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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #884

I'm tempted to do a TA01/02 Stadium Truck build now! :P
My plans for a Hilux Monster Racer are being thwarted by the expense.
This may be another option.

thats gonna be one sweet manta ray when its finished gonna need sunglasses for all that bling B)

just ordered a bit of blue alloy for my ta03 chassis toyota corolla wrc after viewing your posts looks so good :)


It's going to look good, that's for sure!

I might just order some of those nice anodised bits myself,
when I start on my TA03R and TA03F projects. B)

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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #885

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Cool that the blue bling is inspiring you guys for your own cars! :cheer:
And the TA03 is a great chassis. There's many more parts for it than for my TA01...
Here's one of my favourite sites for alloy (just beware of parts addiction! :lol:) :

tinyurl.com/3uqa44d

Best to only order parts that are "in stock and ready to ship" otherwise some stock problems (and delay) might occur.
But the prices are good, shipment cost low and delivery normally only takes 5-7 days!
And from the hop up brands I like GPM a lot.

B)

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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #886

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Getting started on the final paintjob - silver is a tough colour to use

I thought painting the Ray silver would look pretty good but it turned out to be a difficult colour to get right.
Since I'm a bit of a perfectionist, it took me quite some layers to get even the base smooth enough.
Every little speck is visible with a shiny paintjob like this.
And there was more trouble I would be facing...

First I evened out the surface of the body a little more (on top of the primer) with some putty.
Although the weather was still quite cold, the first run of spraying turned out well :



Just a little more silver than I expected from looking at the cap. :laugh:
After this I put on 2-3 layers more and allow for drying in between.
Looking good so far. Finish it off with a layer of clear coat.

But then - disaster! :(
This clear paint did not agree with the silver I had already put on and started wrinkling :


Which means start over and sanding it all again.
The perfectionism that I mentioned earlier even forced me to do this a few times :



Not satisfied yet with the result in the last picture either.
This is the point in the build where I also bought a gorceous XB Humvee body and decided to look around for a basic airbrush set to get the Manta Ray body in the shape I was aiming for.
When I finally get it right, I have some nice decals already waiting for it :


On the left high gloss blue chrome for putting on the inlets among other places.
And the Lrp sticker will go on the place where the resistor used to be - I closed up this spot with fiber glass :


The Lrp decal will go in the middle (which is a cool reference) since this is underneath :


Of course a set of decals from the greatest Rc brand ever is also on the list :


The electronic part is the next chapter I will post.
Got a pretty good story there. Involves dumping your motor in water! :blink:

The paintjob I will have to finish as soon as I have a better alternative for the spray cans.
Got to look the way I had in mind and nothing less! ;)

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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #888

thanks for the link that will come in useful :)

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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #889

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thanks for the link that will come in useful :)

You're welcome of course. :) I like Asiatees a lot because they sell GPM. They have really good products.
I also ordered a rear shock tower from them. Blue alloy is really cool but graphite/carbon is hard to beat :


If ever something happens to be out of stock there and you lack the patience of waiting all too long for a restock
(such is the nature of Rc building :lol:) you could also choose Yeah Racing parts :

www.rcmart.com/..._1266.html

The prop shaft that's on the Manta Ray is this brand. Also the blue shocks.

RcMart has good prices too. Shipping cost is a bit higher than at Asiatees and delivery usually takes 10-15 days.
They take a few days longer to set up the order but I haven't had any stock problem with them yet.
If you have an item in mind, you might wanna check eBay first. They sell there under "Dinball" and often offer free shipping!
The price of the item will probably be a bit higher on eBay but in total it beats buying at the home page.
This might be interesting if you only want to buy one particular item.

I'm tempted to do a TA01/02 Stadium Truck build now! :P
My plans for a Hilux Monster Racer are being thwarted by the expense.
This may be another option.

Both sound like awesome projects. B)

What Hilux do you mean - XC/CC- or maybe the High-Lift?
Both are better for off road than a TA01 although with the Humvee shocks on it there's quite a bit of clearance.
I understand your reluctance to start such a project.
Could be a bit of a money pit because the car itself isn't cheap and there's always another cool thing to fit.
You would end up with a brilliant car though...

:pinch:
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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #890

Wow, Edou,
I really like this Manta Ray project!
Brilliant choice of colour, and (finally :lol: ) a great result!

-Lars
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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #891



I'm tempted to do a TA01/02 Stadium Truck build now! :P
My plans for a Hilux Monster Racer are being thwarted by the expense.
This may be another option.

Both sound like awesome projects. B)

What Hilux do you mean - XC/CC- or maybe the High-Lift?
Both are better for off road than a TA01 although with the Humvee shocks on it there's quite a bit of clearance.
I understand your reluctance to start such a project.
Could be a bit of a money pit because the car itself isn't cheap and there's always another cool thing to fit.
You would end up with a brilliant car though...

