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What do u mean by delaminating? You can pick up those screws zinc treated even at home depot. pop em into a box and shoot the tops black.
There has to be a cheapy altern for those turnbuckles...someone else will chime in. Rebuilds aren't cheap dude I mean sometimes you can get lucky but in the end...your gonna drop coin.

Yea the wheels is truly sucky news. How much u pay for it? Body is cool not fugly. Where are the wheels cracked?

You can get her up and running in limp mode....later make some upgrades...focus on the tranny+driveshafts.

Your gonna run it or just stare at her? (saw ur trying to run for summer...youll make it)

Looks like the holes that were added were poorly drilled. If not drilled correctly the chassis splinters (delaminates). Dont get down and out about the hardware. You would be surprised what a dremel with a wire wheel can do For the 8/32 screws, just use the AE ones (not going for perfect resto, just go with what is available). They are yellow/green, not black, meh, not a big deal. I have some on my racer build. Turnbuckles can be had easily and cheap. You can upgrade to titanium or just replace them with steel, probably looking around 10-15 bucks overall. Ball studs and ball cups SHOULD be replaced...they will be your weak link. Again, AE has a kit with 12 of each in it, it will get you where you need to be. Chuck up all the hinge pins in a drill and use some 400 wet/dry and give them a polish. You may be able to save the shock shafts the same way.

Cracked wheels...well, they are always good for display

Chin up, restore as much hardware as you can, replace wisely (since its a runner) and get that thing back into roller condition.

Some good suggestions there from JK....

I suppose after buying a number of used & abused relics over the years you come to expect certain things like cracked wheels, stripped screws, badly drilled holes etc etc - my Worlds RC10 was a real basket case when I first got it - but eventually I got it looking good & certainly very servicable as a runner! Sometimes even cars that have never been used end up needing parts because they were so poorly assembled - like my never run Schumacher Top Cat where the spur gear was hanging out the wrong side of the gearbox!

When building a vintage car for racing/running I will always replace the shock seals, ball end cups & e'clips as a matter of course, your wheels would probably need replacing with ones that accept modern 2.2" tyres, rusty hingepins/shock shafts I normally polish up using the method JK Racing describes, even rusty screws are soaked in WD40 & then scrubbed with a wire brush! I'm suprised about the snapped turnbuckles - those sort normally bend rather than snap - did they snap during dissasembly?

I guess 'im just annoyed because my optima need only 2 screws for the whole rebuild...I actually have 15,000 grit paper...or something silly like that, that i got from a buddy..i will do the shafts with that....Yes the turn buckled actually snapped...like plastic, never had that happen before....i know it will need new wheels...etc..just annoyed at the situation...i know how to clean up screws etc etc...i have done it all before...

Odd about the turnbuckles for sure - one of my JRX2 wrecks looks like it sat for the past ten years in a puddle (so lots of surface rust on screws & turnbuckles etc) But the turnbuckles cleaned up nicely & were fine

Regarding about the cracked wheel/s - are the fronts cracked on the inside around the bearing/hub area? The early wheels were made of a more brittle plastic & to see this is almost enevitable unless the wheels were never used/mounted... in the same way that the early thin shock collers (all JRX2 & early Pro models) rarely survive

Yes it is where they are cracked...but my front shock collars look fine..hahah

zuki250 wrote:I guess 'im just annoyed because my optima need only 2 screws for the whole rebuild...

Optimas have their fair share of issues...if you only had to replace 2 screws, you REALLY got lucky. Let's see, where to start...rear gearbox sideplate with stripped-out threads, frame rails where buddy tried to screw 3mm screws in the 2.6mm holes, and the ever popular bent front skidplate, to name the more common issues.

Yea i got lucky with the optima..it was strip..clean, lube done...haha

Ok so started tearing apart the shocks...I polished the shafts with 1500 grit paper...So the cartridges....are they rebuildable? Or do i just need to buy new ones? Also where do i find them? Ebay...is there a better version to use?

The TL part # is A-5015 and you will obviously need four of them. Search for them on eBay - there are plenty of listings.

MIP made some after market ones but you rarely see them.

Haha - you beat me to it LosiXXkid!

The A-5015s are a slimmer profile compared with the old style cartridges & as such allows the suspension to droop further than intended if using the stock shafts.... luckily the kit of parts with the 5015 cartridges includes some spacers which you can add on the shaft between the back of the cartridge & the pistion - IIRC just one of the spacers is needed to make up the difference

The 5015's are still in production so any supplier that deals with Losi should be able to get them, you will also want to put spacers on the outside if on you car they compress to the point they bottom out and the piston hits the top of the shock... they are shorter overall then old carts.

Chris

cool thanks guys...now i just need to find turnbuckles to get started....Will AE ones work?

Shock carts came in today...guess i should get to work

SOOOO many parts are here....time to get to work!!! I think i over did it