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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 11 months ago #802

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Index - click on the page number for a direct view...

Some of the posts on the initial pages of the thread may have been edited at a later point for reasons of syntax or layout.

01 - Introduction, disassembly and the start of the rebuild (with some hop ups).
02 - Side track (Hummer plans) and reinforcing the Manta Ray body with fiber glass. The start of hop up mania.
03 - First layers of paint on the body and choosing 2.8" rims.
04 - Electronics and running in the motor under water!
05 - Beautiful blue parts and Pro-Line Dirt Hawgs.
06 - Tyre glue and a new start on the body. A new option and some hop ups.
07 - Promising paintwork and glued tyres. Suddenly a Humvee on the chasis! And a Cayenne?
08 - Custom decals and a bunch of upgrades.
09 - Hop up heaven.
10 - A heap of hop ups. Details to fit a Humvee body on the Manta Ray chassis enter the thread.
11 - Theory about gear ratios and a blue phenomenon.
12 - Finally the Manta Ray! The ultimate upgrade - an FRP chassis.
13 - Custom alloy steering mod on the Humvee.
14 - A Porsche Cayenne body for the chassis. Detailed description on how to rebuild a ball diff.
15 - Humvee videos with the old Manta Ray tyres! Some real progress on the Manta Ray.
16 - Preview on the ready to run chassis.
17 - Details of the front gearbox assembly... and a few new parts. Rear gearbox mods.
18 - Still more upgrades and ideas. A UK shop with carbon fibre...
19 - A ball diff for the front gearbox. Some good looking new pictures.
20 - Yet another big overhaul with many new parts.
21 - Pics of the reassembly. Questions arise about the shocks...
22 - The car becomes a philosphical subject. A set of universals and a Blazing Star body!
23 - Beautiful Terra Conquerors...
24 - Contemplating on a Dirt Trasher body paint scheme and new on road wheels.
25 - Airbrush possibilities, a high speed wing and Pro-line Road Rages!
26 - Hop up and parts list!
27 - A bit of extra aluminium...
28 - The FRP car is really starting to take shape.
29 - Glueing the Road Rages to the rims.
30 - Top Force goodies, a Dirt Trasher and another Humvee shell. Turning the blue details on the FRP chassis silver.
31 - Using a lot of elbow grease on another FRP polish. Starting on the third chassis with some home anodisation.
32 - Third build should be finished first!
33 - Anodising, refurbishing and some new parts. Number three is starting to come along.
34 - Parts I need but just don't have...


The build thread starts here :

Hi everyone,

I'd like to start a quite detailed rebuild here of a vintage Manta Ray that I became the owner of last year.

This is how it arrived :



It was a pretty complete car with naturally some marks from usage as it was 20 years old.
But in principal it was in good shape and almost ready to run.



When I realized it was the first more universal chassis Tamiya made (later called TA01 but also DF-01) and all the possibilities it still had, I decided to go a long way with it. Which is now (one year later) still in progress.

First thing to do - take every little bit apart and clean it inside out :







More to come...

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Last edit: by Edou.

Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 11 months ago #821

What do you have in mind for this rebuild?

Keep up the posts! B)

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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 11 months ago #822

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In this thread I can't really tell the actual chronological story.
Because there is a twist in the build and on this forum it's supposed to be all about the first 100 Tamiyas. ;)

This particular chassis has a M1025 Humvee body on it at the moment.
And although a Hummer generally qualifies as vintage nowadays, it's still kit #154...
More even - this body is a XB version for the rerelease.

But the Manta Ray is going to get its chassis back!
I have a second TA01 chassis that's still in bits and pieces and this will be the base for the Hummer.



Sorry if this is spoiling the story a bit...

Both the Manta Ray and the Hummer are going to get as many hop ups as I can find and afford!

I'll definitely keep up the posts! :cheer:
Got some good pics of it all.
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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 11 months ago #823

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Getting the necessary parts and starting the rebuild

Okay - we were left at taking everything apart and cleaning it.
Next thing I did was take off all the excess plastic that was left on the parts from injection molding.
The person who previously built the car was not as focused on this as I am :



The first hop up one would think of for any car is a set of metal ball bearings :



Also the red front uprights that were on it were pretty shot so that needed replacement :




I decided to go with a blue alloy upgrade :



Next post will be about putting it all back together and fitting the new parts!

