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Thanks for the compliments, a bit more progress tonight. It was a good stopping point because I need to substitute the race steering setup for the standard rack in the instructions, so I want to start on that fresh.

Yes I agree on the titanium screws, I'm glad I did them not only for the cool factor but I didn't realize the standard screws are phillips and the titanium Tamiya setup are hex which I prefer. I could see myself stripping lots of phillips screws on this build if I had to use those!

The only annoyance tonight was the plastic parts tree breakpoint leaves a big notch in the center of the front bumper. Will need to see if there's a better way to trim it or get another one and carefully snip it off I suppose.

Looking really good!

For the bumper, try sanding the nub with fine-grained sandpaper.

Edit: Just realized that some parts in one of my parts boxes I couldn't identify are in fact Avante suspension links

That's looking absolutely gorgeous...but man, no wonder that car was a failure on the race track...over-engineering at its worst! I can't wait to see this thing built, though...great color combination for the anodizing. This build needs a name worthy of the color scheme. Taking your topic title into consideration, maybe Avante Sunflare?

P.S. I'd get all those alloy ball-ends anodized too. But the question is, are those able to be anodized with the steel balls captured inside?

That's turning out really nicely. The finished product will definitely be a sight to see

Don't take this in the wrong way but speaking from experience, they are horrible runners and all that aluminum bling adds weight. About 12 years ago I had an original release Avante. I restored it really nicely but never ran it. Over time I collected every factory option for the buggy. All the tamiya fan boys were squealing about how great they were so I popped a radio in is and took it for a run. After 3 packs through it I was throughly dissappointed with it. I had been spoiled by my Losi XX4 and just couldn't see taking a downgrade. I eventually sold everything off and used the proceeds to buy a full option knight hauler.

shodog wrote:About 12 years ago I had an original release Avante. I restored it really nicely but never ran it. Over time I collected every factory option for the buggy. All the tamiya fan boys were squealing about how great they were so I popped a radio in is and took it for a run. After 3 packs through it I was throughly dissappointed with it.

The question is, since it seems you never ran it until after you added the aluminum upgrades, did it perform worse than when it was stock? While it's true that aluminum adds weight, it doesn't increase nearly as much as people think...and you have the benefit of durability. I guess for racing, people will eschew durability for weight savings and hope to finish the race without breaking anything. Just look at all the swiss-cheese RC10's for evidence of that thought process.

Coel I wasn't clear in my previous post. I had restored my vehicle to stock form. Along the way I collected every hop up there was for the Avante plus all the extra parts I'd need to build an entirely complete additional vehicle. This extra vehicle never got built After running the stock buggy I became so disillusioned with it that I sold everything off. I made so much money from all the parts that I was able to purchase my full option knight hauler and a tank trailer.

Things may have changed since the rerelease but I think the aluminum hop ups Flip has used are from a third party and are not official Tamiya hop ups.

No worries, sorry if I misunderstood.

Thanks guys. Yes from the ABS plastic build plus the realization of the weight of the aluminum bling, I know this will get run on the carpet in my basement but that's about it.

Any updates on this one flip, looking forward to seeing how it plays out

Have been on vacation and have family visiting now but I did get the wing anodized and assembled.

The Avante is mostly done. I need to add some electronics but that's not a huge priority. The driver is painted and ready to go so I can add him, too.

I have the other wheels, too but wasn't sure if there are plastic wheel nuts in the kit to secure them? I didn't see mention about those wheels in the instructions.

If you look closely at a few of the pictures you'll notice the paint has orange and yellow fleck in it courtesy of WED Jim's mastery and skills. I really dig the metal rear wing and was worried how the "nuts is neat" yellow sticker would look on the yellow anodizing but it's still very accentuated from the black outline. I also am a fan of the high cap dampers because it looks to me a lot more filled out.

Sadly after building one I think I 'ge't the fragility aspect of these and I'm amazed they would hold together through anymore than a few battery packs. Maybe with lots and lots of thread lock!

I have a large amount of leftover Avante parts since I substituted so much; gear diffs, center diff, shocks, wheels.

That's pretty damn sweet.

Updated pics in my gallery thread with the driver. Here's a teaser with the 2.2" wheels mounted (tires not glued so they're a bit lumpy around the edges.

put back the other wheels please

Very nice car. I love the bling, I am with hugger the stock wheel are much better looking