An American Classic

The Tamiya Clod Buster was released during an era when the country was enamored with large monster trucks. What was not to like? Monster trucks came with huge tires, ridiculous suspension, and a classic Americana pickup truck body. I was definitely one of those people that was awestruck every time I saw one. I remember asking my parents to go to watch every Monster Jam event that came to the Seattle Kingdome. The huge 1,000 HP engines roared and crushed everything in its path.

I never owned a Clod Buster as a kid, I chose the Bruiser instead, but the Clod definitely had my interest. It wasn’t until recently that I acquired my first, and second Clod. I love large monster truck R/Cs. My plan was to convert a Clod into a dual brushless motor with a 3s lipo. I didn’t get far with the project though because I quickly realized that the weak shocks and four wheel steering don’t lend itself to that kind of power. It would have required large mods to get it to work right. Instead, I bought a TXT-1 for the project and that chassis was what I ended up using for the project. That left me with a few extra Clod Busters in the closet.

When it came time to decide what my next restore project should be I dusted off my two Clods and went to work with the restoration. The first one was in excellent condition. The body shell was not scratched and the decals were complete and intact. Honestly this restore was one of the easiest I have done in a while. One of the gearbox gears were shredded, a rear body mount was broken, and so was a motor mount. All things considered, this is about as good as it gets when you are talking about vintage restoration. This restore ended up being the star attraction in my “shelf queen” video series.

I have been searching for the best way to capture YouTube viewer’s interest while also providing entertaining and informative videos. I want to provide enough details to see the actual build, while keeping the length to a reasonable duration. It was hard to come up with a format that felt right. So for this series I decided to try something new. What I decided to do was split the tear down and rebuild into two separate videos. I also left the videos at regular speed and provided lots of voice commentary. I then made a third video that was both the tear down and restore but sped it up so it was only about five minutes. A fourth video wraps it up with a quick shelf queen tour. The following videos are what I came up with. If you like the format and viewing options or have any suggestions to make them better please let me know.

My plan is to make a second complete Clod and make it a basher. This one I will sell on eBay and help fund some of my future projects. I am still waiting on some parts to show up before I can proceed, so this one will have to wait a while. Stay tuned for this one.