Hirobo Zerda refurb

[Dadio]

The Zerda is another one I wanted as a kid but never had so I started looking recently for one to restore , I just missed one on eBay that came with a pile of spares but I just missed out , fortunately another popped up so I snapped it up , it was a slightly less attractive package and dearer too but them's the breaks .
Anyway it's arrived and I've started to strip ,clean and check it for faults and I've been very pleasantly surprised . There's a lot of dirt ,goo and some rust , a few seized bearings but so far no cracks ,stripped threads or missing vital parts , it needs a driver figure but other than that I'm really pleased.
Pictures to follow soon.

[Dadio]

Hear are some before pictures , straight out of the parcel.




I meant to take more of it in bits but got caught up in cleaning n stuff and forgot

And after cleaning and re assembly , there's tons more work to do but i wanted it in one piece again , some bearings need replacing , I've got to make a decision on the stickers , they are not bad but could be better if i can find a reproduction set i'll pull them off.





One thing that did surprise me was the rear lower arms had warped from having the shock pushing down at the rear , it twisted them quite a bit , I've swapped them left to right and hopefully time will twist them back straight , I'll look for a new set as well , if i see a set for reasonable money i grab them .
I'm really impressed with the general strength of the suspension components and their size ! the front hub carriers and steering knuckles are huge as are the rear hubs .
I'm also surprised how little play there is in the wheel bearings , i thought that only having one bearing it would have really wobbly wheels but its really not bad at all , i even had a plan to make a hub to take two bearings that would slide in where the single big bearing sits and be secured by the two screws then use Kyosho stub axles but i don't think i'll bother now .

[NomadRacer]

That's a cool looking buggy. I'm digging the cage, how it's shaped.

[Dadio]

The cage is standard on this car , I think it's polythene or some very flexible plastic and it's just screwed together .

[Lonestar]

These were the days, rollcages ruled!

Zerda, Bulldog, Viper, Javelin... so many awesome looking 4wd's with cages!

The Zerda had been on my list for so many years, because, just like you as a kid, I couldn't buy one! I gave up though as prices reached silly levels at the beginning of the decade, and I have too many projects anyway.

will follow this one with interest

[Dadio]

If I had the money ! I'd love a Bulldog but the prices are double that of the Zerda , come on lottery

[mytimac]

Hey I assume that was you that ordered some Zerdo crossbars then. Let me know if you have issues with them. I haven't made any in a few years and you never know if something is slightly out of alignment on the printer that might cause them to be made a little different. Those took some work to get just right when I first did them.

[Dadio]

Hey I assume that was you that ordered some Zerdo crossbars then. Let me know if you have issues with them. I haven't made any in a few years and you never know if something is slightly out of alignment on the printer that might cause them to be made a little different. Those took some work to get just right when I first did them.

Yup that was me , small world some times , thanks I'll let you know if there's any issue although I'm sure they will be fine , I only need one right now but given that they seem to always get lost and this is going to be a runner I'll have a few spares for the future
I found a set of reproduction decals as well so it won't look so tatty .

[Dadio]

Kyosho Optima Re Re tyres arrived and look very nice indeed and are a good fit , they are even a staggered two pin tread pattern as the stock tyres were but the Kyosho tyres are more densely spiked .
I'm just waiting on a servo , four bearings for the stub axles, shocks , the decals and a driver figure and all the parts to finish will be there , I couldn't find a reproduction Zerda driver figure but I found a Kyosho Tomahawk lexan driver figure and I'm hoping it will look close enough .
I'm also planning on fitting some side panels under the top deck under the driver , it might sound odd but it just looks wrong to be able to look through the car and not see the drivers body but just a clear space , I'm not trying to go all out for a scale model look but it just bugs me to look through it .
I downloaded s PDF of the instructions and one thing struck me as odd or wrong ? The instructions give suggested measurements for the total length of the top suspension links , at the front is gives 61mm and that gives a fairly neutral camber on the front wheels , at the rear is gives a 62mm length and this gives a quite dramatic positive camber to the rear wheels , it's like an SRB ! So I thought that must be wrong so I started shortening the links to give a more neutral or negative camber but if I did that then the dogbones ground out !

[Dadio]

A lovely new set of roll cage cross bars arrived from Sabulatec and designed by mytimac , all fit perfectly and seem to have good strength and flexibility .

[Dadio]

I was waiting for a servo and new shocks to arrive before her maiden run ,well maiden since being refurbished but they had not arrived today so I fitted an old slow servo and the stock shocks one of witch won't hold oil due to a crack in the thread , it took a little time to get the belts correctly tensioner , but I think I gave it now , I must have had it over tight at first as the motor temp went up to 180f ! It's too dark now to re test so I'll try again tomorrow .
I really like how it drives but I'd like it to be a bit faster , I'm testing with a vintage SRM Scorcher 27t timed motor that I've never used before and it's running only the 15 tooth pinion , I have a modern 21t brushed ball raced motor on its way and I have an 18 tooth pinion but the belt is too short so I've also ordered another longer belt .
I really hope I can keep the motor temperature down but I am running lipo batters .....

[Dadio]

The driver and decals arrived yesterday , painted the driver last night , will strip the old decals tonight and take some photos .
I'm still waiting on shocks and a motor, oh and some longer belts for the 18tooth pinion pulley to arrive .

[Dadio]

I finished the driver and installed it on Velcro tabs so it can be removed easily to reach the receiver , the gold shocks i ordered for the rear arrived , a bit of an eBay error , when i took them out of the packaging i realised they were really big bore probably 1/8th shocks , i just offered them up to look at thinking that i'd have to order some more fitting size ones and .... well .... they sort of grew on me , i quite like the look of them , feel free to correct me if you like .
After test driving i found the main belt slipping , i traced the problem was the pulley on the lay shaft was worn , i already knew it was but worn but i thought it looked serviceable , turned out to be more worn than i thought . Luckily i had already bought an 18t pulley that i was going to use for the pinion when a new belt arrived , so i just bored it out to 4mm and the problem is solved.
I've yet to remove the old decals and stick on the new one's but here is where i am now.

[Lonestar]

Whoa, a running Zerda !!!



Very ballsy !!!

[Dadio]

Whoa, a running Zerda !!!



Very ballsy !!!

All my cars are runners , no shelf queens here ! Is there a good reason not to run a Zerda ?