Project Tomy Intruder Vintage Racer

[JamieB]

Back in the day, I use to race Schumacher Cougar 2wd buggies. I actually started out with a Tamiya Madcap but quickly realised I needed something more competitive. Saving up my paper round money plus various pocket money I purchased a Cougar and raced. I also purchased a secondhand Shotgun which I would also race. Eventually I saved up enough to buy a Cougar 2 Works. This would have been around two years after I started racing.

During my racing career I was aware of a certain car which created a bit of a buzz at the local club meets. Yep, you guessed it. The Tomy Intruder. I wanted one bad, thing was I raced 2wd and trucks, there was no mone for a 4wd car and no time to race it. Sadly my Dad who took me each week passed away. My Mother tried taking me but things were not the same. I soon gave up racing cars and that was that.

A few years ago, and many years after I stopped racing I started to look for a Tomy Intruder. I found this one.



I was actually really lucky to get hold of this one, its boxed although the instructions are missing as are some of the internal packaging. This car has been run a couple of time over the local heath and then boxed away. I took the above photo early 2012, some months later my partner gave birth to our first child and different priorities took over.

Every so often I would get the car out of the box and just have a quick look. I would also look online and pick up the odd spare here and there but that was it until recently.

I managed to pick up a load of spares and now think I have enough spares to build another two, possibly three cars. There will be some original parts missing such as shocks, wheels and a couple of other bits but essentially I should be able to have three other cars.

My intentions are to race one next year at a vintage RC meet. There just happens to be one that I believe will take place during August 2016. As long as I am available I will be there.

My Plans:

I am going to leave the above car as is. I believe this car was raced back in the day and will provide evidence at a later stage. This car is now retired. It may be run around a track on a practice lap but that's it.

The racer I build will pay respects to the above car and be painted in a way that reflects the spirit of the original. The racer will hopefully be competitive and be run at a meet during August 2016. The car will be build using original Tomy parts, period modifications and modern day items.

I will build a car using all the hop up parts that I have. Its only in the last few years that I was made aware of the term hop ups, not really sure where this originated. I think the hop up car will be built just to showcase the mods that were available back in the 90's for the Intruder.

Here is a sample of the items.





Some items are damaged



Some are repairable



I already have a chassis built up that I will finish off with as many of the hop ups as possible. This will be the bling pimp build!



What ever I have left will build another car.

I will share some more pics with you soon.

[Peakey]

Looks good buddy, if you need parts the resident Tomy hoarder will be along anytime I'm sure he'll have anything you need by the bucket load ah Dan (Danb4 )

Where are you based? And I'm looking forward to the build.

[JamieB]

Thanks, I'm in Sidcup kent. These wont be quick builds as I am also trying to keep a 20 year old motorbike on the road

I do hope to have one and a body shell cut and fitted before the end of the year. I should have the other shell painted soon after. I wanted to go to the local model shop today but run out of time.

[rccars4sal]

I am truly in awe at this project. I figured Tomy was not much supported by factory or aftermarket. Probably somewhat limited production of those alloy parts. Good luck repairing, refurbing. Def worth the effort!

[tiger1]

you just need the hop up motor mount.

[JamieB]

Spent last night with a big box of screws trying to sort them into order. I think at the moment this is where my parts weakness may be. I don't seem to have enough screws and fixings to put another two cars together.

What's the best option for picking up screws, local hobby shop or somewhere else? I am in the UK.

I also cant work with the manual I downloaded which is for the Adonis and in Japanese. I can struggle along with it but anyone got a link to an Intruder manual in English?

Desperate for some proper Intruder stickers as well. The original shell which I want to replicate has the big White Tomy stickers on the side. The repro stickers on Ebay are for an Andonis and from what I can see don't have the same size or number Tomy stickers that I require. If I was only building one more shell then I would think about buying two sets just to get two white stickers but want to paint at least two other shells so need another option.

The bling Tomy is going to be for the shelf only so not too worried about the strength of the parts. The racer build will either have period parts which are reliable or more modern items. Its been a long time since I have raced cars and my old knowledge of parts and cars is lost in my mind some place.

I keep looking for items on the Intruder but there just seems to be so few posts online. How many cars did Tomy produce and are they just hidden away collecting dust?

[alien3t]

If you are on Facebook our TOMY group as the Adonis and Intruder manual in english i beleive. but we have both, EX is hard since it was a big fold out sheet. MCI decals are now a website replicator and Wydraz set an original set to be duplicated.

[rccars4sal]

For screws and nuts, I would suggest looking for packs from arma, axial, hpi, kyosho. The newer hobby grade rtr brands sell screw sets dirt cheap, even from retailers cheaper on ebay though. They are mostly black, metric, and many common sizes. Tomy screws resemble stock kyosho screws as far as head shape and size for appearance sake. Same goes for ball studs, ball cups, tierods. Its easy and cheap to equip runners with new tight linkages by using common 5.8 balls and cups.

