Tamiya Avante 2001 Project

Page 1: Cleaning

Here is how I received the model. I have no idea what the previous owner was thinking. I understand the use of PC brush paints rather than sprays because they were available at the time, but why paint black over the clear window and why the hideous yellow? There is at least some attempt at shading the edges which produces an interesting effect. Still, this body and wing will have to go.

The tires don't look too good either. The fact that they are completely worn suggests this model was heavily used, so we'll see what kind of other wear and/or damage I'll find. You can also see that one of the cam-loc rings for the wheels is missing. The white camlock wheels are present though, and those are some of the hardest parts to find. The cam-loc ring itself is easy to replace because the re-re Avante uses them. The tires are common to the Manta Ray re-re so they are easy to get as well.

I was pleasantly surprised at the condition of all the chassis parts. At first glance, everything seems to be present and in pretty good shape. Even the original Sport Tuned motor is there. There is a bit of scratching on the bottom of the bumper but I don't mind that. At greater issue is the absence of the driver. While he is similar to the one from the original Avante, the mounting system is different and this part is near impossible to find. A less visible problem is with the hardware. The previous builder stripped the cross recesses from many of the screws, and also used self tapping screws instead of machine screws in the aluminum posts which mangled the threads. I'll have to try to re-tap them.

It sure is a lot faster to strip a car down to the nuts and bolts than it is to build it in the first place. I took every single thing apart that I could and separated the results into hardware in one bin and plastic parts in another. For the most part, everything looks pretty good with only some dirt and oil to remove.

I'd been looking for an excuse to get an ultrasonic cleaner for a while, so the Avante 2001 became the one. I'd never used one of these before but heard they were great for cleaning small parts. You just dump them in a basket with warm water and a bit of dish soap, turn it on, and wait. It only takes a few minutes. On the right you can see all the freshly cleaned hardware drying on a towel. I repeated the same process in several batches for the plastic parts. The FRP plates didn't fit so I just cleaned and polished them by hand.

Up to Index | Go to Page 2