Tamiya Falcon Front uprights

Hi!

this is a set of front uprights for the 1986 RC car, The Falcon from Tamiya.
This car was instrumental in the childhood of many young boys and girls in the mid 80's and has since become rather well loved riding atop a crashing wave of plasticy nostalgia.

https://tamiyabase.com/chassis/34-falcon

However the downfall of the model is that the plastics used were painfully brittle 35 years ago and have got even worse since/ Any examples spewed out by the eBeast are generally either nearly broken, completely broken or expensive enough to leave the wallet rather bruised.

These are a strengthened replica of the parts that came with the model. I just took my broken parts and recreated them with basic matching geometry, however I did take some liberties and they are not a 100% match, but they're close enough for me. I left them as solid as possible for strength. you could beef them up further if you're inclined!

Without printing in nylon or carbon fibre etc these probably will not hold up to "bashing" but should be adequate for stock motor driving about and enjoying that charming vintage RC understeer. If you want to do more with your RC car I would advise checking out "Ampro Engineering" on shapeways & youtube. He has strengthened and upgraded parts to the logical conclusion and they are absolutely fantastic and you can buy them off the shelf! They've been painstakingly re-engineered to perform rather than some tit with a vernier knocking out blocks with holes in, in an afternoon.

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/ampro?section=Tamiya+Falcon&s=0

I found the best way to print these is like the screenshot, facing upwards. Gives the best strength about the pivot holes and it generally looks nicer. You will need to ream/drill out the holes to 3mm. used a cheap 3mm reamer from eBay.

They are printed from ABS at 50% infill and this has been okay for me so far. I have run and jumped it off the kerb but no huge impacts. YMMV.

This is a work in progress and I will be updating if and when I can. Feel free to message me for any questions.