TAMIYA CLODBUSTER:

A friend of mine who knows that I'm into "that R/C stuff" shows up at my door with a heap of plastic hanging from his arms..He asks me if I can "use this stuff"...At first glance I was unsure..Then I realized what it was and saw a ton of potential for a complete rebuild project..It was a busted up old Tamiya Clodbuster...Wow..A Monster truck..My only other off-road vehicle is my Tamiya Stadium Blitzer and I was dying to have a go at restoring this classic Tamiya beast..

It was just the rolling chassis, but he told me he had some other parts such as the body which was in pretty bad shape 'cause someone had mistakenly sat on it...Thats OK..I got tools..I can fix it..Sure enough, a few days later he shows up with the original, yet crunched Chevy body..I immediately saw the repairs needed and started thinking about how I was gonna restore the beast..

I was going to take a bunch of pre-restore pics but decided that everyone probably knows what a Clodbuster might look like after sitting in a closet for a number of years and decided against it..Use your imagination

So here is a glimpse of the final product..My Project 2004, R/C "O" Clod......

I completely tore down the chassis and washed it all up..I immediately noticed broken parts and went searching for replacements..I checked a few Local Hobby Shops without too much success..So I called up my friends at Borgfeldt (aka Tamiya Canada) and they were very helpful in getting my parts shipped to my favorite Hobby Shop(Hobby Hobby)..I had to buy whole trees for a few parts but the prices were pretty reasonable and I now have tons of spares as well...Too bad the parts that were broken all had to be from seperate parts trees..

One thing I noticed about this truck was that everytime I wanted to change something I had to tear the whole truck apart..Thats not too bad though as there isn't really too much to it..A lot of little screws and fiddling but it it pretty simple to tear down..Just a little time consuming..

My first concern was getting the R/C "O" Clod running...I had a Rooster Reversible ESC sitting on my shelf and decided I wanted to try and use it for the twin electric motors..I had all kinds of motors to choose from but since I was pushing the limits of the ESC I decided to go mild with a couple of Tamiya Silver Can motors..This worked pretty well and I have since upped the Clod's power plants to two brand new Tamiya Black Cans..

Wiring set-up: ESC- / rear motor+ / rear motor- / front motor+ / front motor- / ESC+

R/C "O" Clod Mods;

So here I am..Barely into the design stages and already involved with T/A and Traxxas..Oh well..I never claimed it would be a pure restoration..

So right off the start, blue has become the theme colour..

I am very aware of all the available chassis upgrades for this truck, but one thing I wanted to do was build an awesome looking restored Tamiya Clodbuster..I didn't want to replace everything to the point where it became a different truck all together..Maybe in the future it will end up there, but for now I wanted to keep things looking as true to a Clodbuster as possible..It wasn't about the name brands on the shocks as much as it was about keeping this R/C "O" Clod looking like a Clodbuster...

I consider the R/C "O" Clod a work in progress..Its probably never going to be finished..I get some parts, build it all up and then decide on something new and have to do it all again..

You'll also notice in the main picture that I beefed up the look of the steering rods..My first idea was using blue fuel tubing for this..None of the Local Hobby Stores I went to had the right stuff so for now I've taken some coaxial TV cable and pulled out the inner wire(which is in a white tube which just happens to be the same size as the original rods) and it fit perfect..Obviously, you have to set up your rods to the desired length before finishing them with the new tubes..Leave 1-2mm to allow for minor adjustments and any major changes can be fixed easilly enough with either a new tube or cutting the existing one shorter..

Two other mods were added..
First I raised the suspension a little my moving the top shock supports down to the bottom of the chassis rather than near the top of the chassis..This gives you over an inch added to your ride height..I found this to be a necessary mod because the stock clod is a little limited in suspension travel..
The other mod involved cutting the tabs off the steering knuckle travel stops to allow for maximum travel in the steering..This thing turns on a dime now..Well, ok, maybe a Loonie!! At least I can turn in it in my living room now and I couldn't before..I'd say the turning radius is about four feet as compared to about eight feet before
One last thing I added was a gift for my full size car..Black Magic Tire Tint...And its blue!!..You can't really see it in the pics and honestly it hasn't really been sunny out since I applied this stuff(yes..Just like when I wash my car..Its my fault its raining!!)but the instructions say you can add more coats for better effects and when the sun does come out I'll be checking that out...I just thought that it would look pretty cool on those big tires

My first attempt at the paint job involved some very fine sanding and buffing trying to get a high gloss finish...Waxing and polishing for hours..Never really got the finish I wanted and ended up redoing it a few times..

My colour scheme is now blue and chrome..I tried without too much success to get the optional chrome parts tree for the ladder suspension..So off to Canadian Tire I went in search of paint and came home with this cool chrome stuff..Worth a try I guess...I was pretty happy with the results and found that you have to over apply this stuff a bit..When you use regular paint you do a few light coats until you get full coverage..I found that with this chrome paint you almost have to apply too much to get the right effect..After the paint had dried I decided to apply a clear coat to help protect it..Bad idea..It takes away the chrome effect of the paint and just makes it grey..Back to the spray booth for re-chroming!!..

I contacted XXX Main about some chrome flame decals for the body..They sent me the stuff I requested and after some initial problems resulting from my own stupidity(don't apply decals to waxed bodies...duh!!),I managed to get the flames on the truck..It looked OK but I wasn't really happy with it..Decided to take them off and get out the airbrush instead..XXX Main supplied the cool flame paint masks and Tamiya plastic paints were used for the finish..

Pretty simple paint job really and I am happy with the final results..Other than the fact that I had to sand the whole body and redo the whole thing again..

Just painted the whole truck dark blue and then masked the flames..A few coats of white to the flame area and then edged it with the blue..Off come the masks and you are good to go..

The next thing I noticed was how bad the red stock parts looked with all the blue..I attempted to dye them without any success at all..Don't even bother trying this..My next choice was a sharpee marker..Not the best method, but it works pretty well...(If you don't look too close!!)

The blue chassis was inspired by Mike Steele's custom MO4 which is also featured in the R/C Ontario Reviews section
Krylon Paints has this Fusion paint that is designed specifically for plastics..No sanding or prepping required...After seeing Mike's M-Chassis ride I knew I had to use it as well..Coincidentally, he was using blue as well.
I think the resulting finish is awesome and really adds to the effect of the custom Clod..I'd recommend this stuff to anyone interested in a ride that really stands apart from all others and I think you'll see it used more in R/C chassis's around the globe..My R/C "O" Clod is going to be a backyard basher and it will get dirty..I really think this paint will be OK for that..Mike races his M-Chassis with this paint applied and I had a look at it at the last Tamiya Championship Series Race and it seems to be holding its finish very well..
I didn't want to overdo it by painting everything blue but I thought the blue metal brackets on the trannys needed something, so I did them as well..

Borgfeldt
Boytoys
Clodbuster Junkyard
Hobby Hobby
Matts R/C Stuff
RC Doctor
Roby's Old Tamiya Database
XXX Main

So I guess you could say,
Shocks $100
Plastic bits $200
Other $100
Having a classic Clodbuster to bash around in the backyard with......Priceless!!

Reviewed by:The R/C Guy