All original Scorpion from eBay UK

[deangaffney]

Won this on eBay UK, my wife doesn't know, sssshhh. Missing front bumper but otherwise I think it has never been taken apart apart. So apart from a repair to a front upright/stub axel and missing bumper it's nice and original. Even down to the hard plastic inner rims inside the tyres. These photos are those that the seller supplied to me in advance.

[deangaffney]

Sadly after much testing and swapping out of components I have been unable to get the original Futaba receiver to work and the steering servo is most reluctant too. I may well stick with a MSC on this one as it could end up as a shelf queen leaving my 'trashed' example to be built up into a Beetle for running around the park.

[deangaffney]

Dear folks, I'd like to paint these, any tips welcome as I've never painted this sort of thing before. I've been cleaning up the outside edge of the rims with a wet/dry 1500/2000 paper process which has worked ok. Probably stick with silver paint so wondering about primer colour etc.

[shodog]

That looks like a pretty nice Scorpion. A little bit of cleaning will bring that right back into shape. Painting the wheels is going to look okay but if your pocketbook can survive another, pargu seeks some nice aluminum wheels on eBay.

[Coelacanth]

Looks like a fun project to start off the new year! As far as painting the wheels goes, I would first remove all the old chrome plating. I assume those wheels are nylon (any Scorpion experts can confirm?), in which case, you could spray on some Easy-Off oven cleaner (yellow cap version) and let it sit for a couple minutes. That worked well for me to remove plating from nylon wheels (Turbo Optima & some aftermarket Imex plated wheels).

As for a chrome paint, I've yet to find one that actually looks like chrome; the best I've tried looked more like silver than chrome, and I've tried a lot. Furthermore, painted wheels won't stand up to normal RC driving abuse, but will look fine sitting on a shelf.

[deangaffney]

Thanks guys, what I might do is get some liquid mask and just paint the centres of the rims. Leaving the outer edge up painted will limit visual damage caused by normal driving. Then again I may just stick it on a shelf. The rear rims are protected by the tire walls to some extent.

Got some seized bolts at the back holding the bottom of the cage on and the gearbox to the mounting plate so they're currently soaking in a little PTFE based spray.

[deangaffney]

Any tips on restoring the colour on the tub without an abrasive? Removal of old stickers has left shadows as seen below.

[DennisM]

Nice catch -
I´d soak the rims in a small container with brakefluid and leave them in a warm place 15-20 degrees celcius for 2-3 days.
Then wipe them - if they´re not clean, give´m 2-3 days more. When they´re clean, leave them in water for day.
Plasti-kote makes a chrome spray paint - it´s not mirror finish, but still okay.

Unless You can find spanking new original tires, I wouldn´t go for pargu rims.

The tub can be cleaned with autosol polish and a cloth - if You use powertools, watch the speed, so it doesn´t melt the plastic.
After-treatment could be car wax - and a hot bath.

[deangaffney]

Thanks Dennis, appreciate all the feedback I've received.

[deangaffney]

Dear readers (!), is it possible to use a BEC equipped receiver with a mechanical speed controller? I thinking not and that I would need an ESC to make use of the BEC in a receiver. I have a vintage Futaba receiver to replace the failed one which came with the car and wonder if I can ditch 4 AA's. Cheers.

[jwscab]

if the reciever is BEC equipped, then you should be able to run a small pair of wires from the main battery leads(typically from the MSC points) and run it into the receiver. I would double and triple check to see if the receiver can handle more than 6V. If not, you could put a couple of diodes in series with the power wire from the msc and it will drop the voltage by 1.4V(roughly, for general purpose switching diodes, they have a .7v forward drop). another option is to run an external small BEC circuit, they are pretty tiny these days.

[deangaffney]

Thanks for that feedback on the BEC thing.

[deangaffney]

This all original Scoprion still has it's spur gear rather than a diff, I wonder if this account for the excessive wear to the drive cups. Incredibly I have a spare spur gear and cups which I've had since 1988.



Had to carefully cut a slot to get a couple of the bolts out, good old junior hacksaw.



Rims ready for stripping in chloroxylenol based anti-septic which I've used before to strip RC wheels. Not much paint left so shouldn't take long.

[deangaffney]

Here she is with the Assault rims and front bumper fitted for a photo after I cleaned and rebuilt the rear end. Unsurprising one of the rear shock clamps is pants. Next up is to clean up the tub and refit.

[deangaffney]

Cleaned up gearbox and swapped out worn cups.