[wydraz]

I'm here!

I am both DanB4 and wydraz mentioned above

I have the manual in English, I'll try and take decent pics of the pages. The EX manual like Hugh says is 1 fold out big sheet so hard to put on here.

Cheers,

Dan

[JamieB]

Guys, I don't normally get involved with Facebook, had a quick look but can only find a Tomy toy page, is this the one?

I would just be interested in the English manual to make sure I am not missing anything.

Other half is out on the 29th so will try and get the bling car built up as a roller.

I'm also spending many hours researching various parts to build the racer, out of interest, how much new stuff do I have to add/replace original to make this a non Tomy Intruder? I'm thinking of replacing the following for the racer:

Shocks
Wheels
Turnbuckle parts.
Belts
Possibly entire drive system. Depending on what I can get to fit etc.

I maybe wasting my time with the above but enjoying reading a lot about RC cars and bits.

Will pop to local model supplier this weekend to try and get paint and bits for the shell.

[rccars4sal]

Shocks and turnbuckle tierod parts are a nice way to tighten things up. I like traxxas heavy duty ball cups, and Kyosho zx5 ball cups with the appropriate(4.8? 5.8?) ball studs. My metal Tomy shocks are fantastic! For running, they should be really nice. Even the plastic tomy shocks were much better than other brand plastic shocks. I would suggest Kyosho golds or Associated shocks as replacement. Yokomo has some really really nics shocks on the mx4, and bmax series. Very plush and precise. Probably very expensive too.

For drive train, if you have access,, please try yokomo 91 yz10 belts and pullies. I dont have any, but I think they might be the ticket.

[alien3t]

Guys, I don't normally get involved with Facebook, had a quick look but can only find a Tomy toy page, is this the one?

I would just be interested in the English manual to make sure I am not missing anything.

Other half is out on the 29th so will try and get the bling car built up as a roller.

I'm also spending many hours researching various parts to build the racer, out of interest, how much new stuff do I have to add/replace original to make this a non Tomy Intruder? I'm thinking of replacing the following for the racer:

Shocks
Wheels
Turnbuckle parts.
Belts
Possibly entire drive system. Depending on what I can get to fit etc.

I maybe wasting my time with the above but enjoying reading a lot about RC cars and bits.

Will pop to local model supplier this weekend to try and get paint and bits for the shell.

I have it as TOMY Vintage RC

[JamieB]

alien3t, thanks, managed to find it now. I have requested membership, I would normally like to keep a low profile but hey...

So last night guys I set up swapping some parts over on the bling build. I got a little distracted at times as I was also watching a totally pointless film and also decided to see if any parts from my YZ10 would be a straight swap. Nope is the answer to the later. At least I learnt something about both cars.

I then continued to work on the bling car. I will try and get some pictures up later today. One problem I have encountered again is the wheel hub screws are seized, I think I have even managed to round these off now. I guess the only way to fix this is to drill out the grub screw thing? Any suggestions welcome as I don't really want to ruin any hard to get parts.

I have some me time Saturday and amongst other things plant to get to the model shop, will be going by bike if the weather is OK. If not will stay at home and find something else to do.

[tamiyadan]

.

[JamieB]

Dan, I'm going to have to seriously pick your brains when it comes to me deciding what to do with the electrics. For now I'm going to build up the bling car and then start on the racer.

So to be clear, the Yoko toothed part of the diff is no good? I built one up last night using a mix of Tomy/Yoko but it worked out too narrow in the diff housing. It seems possible to get the diff balls in the correct size, must be easy enough to get the washer part so just the plastic tooth part that would be difficult to get. What normally strips first the belt or the plastic part of the diff. Sorry for all the questions, you obviously know your stuff.

In the meantime this is what I did last night. Swapped some of the plastic out for bling parts.



Something has chewed this one up.



I have removed the shock mounts which came with this car, more on them in a moment. I believe this rear mount is for the Tomy but willing to be corrected/learn otherwise if not.




Problem is I don't have a bling shock mount for the front, for some reason the original wont fit either. I think the upgraded diff bearing housing is causing the issue. I will have a look again another time.

I put the gold hubs on as well.



I have red ones to go on the front once I have removed the seized screws. Again I my need few days to sort.

These are the shock mounts which came with this car, I know these are not standard, they do however fit. I can see the mounts have been cut about though to make them fit. Does anyone know the make/model these came from. The shocks have AR stickers on them.



This is the bling car so far, this came with a few spares I recently obtained and is being built as a bit of fun while I work on ideas for the racer. I'm also getting use to how these cars go together etc. I will be the first to admit, the bling car is dam ugly

Any one got a bling rear mount to match the front one?