Most of you know Lego set 8880. The well known super car form 1994 uses a lot of parts designed only for this car. Because lego isn't lasting forever some parts tend to break. especially the wheel mounts are known for breaking. You can get a lot of incomplete heavily used models on auction sites. But how to preserve this set? What is the best way? There are some studdless builds. But in my opinion the technic brick is a major design element of this car. So the idea came up to make people reuse there incomplete sets transplanting modern parts exchanging missing or broken ones.

A dude called Orion Pobursky [OrionP] made a 3D version of 8880. Link: https://omr.ldraw.org/files/1067

That was good news to me. Because I was reluctant to completely rebuild the set myself.

What is the best approach to rebuild this set? Say: according to which rules should I proceed? Let's say using only bricks from a specific year like something within 2016 to 2024. ...2024? Yes I'm not in a hurry.

But already the first attempts led to, let's say, decisions. It is not (easily) possible to fit new wheels to the correct wheel spacing of the 8880 from 94.

Original:

 

With new wheels:

 

 

What do you think. Is the wheel spacing acceptable?

Luckily, most of the parts are in production till today. There will be some slight struggle with the shifting mechanism and the steering.

Another question is what to do, if a color isn't in production anymore. Or to be more precise: Do i have to use blue pins?

Edited December 15, 20222 yr by pow
Title changed

How about Defender's wheels?

Not even other part, I will change all 14t gear to today's 12t single bevel gear. Those 14t is useful in some condition of course but to weak compare to 12t.

21 minutes ago, msk6003 said:

Not even other part, I will change all 14t gear to today's 12t single bevel gear. Those 14t is useful in some condition of course but to weak compare to 12t.

I agree fully, change those gears and also the toothed connectors and half bushings. Those tend to break very quickly.

 

 and     and ... 

 

For the gearbox, you can copy the one in 8466. Though have to make it more compact as the 8466 is rather 'tall'

 

Edited December 13, 20222 yr by DrJB

@Zerobricks the Defender wheels are Plan B but definitely my favorite. The Mounting points on those rims are move outwards compared to the used rims and also to the original rims. There are two colors to choose from:

- black from the defender and a rally ferrari

- gray used in the relatively new AT-AT -> hard to obtain.

These rims tend to be the joker if running into problems with the steer rack. The last time TLG delivered a 10 stud long rack was in 2010. And as they are blocking my steering extension on the wheel mount i started to use the rims mentioned earlier.

 

@msk6003 the gears get changed. BTW. did you know that changing this gears is also contemporary tuning? Because TLG started to use them when the 8880 still was sold.

The modern wishbones are 6 studs long where the old one were 6.5 long. So the wheels are automatically 0.5 closer by changing the wishbones. This frees you from the old school wheel clips, but unfortunately also from the awesome old CV joints.

I made a modern version of the 8880 about a year ago. It only uses modern studless pieces so much easier to recreate but still keeping the original spirit. Maybe you could use the chassis then try put the original body on it. You can find it on the following link :

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-106519/Sebulba56/8880-remastered/#details

Edited December 13, 20222 yr by sebulba56

Perhaps it would help to articulate a bit more what your goals are. Are you trying to get as close as possible to the original while saving money on parts? Or use modern parts where it is a clear improvement? Or make a modern model that is inspired by the set, etc etc.

18 hours ago, pow said:

 Do i have to use blue pins?

Nooope!
And could you please make a render with defender wheels?

On 12/13/2022 at 12:22 AM, pow said:

A dude called Orion Pobursky [OrionP] made a 3D version of 8880

https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/search/&q=8880&type=forums_topic&item=41226

On 12/13/2022 at 2:33 AM, DrJB said:

For the gearbox, you can copy the one in 8466. Though have to make it more compact as the 8466 is rather 'tall'

 

@DrJB hm, using the shifting mechanism of 8466 is a very good idea/inspiration. i immediately checked to see if i could build it that way. I already thought I had it easy with the gearshift.
But...

... there is an axle of the steering mechanism interfering.

I intend to remove all the old bushes. That seams to be only a problem with the headlights so far. But to keep the spirit of the old model i would use gray gears for the folding mechanism of the headlights visible at the front.

 

@amorti hey, that is a good hint! So no problems with the wheels anymore! Looks nice and tight now.

 

17 hours ago, sebulba56 said:

I made a modern version of the 8880 about a year ago. It only uses modern studless pieces so much easier to recreate but still keeping the original spirit. Maybe you could use the chassis then try put the original body on it. You can find it on the following link :

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-106519/Sebulba56/8880-remastered/#details

@sebulba56 damn that is a fun idea to mix the chassis of the studdless 8880 with technic brick exterior. May be i come back later on this.

