How did the above happen to what used to be what u see below? Hehehe, read on.....
i wanted to remove the stickers from the body, so i decided to soak the body in a solution of water and "Dr Bronner's 18-in-1 hemp peppermint pure castile soap" - lol, that left the hard , crusty, white layer on the body - so i next tried soaking it in "goo-gone" to get rid of what the first solution left behind.........lol, thats how the body turned from dark blue to a "purple-ish" hue ! So, since the body has essentially been "attacked" chemically (perhaps not by an acid - i dont know whats in those cleaners, lol) ive dubbed it ACIDBATH
u can see that in the spots on the body where stickers used to be, the body is a different shade than the parts of the body that never had stickers. i was going to keep tryin stuff on the body till i get this junk off, then dye it black or blue, but ive grown to appreciate how it looks - it looks like a work truck - not some pampered thing thats never experienced rough terrain or salty roads, lol - the mud from when i made the video looks good on it too:-)
acidbath1.mpg mpeg, 320x240, with sound , 23 sec long
ok, about the truck.....
it seems to pretty obviously have been "influenced/inspired" (lol) by the Tamiya Bruiser - but is certainly not anywhere near as nice as the Tamiya. i got this from ebay - the "before" pic above is from the auction.
It was made in Japan, during 1982, by Nikko - RS also sold a version of it - it has "proportional" controls, is switchable from 2wd to 4wd via a switch on the bottom, and a switch mounted in the bed of the Toyota Hilux body selects between the 2 gear ratios, which each have its own clutch to protect the tranny. it has a solid rear axle, and a diff up front that i have locked. its powered by a 360 motor. only "mods" ive made would be adding a tamiya connector so i could run a regular 6 cell stick pack instead of the 5 C sized nicads it normally runs on, locking the front diff,and removing the bumpers and rollbar. i also disconnected the headlights, but i might reconnect them for night driving. it has no suspension, so crawling isnt going to be its forte, lol, but it climbs quite well, and since i cant fit a 6 cell stick pack in the battery compartment, i might switch to running AA cells , which will fit, in order to lower the "center of gravity" - to improve climbing performance . to sum it up, its not the best performer, but hey, considering what little $$ it cost me, how good it looks if u cant see the chassis, lol ( gotta love those tires/wheels ! ) its one of my favorites :-)
If u email me, and please feel free to do so, include a reference to RC or this site in the "SUBJECT". i get alot of spam, so if i see a strange email address with no subject, or a subject that says "hi" or "hello", etc, im not going to read it - so u need to say something in the subject that makes it clear to me that your message isnt spam. ndumu@hotmail.com