Vintage tamiya manta ray

[Rcburt]

Hi i am restoring a manta ray and wanted to know what colour the front uprights are as mine has 1 red and 1 black. Also are they the same uprights used on the tamiya ta 01 02 

[Si Coe]

Mine has red uprights. The TA01 was derived from the Manta ray so yes they fit. TBH the first time I saw red uprights it was on the TA01 so I'm not sure if is just thats everybody switched to them. 

[twisty]

Just to confuse things a little further,a friend of mine just bought some TA02 gearboxes in blue,they came with a pair of front uprights also in blue,but when i looked at them they were in fact TA01 uprights,taking two 1150 size bearings.

The way of making sure of the difference between TA01 and TA 02 uprights,is the size of the bearings,TA 01 takes two 1150 and TA 02 takes a much larger inner one and the outer one is slightly larger than an 1150 which is the much more common size throughout Tamiya builds.

 

I seem to remember the Hummer used black gear cases and had black TA01 Manta Ray uprights,but don`t hold me to that as i`m not 100%

 

The kingpins between TA01 and TA02 are also different,TA01 are silver in colour and have a longer step in the shaft.

TA02 are black in colour and have a shorter step.

 

HTH.

Edited December 25, 2017 by twisty
Speeling and more info

[XV Pilot]

The original Manta Ray uprights are red. Personally I don't think they look that great, so when I restored mine, I used the black ones from the Hummer which are identical in all respects except colour.

[Si Coe]

The first Manta Ray I ever saw (Jamie Booth's prototype) had black uprights but it wasn't a production model. It gets hard to tell over time as pretty much every example ends up altered.  The first Losi XX4's had black front bulkheads but these were weak and a white version soon replaced it. These days people assume they have always been white since no black versions have survived. 

 

Basically the colour people expect a Manta Rays uprights to be is red.