I would not be able to develop such a beautiful model. A lot of talent and patience went into your car. It looks very tidy and captures the character of the classic 8880 almost perfectly in my view. I have already planned to build your model someday. By the way, the price is very fair. An absolute recommendation!

My project just a windy idea to keep the ancient model as true to the original as possible. It is a patched version, so to speak and not meant to be a new construction.

 

14 hours ago, aeh5040 said:

Perhaps it would help to articulate a bit more what your goals are. Are you trying to get as close as possible to the original while saving money on parts? Or use modern parts where it is a clear improvement? Or make a modern model that is inspired by the set, etc etc.

@aeh5040 thanks for your comment. i will elaborate on this.
My goal is to rebuild the old model as true to the original as possible....
a) so that owners of incomplete models can rebuild them and
b) so that TLG can release a 30th anniversary model in 2024 - just kidding.

I'm trying to minimally invasively replace the components that are no longer available from Lego with available parts.
I'm a little careful not to use parts that are too specialized or too expensive. But my main goal is not to put together the cheapest model possible, but for owners to be able to repair their models.
Let's say it should be possible to buy remnants of an 8880 used to rebuild it with moderate costs.

 

@Aleh i just learned that TLG discontinued the old 3L pins a year ago. The new 3L pins are only available in blue. I have now solved it so that pins remain black as long as they pierce through the outer skin well visible. So there should be some old pins available for building. But in the end, everyone can decide for themselves.
I do not pay attention to whether a color is available in the year in which I locate the model. As long as the color ever existed for a particular part, I use it. That makes the project manageable.

 

Here are a few renders. I changed all parts to the new ones that were easy changeable.

I used spacer for the Defender rims.

We need rims in white.

 

A first approach on the gear rack:

 

11 minutes ago, Jurss said:

https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/search/&q=8880&type=forums_topic&item=41226

Thanks @Jurss i will take a look at this model later.

You're going to need a stronger gear rack than that.

5 minutes ago, amorti said:

You're going to need a stronger gear rack than that.

The gear rack is very well supported by the surrounding structure. I am rather afraid that it will get caught on the edge between the two lift arms.

It'll bend in the middle. The new red half pins with friction might help, but it's still janky.

1 hour ago, pow said:

A first approach on the gear rack:

In Your solution ballpin will be half stud higher that in original. But in fact, steering racks differ on each of axles. So this would not work for any of axles without rebuilding of frame or similar.

30 minutes ago, Jurss said:

In Your solution ballpin will be half stud higher that in original. But in fact, steering racks differ on each of axles. So this would not work for any of axles without rebuilding of frame or similar.

As above - changing from an even to an odd width chassis is never as simple as you might think.

Pow, sorry, but how about black wheels? Very curious how they will look like...

And, honestly, the whole idea to implement the legendary 8880 from modern parts, which can be easily ordered, looks for me very cool! 

If I may ... As much as I like the styling and functions of the 8880, I feel the studded parts detract a bit. Wherever possible, I would replace all the beams with the corresponding lift-arms.

Also, regarding the gear rack. The one you're building is 12L long. There is already a part of such length, though you might have to shim it vertically

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32132&name=Technic, Gear Rack 1 x 12 with Holes&category=[Technic, Gear]#T=C&C=11

Hey a lot of good(demotivating) comments

19 hours ago, amorti said:

It'll bend in the middle. The new red half pins with friction might help, but it's still janky.

I'm not the first trying this solution. @Jurss guided us to another digital 8880. Here is a render of the steering configuration used:

May i point your intention how the developer fixed the issue with the different height of front and rear gear rack (the 8880 uses 8 teeth gears to drive the gear rack at the back and 16 teeth gears at the front, meaning that the gear rack at the front is mounted slightly lower).

And yes @amorti i was using 89678 (1/2 Technic pin with friction) within the gear rack.

But i took your comment serious and added some support under the gear rack (the 8 stud long yellow and red tiles). There are also (by default) two gears on top of each gear rack.

 

18 hours ago, amorti said:

As above - changing from an even to an odd width chassis is never as simple as you might think.

Yepp i expected that. At the moment i'm just brute forcing to all lego parts that look useful.

 

17 hours ago, Aleh said:

Pow, sorry, but how about black wheels? Very curious how they will look like...

And, honestly, the whole idea to implement the legendary 8880 from modern parts, which can be easily ordered, looks for me very cool! 

A completely different car it is.

