First, I tried the local hobby shop and was told that they did not have one. The guy behind the counter said that one of those hadn’t come through the shop in a while.  He offered to order it for me, but I decided to hold off. I figured I would give him a call later, if I couldn’t find one locally.

I headed over to Michael’s to see if they had one. I checked where they keep the X-ACTO knives, but didn’t find one. I walked around the store, looking for an employee, when I stumbled into the fabric section and found the cutter. Michael’s had two, a compass cutter and a rotary circle cutter. I bought the rotary because it looked like it would work better — like it was more heavy duty — and that’s the one most everyone uses and recommends.

The cutter itself was pretty self explanatory, but there is a ratchet-like feature that can be a little difficult to use without watching the video on Olfa’s website. Of course, being impatient, I didn’t watch it and went right to cutting.

I cut the Skyline body freehand and used the circle cutter to cut the Fairlady body.

The cutter did make perfect circles, so I was pleased with that aspect of it. The problem I had with it is that the cutter seems to work best when it is flat, like on a table. But, the position of the wheel wells made getting it completely flat so I could apply enough pressure to cut the lexan almost impossible. I had to position the car on the corner of a table.

As a result, I had to make several passes around the wheel well, which caused multiple cut lines because the body would shift when I applied too much pressure. The end result wasn’t too bad, but I don’t think the circle cutter performed much better than cutting the wells freehand, at least with this method.

Perhaps with time and practice, I’ll get better and the Olfa will be a worthwhile purchase, but after one use I can’t say I found it worth the extra money.

Because the bearings would take a couple of days to be shipped from England, I decided to paint the body for the Fairlady. I also had an extra Nissan Skyline body, so I decided to paint them at the same time. Both came from HPI.

Using the lessons I learned from painting the Skyline, I decided to follow a lot of the recommendations I found online. First, I washed both bodies with luke warm water and dish soap. I even got a lint-free towel from Wal-Mart to dry the bodies.

Next, I scuffed the body using a Scotch-Brite pad. Steel wool is probably much better because it doesn’t leave behind green crumbs like the Scotch-Brite pad did. But, I used an industrial fan to blow out any crumbs that were left behind.

Once the body was sufficiently scuffed, I applied the masking tape. This time I used scotch tape instead of painter’s tape. I used a gift card to smooth out the tape to ensure there were no air bubbles near the edges. This would help give me clean lines when I peeled off the tape.

I chose Pactra Outlaw Black as my first coat. I put the cans in warm water, as recommended, to build pressure in the can and heat up the paint. Much like the green I used for the Skyline, these paints were at least a year old. After a short wait, I began applying the first coats of black.

I used short, sweeping sprays to ensure the paint wouldn’t glob up on the body — I had a problem with that on the original Skyline. After each coat, I would hold the body up towards the sun and look to see if I could see through. I could, so I applied another coat. Then, i waited about a half hour to let the body dry.

I sprayed the second body in a similar manner, with the black. After three thin coats of black on each body, I left them for two hours to dry. When I pulled off the tape, most of the lines were clean, but one allowed a little paint to seep under it, despite my efforts to keep it from happening.It wasn’t a big deal, though, so I moved on.

Once the bodies dried, I masked out the second part of my paint scheme, again using the gift card to smooth the tape down. I decided that my next coat would be Pactra Indy Silver. This was the oldest of the paints I had. I used it for the Skyline. Back then, it adhered perfectly to the body.

This time, not so much. I put the can in warm water and let it get warm. I sprayed a test pattern and the paint came out smoothly. But, when it came time to apply it to the bodies, it began running a little. It wasn’t too bad, but it didn’t stick as good as the black.

I let it dry and peeled off the masking tape. The silver seeped under the paint much more than the black. I removed as much as I could with alcohol, but it wouldn’t all come out. So, I didn’t worry about it. On to the next coat.

I decided put some Pactra Sprint White on the back end of the car. The white adhered just as well, if not better than the black. They were calling for thunderstorms, so I was worried about the bodies getting wet, if it rained. So, I rushed the coat of Tamiya Red paint. The red paint adhered well, and went on without issue. I backed the red with the leftover Pactra Sprint White.

