Evaluation: Is this Marui Samurai even worth restoring?

[RogueIV]

So I've had this poor beaten Samurai sitting in my cellar for years, I don't remember where it came from but it appears to have been raced at some point. It's on foams, has some sway bars, the rear transmission case seems to have epoxy on it to strengthen it, and has a AYK Magnum 480r motor. But this thing has been through the ringer. Several parts are cracked including one of the frame sides, the aluminum skids are crudely attached to the bottom and the front body mount is a complete loss. The rear diff is completely unusable and there's no body parts.









I'm not really sure if this is worth getting running again, I'm sure I could make it a runner but it is pretty beat. Opinions?

[Frankentruck]

I think 4wd buggies are more than 2x the effort to keep up as a runner. When well maintained they're a hoot to run but there's potential for a lot of breakdown frustration. It would be a cool occasional runner though.

What's that motor in there?

[RogueIV]

I think 4wd buggies are more than 2x the effort to keep up as a runner. When well maintained they're a hoot to run but there's potential for a lot of breakdown frustration. It would be a cool occasional runner though.

What's that motor in there?

I probably wouldn't run this much if I did put it back to running condition. AYK Magnum 480r is the motor that's in there. I don't know much about it. It appears to be a mod motor and I'm willing to bet it's the reason the rear diff is blown.

[RogueIV]

I just looked up this motor, holy crap it's like the holy grail of old motors apparently...

[Frankentruck]

When you clean up the motor, resist the urge to use isopropyl alcohol or other solvents anywhere near the label. Bad things can happen to original labels.

[BattleTrak]

That thing looks like a parts car, especially with a broken frame and gearbox..a tear down and cleanup will probably reveal more bad news. Cool motor though!

[RogueIV]

Well I at least cleaned the motor up a bit, comm definitely needed some love but it's not in too bad of shape little bit of corrosion on the can but not bad. I haven't tried to run it yet though.

[RogueIV]

That thing looks like a parts car, especially with a broken frame and gearbox..a tear down and cleanup will probably reveal more bad news. Cool motor though!

The good news is it cost me nothing, hahah.

Whats amusing is I just realized that one of these home made skid plates used to be the roof.... Sure are some interesting "mods" on this poor thing.

[silvertriple]

Well...
Lot of part very difficult to finds among those broken if you are searching for originals...
I would start by tear it down to parts, and check the state of all metal parts and transmission parts. If everything is in proper state, there is easy printed 3D part from @Dadio on shapeways and from @optimaforever on Cults3D to rebuild a car...

[RogueIV]

Well, 2 out of 3 diffs are basically destroyed. The rear diff has 2 trashed spider gears and the center diff is poorly epoxied together. also that transmission half with the epoxy is cracked in several places. I guess if I come across replacement diff gears at some point I'll rebuild this thing with 3d printing but till then it'll remain in the box apart.

Motor is good though! Tossed it on an ESC and it seems to run well.

[silvertriple]

Well, 2 out of 3 diffs are basically destroyed. The rear diff has 2 trashed spider gears and the center diff is poorly epoxied together. also that transmission half with the epoxy is cracked in several places. I guess if I come across replacement diff gears at some point I'll rebuild this thing with 3d printing but till then it'll remain in the box apart.

Motor is good though! Tossed it on an ESC and it seems to run well.

The differentials are not really difficult to find :
- rear end one can be replaced by an Hitec Aristocraft Kangaroo/Dolphin diff. It is basically the same
- central diff is the difficult one, however, it can be replaced by the spooler used on the previous car mentioned (basically all the content of the rear gearbox is easy to replace as long as you replace the central diff by a spooler).
- front diff is easier to find, and again is likely to be easy to replace by the Aristocraft one. There is either copy or sharing subcontractors involved I suppose...

THat being said what is really difficult to find nowadays is some of the metal parts. If they are in good state, that is a good start. 3D printed parts may be slightly expensive, but they are more reliable than old ABS which becomes brittle with UV exposition and temperature variation along the time...

[RogueIV]

Well, 2 out of 3 diffs are basically destroyed. The rear diff has 2 trashed spider gears and the center diff is poorly epoxied together. also that transmission half with the epoxy is cracked in several places. I guess if I come across replacement diff gears at some point I'll rebuild this thing with 3d printing but till then it'll remain in the box apart.

Motor is good though! Tossed it on an ESC and it seems to run well.

The differentials are not really difficult to find :
- rear end one can be replaced by an Hitec Aristocraft Kangaroo/Dolphin diff. It is basically the same
- central diff is the difficult one, however, it can be replaced by the spooler used on the previous car mentioned (basically all the content of the rear gearbox is easy to replace as long as you replace the central diff by a spooler).
- front diff is easier to find, and again is likely to be easy to replace by the Aristocraft one. There is either copy or sharing subcontractors involved I suppose...

THat being said what is really difficult to find nowadays is some of the metal parts. If they are in good state, that is a good start. 3D printed parts may be slightly expensive, but they are more reliable than old ABS which becomes brittle with UV exposition and temperature variation along the time...

Most of the metal parts are there, except the "heatsink" that goes on the rear, but that can be anything really. I'll definitely look into the Aristocraft diffs. Front diff in this is fine at least.

[Dadio]

As mentioned by Silvertripple Shapeways has the gearbox for sale and I've bought one and can verify it's good probably better than the original , gears again as Silvertripple says the Hitec Aristocraft Dolphin or Kangaroo gears are a drop in fit , the front bulkhead/body mount can be found new on eBay quite often for not too much .
The chassis is the big problem , I sell one on Shapeways but it's expensive , nothing I can do about it it's just a high volume part so they charge a lot , genuine chassis do come up from time to time but they are getting rarer by the hour .
The metal roof is for sale in Pargu Store online shop .
These are great cars and I hope you can find a way to save it .

[RogueIV]

As mentioned by Silvertripple Shapeways has the gearbox for sale and I've bought one and can verify it's good probably better than the original , gears again as Silvertripple says the Hitec Aristocraft Dolphin or Kangaroo gears are a drop in fit , the front bulkhead/body mount can be found new on eBay quite often for not too much .
The chassis is the big problem , I sell one on Shapeways but it's expensive , nothing I can do about it it's just a high volume part so they charge a lot , genuine chassis do come up from time to time but they are getting rarer by the hour .
The metal roof is for sale in Pargu Store online shop .
These are great cars and I hope you can find a way to save it .

It will happen, but it's going to be a bit further down the line as I have a few other projects going on currently.. I'll likely buy the STLs from optima house and print them myself, Shapeways is cool and all but large things on there are prohibitively expensive, even mini wheels cost a small fortune.

[silvertriple]

As mentioned by Silvertripple Shapeways has the gearbox for sale and I've bought one and can verify it's good probably better than the original , gears again as Silvertripple says the Hitec Aristocraft Dolphin or Kangaroo gears are a drop in fit , the front bulkhead/body mount can be found new on eBay quite often for not too much .
The chassis is the big problem , I sell one on Shapeways but it's expensive , nothing I can do about it it's just a high volume part so they charge a lot , genuine chassis do come up from time to time but they are getting rarer by the hour .
The metal roof is for sale in Pargu Store online shop .
These are great cars and I hope you can find a way to save it .

It will happen, but it's going to be a bit further down the line as I have a few other projects going on currently.. I'll likely buy the STLs from optima house and print them myself, Shapeways is cool and all but large things on there are prohibitively expensive, even mini wheels cost a small fortune.

Yeah... And there is online printers able to do MJF or SLS PA12 for very much less than Shapeways.
And by the way, if you are looking for rims, you may look at mine on Thingiverse and Cults3D...