Share your "diamonds in the rough" parts finds
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 3:02 pm
I was stripping down a few Optima parts cars I received in a purchase from another forum member the last few nights, and an idea for a fun topic came to mind. What unexpected diamonds-in-the-rough surprises have you found while going through a parts lot or stripping a parts car?
I'll start with the aforementioned 2 parts cars...they were pretty well-abused, but fortunately they were put together right. No stripped threads, wrong screws forced into holes they weren't threaded for, Mickey-Mouse fixes permanently damaging parts...but there wasn't much in the way of Optima surprises, except one had the torque limiter gear installed, which was a nice little bonus. Those sold for $30 to $40 each last time I found a seller who had some...and haven't seen any on eBay for many months. So finding one, instead of the original solid-shaft gear, was a bonus.
Also in that purchase was a partial Optima Mid. Not much of value was found in that car except for the rear belt diff assembly, with the outer gear in good condition. Those are desireable for Optima/Turbo Optima belt conversions and finding the rear diff with a nice gear is pretty uncommon.
A couple years ago I bought a huge mess of Kyosho parts, mostly Optima, and a mess it truly was...it arrived with everything loose in the box, nuts & bolts & parts flopping around all over...but I found a diamond in that rough, a nice Optima hard final pinion gear was among the mess of jumbled parts.
So let's hear some of your surprise finds of rare or desireable parts in a mess of stuff that you thought might be junk.
I'll start with the aforementioned 2 parts cars...they were pretty well-abused, but fortunately they were put together right. No stripped threads, wrong screws forced into holes they weren't threaded for, Mickey-Mouse fixes permanently damaging parts...but there wasn't much in the way of Optima surprises, except one had the torque limiter gear installed, which was a nice little bonus. Those sold for $30 to $40 each last time I found a seller who had some...and haven't seen any on eBay for many months. So finding one, instead of the original solid-shaft gear, was a bonus.
Also in that purchase was a partial Optima Mid. Not much of value was found in that car except for the rear belt diff assembly, with the outer gear in good condition. Those are desireable for Optima/Turbo Optima belt conversions and finding the rear diff with a nice gear is pretty uncommon.
A couple years ago I bought a huge mess of Kyosho parts, mostly Optima, and a mess it truly was...it arrived with everything loose in the box, nuts & bolts & parts flopping around all over...but I found a diamond in that rough, a nice Optima hard final pinion gear was among the mess of jumbled parts.
So let's hear some of your surprise finds of rare or desireable parts in a mess of stuff that you thought might be junk.
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), but with a RB Evo front end (alloy kick-up plate, TC Pro shocks etc.) and rear shock tower + stack of spares and RB and ST bodies. On the other hand, the gearbox that was invisible on the pictures was included. The TL-01B turned out to have all carbon shafts, two ball diffs, and ball bearings. The Wild Dagger was all on ball bearings. The Blitzer Beetle was all complete with ball bearings, except a body, servo mounts, battery plate, and a dogbone, and in excellent state. Four turnbuckle upper links were included in the parts box, as were various ball bearings, alloy screws and nuts, a RB Evo hex screw set, hardened Tamiya outdrives, etc. 
