TOPIC:

I had a go at sorting the sticking right rear suspension, first I took the back end completely to bits, and slightly reduced/enlarged the convex/concave rotating points by polishing with used 400 & 1200 grit wet & dry paper ... that didn't work so I took a bit more off ... that didn't work either, so I sanded a little off the mating surfaces between the wishbone halves, that _did_ seem to work, so I put it all back together, & it was still just as bad

Reasoning that it had to be the driveshaft that was the problem, especially as the left one seemed to have a bit of slack that the right one didn't, I took everything apart & swapped the driveshafts over ... all seemed well, so I put it all back together again ... and it was still just as bad. Double

I took it all to bits again, and Dremelled out the bottoms of the drive cups a little, and took a little off the end of the driveshafts ... put it all back togther again, you've guessed it - no better

In the end I found the only way of improving it enough that the torsion bar on that corner had a chance of overcoming the stickiness was to _not_ do up the outermost bolt of the two that holds the lower wishbone togther - bizarre.

Time elapsed, over 2 hours

Moving on to adjusting the torsion bars, I read the manual, and a couple of sources on the web, saying how you needed to do it very carefully so all four bars were of the same pretension, the other saying how you need to set the suspension fairly soft to avoid breaking the bars in use, which makes sense.

I found that if you manage to get all four corners to work at all - on the bench, not with the weight of the body too - never mind getting them perfectly even - you're doing really well. And the method describe by Tamiya just doesn't work.

For future reference (probably for me):

1 - Remove body & invert car.
2 - remove plastic underguard, and bumper/alloy underguard assembly
3 - rear torsion bars:
- push wheel to maximum downwards deflection (if the car was the right way up, so lift it up & hold it there);
- depress release pip with screw driver,
- grip smooth round part of splined cup with the tip of a pair of radio pliers parrellel with the chassis, with the handles pointing outwards,
- rotate pliers to vertical position & push cup back into splines,
- repeat for other side.
4 - Front bars:
- push wheel to maximum downwards deflection (if the car was the right way up, so lift it up & hold it there) - the alloy underguard needs to be removed for this to get the correct angle of dangle;
- depress release pip with screw driver,
- push cup back into splines,
- repeat for other side.
5 - refit alloy underguard/bumper & plastic underguard.
6 - refit body & put car back on shelf - with suspension like this, it's the most it can cope with


One the plus side, I've heard back from the chap on eBay who sold me this Cheetah in the first place:

Wow! fantastic job, I've just read the entire thread and you sir are a master . Good to see a wreck rescued.

I've also heard from the chap that I bought the even worse Cheetah from - apparently he managed to send it today, so I should get it Tuesday

JR

Thats a "Mean, Grean, Cheetah Machine" very nice work there.

I still havent even started on mine, placed on top shelf in garage and left for very rainy day.

GING

TBH I've lost count of how many Cheetahs/XR311s I've bought ... I think it was five in total, out of which came the Cheetah on the first dozen pages of this thread, a fairly decent XR311 - even if I did have to make all the fiddly bits myself - and a big pile of bits.

Apart from the gearbox cover, I've got enough parts to build another Cheetah - and as the body is a bit of a wreck, I thought I'd recycle this thread

Today I "dismantled" the bodywork - i.e. broke all the remaining glue joints ... either I'm getting better at this or the original builder used an inferior glue, because this time I hardly broke anything - though I did manage to break where the right hand sill joins the A-pillar

Although the interior is passable, it's also very incomplete, so I imagine this one will be getting the full enclosure treatment - doors, back window & "very heavily tinted" glass

No faffing about with the colour choice this time - it'll be VW "Mars Red" ... although spraying weather seems a very long way away.

Good to see this thread getting a second lease on life.
And no mystery this time - it gonna be red!

Stripped off the old paintwork... and there was a lot of it - most of the bodywork (from one donor vehicle) was I think green with a touch of black camouflage, over red, over green, over red ... the roof (from another donor) was thick white gloss over thick white enamel over thick minty green enamel & took nearly eight hours to get off

Other than the number/thickness of paint coats there weren't any nasty surprises, so other than my lack of enthuisiasm for any builds right now, there's no reason why the rebuilding & repairing can't start ...

WOWWW really nice job!!,
I did the same but with SRB's, bought a Sand Scorcher, Rough Rider, Superchamp and loads of parts including a Grasshoper shell, which made me able to build a ''SuperSandGrass Rider''

Is there anything known about the Lambo Cheetah and XR311 productionnumbers? Since they where for sale from 1977 into the 80s. The Cheetah must be the rarest one..

Feraz

I've done some work on the body - it's taken about 3 days to get to this point as the parts have warped a bit & every joint needs clamping/taping & leaving to set ...





Sides are the same as last time - just a bit more care taken to get each side to be a mirror image of the other - two layers of 1.5mm styrene sheet, the outer one cut to give some "relief" for the door & window apertures ...



Rear window is two layers of styrene sheet, the outer one cut for the window - in one piece rather than strips last time ...



Also put in a bit of reinforcement/base for filling on the rear deck/wing lines - 3mm "beam" for strength, 1.5mm strip to fill the gap, and 0.25mm (I think) white sheet ...





Thanks to inefficient cutting I have to wait for a new batch of 1.5mm sheet to arrive before I can do the front windscreen.

Front windscreen is inexplicably closer to the front of the car on this body than the last one ... probably due to this one being substantially more complete ... anyway, it didn't really leave room for a curved tube in front of it, so I cheated & just put a bit of a radius on the outer sheet ...





Bit of filling & reinforcing with Milliput ...

Jonny wrote:

have an NIB Eunos Roadster (/Miata / MX5) that holds no interest for me whatsoever - and apparently no-one else either as I've been unable to sell it - not even on the MX-5 owner's club website in the UK ...

i may be able to buy it if you still have it

zephyrin wrote:

Jonny wrote:

have an NIB Eunos Roadster (/Miata / MX5) that holds no interest for me whatsoever - and apparently no-one else either as I've been unable to sell it - not even on the MX-5 owner's club website in the UK ...

i may be able to buy it if you still have it

Sorry, I sold it on eBay before Christmas