Optima mid mega build project started

[rccars4sal]

Before getting to any other rc projects, Im going to try and get these done. At least 3 good cars, 1 being an A&L trailing arm car. Others being various SWB cars in different states of tune. Possibly a couple of in complete cars too. Have to do some hard thinking, as there might only be 3 or 4 ball diffs available and Ive got a couple of lazers to build as well. Pretty sure theres a home made LWB chassis in the pile and might be a belt for it too, not sure about a matching top deck though. I figure 3 completed cars so far. First 2 pics are the freshly washed plastics, axles, universals, chassis. 2 separate piles. Going to see about making this some what of a build thread.

[Coelacanth]

Sweet...looks like some serious fun ahead!

[DennisM]

You don´t need those Andy´s arms - You really ought to send them to Denmark instead.

[j-sou]

I have a couple Optimas that look exactly like that!

[rccars4sal]

I would gladly send 1 andys arm to Denmark, but the other is broken! I cant imagine the hit it took to break right in the middle of one side.

Somber realizations: Lazer and mid diffs and belts are different. Different tooth pitch. So, I think theres 2 good mids, but the third will need new diff halves. Also,, I jumped in and tore all the diffs completely apart,, so all the little tiny thrust balls are now loose as are the layered shims that capture the thrust assemblies. Oh boy, I hope to find some exploded ball diff views soon!

26 shocks dis assembled. Only 2 or 3 in complete. A couple pretty badly chewed diff gears too.










So far,, all Ive done is clean clean clean.

[GoMachV]

Also,, I jumped in and tore all the diffs completely apart,, so all the little tiny thrust balls are now loose as are the layered shims that capture the thrust assemblies. Oh boy, I hope to find some exploded ball diff views soon!

[naushad]

You've got a mish mash of parts there...some after market..I think you have some You-G shock bodies there...

Give your plastics parts a good coat of silicone spray like GT85...makes them look shiny as well as offer some protection.

Only the mid special and SE had the ball diffs as standard....I found it difficult to find the components for a complete rear ball diff but yahoo.jp helped.

WBD-4 was a bugger to find!

[rccars4sal]

Thankfully all the gold shocks are complete. Its the funny blue and grey ones that are missing a detail or 2. As for the diffs, I'm hoping to get 2 complete pairs and worry about the others later. One of the donor cars actually had zx front suspension. And that may end up on the A&L car.

[rccars4sal]

Thanks for the diff diagram! Those are next after the rest of the shock builds.

Gold shocks done, smoooooth. Got a pair of medium and a pair of shorts,, and the rest longs. The duratrax are all shorts. Ill give those youG shocks a try, but not real impressed with them as of yet. Those grey ones are really cool with 4mm shafts, but proprietary hardware makes them difficult to complete in a usable fashion.

[j0pp3]

Those grey ones are Kyosho Platinum shocks. W5003 (short) and W5004 (long) if I remember correct. They came with the Turbo Optima Mid SE.

[tamiyadan]

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[GoMachV]

Sounds like your good to go but here's the shock list too just in case

[rccars4sal]

OHHH SNAP! I have some genuine platinum shocks!!!! Cool! Looks like effort will be put to saving them. I did build 1 blue shock,, has seals like original optima shock design, very leaky. Also built 1 long grey(platnum!!) shock, and it worked great. Only thing is the plastic parts are in complete.

[tamiyadan]

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[rccars4sal]

This last bit of parts from ebay has been quite shocking. A few missing or broken parts has not dampened my enthusiam. Suspension is mounting as to the shape of the rest of the goods. Hopefully the E mine will produce more nuggets of rare goodness to complete these. Soon there will be 2 or 3 more mids strutting their stuffs in this world.









HAHA. Moving on....