Back in the day, some of us made brass "roll bars" for our Lunchboxes! Very simply, took a length of .040, 3/4in brass sheet, long enough to wrap around the inside of the Van body and extended roughly 1 inch below the body mounts. We then applied foam insulation to the outside of the brass bar (to protect the inside sprayed Lexan). drilled holes to go through the body mount posts. Beneath the posts, we drilled 2 holes on each bar end. Then we put two screws in, to firm up the bars, and reinforce the body pins.... We NEVER had any problems with broken pins or (badly) busted bodies! ONE guy tried top body mounts.... Remember those DuBro "body mount kits", not much more than 4 long, plastic threaded rods, and you set the body height, with plastic nuts, threaded down the threaded rod? Yeah, it ended up looking as BAD as it performed!!! 😁 30 years ago - we had no CHOICE but to be creative.....
Oh I know what you mean. For 2 decades the body mount on my Pumpkin were scraped together from random ABS and some hpi body mounts. It was crazy how crappy the stock ones were.
Now that I've watched this again, I LIKE the oversized body pin idea!! You should offer that as an option - with a disclaimer of course, that the will require drilling out the body holes. Some people already have oversized holes....
You are a legend , thankyou so much for this video and your great work helping out Tamiya fans all around the world. I love the Midnight Pumpkin too and especially your custom paint job it's SPECTACULAR. I wonder why Tamiya never thought of an orange colour for the Pumpkin? It's absolutely spectacular !!! I've just got myself a Pumpkin last week and was considering alternative paint schemes to Tamiya box art and was actually thinking orange now I see it for my self and it's AWESOME❤️🥰. I'm in Melbourne Australia , and was just wondering do Aampro engineering ship to Australia?
Love your designs in general. Not sure about this one for the Lunchbox. Installed today, and both body mounts on one side broke within the first 3 minutes (basically, it took one hop+rollover in grass to snap them). One of them broke in a very funny way - the face of the body mount sheared off entirely, so the "nub" plus the body clip were on one side of the body, and a disc the same diameter as the mount captured it on the other side. The other body mount just snapped in the normal way (nub + body pin broke off and disappeared). To be fair, the entire way of mounting Lunchbox bodies needs to be re-thought. A lot of guys who go to aluminum body mounts (so, all but unbreakable) end up breaking the chassis, so that's not a great solution either. There needs to be some flex in the system.
You know, I hear you man. These are really designed for looks. I love how they blend but they are not good with roll overs. I have had them on mine for about 3 years but I haven't rolled this thing ever. I would pass out from grief if I scratch the body. As you say, the mounting setup is the flaw but the SLS is not good for anything but a light run and looking at. Did you get yellow? Let me know, I have some spares I can send you. Send me a message and i'll hook you up.
I wonder if it said Cindy on the original box. I need to look at mine. I know the other body I have is the box art version with the alternate decal on the door. It's the one with Cinderella siting on the front of a pumpkin stage coach. I know that decal is gone now.
Got a question for you I remember as kid that midnight pumpkin was a 1/10 scale do you remember those ever existing? I find out any thing about them these days the friend is looking for some replacement parts for it your help would be greatly appreciated
Hello, At the moment Tower offers the Pumpkin black edition...I really like the your paint job on the Pumpkin where can I buy the flame decal and which colors do you use on the Pumpkin?? Thanks
Well thank you. Actually, the Pumpkin has no decals. That is a paint job I did about 20 years ago. It has aged well, haha. I sketched the flames on the orange painted body over masking take and then used an xacto knife to trim the shape I wanted. Then it was peel and spray.
Yes but the body mounts on the Lunchbox are not good to print. They are way too weak with any 3D printing solution so I have not made them available. Sorry about that.
HI Adam, I painted it Orange in like 1995 and then added the flames a few years later. I did the design, drawing and masking and then shot it yellow with a coat of clear metallic. Not bad for a paint job around 20 years old.
