SAVING ANOTHER VIPER

[DemZ]

After i found my last AYK VIPER i really wanted an AYK VIPER SHUTTLE to help complete my viper collection and thats were i came across this viper shuttle on ebay, it was pretty badly beaten up the bumper bar was smashed in 3 places the front off the chassis was bent pretty bad and the diff casings were cracked in two.
The shuttle was listed for a buy now price or make an offer so i made an offer which the seller accepted , 7 days latter the buggy turned up and i must say it was in better condition than i first thought but would still need alot of work and my biggest worry was were was i going to find parts to restore it as parts for vipers very rarely come up , so the first place i tried was the person i bought my last one off and he pointed me in the direction off another viper fanatic who luckily had all the parts i was looking for, he also had a complete viper roll cage so i decided to turn it in to a normal viper which could be changed to a shuttle by just changing the body.
The restoration came out alot better than i had hoped but after stripping down to the last nut and bolt i began polishing every thing up to look like new and here are the photos of the finished build, i hope you enjoy the photos.
The one with out stickers is the one recently restored.











I didnt take many photos while doing the restoration but the buggy on the right with out the stickers is the the buggy above restored.




This is the end result i think the restoration came out awesome

[tamiya]

Do you only do shelfers or have you got runners as well?

That chassis trough looks familiar, think there's 1 undamaged here & am pretty sure there's some of those white wheels used in the boneyard... will take stock next time I'm up there digging for bits.

[DemZ]

I only build vintage shelfers, i love restoring then preserving them i know a lot off people love racing vintage but i find more often than not parts are far to hard to find and replace if broken so when i feel like an rc fix i race my current buggies, i just find racing current buggies a lot more fun than racing vintage because i dont have to baby them and be worried about breaking them.

[DemZ]

And thanks for the offer off chassis and wheels but i already found new wheels and tires and i pulled the chassis down repaired it as best i could then polished it, you can see the results in the photos the buggy with out the stickers is the repaired viper shuttle, i decided to restore it in to a normal viper as i had a spare rollcage and i really love the look of the viper over a viper shuttle.

THIS:


IS NOW THIS

[naushad]

You've got one to run!

And one to shelf!!

[hibernaculum]

Great dedication here, especially in finding original parts.
The tyres are among my favourite R/C tyres (even if they have to be glued on) - those spikes are probably the longest of any vintage buggy tyre.

[Wahrsuul]

Nice looking buggies. I have one of those on a shelf in the garage. It was the ex's and she never finished or ran it.

[Trass]

Hi,

Nice restauration !!!

I dream of saving one as well, xxx xxx xxxx xx???

Jerome

[Wahrsuul]

Are you looking for parts?

[VintageJohn82]

Looks like a serious rebuild.lots of hours.nice job.