Original unmolested Laser ZX 1991?

[cas22]

Got this with a YZ-10 and its very mint, too good to bash, looks like its been run a couple of times and shelfed.
Going to restore and fit 2.2" pepper pot rims, more excited about the old school Tekin 411P and reciever that im fitting too.

Managed to score a NOS top plate to replace the drilled out one or i may go to fibrelyte and buy some pretty bits
Im hoping the Kyosho SCR saddle packs can be resuced or i was thinking of opening them up and retro fitting LiPo cells in the housings.
Id like to get the shocks re anodised? Is this a big job, or does anyone know where i could get this done?

[Guccismith]

Nice find! Totally agree with that it is too nice to run

If I were you I would not do anything to the shocks - judging by the picture they look very nice indeed and you do want them carry a certain degree of patina and also to maintain the pale gold color of the original gold shocks - but that's me

Regarding the Kyosho SCR saddle pack; those are very hard to obtain these days - and I have never seen any up close but my guess is that they can be opened; not sure just if it can be done without damaging the plastic? Same here - for the shelf I would not touch those saddles. If you do go down that route, I would recommend replacing the Sub-C cells with modern NiMH Sub-C cells which would fit straight into those cases?

If you intend to run it; either manually solder a saddle pack from modern NiMH Sub-C cells - or possibly go for a modern hard-case LiPo saddle pack?

Cheers from Sweden!

[TRX-1-3]

X2 with the gold shocks. I'd leave 'em be. There are some folks on here that get stuff anodized fairly regularly but they usually do a custom color with multiple peices that will all match perfectly. My fear (for your shocks) would be that the original gold would be hard to match (maybe, just my hunch really). It would be a shame if they came out too orange"ish", for example. Nice Lazer. Pew-pew........pew.

[isobarik]

Looks good layshaft is aftermarket item any closer look of it

Mvh iso

[cas22]

Well Gents,
Covid has finally locked New Zealand back down again, more specifically my Daughters school so i have a 14 day lockdown stretching out at home.
Excuse to get the Laser under way again.
Thanks for the advice about my shocks etc, and you are right its too straight to pull apart and replace screws etc, ill try to keep it Kyosho black anodised.

Did accidentiallt trip over my keyboard and grab some Fibre Lyte carbon pretty bits, and found a nice Novak T1 esc which is the correct time period for the car.
The reciever may be slightly too new but im sourcing a n
Novak NER-2X on 27Mhz AM to suit my Futaba 2PD, but crystals are getting hard to source. Any help there would be appreciated , also 27Mhz FM as well.
Servo is still undecided, id like a Futaba S132-H but im not sure it would be strong enough. And a reedy red dot 14x2 or similar would be perfect if anyone has one to sell or trade please pm me.

[Coelacanth]

I personally don't consider worn-off, scratched anodizing on shocks "patina", it's wear & tear.

One option you can consider, if the gold anodizing has worn off too much, is to remove the anodizing with Easy-Off oven cleaner and a toothbrush, then polish up the shocks, wet-sanding, starting with 400 grit sandpaper, then 600, 800, 1000 grit. That will get you a very nice, semi-glossy satiny finish. Continue with 1500-grit and a polishing compound and you'll get a near-chrome polished aluminum finish.

Once polished to your preferred level of glossiness, you could then get them re-anodized any color you like by a place that does aluminum anodizing. It would probably be cost-prohibitive for just a set of shocks, though.

[Frankentruck]

Your ESC and receiver are both a few years older than the Laser, so they are definitely period correct. A racer moving up to that buggy would have brought those along from his old buggy, unless upgrading to newer electronics.

[Bottom Feeder]

I had an original Lazer ZX just like this way back when. I didn't run it much, not sure why. I had black HPI five-spokes and Schumacher mini-pins on mine along with a red and white Japanese-ish paint scheme on the body. It looked pretty cool if I do say so myself.

One thing I did was convert the center diff to a slipper, just because why not. I drilled and tapped a hole for a grub screw somewhere and ground a corresponding flat spot on the layshaft to lock the front and rear drive hubs together. I believe the diff rings were pinned somehow already so I replaced the center diff balls with Traxxas slipper pegs and voilà! A functioning adjustable slipper. Not sure how durable it was but I didn't have it long enough afterwards to find out.

[mikea96]

I.dont think the original lazer had a center diff.

[Bottom Feeder]

I.dont think the original lazer had a center diff.

https://www.retromodelisme.com/pdf/manuel/kyosho_4/lazer_zx.pdf

Page 9.

[XLR8]

For the ZX-R, the lay shaft differential is converted to a slipper with torque adjustment to the front drive belt.
It appears that, from the outset, the lay shaft assembly was design to accommodate either a diff or the slipper so it's easily converted either way.
The designers at Kyosho were very clever.

[mikea96]

Well I stand corrected. My brother ran a lazer and I was never aware of that. Learn something new everyday.

[XLR8]

There are needle rollers that run against the slack side of the belt for each pulley. Apparently this prevents belt skipping, allowing for low belt tension and reduced overall rolling resistance.
I am thoroughly impressed!