373 - Yellow BBX Rims, Again!

 

Honestlty, in a beautiful natural light, the BBX rims painted in PS-27 neon yellow do not look so bad and I've been quite surprised in shooting this pic. Maybe I could try to finish them with a coat of gloss.

372 - BBX Body Sides Completed

My Tamiya BBX body is on its way to be completed, the first step have been made and the body sides have been painted. After the painting the removal of the back ends is evident and it seem to not look so bad.

371 - BBX Body Sides Ready For The Painting

I've completed the cut and the sanding of the body sides of my BBX and now they are ready to be painted. In cutting them I've removed the portion of lexan roughly shown in yellow because many times, in watching the car, they appear s bit precarious to me.

I take the habit to help my self, during painting, with a carton support because it can be easily handled than sigle parts.

370 - BBX Rims Painting (Second Fail)

To fix the problem occurred with the dye of the new rims set for my Tamiya BBX I've decided to spray them with the Tamiya Ps-27 I've started do use in my lexan bodies from a while.

Neon yellows wheels match very well my last colors choiche and are usefull to spot my cars on the grass.

Painting the wheel is a solution that don't like but in this case I tried to save them to the awful yellow reached with dye: another fail.

I've sprayed them with a fine primer and than with the yellow but the result reminds me most "Jurassic Park" than a race car of the good old days.

369 - BBX Rims Dyeing (With a Fail)

Well my BBX rims were ready to by dyed so I did it!

It have been the first time for me (and da last) and I well prepared all with the maximum accuracy.

To be sure to avoid the plastic to touch the hot pot walls I used a threaded bar and cooking string to keep them in the boiling water.

After almost half an hour of simmering in the hot water my four wheels turned out in a not solid dark shaded neon yellow.

I guess that three mistakes have been done: I havent deep whased the rims before starting to dye them, starting with much low water temperature after boiled it, ending with adding much diye in the attempt to save the savable.

368 - How To Switch The Wild One To (Almost) Total Black Set Up

Back in the 2013 when I bought my Wild One I decided do go for a total black set up regarding chassis/plastics. It has been a little expansive but to me the result, after more than 10 years, remain magnificent.

While ordering my WO in addition to the kit I purchased the following FAV spares:

#19335611 (rollcage)

#19000238 (D parts, side guards)

#54154 (F103 Carbon reinforced Upright).

I’ve also painted in black the BA (aluminum shock towers), A6, A10, G3 and G10 parts. The only parts that do not well tollerate the paint coating are the shock towers but I will keep them because I like the wabi-sabi effect.

Also the steering linkages have been updated using black ball ends and tougher rods but, my fault, I do not remeber the Tamiya codes.

The A11 and A12 parts that have swapped with two scratch build substitutes that have been, of course, painted in black. Using that craft made parts allow me to close the horrible hole on the right side also.

367 - Starting A New Body

Saturday I've started to cut the new body I've ordered to revamp my BBX. The starting point are the two sides that will be screwed to the cage, it's a hard task, there are so man curves that need a finishing using a Dremel and, for now, I've only cut away around the straight lines

The two tail covers have been roughed out, also.

366 - Chrome Removing Completed

Finally saturday the chrome removing from the new set of BBX wheels have been completed. It tooks overall almost thirty hours of soaking in oven cleaner, a deep wash with wam water and hand soap using a gentle nylon brush and a toothpick to remove the last chrome residue from a wheel.

Now they are ready to be dyed. 

365 - Wild One Reinforcing Brace

The thought of a WO chassis breakages in correspondence of the shock towers mounting point is tormenting me from years (without occurring by the way) and in several moments I've consider the idea to build a reinforcing brace from scratch, without finding the time to do it.

So, in the stuff I've bought to revamp for the second or third time my WO, I've included a brace made by Junfac.

364 - Boring Update

It's pretty clear that social media has substituted many good habits with something else more superficial: scrolling instead of watching, scrolling instead of reading, scrolling instead of going in to details so, taking about this hobby, I've noticed as building and show continuosly new models has become more important and more mainstream than talking about how to take care of them and keep them in perfect running conditions: this is only my opinion not a judgement, obligatory to point it out.

Well, this boring introduction just to say that some parts useful to revamp and take care of my Wild One are arrived some days ago, it's the 58525 re released, a car I've bough (and it's incredible to say) 13  years ago back in the 2013 some months afer it has been released. to me is a car that should remain in Tamiya catalogue permanently as some other classics as witness of the greatest RC hobby era

363 - Twisters Motors Couple Sold!

Two more motors will leave my collection in these days. I've bought them years ago with the intention to refurb them but without time to do it I've decided to sold them to someone that could give them the love they deserve.

