Lazer ZX

[HKS_TRD]

This is pretty much the first thing I purchased since I got back into RC recently. The Lazer series came out around the time I got out of RC, I never saw one in person only a few sketchy pics, so even though I was planning on building up a Mid as a replica of my SE (more details on that when I start the build) I saw this Lazer for sale and bought it out of sheer curiosity.
I have to say I also didn't like the look of the Lazer shell but it has been growing on me I actually really like it now, especially when the buggy sits close to the ground.
Its in really nice condition with a few rough edges, the chassis has a few marks but otherwise very nice, though some of the screws are either missing or really marked up, and the few parts of it I have worked on I often find wrong screws, some of the rod ends were split and the turnbuckles were too short. Its been put together from bits of another it seems. The body I am more than certain is the original, its been painted nicely, its not mint but it has all the mesh on the vents and is shelf worthy like the rest of it. I have a new genuine wing but not so sure if I will use it as I doubt I can get the colors to match, I think I will just use repro stickers to replace the really bad ones on the wing that let it down and leave it at that.
There is no undertray and I have no intention of putting one on it as a repro won't match the body for size and for the shelf its not needed.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/200520122031.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/190520122030.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/200520122041.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/200520122039.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/200520122037.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/200520122038.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/200520122036.jpg

[HKS_TRD]

The first thing I did with it was just put on some of the yellow 2.2 wheels, these are going to eventually go on the SE I build but in the meantime I thought I'd try them on the Lazer seeing as they were an option for it. They are the newer brighter yellow rather than the period correct ones but they will do. I just used the regular Kyosho tyres with them.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/080620122124.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/080620122127.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/080620122158.jpg

I dyed a set of the same wheels for my future LWB Mid project, so I though I may as well put them on the Lazer in the meantime. I actually dyed two sets, the first set was alot darker and are the ones in this pic, again with the same type of Kyosho tyre. I think they match the body quite well. I used some blue wheel nuts as well.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/161020122866.jpg

And the second set was a little lighter, I used the Micro Block tyres for this set, you can see one of the darker wheels in the background in the pic

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/221020122963.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/221020122959.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/221020122972.jpg

[HKS_TRD]

Recently I bought these wheels for another future project

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/221220123370.jpg

So what better to do than fit them onto the Lazer in the meantime!
I also fitted the new platinum shocks which will be going on to my SE

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/271220123410.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/271220123411.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/271220123404.jpg

These wheels will look great on the project they are intended for, but on the Lazer I am liking the blue look better, and this helped me finally decide what I am going to do with it

[HKS_TRD]

At the moment the Lazer is still sitting as per the last photos, however I now have a plan for it and it won't have to wear parts intended for other projects any more!

I'm going to strip it completely and rebuild it with all new screws, and replace the couple pieces that may need changing, but really its just the screws and a good clean that it needs. Even the bumper is really nice.

The first set of dark blue wheels will be going back on.

I will also be putting on a clear gear cover.

The other thing that will be going on is these pieces I had anodised, the shock are gold shocks I stripped back.

I'll probably put some ball diffs in it.

I had some blue belts and teamline hubs but they are needed elsewhere, however I may put blue 3racing knuckles on it

I will be keeping all the original metal bits from the Lazer so it can always be reverted back to dead standard if needed.

Not sure when I will strip it but in the meantime I can build the shocks and diffs

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/161220123314.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/161220123291.jpg

[DanB4]

Nice post Dan!

I was dubious too about the fitment of a repro undertray with the original shell but took the plunge and got a TBG one, it actually isn't that bad a fit but I can see where you're coming from, it isn't really needed.

The ZX shell shape has also grown on me over time.

I must have a go at dying some of the white Kyosho rims I have - it's RIT dye that most people use isn't it, is that what you've used here? Quite an easy process?