Both bodies were painted. I left them to dry overnight. The following morning, I checked them out and prepared to cut them.

The gears were in good shape, as was the driveshaft. It needed body posts, wheels and tires, and most of the electronics, but there wasn’t much that needed to be replaced. It even came with upgraded springs and a RS-540 Sport Tuned motor. At this time, I’m not sure it works, but I do have a spare 540 Mabuchi motor.

When I tore apart everything, I thought about salvaging the gear boxes. The blue was growing on me. But then, I went to a hobby store and found the front and rear gear boxes there. I was very surprised them had both gear boxes, considering the car was so old. I also got a very good price on them. I think the guy wanted to get rid of them to make room for newer Tamiya products.

Once the disassembly was complete, I bagged everything like I did for the Skyline. Then, as usual, life got in the way of the Fairlady’s rebuild. I got married and my wife and I converted our office (and Fairlady build location) into a bedroom for my daughter. So, the Fairlady went into storage for more than a year.

While cleaning recently, I came across the Fairlady. I decided to finish the rebuild to make storing it easier. Plus, I had parts and bodies just sitting there, wasting space.

I cleared off a desk and went to work on it.

At the time I purchased this one, I had the Skyline that I was restoring and another one for parts. The other parts car couldn’t be salvaged without a lot of work, and probably more money than I wanted to spend. It was missing a considerable amount of parts that would probably be impossible to track down. As luck would have it, most of the re-used parts for the Skyline rebuild came off of that one.

Once I finished the Skyline, noticed that this one was largely in tact. A visual inspection revealed that this one only required body mounts, radio equipment, installation of the motor, and a cleaning. Because it required so little work, I decided that this would become my next project.

I don’t know very much about this car. Unlike the Skyline, it didn’t come with a manual so I can’t determine which Tamiya kit it was originally. It came with a blue Dodge Stratus body, which is obviously an aftermarket body because Tamiya did not make a Stratus kit.

Other than a couple of scrapes and some Velcro on the chassis that I assume held the receiver in place, the car seemed to be in good working order. So, it became my next project: the TA02 Fairlady.

For some reason – my own stupidity probably – I didn’t look at the instruction sheet that came with the Skyline body so I didn’t know that the side plates for the rear wing were located in the rear wheel wells. So, naturally, I cut them in half, while cutting out the wheel wells. I tried to look for an extra piece of lexan to fashion my own, but could not locate leftover pieces big enough.

So, I went looking on eBay for a new wing. Surprisingly enough, an eBay seller had an HPI touring car wing for sale. I purchased it and while I waited for it to arrive, began applying the decals.

Decal application can be tricky. The way HPI packs the decals on the sheet, the only way to cut them is with a hobby knife. You could probably use scissors, but good luck with that.

HPI bodies include a decal sheet that tells you exactly where everything goes. This is really handy if you want to create an exact replica of the HPI factory look. I wanted to do something different, so I applied the decals where I wanted them.I also didn’t want to use all the decals, just a few.  I used two decals to cover the painting mistakes I made. They were better than nothing, but not great by any stretch.

I recommend that you use the window cleaner method for applying decals. Basically, you spray the entire body with window cleaner. Then, you apply the decals and position them. Smooth out the bubbles under the decal, and then just let it dry. This would give you more time to position the decals correctly.

I, of course, didn’t do that because I didn’t want to spend too much time on this. Instead, I just applied the decals quickly by hand. This method leaves a lot of bubbles, no matter how careful you are. So again, I recommend the window cleaner method. To get rid of some of the bubbles, I simply cut a small slot into them with the hobby knife. This allowed the trapped air to escape. You could also smooth them out with a credit card.

After I applied all the decals I wanted to, I cut the final hole (for the antenna) in the body. I should have done this earlier. I don’t know why I didn’t. I must have forgotten. After the hole was drilled and sanded, it was time to feed the antenna wire through the tube. This was one of the hardest parts of the rebuild.

I recommend taking a string, wetting it, and feeding it through the tube. Then, tie one end of the string to the antenna wire. Use the other end of the string to pull the wire through the tube. This is much easier than trying to feed the wire through itself, as it has the tendency to curl and get stuck.