B)

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Last edit: by Edou.

Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 11 months ago #828

Oh My.. Blue Anodized alloy is just beatuful on a RC model :woohoo:

-Lars
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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #834

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Oh My.. Blue Anodized alloy is just beatuful on a RC model :woohoo:


I like it a lot too - there's some great alloy aftermarket parts for the TA01. :cheer:

Most of them are available in either blue, silver or purple. Of which I don't like the last colour all that much.
I went with blue because I wanted to rebuild the car in the original silver and blue theme.
And because this colour is just awesome - besides the (rare and quite unobtainable) parts that are anonized in gunmetal.
The plan was to paint the body silver and give the car blue details.

But in the meantime I have (by chance) received some silver alloy parts too :



The part on the left is actually a vintage aluminium buggy shock tower that I obtained from the UK.
This part you will not find at an on line webshop anymore...
On the right I have some GPM front knuckles and Tamiya wheel washers.

So I'm still deciding which chassis is going to be in blue and which one in silver in the end.
The adjustable blue alloy shocks that I have in the moment are too short for a Manta Ray.
Fitting the yellow plastic shocks is not really an option for the final stage. :dry:

Another cool thing is that the (modern) electronics I am going to use are made by Lrp.
Their theme colour is also blue!



And these fine aluminium washers will be fitted :



They are a little wider than usual (7mm) which will give the car slightly more offset.
I also like that these can be tightened - contrary to the pin type silver ones.

Last but not least - this awesome little blue alloy (dogbone style) main drive shaft :



There's some cool stuff to find on line, but sometimes you have to search for it and show some patience.
But it's worth it!

For good order : for this build thread I will (apart from the silver shock tower) finish the car with blue parts.
Even if I might change it around later...

:woohoo:
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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #838

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Next chapter : rebuilding the gearboxes and chassis

First on the list for rebuilding are the front and rear diff.
So simple and effective when you look at the parts :



I'm never very prudent with lubricating the gears.
First I make sure that I cover the whole surface with a small brush and then I ad a bit extra :



Last thing for the diffs - close them up with the three screws.
I try to use the best lubricant. In this case Tamiya Boron Nitride Cera Grease :



Then put the diff back in the gearbox and naturally fit metal ball bearings :



Close that side of the gearbox, turn it over and put the other gears back in :



Put on the gearbox cover on that side also and fit the other necessary parts on it.
These parts are the shock tower, arms, dogbones, wheel axles, gearbox joints, bearings and new blue knuckles!



So much for the front side. Now the rear.
These gears are not in the same shape as the ones from the front gearbox.
There wasn't a shred of grease left - but they're still good enough to fit again :



On the next picture the rear gearbox is completed - fitted with the original yellow shocks.
In the end these shocks will either be replaced by aluminium or totally rebuilt in a different colour :



Last thing for this part of the journey is to screw the gearboxes back onto the chassis.
Sorry for this colourful picture - I had a little fun with the photoshop software :



Now it's time to start focusing on the body and electronics...
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Last edit: by Edou.

Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #841

that sure looks nice i love the blue alloy it always looks so nice. great work.:)
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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #844

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that sure looks nice i love the blue alloy it always looks so nice. great work.:)


Thanks! :) Today I also fitted the main drive shaft and drive cups - really ads another great touch of blue.
So much better than the flimsy coathanger type that is the standard part!

Sometimes all the fun is in building it and then just looking at it. ;)
That you can drive it around with a transmitter is a bonus!

I'll make a picture tomorrow (let the sun reflect on all the blue a little :lol:) and post it here.

:pinch:

That's a lot of smilies but not without reason...

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Last edit: by Edou.

Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #846

that sure looks nice i love the blue alloy it always looks so nice. great work.:)

Thanks! :) Today I also fitted the main drive shaft and drive cups - really ads another great touch of blue.
So much better than the flimsy coathanger type that is the standard part!

Sometimes all the fun is in building it and then just looking at it. ;)
That you can drive it around with a transmitter is a bonus!

I'll make a picture tomorrow (let the sun reflect on all the blue a little :lol:) and post it here.

:pinch:

That's a lot of smilies but not without reason...


Is the standard mainshaft like the Hotshot/Boomerang one?

If it is, I'm guessing the hop-up shaft will fit these cars?

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