First one I ever had... 2019 Turbo Optima re-re build

[emerilnut]

This car was the unicorn that I could never have. It came out when I was 13, and there was no way my parents would cough up the money to get it for me. I also had strict rules in my house to focus on school and baseball so I couldn't even get a job to fund the cause.

But fast forward to today, this re-release has me VERY stoked that I'm finally building my own Turbo Optima. I actually can't believe it. I'll just post some pics here and there on my progress. I actually only get to spend a couple of hours every couple of nights since I have to be family man until the little one goes to bed.

What I've decided: I'm going to do the box art livery on the car, but I'm going to use a darker red so that it's just a LITTLE incorrect. I'm glad Kyosho included tape masks for the body, but I'm going to have to modify the tape on the side pods so that I get the red on the sides correct. I won't be able to use the decals included in the kit.

What I haven't decided: Any of the electronics. I definitely want to go brushless but haven't decided on an ESC or motor.... Anyone have recommendations? This will be run VERY seldom, and it will be a shelf queen.

Anyway, here are pics from the first night.

[XLR8]

Very cool! It's gonna look great with the darker shade of red.
Did your kit come with a revised belt cover and the addendum sheet for the manual? Mine did, I compared the standard belt cover to the revised one and couldn't find a difference but I went ahead and installed the revise one anyway.
The body is tricky to trim around the shocks. I slipped with the xacto and stabbed myself in the thumb.
Looking forward to your next update.

[Coelacanth]

Welcome to the forum, emerilnut. It's always fun to hear new members' back-stories. I think most of the guys into these vintage RC cars--and their re-re's, to either re-live the memories, or build the cars we missed out on at the time, for whatever reason--are all probably guys mostly in their 40's to late 50's. I was fortunate enough to have worked at a hobby shop back in the 80's and 2 of my buddies and I were all into Optimas/Turbo Optimas, and even had a Salute for a parts car. It's a fun car to build, and the chassis frame rail design is quite unique to the car. Looking forward to your updates.

I think for a brushless system, you can get complete kits that include the ESC, motor & program card for pretty reasonable prices. I went with this combo with the 12T motor for my OptiMutt (RWD conversion of Optima Mid) car:

https://www.skyrc.com/Leopard

13T version:

https://www.amazon.com/Leopard-Combo-3000KV-Brushless-Program/dp/B00WAV7CVC

A 60A ESC and something in the 13 - 13.5T range will be plenty of power for the Optima, along with a 2S LiPo battery...get something with 4000+ mAh to get a nice long run-time. There are many brands of motor/ESC combos; HobbyWing, EZRun, QuicRun, Turnigy...I don't think the brand matters so much as getting one with similar specs. If you wanted to play it safe, you could go with Kyosho's suggested brushless motor, or something in the 15T - 17.5T motor range.

[emerilnut]

Very cool! It's gonna look great with the darker shade of red.
Did your kit come with a revised belt cover and the addendum sheet for the manual? Mine did, I compared the standard belt cover to the revised one and couldn't find a difference but I went ahead and installed the revise one anyway.
The body is tricky to trim around the shocks. I slipped with the xacto and stabbed myself in the thumb.
Looking forward to your next update.

It did come with the revised rail, and just like you I couldn't spot the difference. Thanks for the warning on the body trimming, I'll make sure to plan the cuts out and execute carefully.

[emerilnut]

Welcome to the forum, emerilnut. It's always fun to hear new members' back-stories. I think most of the guys into these vintage RC cars--and their re-re's, to either re-live the memories, or build the cars we missed out on at the time, for whatever reason--are all probably guys mostly in their 40's to late 50's. I was fortunate enough to have worked at a hobby shop back in the 80's and 2 of my buddies and I were all into Optimas/Turbo Optimas, and even had a Salute for a parts car. It's a fun car to build, and the chassis frame rail design is quite unique to the car. Looking forward to your updates.

I think for a brushless system, you can get complete kits that include the ESC, motor & program card for pretty reasonable prices. I went with this combo with the 12T motor for my OptiMutt (RWD conversion of Optima Mid) car:

https://www.skyrc.com/Leopard

13T version:

https://www.amazon.com/Leopard-Combo-3000KV-Brushless-Program/dp/B00WAV7CVC

A 60A ESC and something in the 13 - 13.5T range will be plenty of power for the Optima, along with a 2S LiPo battery...get something with 4000+ mAh to get a nice long run-time. There are many brands of motor/ESC combos; HobbyWing, EZRun, QuicRun, Turnigy...I don't think the brand matters so much as getting one with similar specs. If you wanted to play it safe, you could go with Kyosho's suggested brushless motor, or something in the 15T - 17.5T motor range.

Dude, I'm jealous of you! My brain would have exploded if I worked in a hobby shop. Thank you so much for the recommendations on the motor/ESC combos. I wouldn't have even known to search for Leopard. Since I'm not deeply entrenched in the hobby anymore I don't really know all the available brands, and I was looking for the best bargains from the big name brands. I knew about Hobbywing and Castle, but I hadn't seen any combos under $100.... but then again, my earnest research really hadn't started yet.

[XLR8]

I'm currently running one of these combos in my Turbo Scropion - seems okay so far.
Similar run time and performance to a Reedy 3300kv.