Once everything was done, I put the body on and tested it. The clearance on the body was good and the wheels turned smoothly in the wheel wells. Everything went smoothly.

After looking at the car, I decided that instead of painting the wing silver, I would paint it green. It seems, based on the pictures of the car, that it would make more sense to paint it green, which meant another tip to the hobby store.

I visited the local hobby shop on my lunchbreak and purchased a can of flourescent green paint. I was hoping the wing would come today, which it did. I cut it out, and prepped it for paint.

Painting and drying it went pretty smooth and once it dried, I centered and mounted it. I decided to use servo tape instead of drilling it, and using the screws. I’m not sure the servo tape will hold it on, but I will find out. If it doesn’t, I can always drill it later.

Once it was mounted, the TA02 was finally complete. And, it only took three years.

Previous: Finishing Touches Pt. 2

The second color in the scheme was silver. I purchased a can of Pactra Racing Finish Indy Silver paint a couple of days ago. After removing the painter’s tape from the car body and cleaning up the crumbs, I began spraying the silver on. This paint adhered to the body much better than the green paint and a little better than the white paint.

This paint was fresh – purchased a few days ago – as opposed to the white paint which was a few months old, and the green paint which was more than a year old. Of the three colors I painted so far, the silver was by far the easiest to work with. It went on smoothly and evenly, and clumped only once – more as a result of my mistake, not the paint.

After applying the paint, I dried it with a hair dryer, which is really effective and a time saver. If you decide to use a hair dryer, set it on the medium heat setting. If you use the hottest setting, it will dry quicker, but you risk heating the paint so much that it starts to bubble, or you could heat the tape that’s on the body so much that it comes off too before the paint dries or melts the adhesion, which could leave behind a residue.

After drying the first coat, I applied a second coat and subsequently dried it. Once it was completely dry, I removed the painter’s tape that I was using as window mask. HPI bodies come with pre-cut window masks, which I used, but had remove after the green and white were applied. So, I used painters tape for the silver coatings. Another disadvantage to painters tape is that it has a tendency to stick to the body a little too much. It’s okay for unpainted parts of the body. But, if you have already painted a part of it, do NOT put painter’s tape on it. When you pull of the tape, no matter how carefully, you’ll pull some paint with it.

This happened in two areas on the roof of the Skyline. The tape pulled off the white backing coat. At first, it didn’t look so bad. There was still some green paint left. Up close, you could see it, but from far away, it looked fine.

Once all of the tape was removed, I painted the windows black. I prefer a tinted window look on my cars, but don’t like the tint paints out there because I don’t like seeing through the windows. This is personal preference, but I like the sleeker look of completely black windows.

When I applied the first coast of black, it instantaneously showed through the green paint where the white backing was removed because of the painter’s tape. At this point, I didn’t really care. Again, this body was just going to be used for practicing.

The black paint, which was also purchased a few days ago, went on smoothly and evenly. I believe that the age of the green paint was the reason it didn’t adhere or work that well.

After drying the black paint and applying a second coat, I cut the body. This is the first body I’ve cut using lexan scissors and I highly recommend them. They’re great. My only complaint is that sometimes the curved blades make it difficult to cut straight lines. They are big advantage when cutting curves though.

I recommend outlining the body cut lines with a black marker to make it easier to see what you’re cutting. If your car is black, though, you might as well skip doing that. If you do opt to trace out the cut lines, do it when the protective overspray film is still on the car. That way, even if you cut a little crooked, the line will not be there once you remove the film.

When cutting with lexan scissors, I would line up how I wanted to cut a particular part, and then would move the body into the position that felt the most comfortable. The more comfortable you are holding the body; the slower you’ll cut ensuring a smooth line.
 
Once everything was cut, I used a Dremel tool to sand down the edges and rough part. I would highly recommend getting a Dremel tool. Lexan cut on angles can be pretty sharp. So, sand it down. Trust me, you’ll thank me when you got to pick up your car and don’t cut your hand.

 Next: Finishing Touches Pt. 3     Previous: Finishing Touches Pt. 1

A visit to a local hobby shop produced an HPI 1/10 Nissan Skyline lexan body. While I prefer authentic Tamiya bodies, they’re so freakin’ expensive that it is hard to justify the purchase. They have superior detail to HPI bodies, but their $40 – $60 price tag is just too much. HPI bodies are produced with mass consumption in mind and are cheaper, running between $24 and $30.

