I didn't have the right size for the front.
And what's good $$$? I can't seem to find any info on a fair resale price. Someone on another forum said that they tried to sell theirs, and it wouldn't sell... so I might be trading an XXX-SCT roller for 1 and a half slightly more used and abused sandmasters if I end up liking it
Everything does feel very well molded, and the chassis, although it LOOKS flimsy, is actually incredibly rigid. The shock towers, though, are almost made of rubber! It should definitely help with durability. It's the most flexible plastic on an RC I have ever seen.
I need new shock seals, and then the stock shocks should do fine, and I also want to put adjustable camber links on this, the plastic ones are really flexible, and I can imagine it tossing dogboes because of it. I have a box full of Kyosho ball-ends, so if I can just find some unassuming camber links that are the right size, they could be a MOSTLY kyosho upgrade...
I'm going to take it to my LHS today to see what I can get for it

[Percymon]

UK ebay sales suggest anything from $35 for a runner with non original wheels and a tatty body through to $100 for something tidy. There's not a lot of love for some of the nitro Kyoshos, the value seems to be in the much earlier metal chassis'd cars. Prices in the USA are always half the UK, so you did well on your purchase, but I doubt you'd see $100 in a resale - you never know who will hit a buy it now button though

[ron]

I do't know what you might get for it, but like others say this thing is scarce on the market scene. Try digging up more infor on it. It could be one of kyosho's forgotten child that no one took much notice of cause there were others more popular ones out there like the circuit 1000 series etc. I would say even the raider/turbo raider/rocky have decent sell on ebay cause they have been well known from day one as the cheap affordable buggy. People getting them and restoring/moding/hopping to re-live their child hoods. But the sandmaster should fetch more than a standard raider.

trying getting manual for it to get the right bearing size. Yes the tower mounts are flimsy and rubbery Its not poor design but done so that the towers would not crack or break as the shocks worked. Its all plastic, must have made the whole thing light and FAST. The same was with the turbo raiders front shock towers. I replaced the front and rear with carbon fiber, now they are as stiff as

Did the same with all links, aluminum 2mm thread ball rod ends and 2mm steel linkages for that scale look

Put it on ebay if you planning to sell. Put a 'buy now' your choice of price with 'best offer', see what offers you get. Maybe when it get popular in the future, you can put it up, 10-15years it sure will sell for a pretty penny. you got it for peanuts, so hop it up and enjoy it for the time being.

[UserUnrelated]

Oh wow, your buggy looks great!
I'm planning on keeping this buggy. It has a real high potential for custom fabrication, which is what I really like doing.
I'd love to do a sort of "period" looking hop-up job for it, but my main constrain is money... but custom fabbed parts always fit in on vintage rigs!
I'll probably end up doing custom carbon towers, as I already need to get a sheet to cut a custom chassis for another vehicle. Also, a carbon front plate, receiver plate, and rear trans brace wouldn't be too difficult, and would tie in the nice homebrew look.
The front could use a wacky looking lay-down shock setup (purely aesthetic, of course), and the rear could use some longer shocks, they are the same length as the front by design.
Gold alloy shocks would make it look nice

One thing that I'd like to do is really work with the suspension. I feel that this buggy might have a lot more potential with better shocks, and better geometry.
A low-profile throttle servo would make it look real sleek. If I move the throttle servo over towards the edge of the chassis, I could also move the battery box, and then I could find a squatter, but wider fuel tank so that I could find a body that the tank doesn't stick out of.
I also might try and anodize the motor mount plate red.

Where do you get metal ball ends like that? Can I get them in red? haha...
I'm going to make the theme red on this if you couldn't already tell.
Too bad my source of CF sheets doesn't sell red fiber...
I'd REALLY love some red G10... bright red, like the Hot Trick stuff. The place only sells brown, white, yellow, and black G10, though.
I got a clutch today

[ron]

I hear you, man
Its good you keeping it. I bought mine purely for the shocks, man they look great. Not kyosho golds but durtrax, I think. Its not a hop-up but came standard with turbo raiders, either its kyosho made or sourced out from duratrax.

Those anodized blue rod ends are from HOR racing in HK. $3.20 a pair, I think. $5 flat shipping cost no matter how many pairs you order, so I got 12 (6 pairs). They function great, but I would say are less stronger than standard 3mm plastic rod ends, they would fail under extreme condition like crashes and stuff, very SCALE looking, no I think its in blue only, and silver. The description will be wrong, they will say the thread size is 2mm and ball hole is 3mm, actually its 2mm all around. I had a hard time changing to 2mm machine screw and nut, and putting in plastic spaces/bushings where the holes in the buggy were all standard 3mm but glad it was 2mm. Adds to that scale look.

