Tamiya Tyrrell P34 "1977"
Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 2:00 pm
HI!... O.k I picked up this original Tamiya Tyrrell P34 from Andyaus a little bit ago. Was in decent but rough shape. As soon as it came I started working on it. I always wanted one of these. :woohoo: I saved both mirrors and the two aluminum mounting brackets off the original body. The rest of it went into the garbage. Too far gone to be salvaged. My re-re Tamiya Tyrrell P34 needed a driver's side mirror anyway so now it has one. 
I tore the car down and let all the parts soak in a plastic tub of Greased Lightning over night. Next day started cleaning 38 years of dirt and grime off of it. The parts came pretty clean but now you can tell this car was run a bit. Scratches all on the bottom of the chassis plates. No big deal. I decided then that all the aluminum parts would be fine glass beaded and sent out to be powder coated. Nice thing about my glass beader is that it takes small scratches out quite easily. After powder coating you will never tell they were there. I'm going to go with a aluminum powder coating colour so it will be hard to tell the difference. The main chassis plate was pretty bent and the stiffening grooves were disfigured. I used to be a Way cover repairman in a fabrication shop so this was easy to fix. Took about a hour but got the chassis plate almost good as new. I ordered a NIP body for the car and it came in today. I also cleaned up the upgraded 540 motor. I ordered a NIP steering set that should arrive next week. Here's some pics of the process so far.
Car when I bought it : (Andy's pics)
I tore the car down and let all the parts soak in a plastic tub of Greased Lightning over night. Next day started cleaning 38 years of dirt and grime off of it. The parts came pretty clean but now you can tell this car was run a bit. Scratches all on the bottom of the chassis plates. No big deal. I decided then that all the aluminum parts would be fine glass beaded and sent out to be powder coated. Nice thing about my glass beader is that it takes small scratches out quite easily. After powder coating you will never tell they were there. I'm going to go with a aluminum powder coating colour so it will be hard to tell the difference. The main chassis plate was pretty bent and the stiffening grooves were disfigured. I used to be a Way cover repairman in a fabrication shop so this was easy to fix. Took about a hour but got the chassis plate almost good as new. I ordered a NIP body for the car and it came in today. I also cleaned up the upgraded 540 motor. I ordered a NIP steering set that should arrive next week. Here's some pics of the process so far. Car when I bought it : (Andy's pics)
Hopefully I can start assembling this thing soon.
