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Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:13 pm
by Triangles
New to the forum. I've been out of the RC world for 20+ years. Long ago I had one of the gold pan RC10's from the late 80's and scooped this abomination of what appears to be an RC10 for next to nothing at a garage sale. Can anyone identify which RC10 this is? Also yes I know the steering is an ugly hack that I will have to correct and some idiot was using an airplane radio with this.
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Re: Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:17 pm
by scr8p
That is a Traxxas Bullet with a graphite chassis.

Re: Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:18 pm
by klavy69
well its no rc10. Its a traxxas bullet with the traxxas graphite chassis and rad2 wheels on it...good base for a light runner though.

Re: Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:25 pm
by Triangles
Well then that would explain why I couldn't identify it looking at various versions of the RC10. It's been years since I've gotten rid of my old RC10. The nylon suspension upfront looked to me like a carbon copy of my 80's RC10. At least from what I could remember of it. That and the aluminum of the gear box while different was reminiscent of my RC10. Thanks for helping me identify it.

Re: Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 11:34 am
by TRX-1-3
Didn't this chassis run an upper deck? Or at least battery straps for the saddle pack set up?

I remember seeing the conversion instructions somewhere in my forum mining.

Move this to the Traxxas section and throw a rebuild / resto at it! :)

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=82&t=28694

There it is.

Re: Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 12:25 pm
by Triangles
Thanks. So that's how it was supposed to look. I also have the remnants of a Traxxas Rustler that was given to me. After looking at it and this bullet. I think I'm going to see if I can make a Franken-Bullet-Rustler hybrid parking lot basher out of it. Some of the transmission gears are pretty rough. I was hoping to be able to get new gears but I didn't realize how obsolete this thing is. I'll run it till the gears are completely toast and then shoehorn the transmission from the Rustler onto it. It will basically have the gear box and steering bellcrank system from the Rustler, the rest will be graphite chassis Bullet.

ATTN: moderators, Please move this to the Traxxas section now that we know it's not an RC10.

Re: Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 12:26 pm
by jwscab
Yeah that's a nicely upgraded buggy with some questionable assembly. Graphite front tower, trx1 battery cup and possibly kyosho gold shocks.

Re: Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 12:27 pm
by jwscab
You can find almost all the parts for this buggy on eBay pretty easily. The rustler parts will probably fit well however.

Re: Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 12:51 pm
by Triangles
Yea it is a really nice base to start from. The chassis seems to be such good quality that I wouldn't expect it from Traxxas. My first RC decades ago was a Traxxas Cat which is somewhat akin to a Tamyia Grasshopper. I guess this skewed my perception of Traxxas. It looks like the Rustler tranny is practically a drop in. I'm really fighting the urge to complete it with high quality parts to make this a fast racer instead of just for tooling around. The jury rigged steering has me scratching my head. I'll have to try and find an old bullet manual or search google for pictures to see how the steering setup was originally. If the rustler tranny fits I may sell the original trans to someone trying to do a proper restore.

Re: Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 1:14 pm
by jwscab
the bullet had a rack steering system, so either they lost it or who knows what. you can still find them, there are also a few different flavors that fit the bullet, rad 2, blue eagle, trx1 trx3, plus they are very similar to rc10 parts. you can find something usable. the wheels I believe are radicator painted silver. they also made some just like that in silver, so who knows if they used the pink wheels as a base.

Re: Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2018 7:25 am
by mopar marv
My guess leans more to an original Radicator, with the carbon chassis conversion. The Rad used the same steering set up as the old Hawk and the newer Hawk2/Rad2.

The original Rad rims were cast in pink. While the Bullet rims were natural[white] nylon and painted silver.

The Rad and the Bullet did share the same lay down transmission and control arms and a few other parts but used the same basic chassis tub as the old Hawk, but it was thinner under the trans, with the same curl in the back as the rear of the Bullet alloy chassis.

Re: Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:01 am
by jwscab
Yeah if you base it on the pink wheels and steering links, it has a good probability of starting as a radicator.

Re: Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2018 9:11 am
by mopar marv
Since 2005 I've gone thru one Rad , three Bullets, a Sledgehammer, at least six Hawks, five Hawk2s, one Rad2 and a Blue Eagle LS-2 conversion, so I have a fair bit of experience in this area. Twelve years hanging out in the TRX vintage electric forum doesn't hurt either.

Re: Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2019 2:24 pm
by Triangles
Update:
After some fun with this old buggy I broke one of the ujoints coming out of the gearbox.

Re: Can someone help me identify this buggy?

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 4:14 pm
by Chewbacca
That should be an easy replacement. Bandit / Rustler / Slash parts should fit.