Turbo Optima Mid SE-X
 

So, a bit of background before I get into the build.
In 1989 I purchased a NIB Turbo Optima Mid SE, the only NIB RC Car I purchased. I couldn't really afford to do many mods but over the five years I owned it I managed to collect a few bits and pieces for it such as a Novak4 ESC (an ESC was a big thing to someone with no money), Lazer ZX rear wheels and a one-way diff for the front. I also managed to find an undertray for it at some stage. I ran a HPI Uno motor in it and then a LOSI, I forget what wind but it had a yellow sticker on the can and was really fast, much faster than the UNO
At one point, in 1990 IIRC a model shop offered me the LWB Optima Mid conversion kit for bugger all ($50 I believe) but I didn't buy it and always regret it. The main attraction for me was just the shape of the chassis, I never liked the skinny mid chassis and loved the shape of the saddle pack chassis, to the point that I cut some pieces of black tin to the right shape and screwed them to the chassis just to get that look lol

These are the only pics I have of it, you can see narrowed Mid wheels on the front and the Lazer wheels on the rear

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...Cars/MySE1.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...Cars/MySE2.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...Cars/MySE3.jpg

I did however keep the box!

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...pscecaa7fe.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psc9583f8c.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps535ec9be.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps2e85426b.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps530ef7ec.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps9622165e.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps2cae7b0e.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps143fc62d.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps59935b60.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psf0722849.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...pscd40248b.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps8900102b.jpg

So, the theme of this build is to build an SE with some of the mods that mine had, but also some of the mods that I had in mind but never got to do. This can also include vintage parts I knew of but never even got to see in person.
I'm trying to avoid using any parts that I never knew about or wanted back when I owned mine but I may make a couple exceptions.

Basically I am building the SE that I had in my mind but wasn't able to execute. As I slowly build it any non original part will be explained along the way.

Below is pretty much 90% of the parts for it, the rest are either somewhere else here or in transit, a few of the specs I haven't actually decided on, and I'll be open to opinions as things progress

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psa9c6c1cc.jpg

One thing you will notice is some fibrelyte pieces, this may seem out of line with my build theme however, at the time I had my SE Carbon Fibre parts were starting to show up and I thought it would have been cool to have the shock towers, chassis, upper deck, motor brace etc all in Carbon Fibre rather than fibreglass and aluminium, so this does fit in with the build theme.

Those paying attention may recall that I wish the SWB Mid chassis was shaped like a saddle pack chassis. So, rather than resort to cutting out pieces of tin again, this time around the heart of the build is this custom SWB chassis I had Fibrelyte make for me

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps4e230f67.jpg

And hand in hand with the chassis is the Carbon Fibre upper deck, keen eyes may spot the difference to the standard upper deck.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps9d420f93.jpg

I'm aiming to have the gearboxes built and bolted up over Easter if not some more progress.

So, be patient and stay tuned!

Awesome Dan as always!

Watching with great interest.

Dan

Loved old kyosho cars...
Send us more pictures...
Fantastic!

Like this one?

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y26...ps0ba9d5ed.jpg

Nice Dan :woot::thumbsup:

Awesome stuff Dan! :thumbsup: Very much looking forward to seeing how this one progresses.


Keith ;)

Thanks Dan, this and the SP were the original two projects I had in mind when I got back into RC last year

I wish I had more pictures of the old Mid but unfortunately thats all I have, glad I atleast have them!

That looks like the motor I had in my SE, I have a couple other motors slated for this one, haven't entirely made up my mind yet. I think the LOSI I had was a triple wind

Thanks Oli, some of the many parts I have sourced from you are going into this build. Oh and I decided at this stage I will be staying with the brand new Platinum shocks, that and the stickers are the only SE specific DNA left in the build so they had to stay!

Thanks Keith, I'm looking forward to seeing the Mid I had in my mind 20 years ago actually becoming a reality.

I wonder if Terry spot the detail change in the upper deck.

Nice collection of parts. Top radio plate looks to be missing the loops/slots on the side.

