I finally got my unicorn!

[ChoSanJuan]

So my birthday was this weekend and I had a party on Friday night. Had a bunch of people over, most of them ballers from my team. A few months ago I put a post on FB:

"Don't forget... My birthday is coming up and I'm a size Tom Cole's Bad Company, 1 of 1, EM1. 😉"

It included the link to the Bacci listing thought It would be just a fun joke post. Joke was on me because my wife bought it and that was that!

[ChoSanJuan]

OK, rebuild time!

I wanted to get to this in late fall, I suppose it still is since Winter starts on December 22. LOL! OK, back to the rebuild...

Starting with the top tube:
Bolt is a full Bushy bolt. The myths about the EM1 converted to a full Bushy 2000 (not a FASOR to a full 2 way ram) are unfortunately unfounded.



So how does it return?

The passenger side mystery tube! It's a return spring. It seems to be more consistent vs the original backcap spring setup. (won't know till this is fully rebuilt and field tested.)



There is a threaded rod into an aluminum piston (non-sealing) that's held in by a delrin threaded plug on the front side. The threaded rod goes into a milled slot and works as the return mechanism for the ram. This is mounted via 2 small screws coming in from the driver's side.

Sorry, no pics of the slot.



Moving to the ram:

Orings on the sleeve were good.



The ram, not so much. They were gummy, but not goop.



Changed them out and if I held my thumb over the inlet/outlet holes on the sleeve, it snapped back when pulling pulling the ram out.






Continuing with the lower tube:

The LPR was gutted and red loctited. A new air path was drilled in and a corresponding hole into the body was added. This is where the Rock Reg was added via hoses to the small PTC connectors on the Driver's side. (Rock needs to be rebuilt, I think... Will cover this in a later post along with the noid.) Valve stem, spring, oring all stock and the oring looked fine.



Let's talk about the frame:
Pretty stock. Board is the OG Red board. The power switch was moved to the rear with an on/off latching button.



Since we are in the tray, let's move onto the solenoid:

Sad news here. The stock SMC SYJ314-SG seems fine. I can hear it faintly click, as this noid doesn't make too much noise on a regular EM1.



The sad part is the gasket that mounts to the body. It looks like it's degraded and mushroomed out from the screw stress. Likely dead since I can see light in areas that I don't see on my original EM1.



OK, that's it for now! I got it all buttoned up and replaced the drop forward with something a little more sensible that's still period correct. I will be replacing this horriffic stock barrel that Tom said that is NOT what he ran on there. I'll just put on one of my many aftermarket Spyder barrels on there once this is all said and done.

[Olsson]

Obviously she's a keeper. The wife, I mean.

[BrickHaus]

Yeah, you got a good one my dude. I'm excited to shoot this beast over the chrono next we cross paths. I can finally see why you love the em1 platform so much.

Also, Happiest of Birthdays to one of the best ones good sir!

[OpusX]

Awesome all around

[Jonnydread]

Very cool, congrats dude. What's the silver ram-like thing on the passenger's side?

[ChoSanJuan]

I think it's for the fasor return... The bolt is a full on Bushy bolt so there is no back cap with the spring. There's so much speculation, even from back in the day, that it was a 2 way ram or a spring return or some other secret sauce thing. Nobody will ever know till I crack this thing open. (hopefully NOT doing any damage to threads or slots in the process!)

[Myrkul]

I absolutely cannot wait to see what's going on inside this thing!

[the_matrix_guy]

Very cool, and happy (belated) birthday

[scottieb]

Subscribed!

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

Awesome score man. I wanted to build a Bad Company Spyder AMG since I first saw one. But now I'm all about the pistols. So unless I find someone at the field who's selling a working one. I will pass, just to much marker for me. I got no desire to do anymore builds either. .

[ChoSanJuan]

Small update...
I got it signed by Tom at NXL Chicago and got a digital version to have it lasered on. I did ask him what kind of reg was on there. He said it was an Air America but couldn't remember which model. Incidentally, I have an AA Vigilante on my personal EM1 so regardless, I can get it close enough by swapping over. The rebuild will happen probably through late fall into the spring, depending on my available time.

[scottieb]

Cool idea getting the signature.

[ChoSanJuan]

It's funny, because when I cornered him and told him that I have his personal EM1, he looked at me weird and said ArE yOu SuRe It'S mInE??!?!

I assured him it was. When I brought it to him an hour later, he was all oh dang it is!

[scottieb]

And then he said "Give it back."

And you said no.

It is awesome how paintball markers we've used are so nostalgic.

[Opteron-O3]

I've always wanted a Spyder EM1, great find

[ChoSanJuan]

OK, first official rebuild post is up!

In case you missed it, it's the second post

https://www.mcarterbrown.com/forum/paintball-news-aa/the-armory/kingman/569107-i-finally-got-my-unicorn?p=569110#post569110