:pinch:


59086 Hilux Monster Racer.
Same as 58081 Nissan King Cab, but with different body shell.

Bit cheaper than a 3-speed! :laugh:
But hard to find in Australia, so international shipping costs make them expensive.

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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #892

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I really like this Manta Ray project!

Thanks Lars, I think it's coming together pretty well so far too.
But I saw the picture of your Avante in the image gallery - now that is a real beauty.
Any Rc fan would start drooling from that one! :lol:

59086 Hilux Monster Racer.
Same as 58081 Nissan King Cab, but with different body shell.

Bit cheaper than a 3-speed! :laugh:
But hard to find in Australia, so international shipping costs make them expensive.

So what chassis would that body go on? Hiluxland is half a labyrinth to me... :lol:
All of them are brilliant by the way.

Here in Europe importing more expensive items pretty much sucks because of customs.
You get all kinds of extra taxes and other costs. Only the small stuff is not a problem.
Try importing a (bashed) "vintage" Hummer from the States for example.
You'll probably pay a good sum for that. Then customs will act as if this is a new item and will tax you for the full amount spent plus shipment cost! How rude is that! ;)

Don't know how tough they are with that down under...
On the other hand - I've seen parts that are pretty rare but still available in Australia.
So you have the advantage there. Won't help you get that Hilux though. :(

Also - a short update on the newly arrived rims!
I had a bit of a setback with the black rims (meant for the Humvee) today but this is actually good news for the Manta Ray.


The offset of these rims will probably not be enough to fit together with the wide Humvee body.
So the Ray (with a lot more space for large tyres) will inherit these awesome little wheels.
As you can see here, the diameter for both Tamiya and Imex rims is 2.8 inch :


The width is also about the same and both have 12mm hex hubs - but the wheel offset is much different :


So the only options to fit the black rims will be the Manta Ray.
The theme colours will shift this way to silver, blue and black. Not bad either.
I will ad a little extra black on the body here and there too...

If I put the black rims on the (wide) Hummer body, the wheels won't be able to turn enough. :(
Or I would have to heighten it and almost make a crawler of the Humvee.
Pretty much done with ordering rims so I guess I'll paint the silver ones black and put those on the M1025.

:unsure: :)
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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #906

So what chassis would that body go on? Hiluxland is half a labyrinth to me... :lol:
All of them are brilliant by the way.

Here in Europe importing more expensive items pretty much sucks because of customs.
You get all kinds of extra taxes and other costs. Only the small stuff is not a problem.
Try importing a (bashed) "vintage" Hummer from the States for example.
You'll probably pay a good sum for that. Then customs will act as if this is a new item and will tax you for the full amount spent plus shipment cost! How rude is that! ;)

Don't know how tough they are with that down under...
On the other hand - I've seen parts that are pretty rare but still available in Australia.
So you have the advantage there. Won't help you get that Hilux though. :(


The chassis is exclusive to KC and MR, although other parts such as suspension arms etc are used on other cars.

They're not like the High-lift, Bruiser or Mountaineer Hilux.
The shell doesn't even look like a Hilux (to me anyway :P )
Looks more like a Stadium Blitzer.

I've heard of Customs duties in other countries.
Has to sting paying more for an item after you have already paid for it! :angry:
Don't think it's a big issue here.
I think taxes and duties are only payable on expensive items. (Not sure on the limit, $600 maybe?)
Postage from UK to Aus is around AU$60-$70. (Ouch! :unsure: ) From US to Aus, AU$37-$45.

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Vintage Manta Ray customisation quest 12 years 10 months ago #908

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The chassis is exclusive to KC and MR, although other parts such as suspension arms etc are used on other cars.

They're not like the High-lift, Bruiser or Mountaineer Hilux.
The shell doesn't even look like a Hilux (to me anyway :P )
Looks more like a Stadium Blitzer.

I've heard of Customs duties in other countries.
Has to sting paying more for an item after you have already paid for it! :angry:
Don't think it's a big issue here.
I think taxes and duties are only payable on expensive items. (Not sure on the limit, $600 maybe?)
Postage from UK to Aus is around AU$60-$70. (Ouch! :unsure: ) From US to Aus, AU$37-$45.

Aha I get it now about the Hilux... B)


Chassis looks pretty close to a Manta Ray! Especially with the yellow shocks and pinned tyres.

You have some good conditions for importing! In Belgium for example (I heard) it's even worse than in the Netherlands.
Everything more than 20 euro ($30) gets consumer tax, import tax and declaration cost.
Worst case - importing a 21 euro item will cost you double! :sick:
Most immoral (;)) thing here in Holland is paying full tax for a used item. :angry:

Letting a shipment from the UK come in shouldn't have to be that incredibly expensive.
Here nothing beats the shipment cost that sellers in Asia can offer. Better even than inside Europe!

:side:
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