My first (RC) love - Got a Marui Hunter Today!

[Zipster]

So way back when, I desperately wanted a "real" RC car, but all of my dream cars were way out of my budget (RC10, Hotshot, etc...). I saved up my money for what seemed to be forever, and ended up at my LHS looking at entry level cars. I came in to buy a Grasshopper, but the guy (kid) behind the counter convinced me to look at a couple of other cars - and I immediately fell in love with the Marui Hunter. To my 12?yr old eyes, it looked more like a real buggy than the Grasshopper, and if you put your head just right and squinted, it did a passable RC10 impersonation (or that's what I told myself.

I ran the crap out of that buggy, discovered how fragile they were - but also found out that if you could keep it from breaking, it was surprisingly effective on our local track.

At various points it was run on slicks as a street car, converted into the world's crudest sprint car, and was eventually run over and flattened (at which point I tried my hand at chassis fabrication. Then I got my drivers license, discovered girls, and sadly, I have no idea whatever happened to my one-time favorite possesion in the world.

Fast forward to today, and I just bought a well used, but mostly intact (only one crack in the chassis!) Hunter with an accompanying parts chassis. I was so excited that I immediately spent the evening tearing them down and cleaning/organizing parts. I think I was almost as excited as the first time around (although a bit more realistic about what the end result will be

My plan is to clean it up, track down the missing/broken parts (driver, wing, body mount, lights, etc...) , and bring it back as a nice-ish runner, with the goal of running it in the Classic class at the vintage nationals this fall.

The one major question/issue I have is tires - what is available that can fit, either using the stock wheels, or worst case, what other wheels/tires might adapt? Any input would be much appreciated.

More soon, but here are some pics of it as purchased:

[Coelacanth]

The one major question/issue I have is tires - what is available that can fit, either using the stock wheels, or worst case, what other wheels/tires might adapt? Any input would be much appreciated.

Nice, I can say that it's indeed a lot of fun to take a reliable but badly-performing clunker and mod it into something half-decent. Looking forward to your rebuild! The answers to many of your questions might be found in my Marui Galaxy rebuild. I did a whole lot of modding and found a way to easily mount modern low-profile tires & wheels on it. (With help from Mr. ED) Your Hunter should be just as easy.

Here's my build, nearing completion:

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=18492

You can use any 12mm hex drive wheels with your existing axles by installing a pair of Tamiya Frog wheel adapters. The insides will mount right onto your existing axle cross-pins. The outsides will require about 4mm hack-sawed off and some filing nice and smooth, and then you can bolt on any wheel that uses 12mm hex drives.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/OP913-Tamiya-Frog-2005-Aluminum-Wheel-Adapter-/370477188069?pt=Radio_Control_Parts_Accessories&hash=item56422943e5

Upgrading the fronts will require wheels that accept bearings inside the wheels themselves, and the correct diameter axle holes. I just used an aluminum spacer to compensate for the extra space where the thicker inner bushing recess would be on the insides of your Hunter wheels. You can see I temporarily just used a pair of the oilless metal bushings (replaced by 5 x 11 Tamiya Frog bearings in the rear axle shafts) that happened to have almost the perfect thickness. (I've since replaced those with something that looks nicer, but with the same results.)

[Zipster]

Hey thanks! I forgot that the Galaxy was pretty much a 4 shock version of the Hunter.

My original plan was to buy it and restore it as a shelfer, but with the thought of actually racing it (at least once), I'm thinking of making it more of a lightly modified nice runner.

I will definitely be following your lead on the wheels for running - and then try to track down a decent set of originals for "shelf use".

I like your rear suspension mods. It looks like the chassis is pretty much the same. I have a spare set of rear arms with damage to the linkage that would be perfect for cutting for dual rear shocks, so I might set it up to be able to go back and forth, depending on how much I end up running it.

For the front, I kind of like the inboard shocks, as that was one of the key visual traits of the car. I'm thinking I might be able to find some small-scale oil-filled shocks to replace the spring-only units in there.

[Coelacanth]

You should probably replace all the bushings/oilless metal with bearings. If I remember correctly, the 4 on the rear shafts are 5 x 11mm, the same as Tamiya Frog bearings. The four in the front wheels are 5 x 10mm. The car only uses 8 in total.

EDIT: 8 Frog bearings will work to replace the stock bearings. I had to use smaller 5 x 10mm bearings with my upgraded front wheels.

Here's another topic I posted inquiring about modern wheel & tire options for the Galaxy, with a lot of useful info from forum members:

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=18561

[Zipster]

Coelacanth,

Thanks for the bearing info.

I just read through your build, and had a few questions. First of all, really nicely done. These cars are what they are, but what an improvement (looks-wise and I'm sure performance-wise)!

On the wheel front, with those hubs, does that pretty much make most standard wheels fit? The newest buggy I have is a late 80's RC10, so I'm really trying to get up to speed on new tire/wheel fittment and sizing. I was thinking that I might just pick up some takeoff Holiday Buggy wheels (or the white versions floating around on Ebay, but I really like the ones you have on. Any suggestions on cool wheels (either white/black/silver) that might be cool? Mostly just for running, so tire choice/availability is really the key factor (along with looks!) NOTE - I had written this before your last response, but for some reason I can't access that link - is it in the B/S/T section?

