Thunder Tiger Challenger restoration

[Lowgear]

Back around the mid 90s I had a Kyosho Rowdy Baja. It was the 'Extra' version which means it had dual rear shocks and an adjustable ball diff! Unfortunately it had a quick life in my hands and I never ended up driving it. I wanted to get it running in order to take on our yearly summer vacation to Wildwood NJ, and I stayed up the entire night beforehand getting it ready. I worked on it right up until it was time to go. Needless to say I didn't have time to test everything. I packed it up, and off we went. I think it was the second day we were there I tried test starting it so I could take it out on the sand but it wasn't meant to be. No matter what I did, it just wouldn't start. I can't remember exactly what engine I had in it but it may have been one a friend gave to me that I never tried before. After bringing it back home I ended up taking it apart along with my Nitro Thrasher in an attempt to make a homemade nitro monster truck by combining the two. I don't know what I was thinking. I chalk it up to being a teenager.

I've always wanted another Rowdy Baja but am not willing to pay the exorbitant amounts they go for. I still have a lot of leftover parts from mine that are near mint. I was hoping to find one missing parts for cheaper and use mine. None have come up for sale in that regard either.

I recently had some money burning a hole in my pocket when this one came up for sale. The price couldn't be beat for the seemingly nice condition it appeared to be in. It looked complete and unchanged from new. When I got it it initially appeared to be in even better condition than expected. That changed somewhat when I started tearing it down for the rebuild. You know when it takes a half an hour just to remove three wheels with a ratchet, you're in trouble. The fourth wheel wouldn't come off at all, so I had to remove the trailing arm with it still attached. I think the nylon in the lock nut rolled down inside the nut when It was 3/4 of the way off which caused it to seize up. After wrestling with it for nearly an hour alone, I finally got the nut off. Using some 3-In-One oil ultimately helped. I don't know how I didn't damage or break anything in the process. I was applying a major amount of force but as gently as possible. Overall it was an aggravating two day battle just to get it dissembled to the point shown in the last picture.

I categorized the individual hardware for ease of reassembly but it's all a mess as well. Everything is covered in red threadlocker. A lot of screws seem to be brass... I don't know if that's stock but I kind of doubt it. As a result, they're all bent to some degree. I decided I'm just going to replace all the hardware. I bought a 1,080 piece button head stainless steel hex screw assortment, a 170 piece stainless steel lock nut assortment, and a pack of 100 M6 size washers. I should have enough hardware now for projects to come!

Last but not least, the engine is missing pieces to the clutch, along with the clutch bell material. That was really discouraging to find out. I don't know what I'm going to do in that regard but I'll have to figure something out.

Anyway, on to the pics...

That's where I'm at so far!

[DennisM]

Restoring the old 1/8 rail buggies are very time consuming but they do look good when finished.
Holler out if You need spares, I think I have some stashed away somewhere.

[Lonestar]

awesome car and cool story about the teenager's memories

Those metal rollcaged nitro buggies often got hard lives... I'm not surprised to hear even disassembling it was a pain!

This is a rare beast, especially here on rc10talk. Looking forward to seeing it restored

[Lowgear]

The experience I had with the Rowdy Baja has certainly helped me in the restoration. I kind of feel like I did all those years ago which is what this is all about on a certain level.

The hardware has come in along with some supposedly safe desgreaser I got as well. Everything from the middle back is covered in a layer of oily grime. I have to get it cleaned up a bit before I can continue. It has to be done outdoors so I have to wait for the next decent day which looks like this Friday.

In the meantime I decided to remove all the decals from the roll cage. I figured that would be a quick job but It ended up taking over two hours. That's my fault though as I used some old citrus based cleaner to remove the glue residue. I probably could have found something better but I was doing it in the kitchen sink in the middle of the night. When spring comes I plan to strip the cage, and repaint it due to numerous chips. It's a bit of a shame as the factory did a really nice job applying the metallic blue paint. Seems almost automotive grade.

I'd also like to replace the 4 channel Hobby Shack branded Cirrus electronics since they're meant for an airplane. I was forced to cut the antenna wire to remove the receiver from the radio box. The wire was put through the side of the box, and then glued in place with an overabundance of red threadlocker. The hardware mounting the CS-28R servos are covered in it too.

[Steve71]

That's gonna be a blast when ya get it done. I like those old school caged buggies. I remember when I was a kid in the 80's I think it was Kyosho that had a 4wd one that I can't remember the name of at the moment but I remember wanting that buggy so badly! Never got it lol

[Lowgear]

It's going to be a shelf queen like all my R/Cs. Maybe one day I'll get something to actually run. The Kyosho you're thinking of is either a Landjump or a Vanning.

