It cleaned-up pretty well with only a few missing parts that I was able to find on eBay easily enough. I had made my own dog bone joint boots out of heat shrink tubing in an attempt to keep the dirt out. I had also tried running a wet sump gearbox, adding seals and covers over the external bushings. I think it just made it slower, so I removed all of that. The original shocks leak of course, just like they did from day one.
I was waiting for warmer weather to repaint the original body after stripping the old, yellowed epoxy paint off. It took a long time, but the Krud Kutter stuff works if you are patient.
I got a set of those knock-off Xtra Speed gold-ish shocks and just ran it with the clear body. With an ESC and 2S LiPo, I noticed that the motor had copious torque and was instantly topping-out RPM-wise. So I got some Turbo Scorpion wheels and soft tires for it and ran it with the 32T idler. It was quick on the street!
The decals weren't harmed by the stripper despite soaking in it for weeks, so I was able to just re-shoot it with Tamiya PS-1 after cleaning it really well and scoring it a bit (remembering to mask the windows this time). The shell is very slightly yellowed, but it's hardly noticeable. The wing was rough, but I opted to preserve it and made a clear plastic wing for it out of some scrap to fit it around and give it some shape.
I sprung for a set of rere gold shocks. I had always wanted a set of gold shocks for it; the Xtra Speed knock-offs work better than the stock shocks, but they all have very slow leaks and were a weird gold/purple color. The rere shocks are fantastic (I have an Optima Mid rere kit, so I was familiar with them). The original wheels/tires are just for the shelf. They are too frail to drive on.
