I slept from 4.30am to 9.30am this morning so still a bit seedy but once I woke up I wanted to get straight into the car and did so with gusto. I didn't rush it however, I'm not retarded. I did everything right and made a nice job, if I say so myself. I took progress pics all the way along and a few shots once it was finished. It is as clean as the day it was made except for the usual varnishing on the exhaust manifold that comes from castor oil in the fuel.

LOCTITE THREADLOCKER - SUPER NUT LOCK - I used loctite nut locker on the screws for the new pull starter and on the exhaust manifold so they won't rattle loose in a hurry. It is great stuff and I took a pic of the bottle so you guys can go find it. You can buy it from engineering supply shops such as blackwoods and paykels and maybe at bearing shops such as saeco etc. Maybe from repco or supercheap auto but not sure on them. Anyway, it only works where you're screwing into metal, not plastic, and also works great on nuts-n-bolts. It sets anaerobically: meaning where no air is present, so doesn't go hard until the screw is tightened in place then it sets solid. You can still get the screws out later though so don't worry if you think it's in there forever - you can still uno it. Cost is about $16 a bottle and you only use 1 drop on most little screws. 

You can see in the pics I have used the largest spacers for the springs making them rock hard, perfect for hard-nuts racing. No-good for off-road but I intend to stay firmly on the tarmac anyway so it's just what I wanted. There is no droop at all - when I put the car down it stays up on the shocks and doesn't sink down to halfway down the travel.The back end is sitting 16mm front the ground to the underside of the chassis plate and the front 18mm (measured at the front end of the radio box and before the bend in the nose of the chassis). I think they rally tyres contribute about 1 or 2mm to the height so once I get road tyres it should be a fraction lower. I'm not worried about slamming it to the ground at this point, maybe later if I pump the shocks with 100 weight shock oil or upgrade them completely.

The front right-side shock is slowing a hint of weepage so it needs a bit of attention. As I had stated earlier, it had some air in it so I think the dome-shaped oilcap inside it might need replacing. I'll have a look at that late one night - at this stage it's not a major issue but I'm pretty fussy and like everything to be as damn near perfect as I can get them. Of course, it helps that I don't have a wife to bytch and grizzle about the time I spend on the car so once I get home from work each night I can spend as much time as I want on it and don't have to rush things.

Ok, I wanted to throw in a tip for you good men. Sometimes when you spin the drivetrain by hand (with wheels off the ground) you might feel the occasional bump or "stiff" spot. You shouldn't get these and need to sort it before it ends up costing you bucks. Usually it will be caused by a piece of grit or gravel lodged in somewhere and getting compacted each time the drivetrain rotates. A good place to start checking is in the spur gear as a piece of gravel lodged in there can damage the clutch bell and eventually require either the spur gear or the bell, or both, to be replaced. I had a tiny piece stuck in mine, causing a "bump" and used a small blade screwdriver to dig it out. Unfortunately, it has damaged the bell a smidgeon so I know I will need to replace both parts at some stage but for now they're not tooo bad and I wouldn't replace one without doing the other at this stage. It's a different story when a spur gear has just stripped because of driver abuse or mis-alignment of the engine and gearbox - in that case you can safely replace just the spur gear and make the necessary adjustments; alignment or attitude as required ;o)

I still need the end piece for the tailpipe but that's a quick swapover, and the grub-screw that holds the front end of that piece is missing so hopefully the new bit will have one in the pack. Other than that and checking that front shock, the car is fully rebuilt after a total strip-down and clean, with a new pull starter and manifold gasket all firmly inplace. Today's effort took about 3 and a half hours to do the reassembly including setting up the servos and giving the body shell a wash out with detergent and a streak-free dry-out in the sun. The tyre that had peeled off the rim has been put back on but I need to get some glue to re-stick it. I'm not overly bothered about that though as I want to switch to road tyres pretty much straight-away so for now that one is on the back and I just won't run the car ;o) ...you believe me right?? lol Anyway, I'm happy with the overall job I've done - the car is near new and once I get the tailpipe, leaky shock and road tyres sorted it will technically be better-than-new so I'm fairly pleased with the whole business.

