In an attempt to regain some of my youth I decided it was time to get hold of a Tamiya Super Champ. This was my first RC car and I've regretted getting rid of it for years. Tamiya is reproducing many of their 80's era kits now including the Sand Scorcher and the Buggy Champ or Rough Rider. Both of these cars are very close to the Super champ in design so I'm expecting them to produce the Champ as well. However it's not the same as the original in my book. I picked this one up off ebay and it's in pretty good condition but does have stuff on it that does not belong. All of that will change and the intention is to do a complete tear down, clean and polish up all the metal and strip the paint off the body and start over. If anybody has any advice on removing the paint with out damaging the plastic I'm game for any suggestions. From what I've read Dot 3 or 4 brake fluid will blister the paint up nicely where it can be scrubbed off. I then plan to give the body a paint job, not sure what scheme yet but it's highly likely that I'll add 4 functioning off road lights as well. This is going to be a trophy case model and is not intended to be run around out in the dirt and mud......otherwise I wouldn't waste my time polishing it all up.

Sweet old car very cool pics thanks for posting.

keep us updated, this is a cool thread.

The Super Champ is definitely a classic. Thought about getting a Buggy Champ/Rough Rider but it would have to be a shelf queen as performance wouldn't be up to par with the new kits.
I'm not sure if the SC uses the same wheels as the BC/RR but they have aluminum wheels on eBay for the BC as well as rear tube frame.

Thanks for the interest guy's. I've seen those wheels on ebay but this car came with a set of decent looking wheels. We'll see how they look after polishing. Your correct Drksyd, this car is definately not up to par with any new stuff. These cars are just pure nostalgia and that's what Tamiya is cashing in on right now with the re-releases. I've got an 80's era grasshopper and Hornet, both of which really fly with the right motors and gears in them but don't handle the best, their just fun to bomb around in the driveway with. With the design of the Super Champ it's not possible to install any motor but the old 540 can motor. I'm sure something could be done if one wanted to modify the transaxel but that's not going to happen in this case.

I test fit a proper set of tires and they look much more proper on this car then the rear end was removed in preparation for polishing.

Much of the rear end is polished up now and setting just set together. Reassembly still needs to take place but this gives a good idea of what I've got here. I should have taken more shots of the progress along the way but I'll try to do better in the future.

I think I would be afraid to drive that car . That oil reservoir is to funny. Man that's old school! I am very curious how it works. I was reading the vintage articles in RC-Car Magazine and it sounded like they worked pretty good . Let us know.

The rear damper does seem to work pretty well. I don't plan to drive this car much at all. Mainly just going to be a cabinet queen when I'm done but everthing will function properly. I'll drive it around inside or paved parking lots etc. No dirt, mud or snow for this one.

Looking good. The oil reservoir is a good idea, just not the greatest application. It's basically the same as the piggy backs for monster trucks. Only in this case though, you don't have a lot of suspension articulation to really make use of it.

Good point Drksyd, looking at your avatar it looks like your an airplane guy as well. What P-47 is that? I'm nearly done with a Top Flite Giant "Jug" and may be starting it this weekend for the first time.

It's the H9 1.50. It's pretty much the same size as your TF but weighs much less. I don't think TF will make a razor back version, I prefer that over the bubble canopy.
Which engine do you have in it? I have a DLE-55 waiting to go into either a TF giant scale P-51 or my Skyshark P-40. This will be my first gas engine. I had a .60 H9 P-51 with a Saito .91 but too messy and hated needing all the glo equipment and stuff to clean it. Since then all electric. For the 1/5th scale planes, gas burns clean and is really cheap with long flight times so it wins over a pretty expensive electric setup.

The Top Flite kit can be built as a bubble or a razorback. I chose the razorback as it's way cooler! I put a G-62 in it. You can check it out as I have a build thread on this site

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...1&goto=newpost

Ok, now back to the champ. Here is a pic of the completly assemble rear end. I tore the shock down completly and polished up the brass components etc.

I also tore down the front end and have one of the lower control arms polished up now.

Inside it's really hard to get the camera to pick up the real shiny chrome look of these parts now. Obviously and improvement can be seen here but the pics really don't do it justice.

Very nice.................looks well built for 25+ years old. Keep the pics comin'!

I got a few more parts polished up this evening. Short of some finger prints they look pretty good I think. I now have two control arms, one steering knuckle an upright and the the front tubes that connect the two sides done. Won't be long and I'll be assembling the front bits.

Sweet! Shinning like a brand new babies behind