I Salute You.

[RCveteran]

My friend was nice enough to give me his childhood Salute which is in remarkable condition for its age. Some basic cleaning and some choice option house upgrades and modern ESC should be it. I think I will keep the cool Lemans gold motor and suspect some add some aluminum wheels with more anodized chassis items perhaps?

Looking it over before tear down are the rere Optima universal driveshafts compatible and are the tie rod sets the same. These are a bit rusty and would like to replace. Appears to be missing rear motor plate. That's a general question I guess, how much rere Optima is compatible with this vintage beast. I need to rebuild shocks as well. Any modern tires that fit these wheels?


If I do this right I should have $500 into a free car in no time

[DennisM]

If I do this right I should have $500 into a free car in no time

Nice project.
Regarding the tires, if You wan´t vintage look, go for either Marwan´s repro tires or Tamiya´s Egress and Avante tires.
If You need tires for racing, it should be possible to find some schumacher tires that would fit the original rims. Or do like gomachV, buy a set of Traxxas revo 1/16 wheels

[RCveteran]

1/16 Traxxas wheels, never would have thought of that one! Are the 1/16 Summit wheels the same?

That creates a lot of options as does Tamiya tires, thanks.

Anyone tried one of the anodized chassis kits from Korea on ebay, seem to go for about $90.

[klavy69]

Anyone tried one of the anodized chassis kits from Korea on ebay, seem to go for about $90.

second wanting to know this...It seems just as cheap to buy one of these kits as it would be to send all the part out to get annodized the same...

Todd

[RCveteran]

This is my 1000th post. I Salute me

[Coelacanth]

Anyone tried one of the anodized chassis kits from Korea on ebay, seem to go for about $90.

second wanting to know this...It seems just as cheap to buy one of these kits as it would be to send all the part out to get annodized the same...

Todd

If you guys are referring to ParguStore, the quality of his parts and anodizing is excellent. The quality of his English, not so much. Not a knock on Pargu or anything, but communicating with him can be a challenge. He's the only one I know who's Korean. He did the anodizing of parts for my CYANide Optima. He did this for me long before he offered the parts as a kit. That cyan blue top deck is gorgeous. I should mention most of the parts were originals that I shipped to him to do the anodizing; I wet-sanded and polished everything beforehand.

[RCveteran]

Are those the traxxas wheels?

[Coelacanth]

If you mean those chrome 5-spokes, those are HPI Vintage VTA wheels, they come in several styles.

[RCveteran]

Yes, thanks. I ordered the red anodized chassis kit off EBAY so I will be the guinea pig.

This one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/kyosho-red-CONVERSION-ALLOY-part-set-for-turbo-optima-pro-salute-javelin-optima-/232125262067?hash=item360bbe68f3:g:xFAAAOSwEppURf8j

[Coelacanth]

Yes, that's one of Pargu's kits; looking forward to a red Optima build. I considered doing that myself, but having my own parts anodized as I did with CYANide and Barney...I just wasn't into building the same car over and over again. I wanted to do a red aluminum car as I've done pretty much all the other common ano colors...so the Red Tide Lucas Agitator build will fill that red void.

I'm looking forward to this build. You could really go to town with red aluminum 4.8mm ball ends and studs, I have a source for red turnbuckles for the camber links and tie-rods, Faster Express for red screws & nuts & bolts...if you need any tips, just let me know.

[RCveteran]

OK thanks, as I start to acquire parts I need to decide just how far i will take the red. I'll likely go nuts. I for sure need to find the right wheels. Red accent or full red perhaps.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Traxxas-7271-2-Wheels-Geode-2-2-Red-Beadlock-TRA7271-/401181041862?hash=item5d6840e4c6:g:AegAAOSwJQdXCESM


??

[tintin74]

FYI: Any Pargu parts are not made for runners, only shelfers.

I had a gold Pargu Spur gear in my Mid over the Weekend for a vintage Meeting, the gear was new never used, that thing lasted 1/2 a pack and was all eaten out, then I put in a standard kyosho spur, and no problem for the rest of the Weekend, same thing with the side guard which tend to bent all more easily than option house ones. I experienced it on too of my optima runners one with pargu and the other with reguler option house ones!

My two cents!

[RCveteran]

Agreed, I may run it around the carpet a bit but nothing serious.

[Coelacanth]

I agree about his aluminum gears. He sells the Optima final pinion gear that goes inside the rear gearbox, but it's a soft aluminum replacement no better than the original gear. If you want a hard final pinion gear, you'll need to shell out some bucks and find either the Option House hardened aluminum gear; Thorp also makes a steel version of the gear. For a shelfer or mild runner, the original or Pargu's gear will be fine.

EDIT: I found the following info on the infamous Optima Hard Final Pinion gear; some good reading and suggestions for cheaper alternatives here. (Wow, has it been 6 years already??)

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=22387

I have a few sets of original Option House sideguards and motor guard, and even the originals bend pretty darn easy.

[RCveteran]

Progress, stripped down, polishing up rusty suspension pins and such, rebuilt diffs after cleaning out with new grease, and rebuilt gold shocks with new O-rings. Kyosho Golds still feel as smooth as anything today. Red anodized chassis of course.