Enjoy the pics :o)

Update on the kyosho pureten alpha gp 3 series... after a few days of focussing on my trademe listings and buying a few parts, tonight I got my "a" into "g" and have been cleaning bits. Last few days I've stripped it down - as you can see all that's left on the chassis is the engine, that can stay there for now as all the bolts are tight and it can be a hassle getting the geometry right (lining up the clutch bell with the spur gear) when putting it back together. I haven't taken the diffs right apart at this stage as I don't have grease or time - will make sure I do it next time I strip the car. Actually I might do them after the auckland rcmate meeting of the 24th march. Two of the shocks had air in them so I removed the springs and cleaned them all before re-oiling. I don't have any shock oil at the moment but seeing as I'm planning to upgrade the shocks at some point I've just used 3-in-1 oil for now (I don't recommend this to anyone as it's not the correct stuff to use but I'm a big boy and can live with the results of my misdeeds). In the original kit-box there were another 4 sizes of spacers for setting the spring tension and the mid-range ones were on the car. I've swapped them out and fitted the biggest ones in there so the springs have the highest tension possible with stock parts; a good move I feel as I want it to handle like a crazy-arsed futhermucker on the road - offroad is not my thing yet ;o) I still nedd some decent tyres for on-road. All I have at the moment are rally tyres with no foam inserts - very lame and wrong for my style of driving. I like huge grip so the car will go where I want it so foams are the obvious choice. On the previous pureten I had I tried a few different combinations and found foams great for driving and worn-flat racing tyres ideal for drifting. I think I had 36 shores allround which stuck like glue to the road. You need to be careful with all that grip though (plus harder suspension) because in hard cornering at high speed there is a greater risk of flipping the car whereas on skiddier tyres you might just drift or slde-out a bit. So ok, this makes it more important to have the shell on the car while driving to protect the guts from breakages.

Right, onto technical matters for preparing a car. I used a towel and a small paintbrush for cleaning - and I clean EVERY part of the car including the inside of the battery box and between the coolling fins on the motor. I even opened the tailpipe and cleaned out any unburnt fuel in there. I found out I can replace just the end section of the pipe where it got broke and don't have to replace the whole thing. Quite interesting to see inside it - there is a restrictor plate with a hole in it that creates the backpressure - I guess this is the part used to "tune" the pipe... Thinkin about taking to it with my dremel to free-up the flow a bit hehehe ;o)  Kiddies, don't try this at home.... well, on the other hand, DO try it, but let me try it first just incase it buggers up the whole thing lol...

Now, I read guys saying they've cleaned their car and oiled this and that... STOP!!! DO NOT oil any exterior part on the car not even with CRC - dust and dirt will stick like crazy to any oil or lubricant exposed. Remember, our cars are riding just millimetres (or centimetres for trucks) off the ground where all the dust and dirt is, so it's important to keep them clean and "dry" Ball-joints will work fine if they are properly cleaned, no lube required. If you feel you really must lubricate some part of your car, get hold of some graphite powder and dust the part lightly with that - dirt won't stick to it and it's a very effective lubricant. Other than that - no exposed liquid lubricants or you'll be stripping your car down every 5 minutes.

Now, I hear guys saying you can't run your car in the rain. This is not technically true. You can run your car just fine in the rain, it's actually a lot of fun and you can get some great drifting on asphalt even with foam tyres in the wet, however, if you do choose to run in the wet, be prepared to totally strip your car apart once you've finished because the water will track dirt into every orifice. You'll need to remove fuel tanks and battery boxes/radio gear etc to get it all properly cleaned. If you don't get rid of all the water your screws will rust detracting from the sex appeal of your ride and your balls might get sticky.. Ball joints I mean... 

 So ok, as you can see, I've got a busy day tomorrow reassembling the car. I'd carry on tonight but I need loctite out of the shed and it's now 3am so not really easy to find out there just now. Here's a hint and something you all should be doing - use loctite threadlocker or nutlocker on any screws going into metal so they don't shake loose. This means engine mounting screws, exhaust manifold, pullstarter etc. It hadn't been used on my car which is a shame as I wouldn't have lost the exhaust manifold and pullstarter screws if it had been. Those screws need to be in on my car before the radio box and just about anything else can go back on so I'm stuck for the night. Everything is clean and set ready to go though so in the morning (or whenever I wake up lol) I can get straight into it. I'm figuring about four hours to reassemble the car from this point. I already have the spur gear attached to the rear end so fingers crossed it will all go together smoothly. I'm a bit disappointed I haven't been able to afford the tailpipe piece as yet so if I run the car it will have to be very gently and/or, with the shell off so I don't melt the shell dammit... I think if I just get it together and able ti run tomorrow I'll be happy, there's no huge rush to go fanging down the carpark yet. I want the car in top shape for the meeting in 2 weeks and a roasted body-shell is not part of the plans... 

 I'm going to copy this blog into the nitro usergroup section of rcmate so other guys (and secksy chickies) can use the hints - some of them are quite important I believe :o)  Righto, it's 3.30am sunday now so I better crash out in a minute - so to speak. Have a good one folks and if I hav time I'll update once the car is back together.. Ciaos ows.. Naps.