 

4 hours ago, DrJB said:

If I may ... As much as I like the styling and functions of the 8880, I feel the studded parts detract a bit. Wherever possible, I would replace all the beams with the corresponding lift-arms.

Also, regarding the gear rack. The one you're building is 12L long. There is already a part of such length, though you might have to shim it vertically

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32132&name=Technic, Gear Rack 1 x 12 with Holes&category=[Technic, Gear]#T=C&C=11

Damn you people are very kind At least it is important to mention this part. Because it may fix the issue with the different heights of the gear racks, mentioned above. But there is one issue with that part. The last set utilizing it ...is from 2003.

And in my opinion ALL(!) Technic sets should be built using technic bricks underneath and liftarms for sculpting the exterior.

 

I'm finishing the day with this setup. The one of the things that is wrong with this setup is the lack of ackermann (despite hitting the knob at the wheel mount nearly perfect).

And you can't use the blue liftarms at the front but leaving them out at the back. Because the rear wheels will start to rotate the same amount than the front wheels when steering.

But here are some shots with both 12L long gear racks at front and back:

1.) Front

2.) Rear wheel mount

...and a last one from behind (the "exhaust" looks to modern, to detailed in my opinion). I like the white steering wheel pretty much. And i removed nearly all old parts except some 4L Universal joints, the old shifting mechanism and the rotor (Rotor 51138 isn't available in studio). What do you think?

BTW: link to the current state studio-file... https://bricksafe.com/files/wop/studdstuff/8880 of 2023 based on 8880-1 - Super Car by Orion Pobursky.io

Edited December 15, 20222 yr by pow

Looks very nice ... makes me want to dismantle mine and update it ... hmmm

I was looking for such set many years ago and they were hard to find. Then I opted to buy the parts separately from various places. Got the wheels/tires/gear shifter all from Australia for a little fortune. Then few weeks later one of them popped up on eBay and I won the auction. The end time was late at night and many people were in bed by then. In any event, I have today my completed model and also those spare parts. I tell you this though: white parts from that time period do not age too well, and the half bushings were prone to cracking.

Edited December 15, 20222 yr by DrJB

46 minutes ago, DrJB said:

Looks very nice ... makes me want to dismantle mine and update it ... hmmm

I was looking for such set many years ago and they were hard to find. Then I opted to buy the parts separately from various places. Got the wheels/tires/gear shifter all from Australia for a little fortune. Then few weeks later one of them popped up on eBay and I won the auction. The end time was late at night and many people were in bed by then. In any event, I have today my completed model and also those spare parts. I tell you this though: white parts from that time period do not age too well.

The white parts where dark tan on mine too. I (very carefully) chlorinated them a year ago. But how often can you do this? may be two times before the finish is ruined?

have heard the car has become bit cheaper lately(?). But hey congratulations that you at least got one.

Edited December 15, 20222 yr by pow

4 hours ago, pow said:

 

And don't forget to replace 6543 Technic Stick Shift Plate
:)

Still have my childhood 8880 proudly on display, no need to re-engineer it, but I'm following this thread with great interest nonetheless!

 

On 12/13/2022 at 2:33 AM, DrJB said:

For the gearbox, you can copy the one in 8466. Though have to make it more compact as the 8466 is rather 'tall'

 

But the 8466 I missed. I've actually been working on re-doing 8466 with modern lime-green panels and Claas tires and odd-width chassis -- but keeping styling and functions the same. It's sort of a back-burner project for me. We'll see

The 8880 gearbox is a 3+R (actually 4 and no reverse, thanks @astyanax) whereas the 8466 is 5+R, and hence, a little more complex. I did check that there are different speeds by putting the car upside down, driving it with a motor, and checking the rpm on the output shaft. The 8466 has the smooth opening doors with the pneumatic dampers, but it lacks the 4-wheel steer and movable headlights. Still, a 4-wheel drive and very capable. I wonder if anyone has done a motorized 8466 with RC. Is sure would look way better than the trial truck.

   vs. 

But, I am digressing, let's just stay with 8880

14 hours ago, pow said:

... have heard the car has become bit cheaper lately(?). But hey congratulations that you at least got one.

Thank you, I somehow managed to get the 8880, then 8448, and 8466 and 8070, and each has its own uniqueness(es). To me those are icons that have paved the way to where we are today (e.g. gear cam shifter and more than just one option for syncro gear). Not sure the red one mates with a syncro though, but it has the smooth round hole. 

 only, then later we got also  and 

 

Edited December 15, 20222 yr by DrJB

30 minutes ago, DrJB said:

8880 gearbox is a 3+R

just 4 forward gears actually -- see picture you just included yourself, top-right corner