I also purchased a couple of cans of Pactra Racing Finish paints. I bought Fluorescent Green, Sprint White, and Outlaw Black. I used Pactra paints on the JACCS Accord I had several years ago and was pleased with the result, so I figured I would use them again.

Despite sitting in my closet for more than a year, the HPI body held up. The bag suffered a slight tear somewhere along the way, but the body didn’t suffer any dents, dings, or cracks. It looked as if I had bought it yesterday.

I prepped the body for paint, washing it and masking it. I know to scuff it with fine grit sand paper, but I was too lazy to go to the hardware store, so I skipped it. My advice, scuff it. I should have gone to the store, considering the results I got, but more on that later.

I was a little concerned that the fluorescent green paint wouldn’t perform well because it had been sitting in a closet for more than a year. But, I couldn’t justify throwing it away, so I opted to use it. I applied one coat. I sprayed slowly, but consistently. It adhered cleanly to the roof and quarter panels. The hood? Not so much.

For some reason, the paint just would not adhere to the hood, or the front fascia for that matter, like it did the rest of the body. The end result was a big glob of paint that rested in the crevice created by the hood. I tried multiple times to even it out, but nothing worked. In the end, I gave up. I ran out of green paint, and figured that this would become the body I used to practice.

I applied a couple of coats of Sprint White as backing for the green. The white paint was purchased a few months ago and adhered significantly better than the green. In some areas of the front fascia, the green did not adhere at all, so tiny white spots of paint are visible from the outside of the body.

The first color of my car design was complete. I let the car dry over night and removed the tape the following day. I used blue painter’s tape instead of masking tape to see how it would work.

The answer? Not well. The painter’s tape allowed paint to seep under it more than masking tape would have. The painter’s tape was also harder to peel off, oftentimes ripping and leaving small pieces behind that I would have to scrape off.

Another disadvantage to using painter’s tape is that it is blue, and harder to see through when cutting out shapes you’ve done on the protective overspray film. And, it’s thickness makes cutting shapes out of it much more difficult and often results in cutting into the body in addition to the tape. I wouldn’t recommend using it.

The fluorescent green paint left crumbs. Yes, crumbs. I don’t know if this was a product of the paint being a year old, or if it was normal for that to happen. In the picture of the body, you can see a lot of the small green crumbs. Most, if not all of them, were easily wiped out with a cloth.

The white paint did not crumble, and dried to a nice finish. The white paint also seemed to dry much thicker than the green paint, thus holding its shape better and adhering to the body better.

All in all the first phase of painting did not go as well as I had hoped, but it wasn’t a complete disaster. I learned some things, which should help improve the painting of my next body.

Next: Finishing Touches Pt. 2     Previous: The Rebuild

At first, everything went smoothly. The front and rear gearboxes were assembled with no problems. The suspension went without incident as well. Then, life got in the way, and the rebuild fell by the wayside.

Then, about a week ago, I decided that now was the time to finish the rebuild. I cleaned off my desk so I would have a work station, and pulled the TA02 out of the closet, and continued with the rebuild that started almost two years ago.On the first day, I got to the point that I needed to test and install the electronics.

But, I hit a snag: I didn’t have a battery. After some quick research, I ended up choosing the NiCd pack over a NiMH pack, since I would just be using this for fun. I visited the local hobby shop (I had moved twice since starting the rebuild) only to find out they don’t sell r/c cars. They only sell trains and models. I could have just as easily ordered the battery from Tower, but I didn’t want to wait for it or pay for shipping. I tried Radio Shack on a whim, and sure enough, they had a cheap battery and charger.

Once the battery was charged, I tested the radio equipment, and everything worked fine. I then went to install the servo to find out that the pieces that secure the servo to the car were missing. So, I pulled them off of one of my other broken TA02s.

Things were coming together when I hit another snag: the propeller shaft that I bought was stock. The previous owner of the car upgraded to the short type hard propeller shaft. I looked and looked for one online. It took about a day to find places that still carried TA02 parts. None of them had a shaft.