I worked on this some more yesterday like I mentioned I was going to in an effort to remove the grime. The weather ended up being much colder than predicted but what else is new? It didn't matter much though as I ended up working in the heated garage. It was still cold but beat being outside. It was just more of the same frustration. It took another good hour just to break it down further for cleaning. I wanted to take the back end off in one complete unit which entails detaching the side fiberglass plates from the chassis rails. Not surprisingly the hardware holding the two together won't budge. After messing around for a few hours, I only managed to get the front shocks, rear shock mount cross bar, and engine mounts degreased. I first tried dish soap in a bucket which had almost no effect. The crud on this thing is like it's baked on. I used the degreaser (Oil Eater) I bought which worked but took forever. I'm thinking I should have gotten the concentrated jug of it to mix my own ratio but instead I went with it in spray bottle form as it was cheaper. I don't know what ratio it comes in in the spray bottle. I do know it pruned up the hand I didn't have a rubber glove on to a lever I've never seen. It draws the oils out of the skin too. In the next few days I'll attempt to degrease some more parts.

[Steve71]

The Kyosho you're thinking of is either a Landjump or a Vanning.

Landjump! that was it. I kept thinking it had something to do with with land. I think outside of a Bruiser that buggy was the 2nd car I wanted more than anything back then.

Gonna make a nice piece for the shelf then, I dunno how you can resist the temptation to run it though. I don't think I could resist it myself lol

[Lowgear]

^Knowing what I know now, I should have probably used this as a runner. I considered it for a moment when I first got it but it would require fuel, glow plug igniter, starter, and new radio gear. All things I don't have.

A week ago I finally was able to get around to dismantling the rest of everything which fought me down to the last screw... Literally! It was stripped and seized.

Luckily it was a screw for a cross support bar.

I wrapped a piece of shop towel around it numerous times, and used a large pair of Vice-Grips to twist it off. Unfortunately, despite my efforts I put two jaw marks on the piece. It took a lot of clamping force to break it free. Just about everything was seized together to some degree on this, and I disassembled it all with surgical precision without adding an additional solitary mark anywhere! This is the only piece that I couldn't help it with.

I had some alone time the last few days so I took advantage of two of them by degreasing almost all the parts in the garage.


Around 4-5 hours the first day.

An additional 4-5 hours the second day.

New batch of degreaser for the second day which started out clear.

[Steve71]

Looks like the parts are cleaning up nicely.
Just a tip I found that works good. When you have to grip a round part with vice grips to break it free like that I find keeping a 1" wide strip of 1/8"-3/16" thick rubber at the bench helps. Use the rubber wrapped around the part rather than a cloth and usually that helps to cushion as well as grip the part better that way. I only started doing that after scratching up many round parts myself with a cloth then thought... "why didn't I think of this before?"

[jwscab]

I also use a three jaw chuck, like a drill motor or i also have a lathe chuck, so I can grip round objects very tightly without making a mark. if its something really delicate, I wrap a strip of paper around it too. in that instance you show there, a little heat may have helped too.

[Lowgear]

Those are some very good ideas I'll keep in mind for the future. After countless hours fighting with just about every screw, nut, and bolt while all it's all covered in grease and grime, I was at my wits end by the very last one. Now after degreasing it all, a number of the parts are in fairly poor shape cosmetically. Also, one of the cage mounts is cracked, and the top shaft in the trans is rusted badly enough where the trans can't be simply disassembled. I bought this under the impression it was a diamond in the rough that only needed a quick disassemble - clean - reassemble. That is certainly not the case. I mean don't get me wrong, it's not a lost cause piece of crap but it's going to take a lot more effort to fix up decently then might be worth monetarily. So now I have a decision to make on what the next step is. Do I...

• Put all the pieces in a box, and eventually buy another one. Then combine everything to build one good one.
• Reassemble it in it's current condition, and try to resell it.
• Reassemble it in it's current condition, and maybe change parts to better ones I buy over time.
• Refinish parts that need it, spend way more money than I should, put it back together and be fairly satisfied.

All those options have pros and cons. I think I'll stubbornly go with option number 4.

[Lowgear]

Before degreasing the two rear G10 fiberglass sideplates I removed the factory decals they had on them. It left a sticky residue but figured the degreaser would take care of it or at least turn it to jelly to be wiped off. Instead it didn't really do anything as I ended up having to use a citrus based cleaner to remove the glue residue. Anyway, around where the decals used to be it left this white halo of I don't know what. If you get it wet it goes away but then appears again when it's dry. I googled around a bit and some suggestions involved using a Mr. Clean eraser or mild powder cleaners such as Bon Ami or Bar Keepers Friend. I don't want to hurt it further of course so I was wondering if anyone here has any idea what this is all about, and how to remove it?

[jwscab]

I use three different things on epoxy glass or carbon fiber to remove any residue traces.

first, wd40, this help soften some decals and servo tapes.
isopropyl alcohol 91%, will take off lots of oils/dirts, some glues, etc
acetone, this gets off any remaining glue or residue that can be removed with a solvent.

if none of those work on something left on the surface, one of those miracle erasers might be worth it to try.

otherwise, you get into mechanical removal. with that G10/epoxy glass, you can probably do a really nice job with 1000 or 2000 grit wet sanding, followed by a polish.

[Lowgear]

Those are some very good tips I hadn't thought of! I have all of that so I'll give each a try, and hopefully one of 'em works. Thanks bud.

[mikea96]

That what I was thinking, a good wet sand then finish off with polish or clear coat the pieces either satin or semi gloss.