TOPIC:

Hi everyone,

Recently a project I had in mind materialised... The Marui Samurai 4WD was one of my dreamt cars when I was 15 years old. I never got one back in the time. This car looked awesome and aggressive. It maybe the most beautiful roll cage buggy of those times, ahead of the Javelin (which is still very nice and totally among my favorites).

For the technical specs : 

• 4WD
• 3 Differentials
• Chain transmission
• 1070g !

And what is really awesome is its look. It really looks aggressive, with bigger diameter rims and low profile tyres on the front, and some smaller rims and bigger tires at the rear end. And the driver figure is much more realistic than what it was on Marui's Hunter and Galaxy...

Few press articles I found out while searching for information (not exhaustive list - I'm still searching for more)

• Marui Samurai Test track - Radio Control Model Cars - March 1986 : www.overrc.com/...i%20MC.pdf (source: www. overrc.com)
• Marui Samurai - Radio Race Car International - April 1986 : www.overrc.com/...amurai.pdf (source: www. overrc.com)
• Marui Samurai Track test - Radio Control Model Cars -  July 1986 : www.overrc.com/...20Test.pdf (source: www.overrc.com)
• The Samurai 4WD (french) - Auto RCM - February 1986 : www.retromodeli...marui.html (source : retromodelisme.com)
• Marui Samurai Banzai! (french) - Auto 8 - February 1986 : www.retromodeli...marui.html (source : retromodelisme.com)

Long story short, searches were active on "Marui" in many places for ages before even I started my Hunter project. And I saw some Samurai going thru... Until I decided it was time...

• Few weeks ago, I contacted someone in the region where I was born and where my parents are still living. For the small story, the guy posted some pics of his Samurai on a group asking question on a car he was considering as he'd like to be able to use it without the fear of breaking something, and that was the day of my 50's anniversary... We discussed and it appear thru the discussion that the guy knew my uncle, and he accepted to book the car for me for a few months. I asked my father to go and buy the car for me, but was not sure how long it would take for him to do...
• Decided it was time to find some parts for a project, found one set of rear plates for almost nothing and ordered them, intension was to tease about the car on some forums
• A Marui chassis is always a thing to bother about when you start a Marui project. [mention]Dadio[/mention] was selling one of his modeled chassis on ebay, he gave me the link and I was alone to bid on it.
• The day I received the chassis, one good friend in another forum contacted me to proposed me a Samurai with a broken chassis, as he knew that I was that in mind. Having a chassis already, I thought the chassis was made for this one, so I decided to go for it

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The first of the two Samurai arrived home last week, with a Galaxy roll cage and few parts.


It's not complete, but I don't mind. This is a project, a new journey, and will keep me busy for some time, which is definitely what I'm looking for :-D

Yesterday, after getting the Nichimo Spirit FF down to parts, I decided it was time to do the same with the Samurai to have a more precise idea of what was needed for it.










Status at the end of what is missing or need rework :

• Left and right chassis to replace (Thanks [mention]Dadio[/mention] to the rescue)
• Middle Front Bulkhead broken
• Gearbox damaged with a lot of play for the center diff (I believe the car was probably running forward in RWD and backward in FWD :-D)
• Rear right arm slightly damage where the pivot ball is placed. Luckily, it seems that I can just inverse the arms to get that back to work
• One of the front Knuckle is damaged (again a thread which was damaged)
• Missing a roof, and roll cage requires work
• Driver missing

On the good side : not everything is bad, and with the play on the gearbox, I feel very lucky having none of the gears to replace...

And there is also the second Samurai I'll probably not have in hands before Xmas. In any case, this is one of the new background routing I'll regularly post about in the next few weeks/months...

That's all for today!

👏👏👏 The samouraï is awesome.

I'm really enjoying seeing some of the rarer cars getting restored here, Nice work 

Ball bearing size is today's question...
The Marui manual is not really explicit regarding the ball bearing size (and some may be quite specific). So if anyone can route me to the proper size information, it would be very helpful...
Thanks

Their are some 6x10x4 in my reminds. But ask to rcbearing. I think that I bought bearings here when I restored my friend's one.

As mentioned in Santa's thread, I finally had a chance to see my second Samurai. My father went to get it few weeks ago, I had already some high level pictures, but my father did not detailed the beast...


Almost complete. One part is missing it is the MSC support plate (nothing than a PLA print can't fix). ESC is glued directly on the accu pack. the roof is fixed with a plastic collar but quite mobile. The pilot is present. Front end is in good state. Transmission is in excellent state. Chassis and bumper are marked by usage, but in good state. The gear box requires carters replacement (cracks in different areas, but functional). As said there will be some work. But the basis is overall very good.

Detailed inspection of the second Samurai without getting it down to parts for the moment (have enough in the queue to work out at this stage before starting this - and the first Samurai is still waiting for parts)... 

I took benefit of the weather to take some pics...




The driver is in, but he will require some work... I'll decide what I do with it once in parts : cleaning and rebuild or remove the paint, repaint and rebuild...


The roof mounting will require a slight revision... TX/RX are working.


The front body mount is broken and will require replacement (the STL is on thingiverse, that will make it)

The front damper is having a step when moving. I will check once down to parts and cleaned up (the one from the other Samurai is dirty but seems to work much better). The piano wires acting as spring for the front suspension may require replacement, as they can play a role in the step.

The chassis is marked by usage, but is in proper condition (no apparent sign of cracks)


The left half gearbox is damaged at the place where the motor support goes (the screw is in the Samurai box)...


Other elements :
- The linear MSC is in the box, and I don't know if it is working. I will have to test it. In any case, its fixation plate is absent (I may have it with the other samurai, which would allow to reproduce the part in 3D printing if needed).
- There is an ESC to run it (Hobbywing Quicrun 1060WP), and it is directly glued with tape on the accu pack
- The rims are marked, but I have seen other in much worse state. Tires are worn out. I will need to find a solution for those.
- Differentials are working perfectly. Small details, and I don't know if it is a question of settings or a problem, this will be seen once the gear box is tore down : the rear is driving front, but the front doesn't drive rear (I think it may be link with the center differential setting, but this will need check later on).

Definitly my second favourite marui. Is the hitec radio set ? The one to have on a french marui.

The radio set is a Graupner C4. I've not checked the servos but I guess they are Graupner as well. The bottom of the box has a Ruyer Modelisme stamp, which reminds me a lot of things as this car has been bought in the same shop where I bought my Hunter... And on the radio battery door, there was a "Ruyer" stickers which was quite frequent on radios in Strasbourg at that time (both my brother and me had it sticked exactly at the same place on our radios :-D)
 

Excellent radio the c4