And they're cheap -- like me

Only downside is that they require a programming card to change setups - which I don't have. Hasn't really been a problem so far.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GoolRC-3660-3300KV-Brushless-Motor-60A-ESC-Combo-Set-for-1-10-RC-Car-Truck-R6A9/163871601155?hash=item2627823203:g:pw4AAOSwa9dctXX-:sc:FedExHomeDelivery!35058!US!-1

[emerilnut]

Some highlights from the second night. Starting to get some GOLD on 'dem parts. I only got to about Step 6 the first night.

Got the main chassis put together

Then the Servo Saver Link which was quite a pain to get in there with my fat fingers

Counter gear installed. When I was spinning the diffs before this went in, there was a "rough spot" in the rear diff. But after getting this in, sounds smooth as silk

Then back to the front end for the front side plates. Tonight got me to Step 13

Some wide shots of the progress at the end of night 2.

[XLR8]

Looking good.
One thing that struck me the first time I'd assembled one these early rear motor Optimas is just how incredibly complex the chassis is - with its side plates, rails, intricate belt covers and a multitude of fasteners and bits and bobs to hold everything together. It's like an exoskeleton. The later cars simply used flat plates for lower and upper chassis with turned stanchions to connect them. Oh well, it's an interesting design and it all makes for a fun build.

[emerilnut]

I've noticed this as well. As I've been building it I've realized that the gearboxes are really buried in there as you start with it and mount everything else all around them. If I wanted to service the diffs or the tranny it wold practically be a complete disassembly.

In my Durango DEX210, If I want take out the transmission to service the gears or diffs, it's a very simple process. I just remove a few screws and the whole tranny comes out without having to disassemble the car.

The Durango also has this design that if I need to troubleshoot the steering links or the servo, I can just remove 4 screws and swing up the entire front suspension as one piece revealing very easy access to the steering system.

We're really seeing design evolution and paradigm shifts with the re-releases that we wouldn't even think about before. Since we're building these cars in 2019, the same era where we're also building/running/troubleshooting late model stuff. So we're actually mentally comparing then to now in real time.

[emerilnut]

Night 3 progress. It always starts to look like an actual car when the control arms go on. I didn't take that many pictures tonight... quite honestly because I get so wrapped up in the fun of building that I forget to sit back and take some pics.

Plus tonight there was a bit of an "incident" so I just decided to call it quits after the last control arm was on. Tonight was Steps 14 - 16

Front control arms went on no problem.

Then this right rear control arm was the problem. Left one went on easy breezy. For this right one, the holes would not line up and the pin that hooked the control arm to the chassis would not just slide. I tried to force it.... left hand pushing the pin with my hex driver while the right hand held the chassis... pushing my hands toward each other. Hex driver slipped, aaaaaaand I jabbed myself. Lots of stinging, little bleeding, and somehow my left index finger got sandwiched somewhere and swelled a bit. OUCH!

I ended up loosening the screws for the rear motor guard. Once I did that the rear parts of the car moved around enough to line the holes up. Wish I'd thought of that in the first place.

So that's when I decided to cut the night short.

Wide angle of the night's work.

[Dadio]

Sometimes cars require a blood sacrifice , the gods will smile down on you now

[emerilnut]

Night 4 progress. Steps 17 and 18. Short night. Didn't get a chance to start as early as I wanted to. Plus lining up steering knuckles is a time-consuming pain in the a$$.

[emerilnut]

So I'm getting close to the time where I have to order the rest of the stuff to finish out the build.

For motor/ESC I wound up going with the GoolRC setup that XLR8 recommended only I sourced it on Amazon. I went with this instead of the Leopard because it was cheaper and this is only going to be run literally a handful of times.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071VL1NTW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The servo is another Amazon cheapie, but it should be up to the task.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076CNKQX4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For the receiver, I already have a Spektrum DX2E for my Durango. I'm supposed to be able to just pick up another receiver part and pair up with the existing transmitter. And I already have a couple of LiPo 5000 mAh 2s batteries.

For paint, I'm going with Tamiya Translucent Red, backed by Bright Silver, backed by Black. This should give me the deeper red I'm hoping for. It should be approaching Burgundy in color. I found this nifty post that caught my eye.

Everything's on its way. So I should be finishing up the car this week and painting this weekend.

[emerilnut]

Nights 5 and 6 over the weekend. Steps 19-25, and Step 26 and on: building shocks.

Front end finally coming together to completion.... Installation of the steering rods and the front sway bar.

When it comes to the rear sway bar, there is a misprint in the instructions. It tells you to use OT241 allen screw to secure the rear sway bar clip to the shock tower. You actually need I-S32606H. Fortunately that screw is also in the bag so it'll already be in your parts tray when you get to Step 23.

Rear sway bars after finding the right screws.

After installation of the radio plate. Now it really resembles a complete car.....

Now it's time to build some shocks!!!! Step 26, Open Bag F.
I want to give a word of advice here. The shock gaskets in Step 26 are SMALL and CLEAR, so they'll be easy to miss. I had to dig in my trash after I had opened all the mini bags in Bag F to find the little bag with the transparent gaskets.

I hate e-clips......

Once the e-clip part is done, building shocks is actually kinda therapeutic

[emerilnut]

Shocks are on the car, and I have to comment on how smooth they are. Really high quality pieces of technology. I have to say that they're smoother and quieter than my Durango. Amazing.