RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

So I have finally gotten around to rebuilding my first "hobby grade" RC car. I started searching for a rebuild candidate about a year ago, and couldn't find any at the time. Then I missed out on a pretty good deal on a pair of them. Then it just seemed like the great car never came around. Then it seemed like I started to see a few come up, and I bought a couple passively, never really thinking about them. And then, about a few weeks ago, I decided to get serious and build a FX10. I grabbed the tub of vehicles I had picked up, which I was sure was about four cars, and there was ACTUALLY like 6-7 in there. They were just like ferals; they showed up and I took them in.
So my original plan was to try to make one very good car from whatever I had, but once I realized what I actually had, the plan became to make two cars, and then three vehicles! Surely I could make three vehicles from the ~6ish I had! So, I went with 1) shelf queen all stock, 2) a semi-shelfie truck conversion made from second-best parts, and 3) runner buggy made from the best of the rest. The plan was to build all of these kinda at the same time, sorta assembly line style, but timing and parts availability threw that out the window pretty quick.

From the crop, the one front and center is the alpha. Everything that is there is unused (including a set of wheels / tires not shown), but it is incomplete and the tub has multiple orange stains on it. With quite a bit of sanding on the outside portions, and lightening of the inside portions, the tub came together quite nicely. And since a good portion of the rest of the car was there, with the addition of a few more parts and cleaning up quite a bit of electronics, the complete chassis of this one came together pretty much before the builds of 2 and 3 even started. It was so fun building this car knowing that I skipped school about 34 years ago and did the exact same thing!!! So, to start into the other two, a quick lesson was re-iterated: if you have a few mediocre cars, you will end up with loads of mediocre parts! The plan was to smooth out all of the tubs and make them white as stock. Reality is there is no chance of that happening. After looking at LOTS of pics of truck conversions, it hit me that the chassis should be black for the truck, so I would paint that one. Then, it didn't take long to convince me to paint the runner tub also. The fact is, with old FX10 tubs, the plastic is relatively soft, and it doesn't take much to put a few deep gouges in them. Once they are there, you can try to sand them out (which they are often 75% as deep as the material is thick), or you can fill them and keep most of the original material there and paint it to whatever color you want. So, with some sanding and filling with Mr. Hobby filler, tubs 2 and 3 are hanging in the garage with hopefully final coat of primer on them. They should be in color this weekend.

Got some painting done, and most of the runner chassis is complete.

The normal black paint for the truck chassis was a bit too gloss for me, so I need to get some matte. Of course the local HT doesn't have any, so need to go to the one an hour away sometime this week. I am also still waiting for the truck conversion kit. TeamCRP is apparently in the process of moving so many parts are tucked away in boxes still.

Overall happy with the runner. The front sits maybe a tad high for now, but still deciding if I want to limit it more. The only parts that really still need replacing on this one are the diff cases. These were all just about garbage on all of the donor vehicles, so I need to keep my eye out. The TeamCRP front suspension seems to be a nice bit of kit, especially when compared to stock. The shocks are Chinese and made for a WLToys, but they fit, and again, compared to the stock springs only, they are a huge improvement. Waiting on a decal kit for it, and then should be able to wrap it up quickly. The body will be the same color as the chassis, so had to find a color that I could get in both TS and PS paints.

Edit: just realized there was a dog hair on the side of the chassis while pic taking. Life with dogs!

Did those shocks come from cannibalizing a black Friday sale WLToys 144001? Those were so low priced, they would have been great sources of parts.

Frankentruck wrote: ↑Sun Apr 10, 2022 9:12 am Did those shocks come from cannibalizing a black Friday sale WLToys 144001? Those were so low priced, they would have been great sources of parts.

No, these are some 1/12 WLToys things I dug up on amazon.

I bought three of those el cheapo 144001s thinking I would use 1-2 and sell the other(s). I just ended up flipping all 3. In this hobby, you have to recover whatever funds you can when you can!

The bone stock shelfer build reminds me of Christmas day 1987!! Mine looked like that for as long as it took to charge the battery, then I ran the beans out of it. So much fun.

So, got the third chassis about wrapped up today.

I think for right now, like for the next 4-6 hours or so, I may be the most efficient Futaba FX10 builder in the world. Who else has put together three FX10s in such a short timeframe in the past thirty years?

I was hoping to get all the tubs done, and then just have a "paint day" with all of them together, but the truck conversion stuff hasn't even been shipped at this point, so it will lag behind. I should have all I need to complete the buggies though, so hopefully paint / decals will happen over the next few days.

The shelfie is just about done. I still need to paint the driver, but I will do that the same time I paint the one for the runner.

This thing came out better than I thought it would. I honestly can't stop smiling at it! I am 13 again!!

morrisey0 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 13, 2022 8:00 pm The shelfie is just about done. I still need to paint the driver, but I will do that the same time I paint the one for the runner.

This thing came out better than I thought it would. I honestly can't stop smiling at it! I am 13 again!!

That's the feeling right there

Got a little paint time on the runner today, and two for two, came out better than expected. If I could just get TeamCRP to send me my MT parts, I could wrap this all up. But anyway, love this rig......


While waiting on the MT parts, another MT has been staring me down from across the room! This would be my 6th plastic tub in a row, which isn't really my thing, but I do love this truck and want to dive into it!

And bringing up the rear is the Monster Truck, which I have taken it upon myself to relabel as a FXMT. Took a bit to get all the parts lined up, but it worked out. Outside of the nostalgia for the original white one, this one turned up to be my favorite, but to be honest, I am pleased with how they all ended up. I think all came out better than I had planned.

I hadn't ordered any graphics for the MT, and had no idea what I wanted to do with it. So, I just decided to break out the CriCut and just cut some vinyl for it. Took inspiration from the FXT and this is what I came up with. It may end up with some more, but I am liking the simplicity right now.

The weirdest thing is that I hated MT conversions back in the day! They just looked silly to me. But now, that silliness seems kinda awesome now. While working with TeamCRP on this one, I have ended up with a RC10 conversion kit, which will definitely get used in the future.

Love that paint scheme on that truck, very retro!

That truck has the look! Love it.

Props from the brothers on paint / decals? I take that as a major compliment! Thank you!

Really dig what you did with these, all three look awesome. FXT inspired decals on the MT turned out great. I've never really cared for the FX10, but this thread kinda makes me want to look for one.

With all the (warranted) love of Vintage Comicals these days, I think I have to try to fit in a 4th build out of this group! I am cheating a little bit as I did pick up another basically full car for peanuts awhile back, so the original stash is a little bigger. Not sure how I will go about it, but project Comical FX-10 is on!