Cheers,

Dan

[HKS_TRD]

Hi Dan, yep it was RIT dye that we used. There are some clips on youtube which explain the process well. One tip is that even brand new parts need a wipe with metho or alcohol wipes to be safe. I did some other parts too which I'll post up as they get used but that may be a while as they are for the LWB mid I'm building after the SE, though maybe I will progress each project a little simultaneously. I'm just gathering some parts for the next run which we will be dying black.

[keithrc]

Nice Lazer Dan, looks awsome in the box art sceme. :) Unlike most people I've always liked the look of the body and the bi-wing, even back when I had my first one in the early 90's. Looking at this, I'll have to get a couple body sets for my Lazers.

If it's gonna be a shelfer why not keep the original wheels on it? Not that there's anything wrong with the blue ones.


Keith ;)

[HKS_TRD]

What will probably happen is the shelfers will change wheels etc now and then
The original wheels will also do duty on the SE shelfer for a while, all will be explained in the thread for the SE.

The blue wheels go with the anodised bits.
I was considering selling the ZX down the road but I'd like to hang onto it
I have nearly everything to turn it into a ZX-R but I think I may actually just build a ZX-R at some point down the road

[DanB4]

My 2 :)

Currently building a modded ZX-R too for racing in Oz in July at Castle Hill when I'm on my Hols ;)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/SDRCC/20130107_215904.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/SDRCC/20130107_220019.jpg

[HKS_TRD]

Wow those look great, I remember just seeing the ZX-R in the box at the local hobby shop around the same time I turned down the LWB Mid conversion kit for the mid at a really low price. I remember the ZX-R costing nearly twice as much as my SE did !!!

and I see you have the anti roll bar on the rear of the ZX-R, how hard was that to find, do you have the front one too?

I have a ZX-R body here I was going to use on a Mid but it doesn't look like it will fit very well. I was impressed with the quality of the TBG Lazer body, tempted to buy a Mid one too for the next Mid, anyone got any experiences with them or comparison to the Marwan one?

[DanB4]

Wow those look great, I remember just seeing the ZX-R in the box at the local hobby shop around the same time I turned down the LWB Mid conversion kit for the mid at a really low price. I remember the ZX-R costing nearly twice as much as my SE did !!!

and I see you have the anti roll bar on the rear of the ZX-R, how hard was that to find, do you have the front one too?

I have a ZX-R body here I was going to use on a Mid but it doesn't look like it will fit very well. I was impressed with the quality of the TBG Lazer body, tempted to buy a Mid one too for the next Mid, anyone got any experiences with them or comparison to the Marwan one?

Cheers :)

The ZX-R is by no means an original example, it's fully carbon fibre - the roll bar came with the donor car I bought, I don't have front one that I know of although it may have been in amongst the lot of Lazer ZX/ZX-R bits I sold to a guy in Holland in December (wish I hadn't now I'm building a runner!)

The body, tray and wing you see above on my ZX-R are all TBG.

Dan

[keithrc]

Very nice Lazers DanB4! :) What's the go with the ZX-R wings, I thought they were vynal instead of lexan?


Keith ;)

[Welshy40]

Very nice Lazers DanB4! :) What's the go with the ZX-R wings, I thought they were vynal instead of lexan?


Keith ;)

Only on some, most were lexan

[Welshy40]

Dan,

The anodising is superb. I will have to send you some items for anodising.

[Welshy40]

Dan, you have the same bug I have, making them spotless and addictive, the work you have done is superb

[HKS_TRD]

Dan,

The anodising is superb. I will have to send you some items for anodising.