I hope the parts fit well - i had to make quite a few small adjustments to fibre-lyte parts i had for my Egress build recently.

Another great project! Now pinned on my radar :)

Bingo, that is the change, the upper deck is the same on both sides.
I had the same mod done to the LWB upper deck for another project waiting in the wings.

I did have to modify the rear pivot block and the very rear of the chassis, the pivot block fouled on the very rear of the chassis so I filed that till it fit a regular metal chassis and I then filed the rear of the CF chassis till a standard metal pivot block cleared it. Only took a few minutes

I know I need to mod the front shock tower to clear the bumps on the front gearbox case for the bearings, should be easy enough to do

Thanks for the positive words.
Have you got any new projects of your own that you will be starting soon?

I managed to make some progress a little earlier than I expected.

I had a one-way in the front of my SE so I always had to have one in this build. However my efforts were constantly thwarted, every time one turned up on eBay the seller wouldn't post to Australia :-(

I can't quite remember how but I managed to discover the following piece

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps26328552.jpg

Which you can then install into a standard belt driven gear-diff case along with all the other necessary goodies

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psed02fb80.jpg

To give you exactly the same thing as the W-0106

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps6910f726.jpg

I kept the original ball diff in the back of my SE so that was what would be going into the rear gearbox of this build

I had bought a secondhand parts lot which included a rear ball diff, the older version, which was perfect for this build. However whilst the outdrives were perfect, the teeth on the pulley were toast, which is a little odd. Here you can see the old pulley next to all the parts that came with that pulley, built into a new pulley. You can see what I mean about the condition of the outdrives not matching the condition of the pulley.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps7cca37e5.jpg

I had purchased a secondhand long wheel base Mid from this forum a while back which was stripped, a friend has half the parts for his project (when we start assembling that there will be a thread for it) and I kept the other half for some of my builds. All the parts for the rear gearbox bar the casing, ball diff and belt came from that car. One thing I did was dye the yellow washer that sits on the outside of the gearbox black, you can't really see it but I was dying some other stuff so I did it anyway

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps665c39e3.jpg

So now it was time to break out a new set of gearbox casings

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...pse3d19d1b.jpg

To get things up to this stage

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psde88c871.jpg

Now for the exciting part. I got to break the chassis out of the plastic, along with a few other parts

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps134b20fb.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps5722e0aa.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psfa3a1d74.jpg

I actually had a second front plate made which was a different shape, but I decided to use the standard looking one on this build, this one is probably stronger and I plan to put it on my LWB Mid runner build at this stage

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps21f10d29.jpg

So all of that brought me up to here

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...pscc8d7580.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps56be63a5.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps079fac1e.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...pseac698ed.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps62a67600.jpg

I plan on making some more progress over the Easter Break

Did Fibre-Lyte do the carbon end plates from OT-95 too?!

Yep they did. I sent them a pair to copy. I had to file the corners of the rear one a little to clear the chassis but it was no big deal. I know I have to file the front shock tower a little too but its no big deal, I plan to do that this weekend and hopefully get it sitting on the special wheels I got just for this build over the course of this weekend. Getting the screws into the carbon motor plate was a bit painful. I'm debating if I shluld put my A&L motor plate on this build or save it for very modified LWB Mid runner I will be building after this one is done. Though that may end up a shelfer as I have one other project which is 100% going to be a runner in the works.

optma mid B4 slipper
 

I am sorry to cross post I would love to get a optima mid b4 slipper layshaft any ideas

OK so time for a bit of an update. I'll spread this over a few posts as there are quite a few pictures.

