Re-release Tamiya Bruiser And HG-P407

While stuck at home during these tough times, I bought a Tamiya Bruiser re-release and an HG-P407 to mess around with. I was really wanting to have a couple of trucks that can bomb around the garden. I figured I could use the HG-P407 to modify rather than making changes to the classic Tamiya.

I built the Bruiser first and as always with Tamiya kits, it went together smoothly. It's a completely stock build except I've added the Hot Racing ball bearing steering and AMPRO front wheel extenders. Everyone knows about the floppy steering with the Bruiser so most people move the steering servo to the front of the chassis. I kinda like the old school look of the "steering box" so that's why I added the Hot Racing steering. The AMPRO front wheel extenders extend the front track so that it matches the rear. I'm using a Tamiya Finespec TTU-09 4 channel radio to drive, steer and shift. Pretty much an all Tamiya build except for the Futaba servos.

I bought the white pre-built version of the HG-P407. Out of the box, the first thing I did was clean all the shock oil which had leaked out of the shocks. This required removing the wheels and tires. Here is where I first noticed that the hardware was extremely soft. I stripped the heads of two of the wheel screws and had to use a screw extractor. Make sure you have quality tools and that they are fully seated before messing with the hardware.

Everyone calls this truck the Bruiser clone. It's more of a fax of a Bruiser. It's easy to see the difference in quality between the Tamiya and the HG. As mentioned, the shocks are garbage. They look like the Tamiya versions but they only have one seal at the shock shaft and the top seal does not have a bleed screw. I basically emptied the shocks and removed the boots. At some point I will replace them with something that actually works. It may be a little difficult since any replacement will require a shock shaft with a longer threaded section.  Or maybe replacing the shock towers with a taller version that can accept shocks with eyelets on both ends? I added the Hot Racing ball bearing steering and AMPRO front wheel extenders too. I also replaced the steering servo and radio with the FlySky i6. The steering servo saver is also junk, so that was replaced with a Tamiya heavy duty version. Finally, I replaced all the bearings with some AVID rubber seals.

Whew! After all that was complete, I focused on the body. My intent was to decorate the body like the Tamiya Mountain Rider. After looking at vintage pictures of this Toyota body style, I started to like the 80s Toyota graphics. I painted the body Tamiya mica red, added the back panel to the truck and removed the chrome plating from all of the parts. The decals are a combination of Tamiya Mountain Rider and RC4WD Trail Finder sets. Lastly, I installed the Mountain Rider roll bar.

When I mounted the body, I realized the truck looked crooked. I figured out that the leaf springs had massive slop at the ends of the A springs. They do not properly wrap around the brass spacers that attach to the hangers. I removed those and replaced the A and B springs with Tamiya versions.

The pictures show where I'm at. Besides finding a suitable shock replacement, I have a small list of other modifications I’d like to add. Let me know if you guys have any other suggestions.