What sort of pieces are you looking at getting done
I'm more than happy to help you out , though I have to say the results were mixed with the anodiser on two counts

1. Some pieces turned out alot better than others, even though I polished them all myself to a mirror finish before the anodising. It seems to be related to the age of the metal. I had two Mid motor plates done, one looked alot better initially though they both looked perfect after polishing. One turned out great and one not so great. I polished a LWB Mid chassis, it was very scratched but when I was done it was perfect, yet that came up not so great, lots of dots in the anodising, pics don't sbow all the imperfections. The shocks are mostly good bar a couple pieces, and there were some pieces that turned out great but its hit and miss it seems. To be fair they did warn me beforehand that this is always possible

2. They don't want to do items that are too small, such as chassis posts and some plates, however some of the pieces they wouldn't do were actually larger than some pieces they did do so I'm stumped

I was really gutted about the chassis posts more than anything but I am now trying to see if I can somehow attach them to something larger with long screws and nuts in the even they wont be at risk of getting lost and they will do them. I ended up buying some factory blue anodised chassis posts instead for now, but was looking forward to doing some stuff in gold in the future, as well as some bits for the car I have been building for the last four years

[Welshy40]

Ok well seems that the bits I would have are too small, as they are the gearbox posts for my CF design - gutted. However what blue factory posts did you get and what were the part numbers?

[HKS_TRD]

These are the posts I got

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200870417624

I'm gutted too as they are what I wanted to get done as well :-(

The parts in the link are a different blue, the longer posts are the same as the Mid chassis post but the shorter ones I am not sure what I will do with those yet.

[Welshy40]

Dan,

Cheers for that, Ive just bought two sets. If the rear post is the right size it should fit between the wing mounts. I always used two posts to give rigity to the wing mount and never bent or broke one due to that, also it looked good with the posts.

[HKS_TRD]

No problem

I was thinking the shorter piece might be useful for the rear wing mount, if its a little short you can always use a blue anodised washer or two to make it work I guess. I haven't got anything built with the UMW-1 wing mount to be able to try it out!

[HKS_TRD]

Do the ZX and the ZX-R take the same chassis? I'm thinking of putting a few things aside from now to build a ZX-R, I have an upper deck, shock towers, Gold Shocks, gearbox cases, wishbones, hubs, and a few other pieces, just no chassis or layshaft, my spare one is a ZX one so I am guessing I can't use it for a ZX-R?

[DanB4]

Do the ZX and the ZX-R take the same chassis? I'm thinking of putting a few things aside from now to build a ZX-R, I have an upper deck, shock towers, Gold Shocks, gearbox cases, wishbones, hubs, and a few other pieces, just no chassis or layshaft, my spare one is a ZX one so I am guessing I can't use it for a ZX-R?

Found this on another forum:

Regarding the difference between the Zx and the Zx-r the first things that come into my mind are:- body- different slipper- gears diff (zx), ball diffs (zx-r)- turnbuckles (only on the zx-r)- different shock towers

*If you want find all the differencies you can check the two user manuals here:

Lazer Zx:

http://www.retromodelisme.com/pdf/ma...4/lazer_zx.pdf

Lazer Zx-r (MKI - MKII):

http://www.retromodelisme.com/pdf/ma...lazer_zx-r.pdf

[HKS_TRD]

Thanks for that

My ZX has turnbuckles on it and ZX-R wishbones. I might put the original whishbones on it but I will leave the turnbuckles, how on earth can you assemble the regular turnbuckles without marking them, and for that matter how do you hold the shock shaft of a gold shock to screw the end on? I used rubber bands wrapped around it to protect them from pliers but that was a painful affair

I'm almost too scared to strip the ZX in case some unknown horrors await me
The gearbox seem awful complex, from what I can gather its similar to the "integrator" diff on the Schumacher cat XLS

[DanB4]

My 900th post! :)

I think we need Terry.sc for this one Dan!

The integrator on the xls is an awkward affair! My ZX also has ZXR wishbones....I had another ZX with std wishbones but sold it a while back.

[isobarik]

Thanks for that

My ZX has turnbuckles on it and ZX-R wishbones. I might put the original whishbones on it but I will leave the turnbuckles, how on earth can you assemble the regular turnbuckles without marking them, and for that matter how do you hold the shock shaft of a gold shock to screw the end on? I used rubber bands wrapped around it to protect them from pliers but that was a painful affair

I'm almost too scared to strip the ZX in case some unknown horrors await me
The gearbox seem awful complex, from what I can gather its similar to the "integrator" diff on the Schumacher cat XLS

the integrator is basicly an slipper to adjust the force to the front wheels.

while the zx used an middle diff .

mvh isobarik

[HKS_TRD]

OK but the ZX still keeps 100% drive to the rear wheels with the one-ways doesn't it and just cotrols torque to the front. You could never have a situation of all torque to the front wheels and none to the rear like with a conventional centre diff setup?

