Ultima Scale VW Baja Project...Under Construction

[Diggley]

Here's an under construction shot of my slightly modified Turbo Ultima.

I bought it brand new the winter of 1988.

It never had the original body mounted.

I started racing it with my brother-in-law as a Mickey Thompson stadium truck inspired Bolink Chevy S-10. (He swiped my idea of going with a Ivan Stewart Toyota body.) This was long before the goofy looking monster truck conversions hit big. I later went from the stock 1.9's to the 2.2 truck conversion like everyone else and ran it with the same body up through the early 90's. After the stock chassis started showing wear, I switched up to the Duratrax carbon fiber chassis. In the mid 90's I added titanium tie rods & switched the stiff Platinum shocks over to the Gold's that are on it now.

[Diggley]

Most eveything that could wear has been replaced at one time or another.
About 1995 I bought the Parma Sand Scorcher replacement body, custom fabbed JG body mounts with RPM RC10T mounts attatched, and added HPI Ultima 5 spoke chome wheels all around with Proline Strikers. Ran it about a year that way. Not much after that it was set aside to make my shelf look better.

Fast forward a decade and a half or so, and I've become re-inspired to take it to the next level.

Currently it's equipped with:

Near mint Duratrax carbon fiber chassis
Custom Trinity carbon fiber upper radio plate
Custom JG body mounts
NOS Kyosho motor
NOS (been on the car for years..never run) Proline 1.5 waffle tread
Nos Proline chrome Centerline style wheels..searching E-Bay for aluminum wheel halves to replace them
RPM Ultima rear monster truck wheel adapters
A&L ball bearing steering
Recycled, stripped, buffed Kyosho motor guard
Recycled, stripped, modified, (awaiting paint) 1987 Monster beetle
(It used to be on my Tamiya Frog years ago)
Proline wide eyed front Baja clip

[bdrmbully]

lets see some body off pis please

[Diggley]

Additional pic:

[Diggley]

New Pic:

[mrlexan]

Not sure I am familiar with your "Proline wide eyed front Baja clip." Details please!

Looks great with that nose.

[Diggley]

The Proline front clip is actually the front end of the long out of production RC10 Baja bug body they offered up through the early 90's.

I bought the body years ago, but didn't care for the look of the convertible/giant wing thing it had going on....so out came the lexan scissors.

I decided that it would look great with a scale looking Tamiya body. Since my Monster Beetle body was already modified for a Frog I had way back, and the front was cracked anyway, it made sense to put the 2 together. Both parts had been stored in my RC junkyard collection for years up until a couple months ago when I decided to strip the body down and recycle it.

I'd like to make a mold from it and possibly reproduce it for future customs projects. There seems to be plenty of damaged Sand Scorcher, Monster Beetle, & Blitzer Beetle bodys on E-bay that would otherwise be junked.

[Diggley]

Here's a shot of the old Parma body that's been replaced.

It had been on the car since the mid 90's.

[Diggley]

It's hard to see in the picture above, but the racing stripe going over the body was off of a full size Ford Ranger fender. It was a left over that matched the paint job almost perfectly.

[Diggley]

UPDATE:

I might keep the "Rat Black" look.

I hope to start adding more details soon..

[bdrmbully]

nice buggy. I really like the radio plate. Looks fully restored now.anything special in the gear box?

[trey]

it looks like...

http://lewis.allen.home.bresnan.net/rear3.JPG

[Diggley]

Thanks.

The gearbox has a steel internal idler gear, (I think it's a "Dirt Burner" or Thorp)..I can't remember for sure.

I remember replacing it soon after I bought the car back in the 80's. The stock aluminum one didn't last too long.

The external gears are Robinson 48 pitch.

The ball diff is a stock Turbo Ultima set up.

I may or may not swap it out for a Triumph belt drive trans I have laying around...

[Diggley]

Update:

Added headlamps, still have a bunch of details & clean up to do...

[Diggley]

Yeah, I like the classics...