A guy on eBay had one in his store for $32 + shipping. I didn’t want to pay that much since the car didn’t cost me that much. Plus, his listing expired about a day earlier. So, I kept looking. eTamiya did not have one, nor did any other place that still carried TA02 parts. But, after nearly two days of searching, a place called AsianTees.com in Hong Kong had one. It wasn’t an authentic Tamiya shaft, but it was for the TA02, so I jumped on it. It was $14.90 + $5 shipping.

AsianTees said it would take 10 – 14 days to ship, so I waited. Once it arrived, I began installing it only to find out that despite being marked as a part for a TA02, it was not a TA02 part. It was about 3/4 of an inch too long.

So, I pulled one of the old shafts, including the connectors, off of one of the TA02s I bought for parts and installed it. I don’t know why I didn’t think to do that earlier.

After installing the prop shaft, I assembled the complete chassis, which includes attaching the front and rear gearboxes. I hit another snag. It looks like the person who owned the TA02 before must have had an accident because one of the tie rods had been replaced with a makeshift tie rod. It was a couple of millimeters longer than the other.

I tried, and tried to adjust it, but it would never line up straight. So, I left it with a little bit of toe-in just to test it. I’ll pull one off of one of my other TA02s later.

Everything was assembled and ready to go. I put on the wheels and tested it out. Success! After nearly three years, the TA02 was complete.

Next: Finishing Touches Pt. 1     Previous: Tear Down

But, after pulling them apart, and realizing the amount of cleaning that would need to be done, I opted to replace them. A quick search of eBay revealed replacement front and rear gearboxes. I was also able to locate a propellor shaft, and ordered it right away. The gear boxes were on their way, and a trip to the local hobby shop provided me with performance springs and a Skyline speed gear.

As I took everything apart, there was a stubborn screw stuck in the chassis. This particular TA02 came with an upgraded Manta Ray chassis, but one of the screws was stripped, so I could not remove part of the old front gear box. The more I attempted to get it apart, the more the screw would strip. So, I decided to order a new bathtub chassis, after all the old one had several scratches.

Keep in mind that the TA02 is a decade old, so finding parts is no easy task. After searching several local hobby shops and eBay, I stumbled on a company in Britain that had TA02 parts. Fortunately, they had a bathtub chassis. So, I ordered it and waited.

Once the tear-down was complete, I put everything in a big Ziploc bag so I wouldn’t lose anything. In that bag is where the car sat for almost three years, mainly because of the birth of my daughter. But, if I was near a local Hobby shop, I would stop by and see if they had any TA02 parts or hop ups. Most didn’t, but every once and a while, I would find something, and I would buy it and put it with the bag. I also bought two more broken TA02s for parts (each was $20).

I had everything to rebuild the TA02, and was set to rebuild it.

Next: The Rebuild      Previous: Background

The problem was that I was light on funds at the time due to my daughter being born. So, instead of buying a new Tamiya kit, I decided on buying an old, broken one on eBay and rebuilding/restoring it. I first searched for a JACCS Accord, as this was the kit I sold and regretted. I found two, but both were at least $225. They were new-in-box, and probably worth it, but I just couldn’t justify spending that much on a kit without electrics when I had a little mouth to feed.

After a couple of days of searching and bidding, I won a TA02 rolling chassis. I was missing its prop shaft and was very, very dirty. It also had a broken shock tower. But, the seller still had the manual. I ended up paying about $26 plus shipping, which brought the total to nearly $39.

The seller sent it via USPS, and sent me a tracking number. After a couple of days of checking the USPS site, I saw that the car was delivered, but when I got home, there was no package or slip indicating a package was in and that I could pick it up. I called my apartment office, and they did not receive a package for me either.

The next morning, my ex-girlfriend found the package on the balcony. We lived on the second floor, so I assume the mail carrier threw it up onto the balcony. Fortunately, it was packaged well and was not harmed by this.

As soon as I got the car, I inspected it to make sure nothing else was broken. Turns out it was an Opel Calibra V6 DTM kit. After leaving positive feedback for the seller, I began tearing down the TA02, making a list of what I needed to replace.

Next: Tear Down