Tamiya SuperChamp - 58034

This is my first post here and an overview of the SuperChamp restoration I've just completed.

First up, here are some pics of it when I bought it (eBay, about £180 paid).

As you can see, it wasn't in too poor a shape, just really needing a little TLC. What attracted me to this model on eBay was the fact that it has some period hop-up options including CRP swing-arms and coil-over shocks. A nice touch. It didn't come with a diff, but I ordered up the Tamiya Buggy Champ 2009 ball diff to make sure it had one on the rebuild. I'll be using a standard 540 silver-can motor, but replace the original with a new one and put the old one to one side.

The Resto

First thing of course is to strip the car down and give it a good clean up. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics, but trust me the inside of the gearbox was a disgrace and I'm amazed it ever ran with any kind of performance (and maybe it didn't). Full of about 6 different kinds of grease. Took me ages to clean, but a dishwasher helps a lot here ;)

Once everything was stripped down cleaned and de-greased, all metal parts were bead-blasted down to a fine grade medium. Here's how they look after bead-blasting.

Now it's a case of putting it all back together.

You can download copies of manuals from TamiyaClub.com which is a great help. It's not a tricky build this one, just be patient with it.

I used stainless steel screws throughout which you can get from DannieBoy over on TamiyaClub.

The ball diff here is from the Re-Re Buggy Champ 2009, a direct replacement and perfect fit.

Don't forget to use ball-bearings throughout if you're restoring an old SRB. There's absolutely no point putting the bearings back - they just cause wear on parts which are now becoming harder and harder to find if you want originals.

Reconstructed shocks with fresh oil, fresh seals and nicely cleaned up CRP coil-overs.

Front end completed. One of the front bars is very slightly twisted as you can see here, but I managed to get it all back together, and I decided to leave it all original than replace it or try and straighten it up.

Here's the finished rolling chassis. I added a couple of custom options including an alloy front bumper (from J-Man on TamiyaClub) and a carbon fiber chassis set from Paul (Loaded on TamiyaClub). I think these two items really finish the buggy off nicely and work great with the stainless screws.

I do actually have a set of alloy wheels, but thought I'd see how the originals look just sprayed matt black, and they came out pretty well and I like the look of it, so they're staying.

Onto the bodywork. This just needed a good rub down. It had never been painted, but had decals applied direct to the blue plastic shell and then the whole thing laquered, decals and all.

Once it had been fully rubbed down with 800 grit wet and dry, all laquer and decals removed, it's time for top-coats. Here I'm using BMW Topaz Blue from Halfords, a colour I'm particularly favouring at the moment and have 5 other SRB's all in it, so it's part of a matching set ;)

And here after 5 coats of blue and 3 coats of laquer. It sits in this state for about 2 weeks before final rub down and polish. You need to take your time here.

I picked up some repro decals from two members on TamiyaClub - StickerBod and Tamiyoman.

Why two sets? Well, basically the Tamiyoman repro's are much higher quality than StickerBods, but StickerBods are laser pre-cut. That makes them really easy to use and no fiddly cutting out to do. 

So I use both - Stickerbods where quality doesn't show so much (single colour white and simple 2 colour decals) and the higher quality Tamiyoman ones where required by either three colours or more subtle shading.

Final Pics

Here you go, here's how it came out. Hope you like it.