TOPIC:

Nut,
That's the life I have the same problem with my Coors tbird Marui I sold wich was so nice and when I see the price of a nib kit I cry.

Wheeler6464, is yours an original or a re-re? - There was a brief discussion about possible fragility of gears in the re-re version when I was doing the rebuids on the 2x Thunder Dragons I had recently. It was said that the re-re gears were warped, but I can't remember if we decided that was from heat build-up, the material used, or if they just came out of the mould like it. I've had 3x of the original version chassis now, & the gearboxes have all been fine, just the suspension mounts & brittle plastic that have been the main problems. You might want to have a look at those restos too for some extra info (Click the link in the bottom of my post)

I finally pulled my finger out & finished this ... I have to say this is probably the most uninspiring Tamiya build I've ever had - over 7 months to dismantle it, clean it, buy a couple of bits & put it all back together

I bought a used body for it fairly cheap on eBay in November, the "glass" bit was a bit manky so i gave it a good going over with the Novus plastic polishing set:








I can't do too much in one hit, but on this build it was boredom that was the limiting factor ... this is what got done on the first day:





... the second...




... the third ...




... and the fourth:



...

Actually, I think it took at least 2 days to get to the "day 1" stage ...

Anyway, moving on:

Old & "new" body in foreground...




I had to use the old one as a pattern to mark for extra cutouts & and the body mount hole...




... and the back holes were still wrong. Lars seemed to think this would have been fitted to a Hornet initial ... that kind of makes sense...




End of day five/six - I'd had enough by now, rather than try & salvage the original Thunder Dragon driver/interior, I followed the instruction sheet & fitted a Grasshopper/Hornet type head & body ... TBH it just came out of my spare head box - but I found some lurid bodyclips to make it look like I'd planned a theme




Day ... Seven? Bloo hubs & cheap wheels/tyres ... although they're the same width, they look too wide for the front & not wide enough at the back.








I'll keep the correct (but worn) tyres, wheels & hubs to one side. IDK if this'll be more fun to drive than it was to build ... I think my initial enthuisiasm (having paid what I thought was a good price) evaporated when I saw the state of it IRL & it never recovered

Never liked the Thunder Dragon its just so ugly but this looks very nice wheels look good

Wow looks great IMO, personally I like how the thunder dragon looks

Sent from my HTC Sensation using Tapatalk 2

At least the trauma is over for you both now JR

Poor Jonny!
They kinda suck the will to live out of you, don't they...
I think the reason I enjoyed the first one I did was more to do with the relatively unscathed & original condition of it under the crud.
Spotted some nice ideas in the rebuild, but most were overshadowed by dubious material selection leading to fragility of the thing. & then there's the fugly factor...
They seem to go quite well, until they fall to bits anyway

Nice TD Jonny. I like the thunder dragon. Poor unliked car.