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Fellas,

Like a lot of you, I found my old cars sitting in a box. I have been out of the hobby for *decades* now, so I don't even know where to begin. The shop that I used and the people I knew are gone and moved. Anyway, I am trying to figure out what is salvageable, what is worthwhile, and where to begin. Please let me know what you would do if you were me. I am looking to restore/rebuild/complete these cars if they are worthwhile. This is what I have (with potentially more on the way...pulling more boxes out of storage).

1. Yokomo YZ870C Super Dog Fighter - Complete with a ton of spares, almost enough to build another chassis I think. This was my favorite car and was kept relatively nice. Needs a body and bellypan ideally. The body is ok, but ugly with some cracks. I have NOS belts and a NOS YZ-10 body somewhere.

2. Kyosho Optima Mid - Partially complete. Missing body, wing, and wheels. Many upgrades, including graphite chassis, andy's a-arms, option house platinum shocks, and a custom chain-drive gearbox. Not too sure the latter is an upgrade, so I may look for an original gearbox.

3. RC10 60xx - Less complete. Missing body, wing, wheels, pan, and axles. Has the bulkheads w/shocks and the 6 gear trans. I might have the rest somewhere, but if the parts are easy to find I might just buy them.

4. Misc Tamiya cars including a complete Blackfoot, a complete Mini from the 90s.

5. I (maybe) have the following somewhere: Hirobo Rock'n City 44B, Tamiya Striker, and a Tamiya Frog.

Also, I have all the original radios and electronics for these. Mostly Futaba Magnum Jrs & Sports (gen 1) and Novak and Tekin ESCs. There are red cell Sanyo batteries too, but I figure these are toast. Found a couple of stock motors too, Revtech and California Motorworks.

So am I sitting on junk or is any of this worth restoring?

Thanks!

Sounds like you have some real nice stuff there, here is my advice I dispense it freely:-

If you want to keep some money in your pocket, put all that stuff on ebay and run away,

If you want an addiction, financial troubles and a broken relationship hang around a while

Welcome to the board

What you choose to restore is entirely up to you. You have to decide what you want to restore and what you don't.

if you plan to stick it up on ebay, you take your chances of not getting no where near what you have spent in the past on them. Used parts, unless they are super rare won't fetch the money a new unrun piece will.

So there in lies the dilema.

If you want something to run, I would work on getting your yokomo and rc-10 up and running.

Thanks for the advice and warm welcome. So if I decided to do a cleanup instead of restoration, where would be a good place to turn for parts besides ebay? Are the manufacturers supporting products this old?

And who makes good buggy bodies if I just want to reskin them once completed? Ideally I would like to find an original Yokomo body and an Optima Mid body. Is this just crazy talk?

Here are a few pics of my cars:

Yokomo




Optima Mid

welcome to the board, dude.

oldskool wrote:where would be a good place to turn for parts besides ebay?

That is pretty much what you will be limited too.

oldskool wrote:Are the manufacturers supporting products this old?

No sir, however sometimes we all wish they did

oldskool wrote:And who makes good buggy bodies if I just want to reskin them once completed? Ideally I would like to find an original Yokomo body and an Optima Mid body. Is this just crazy talk?

Yep, pretty much crazy talk.... original bodies will cost you close to $100.00 each. The best thing to do, is clean up or strip the ones you have.

They look like nice cars. If they were mine, they would be keepers, especially if I was the original owner..... unfortunately I have none of my originals.

Is that a chain drive you got in that optima mid???

regarding the questions, my general advise is: don't invest in the hope to get more for the cars when they are fully restored. Some reasons:
- people like to restore themselves
- the prices for parts you'll buy to complete a car will add-up quicker than the value added to the car as a whole

If you got incomplete cars you don't care to restore, sell them as part lots or individual parts and finance your own favourite project, or be a pal and put the parts up for trade here

Yes, that is a chain drive gearbox using OEM Kyosho parts. I was a fabricator back in the day and this seemed like a good idea at the time. There is a lexan cover that goes over the chain in my toolbox too. I would have done a belt if I could find one that fit. There was this and a 5 bar suspension that was on another Optima I had.

So I figure a true restoration is out....you guys convinced me. I would just like to complete them. Can anyone tell me if a Lazer body will fit an Optima Mid? And who makes good aftermarket wheels for Kyosho. Proline still?

If I complete them, I can put them on a shelf and be happy with that. If they are incomplete, the better half sees them as junk.

You can buy Reproduction Optima Mid and Yokomo Dogfighter shells from Kamtec in the UK if you want. They are not perfect, but pretty good.

Here are my two cents for what it is worth ...I came across my box of car parts about 10 months ago while looking for something in my fathers basement. I threw some of it on ePay right away and have not quite forgiven myself for that decision. Out went a mint Yokomo 91' Dogfighter (thankfully to a forum member with whom I am negotiating visitation rights with ) and a Tamiya Top Force with some rare parts I'll most likely never see again in my lifetime (the car was 90% alloy). Now that I am back in the hobby, well, lets just say I miss them

One other mistake made was getting into too many projects at one time (now four yokomo's, a turbo optima, two rc10 60xx and two avante's) and not really getting around to any of them. Pick a couple of your favorites and ditch what really doesn't have sentimental value to you. It'll take plenty of time to locate parts, bodies, cleaning the cars etc....but if you check out some of the restoration projects that members here have completed, you will be spurred on, I promise you that.

Thankfully you have come across one of the best sources of information, guidance and overly helpful people that will most certainly go out of their way to assist you....I'm not one of them lol but I heard they exist here Welcome to the board!!!