Turbo Ultima front end and wheel/tire modernization

I restored my vintage Kyosho Turbo Ultima during the summer of 2010.  For the restoration, I completely disassembled and cleaned every part, and then followed the manual to rebuild it.  I also bought a reproduction body, wing and decals from Marwan (see his new online store at http://www.marwanrc.com).  The body and wing were painted and decals applied in the original box art design.   I also kept the vintage aftermarket Tecnacraft tie rods because they still look really nice and a lot better than the original steel tie rods.

Here are a couple pictures taken after the restoration was completed in July 2010:

 

The tie rods were the only hop-up installed on the car at the time.  

Last week I installed a Kyosho Ultima RB5 front end and fitted RB5 wheels and Kyosho tires.  The point of this was to use modern wheels and tires in order to run the car without using up the original tire tread.  Plus, it seemed like a fun thing to do and maybe a little challenging.  It was actually very easy to do, which I found amazing considering the almost 20 year difference in chassis design.

For help in determining the correct parts to buy and also to aid in building the front axle assembly, I referred to a Kyosho Ultima RB5 manual in PDF format that I found on the net.

Here are the parts I used for the front end:

 These parts were used for the wheels and tires:

New tie rod ends and balls were used because the originals were too worn or were binding.  I should have replaced them when I rebuilt the car in 2010, but I didn't have the parts and at the time I was concentrating on keeping as many of the original parts in the rebuild as possible.  Now, however, since the front end is getting modern parts, I figured the ball ends should be redone at the same time.  At least Kyosho still makes some of the exact same parts as they did in 1989.

Here are some pictures of the RB5 front end parts mounted on the Turbo Ultima.

Some adjustment had to be made to the lengths of the tie rods for both the steering and upper links.  I had to find alternative lengths of Tecnacraft tie rods, too.  Luckily I had some in the correct lengths.  I kept the original front arms and hinge pins.  An aluminum spacer was used on the hinge pin that holds the hub carrier to take up extra space, but it's almost the same as the way the RB5 builds it.

Amazingly, the modern Kyosho rear wheels give plenty of clearance when using the original Turbo Ultima rear axle carriers, W5061 universals, hex hubs, and tie rods.

Here is a shot with everything fitted:

The new wheels and tires definitely give the car a more modern appearance, but I think it looks good.  And now I can run it without worrying about the original wheels and tires.