You mentioned knowing someone who had a lot of vintage Marui parts (esp. the driver), do you still have his contact info? Everything else I need is pretty available (except I'd love a new/spare chassis - lots of luck on that one )

[Coelacanth]

You're right, the last link is in the "Wanted" section in the B/S/T. I guess you'll need 25 posts and then send a message to one of the moderators' eBay I.D.'s to gain access; just follow the rules at the top of that section. Here are some recommendations from people here for front wheels:

-Traxxas Radicator, TRX-1, TRX3;
-Tamiya Desert Gator, Sand Viper; (rears have 12mm hex just like my mod)
-RC10 wheels (5 x 8mm bearings);
-Academy GV2 (5 x 10mm bearings);
-Carson Modelsport wheels (5 x 10mm bearings).

The black wheels I went with were from Carson Modelsport (www.carson-modelsport.com). The white fronts were donated by tsan and are GV2 wheels. The spiked front tires are a pair each from Tamiya and Traxxas--can't recall the exact part numbers, but I can get back to you on that.

If you let me know what you need (all at once), I'm going to be meeting that Marui parts guy soon. I'll have him check stock first.

[Zipster]

Yeah, I think i'm pretty close to the post requirement - thanks for the abbreviated info in the interim. I really like the carsons and the Tamiyas, but I'll check out the rest, too.

Happily I between the two cars, I don't need a lot of original parts - at least to get it up an running, but below is the list of what I'm on the lookout for (in priority order):

Rear body mount (actually attaches to the inside top of the body!)
Driver figure
Rear bumper/guard
Original f/r tires (and front wheels if they are new - mine are ok)
Chassis (either the hunter or galaxy - the only difference is color from what I can tell looking at manuals)
Wing (I can get a whole body/wing combo from ebay, but the body I have is actually in great shape)
Electric cover (that the driver mounts on - I have one but it's been cut)
Motor/pinion cover (again, have one, but it's cracked)

If you do talk to him, I would me much appreciative if you could ask about any of the above
Thanks!

[Coelacanth]

If you do talk to him, I would me much appreciative if you could ask about any of the above
Thanks!

We've been playing a bit of phone tag lately, Zipster, but I hope to know what parts he has available sometime this weekend. The problem is, he has so many various parts that he hasn't really catalogued anything. Last time I needed random parts, I went over there and looked through the stuff in his garage.

[Zipster]

That's a problem I wish I had! I unloaded all of my RC stuff a couple of decades ago, and now it all fits it a large rubbermaid bin Oh well, at the rate I'm going, I'll be buried in parts and projects soon enough.

If he's got anything, its great, if not, I still appreciate the effort.

[dahlelama]

Our stories are real similar...

So way back when, I desperately wanted a "real" RC car, but all of my dream cars were way out of my budget (RC10, Hotshot, etc...). I saved up my money for what seemed to be forever, and.....

The Hunter was my first 'real' RC car too for the same reasons except that I knew I didnt want a Grasshopper. So when I had the bucks saved up I handed it off to mom and she gave me her credit card number. I called Circus Hobbies down in Las Vegas and ordered a Hunter, stick radio and a 6 cell Nicd. I remember that first build. I set a card table up in my room and spent a couple evenings like a mad scientist building it. I was so proud of it when it was all finished.

Recently I found a sweet new built Hunter on eBay. It was late and it had just been listed for $140 BIN. So I hit the BIN button (friends... dont let friends drink and eBay.... 3 Optima Mids showed up at the house one day..... but thats another story). This was early December and it never showed up. Ended up doing the dispute thing with eBay and just today got my refund. I'll find another... still looking.

Great find on that Hunter! Keep us posted on it's revival.
e.

[Zipster]

Iv'e been lucky with eBay so far (knock on wood). Few things that were somewhat less than described, but overall, no deadbeats.

You're in Boise? My brother lives there & we get out that way a couple times a year. Maybe we can meet up and bitch about Hunter chassis cracks (you know, just above the steering tie-rod cutout ) next time I'm in town.

By the way, if you're still looking for a Hunter, there is a guy on Craigslist in San Francisco that has a NIB Hunter (missing manual speed control) for something like $250 & he ships. Never tried to buy anything from him, but if I hadn't bought this one, I might have gone for it. Hell, I'm still tempted, even though it would mean I'd incur the wrath of the wife to do so

[Coelacanth]

Zipster, re: the parts you asked about...the guy and I have been playing phone tag quite a bit lately...he calls me at work on the weekend when I'm not there, I call back over the weekend when he's busy having company over, and both of us were pretty busy during the week. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten...it's just not that easy to sync our schedules at the moment.

[Zipster]

No worries, I've got enough work with the parts I have to keep me busy for quite a while - and if I get stalled on this one, I'm just about ready to start on a new/old RC10 build

[mrlexan]

I can remember flipping through my grandfather's RCM mags and seeing these NIB for $49.99 (no kidding..... just can't remember which shop it was from). We ended up buying three of them, one for my gramps, one for my bro and one for me.

[Zipster]

mrlexan, I'm happy and sad for you


But clearly you survived it! That may explain your love of lexan - as I recall, the lexan body was the only part that never broke (and was probably the best part of the whole car - a actually considered adapting one to one of my RC10s, but it was too short