362 - If "Few" Means More Than Twelve

The removing of the chrome from my BBX wheels isn't still complete spite to ulterior 6 hours of soaking in the oven cleaner. The result shown by the pic have been reached after the said soaking, a whashing with warm water, hand soap and with a gentle brushed (that's why of the light scratches on the remaining chrome).

FYI my definition of "few of hours" has reached twelve but it's destined to be increased until the full chrome removal of course 😑.

361 - New Logo!

 

This blog has a new logo and I love it. It have been made mixing the old one, a pic of my Wild One and two evenings of instructions given to Gemini AI.

360 - Two Of My Motors Have Been Sold

This two guys leave my collection, much time spent in a obscure box waiting for a better future. I haven't time to clean, refurbish and give a new life to this two beautiful motors so I sold it.

Other items from my collection are on sale on my Ebay, fell free to check it.

359 - BBX Wheels Chrome Removing

A new set of wheels for my Tamiya BBX was included in the stuff I've received last week. The idea is to dying them after a full chrome removing and to the purpose I've bought an oven cleaner choosing the one that seemed less gentle in the supermarket's shelf.

Well my new wheels have been soaked in the full bottle of cleaner for almost 6 hours reaching the modest result to remove most of the light coats of chrome from the inner and the back of the wheels with a beging of corrosion of the thicker coat from the outer face of the wheels. Two toughts: oven cleaner here in Italy are less power than cleaner available abroad or who says that this process involves "few of hours" has to reconsider what "few of hours" means.

358 - Stuff For My BBX Received

The parts needed to refurbish my BBX are arrived during the last week: new body, some stickers, new driver figure, PS cans, wheels and masking fluid.

For first I've gave a primer coat to the driver and then a coat of Nato black that will be useful de define seat belts and helmet visor.

Than I've washed the new body and In a near future I have to face the complex cut task. 

357 - Ready to Revamp

Some stickers have been rescued and some parts have been ordered and received. My next target is a good revamp of my BBX.

356 - Four Out Of Four

The packet from Japan I've been waiting from before Christmas 2025 is finally arrived!

It comes from the Shiga prefecture, a place that I love and where I collected gread memories.

The robubust envelope carries the Yokomo Wing BG/15t Stock I've purchased from the Bay at the end of 2025.

The motor is in working conditions, it spits a lot of debris when I applied some current and the two capacitors look "burned", I guess it has been very used and in a close future I will check its brushes and its  commutator and for sure I will give it all the care I can without force its endbell.

Well, my small Yokomo collection have been completed, I haven't the intention to use them (but I'm tempeted expecially by the Wing 2 and the Wing 4) and I want to find a good way to display them all togher.

355 - To Do List

This post want to be a pro-memoria note, a list of things to do to bring back to full running condition my BBX and my Wild One.

Time ago my Wild One have been revamped with new differential gears, a new Robititronic Speedstar II 17T ESC, my Tamiya Dirt Tuned motor and switched back to its ABS chassis instead of the non stick pan I've bought on the Ebay in a moment of fooly.

It will be updated with:

- a set a yellow fluo 2.2 JC Racing wheels;

- (maybe) a new chassis;

- some yellow fluo lining or a new body with a livery to match the other buggy in my fleet:

- a new Futaba (or futaba compatible) receiver due to my swap from the Ko Propo EX-5 to the Futaba 3PV.

My BBX, that have been already updated with a new Robitronic ESC, for sure, needs a new ad well painted driver figure but I'm considering to buy and paint a new body... recently I've seen some good interpretations on the Internet that could be a good inspiration.

354 - Cartoon Boxes

A few weeks ago watching at one of Masami Hirosaka videos on Youtube, listening at the great Masaaki Hirosaka, I've noticed that he stores a lot of stuff in rescued cartoon boxes from various RC products (batteries, chargers and so on).

I have a lot of stuff laying around like wires, heatshrink, connectors, scissors, pliers, cutters and many more that is hard to pack but of course I've throwed away most of the boxes of the stuff I've bought during this years so I've decided to buy a small bulk of cartoon boxes from Amazon, the dimension choosen is 210 mm x 100mm x 50 mm.

Well, yesterday I've gathered most of my stuff laying around and I've stuffed them in some boxes by "category". 

353 - Wabi-Sabi

Some weeks ago, in the attempt to give a good discharge to one of my batteries, I've bring some damages tom my Ultima SB. Nothing serious of course: some light scrathces in some points and one deeper on the front bumper.

Some other damages are the result of my holidays bashing this summer and one or two are due to my faults with the soldering iron.

In cases like this my first tought is about buying the spares needed to refresh the car but, better thinking, I love thigs when hard used but well preserved and with their full patina untouched: cars, bikes, guitars, skateboards, shoes and more.

So I will keep my Ultima in running conditions with a good maintenance but resisting to the impulse to swap parts only because they don't look fine or because they look less photogenic.