First up was to bolt up these ( I had to mod the front shock tower to clear the bulges on the gearbox cases where the outdrive bearings sit)

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps92a77cf4.jpg

And these

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps59904d06.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psf8f42738.jpg

I remembered A&L Ballraced bellcranks from back in the day so when I found out you could buy them new I ordered a set right away

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps10abcbdd.jpg

So, that lot got things to here

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psc3f754a3.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps68f65457.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psb3eeba75.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps394c780c.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps394c780c.jpg

When the Lazer came out, I noticed the new design of the wishbones and the outer link and always thought it would be great if you could have those arms on a Mid. I didn't know at the time that they did indeed fit. I also got the MPP rear arms as they were on eBay, they are period correct and only having a rear pair made them cheaper and they are a closer match to the Lazer front arms than the stock Mid rear arms

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps3877385a.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps161e2f8e.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps75d4c5e1.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psdcd3858d.jpg

Moving right along, the next step was the front C-Hubs.
Although I wanted to have Lazer front wishbones on my Mid I didn't want the upper link to be past the kingpin like the ZX but rather I wanted it to stay inboard like the mid, for no other reason than I thought that looked cool.

When I saw these hubs on eBay they were just the thing, being the right configuration, vintage, and gold. I always liked gold parts back when I was into RC unlike now where my fixation is with blue anodised parts. Plus they were ballraced and back then I knew of ball raced hubs but never got to see one. They are marked as being for a Lazer ZX but I am not so sure as they have zero caster (left and right are identical) and they can't accommodate the Lazer upper arm configuration.

They needed some flanged bearings to work. I also got flanged bearings for the Andys knuckles I planned to use, these again fit the build brief of being vintage parts and parts I knew of back when I had my SE.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps6469760a.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps1fe07270.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps960b28ac.jpg

However I very soon ran into issues with the Andy's knuckles fouling on the Lazer wishbones, it turns out that they have a larger external diameter than the standard metal OT-16 knuckles.

This was not such a catastrophe as I had always wanted to polish the stock knuckles back in the day but had no idea about metal polishing. So I had an old pair of knuckles which I had polished up for an experiment. I have removed the front cast mark to make them look a little cleaner. Its hard to capture the shine in the photos

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psf8e53c9f.jpg

So now armed with these I had no more fouling issues and I could bring these bits along for the ride. The platinums are brand new and were being minded by my Lazer ZX so at the moment its sitting very low, but never mind I have grander plans for it now. The front universal joints are new but I also put this nice secondhand pair on the rear because 20 years ago I thought it would be over the top to have them on the rear as well. I went with turnbuckles because I always thought it made no sense for the SE not to have them.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps8abb9538.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...pse08d2585.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps125f6c97.jpg

Here you can see the front suspension assembled, along with a polished hex drive

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps3884b97b.jpg

I had also saved a motor for this build, although its not the same motor I had in my SE I always liked the Reedy motors and this Reedy looked like the best aesthetic match for this Mid. I also polished the motor spacer and the plates for the spur gear clutch.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps50a646d1.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps1552a4ed.jpg

So with the upper deck and a few other pieces installed including genuine tinted belt and gear covers, its starting to look like a complete Mid now

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psa86a0c82.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps751f9fa1.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps770ca703.jpg

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http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps1919241f.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps34e939a7.jpg

So, I always wanted to have Lazer ZX wheels on the SE, and I have a set of those for it which will be installed at some stage. I also have a brand new set of SE Wheels which will get their turn on it. However I always liked gold wheels, and back in the day I really liked the style of the Turbo Optima wheels. I also had a pet hate for wide wheels on the front of a 4WD.
So I combined all this into one set of wheels, Pargu aluminium version of the Turbo Optima Mid wheel, narrow at the front and anodised gold. The gold C hubs also helped me decide to got for the gold wheels as well as another reason that I will get to in a future post

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps7dd35c9f.jpg

I also had some gold Kyosho wheel nuts which were just the thing

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps6b1f488d.jpg

So this is how it sits now

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps28076594.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps688334f4.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psec7c6e51.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps755550e3.jpg

Here you can see the Kyosho battery and yellow battery straps I got for it recently and the second pic is it sitting next to my Turbo Otpima Mid Special that is patiently waiting for a paint job. I have some more electrics for it but the next step is going to be the shell, wing, and undertray

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psf9cd1aab.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psce49bc69.jpg

That carbon build with gold wheels is seriously hot! Looks nicer than the original!

Well done!

Dan that looks brilliant!

Im buying some of the A&L yellow steering bellcranks for my TOMS runner.

Dan