I cut out carbon fiber from a losi buggy chassis that was CF, which I got for $8 at flea, I had initially thought it was HPI plastic. So the tower mounts for shocks cut from that, I also made front bumper from CF, its not shown in pic though. CF blends in really well, its not intrusive. One thing I want really to stand out are the shocks, so may it be gold or silver, it'll do. Hey you can get those kyosho scorpion or javelin red anodized shocks. expensive though. Yeah shocks are an important and factors towards performance and handling. Take time to choose shocks for its performance and looks! Now the buggy's complete, love the clutch, got to wonder why the clutch was missing.

[UserUnrelated]

The man that I bought the buggy from had a box of RC things he was selling, and was trying to sell it all. It had this buggy, a Stadium Blitzer, a few old radios (nothing cool, only a magnum JR, and some stick radios), an old charger, and a bunch of random screws.
I told him I wanted the buggy, and if he had the engine with it. He said the engine was in the box, and to go look for it.
The buggy was in the box, but the engine wasn't in it, I had to dig a bit to find it. I tried looking for the clutch, too, but I couldn't find it. The fuel tank was also disassembled, and the wheels were not installed. It was pretty clear that it just got tossed in the box in the middle of being worked on, and never touched again.

I have a nice set of Kyosho aluminum buggy REARS from a more modern buggy, I'm really wishing I had the fronts now, too!
I don't really mind what brand they are from, but I'd prefer the classic gold anodized look.

Oh hey look at these!
http://store.rc4wd.com/High-Precision-Billet-Tie-Rod-End-M3-Red_p_640.html
that'd be $30 for the whole vehicle... that's a bit much... But it REALLY would look awesome.
I want to pick up some scale accessories for my CC-01, so maybe I might splurge...
Not right now, though, I am out of money.

Right now, the buggy looks like a cheap toy.
With carbon towers and parts, shiny matching rod ends, and gold shocks, I think it'd look MUCH MUCH more aesthetically pleasing, and more "serious"
I also want to adapt it for more modern wheels and tires, so essentially just swap the C-hub and knuckle. I was thinking maybe B4 hardware. Red knuckle, and black aluminum C-hub, for a tasteful and not overpowering splash of red. I would just do a stock plastic C-hub, but the plastics look too different, and it would look funny.
This will be run, but I predict it to spend most of the time on the shelf, since I wouldn't feel comfortable driving it while I'm living at college. I don't like bothering people with noise. I might find a place to run, who knows... Only one more year of college anyway, so that won't matter soon

EDIT:
Are those endbell heatsinks you are using as shock spacers? they look super nifty! I have some, but only 3 red ones, not 4

[ron]

Well the guy must have had the clutch there somewhere, maybe at home. What I would do is get his email or cell number and keep in touch, if he had any more rc stuff or came in contact with some, shoot me a call or something. You never know what a little effort would bring you. maybe when you go to flea market again, get in contact with the guy, he might have something worth of interest. If he understands u are a consistent buyer, he may let you know before he even brings stuff to sell at the flea. This is an aggressive approach
OK these are kyosho turbo scorpion/javelin shocks going really cheap on ebay if you interested.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-UNKNWON-RED-ALUMINUM-SHOCKS-METRIC-ASIAN-MAKE-RC-/370824292266?pt=US_Radio_Control_Control_Line&hash=item5656d9a7aa

The problem is that the seller don't know what rc it fits so the right description is not there, otherwise someone would have scooped them up. Its PINK anodised, BUT if you can de-anodize it and shine it to mirror finish it will look as good as new. Its up to you, if you don't like it, not a prob. It also has aluminum collars.

Those rod ends are great, but will look very big and will not lok good on the buggy. It is long too, though its very robust. bloody expensive. They would look great on monster trucks or crawlers, but see if you can get to similar ones at your LHS to see how they feel

[UserUnrelated]

I have the exact ball end that they are compared to on the website, the Axial one...
They ARE a bit long, but not really all that bulky. I probably won't end up getting any alloy ends, though, I'd rather spend money on nice shocks, and other little knick knacks. Definitely converting to hex head, and if I can find any, red cone washers. I love cone washers. (Found 'em: here)

Those shocks look rough... I'm not too concerned about keeping it "vintage"... as long as the majority of the vehicle is the stock bits, and stock setup, I'll be happy.
The A-arms, chassis. transmission, and driveline are staying, bug other things might get swapped around for aesthetics, durability/stiffness, or to adapt to modern hardware (the front end and wheels)

And the guy was just selling some stuff he had in his garage... he wasn't into RC much or anything, he didn't really know much about the vehicles.
It's a flea that happens once a month, and there's always different people there, selling random things they have at home.