[HKS_TRD]

I decided to put another set of wheels on the ZX. I think the white suits the box art body quite well and the blue wheel nuts add a nice touch.

I will need the platinum shock for my other project pretty soon, when that happens I'll strip the ZX and give it some TLC along with a new theme

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/210320133738_zps85fb59db.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/210320133737_zps0dec9239.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/210320133735_zpsbe65fddc.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/210320133734_zpscb1c415f.jpg

[terry.sc]

I think we need Terry.sc for this one Dan!
Well I missed this one earlier!

how on earth can you assemble the regular turnbuckles without marking them,I would suggest the correct size spanner helps a lot, there are plenty of really good alloy turnbuckle spannersand for that matter how do you hold the shock shaft of a gold shock to screw the end on? I used rubber bands wrapped around it to protect them from pliers but that was a painful affairUse shock shaft pliers (http://www.racing-cars.com/pp/Manufacturer/Core_RC/CR101.html)which are designed for the job, but they aren't cheap for a job you will only do very occasionally. I just use side cutters to hold the shaft by the screw thread.

OK but the ZX still keeps 100% drive to the rear wheels with the one-ways doesn't it and just cotrols torque to the front. You could never have a situation of all torque to the front wheels and none to the rear like with a conventional centre diff setup?
The ZX centre diff isn't the greatest idea in the world. The kit one way in the rear drive hub on the layshaft means that if the front wheels slip under acceleration the diff can send all the power to the front wheels, just like a normal centre diff.
But if the rear end steps out under acceleration the rear wheels can't spin faster than the front and the diff stays locked up. The idea seems to be that it gives you permanent four wheel drive like a solid layshaft, but to allow the diff to work through corners to allow the front wheels to spin a little quicker as they go through a larger arc when cornering, instead of the tyres scrubbing as they fight to turn at different speeds.

Mine raced with the diff balls removed from the spur gear, then the diff tightened down so the diff washers against the spur gear made it more like a slipper and removed the diff action as it wasn't needed at all.

[BORMAC]

I have to say I really like that ZX dressed up with white 2.2" rims and those Platinum dampers. Great ideas both.

[Crashtest33]

2.2's on the ZX look amaaaazing!! Changes the look completely.
I'm now torn, my shelfer doesn't have narrow yellow fronts so I could fit these :-)

[HKS_TRD]

Well I missed this one earlier!

I would suggest the correct size spanner helps a lot, there are plenty of really good alloy turnbuckle spanners

Sorry I minced my words, what I meant was how does one assemble the non-turnbuckle suspension rods, you answered that in regards to the shock shafts I guess. And thanks for the explanation on the centre diff, I had a play with my spare ZX layshaft and I can see what you mean about the front getting full drive. The fact they ditched it for the ZX-R says alot I guess

I have to say I really like that ZX dressed up with white 2.2" rims and those Platinum dampers. Great ideas both.

Thanks, the only problem is that the front shocks look too short, it really needs medium length shocks on the front however the ones I anodised are only shorts for the front. The platinums are needed for the new SE build I started. I do have a set of long and medium equalizers with blue top caps I have no plans for that could go on the ZX, I also have an aluminium version of the ZX-R MKI front shock tower that I could use on the ZX to match the rear metal tower

2.2's on the ZX look amaaaazing!! Changes the look completely.
I'm now torn, my shelfer doesn't have narrow yellow fronts so I could fit these :-)

I think the original wheels whilst not too bad just don't look quite right with box art as they don't match any part of it.
I thought the white wheels may have looked a little plain but they look perfect installed, I may put the blue wheels I was saving for the ZX onto my ZX-S instead