My original Top Cat

[1911Colt]

I bought a Top Cat as soon as they were released back in 88 or 89. Some of you might remember those Schumacher ads with the towel over the car so you couldn't see it, but there obviously were no front shocks. It was to be my first "real" race buggy (unless you consider a Traxxas Bullet to be a racer). I had dreamt of a CAT XLS, but there was no chance I could ever afford one of those.

Jump ahead to 93 (94?) and I am racing an RC10T in truck and a Losi XX in buggy. My buddy Bob decides he wants to race, so I sell him my TC. He raced it a few times, decided he likes the hobby but prefers trucks, and gets a Storm 2000. I move away in 96 and never see Bob or the TC again until 2022. Not only does Bob still have my old TC, but he also has the Storm. He recently gave me both of them. I like Bob!

I bore you with my story as a warning that this is not going to be one of those amazing restorations you are accustomed to seeing on this site. I don't have parts that raced at the Worlds, I am not restoring the car of a world champion, I am not modifying an old design to be better than it ever was before. I am "preserving" as much as I am restoring. As the 1:1 car guys say, a car can be restored a million times, but it is only original once. So if you decide to follow this build, just be aware that the end result will be a beat up old buggy

I am going to change as little as possible on the first "go". Some parts are missing and a few are probably broken. I have a boat load of re-re parts, just in case. After I run it I may make more changes.

[1911Colt]

Speed holes I don't remember drilling them on this car. Perhaps Bob or his son did them. They were popular back then, and I do recall that I swiss-cheesed my RC10T. So maybe it was me... either way, the original chassis stays! I have a re-re chassis on stand-by if it can't be saved. The forward battery cup mounting holes have been massively enlarged, as well. A couple of new holes have appeared by the left rear shock.

I do remember placing those stickers in the pan. Will try to save them.

[1911Colt]

Work on the chassis went well. I "rounded" and deburred the extra holes in the chassis. I cleaned and lightly polished everything. It must have done duty as a basher over the years, as the bottom is really rough. I covered the Novak and CAT decals with tape to spare them while cleaning the chassis. I know originals and reproductions are out there (I think I have them in my stash), but, again, trying to "preserve" my old buggy.

[1911Colt]

The motor plate must have taken a few hits over the years. It has clearly been bent and straightened a few times. Once more won't hurt. I don't have "after" photos, but it came out exactly as you would expect, ugly but serviceable.

[1911Colt]

I put a pro transmission in my re-re Top Cat and another in a re-re Cougar. This meant I had 2 complete standard transmissions on hand when this car arrived. Good thing, as it came with just a layshaft and a couple of bearings. I doubt the original diff would be worth having at this point anyway. I re-used the original housing and plates, but everything else is new. Luckily, the slot head screws were there! They cleaned up well enough. We all hated those screws back then, but now I like the original look. Slot head screws make anything mechanical look serious for some reason.

[1911Colt]

I remember placing this decal as part of the original build! Strange what I can and can't remember. By the time I walk from the house to the garage, I forget why I went, yet I remember stickers from 35 years ago.

[1911Colt]

Schumacher changed the layshaft bushings from plastic to aluminum on the re-re. Honestly, I don't remember them being plastic, but there they are.

I used the ally ones for my transmission, and as mentioned before, new internals.

[1911Colt]

The bits I used, or will use. It's not a lot really. The Cougar 2 battery strap may not work out, but hopefully it does. We shall see. The one part I hated to use is the new rear bumper/motor guard. You Schumacher guys know the original had "TOPCAT" molded into the plastic. The re-re is the later blank version as seen on various Cougars and Storms. Same part without the lettering.

[1911Colt]

The rear suspension cleaned up nicely. I had a built up rear shock/wing mount assembly leftover from when my re-re Cougar was upgraded to carbon, so I used that. Bob had rather cleverly adapted an XLS rear suspension strap to be the upper shock mount. I may re-install that in the future as it was quite cool. The wing mount assembly was missing, though, so I took the easy route. I did steal the idea for my carpet oval Cougar, though.

[1911Colt]

The shocks were very rough, but turned out well. Curiously, the exposed rear shock shafts were fine, but the well protected front shafts were trashed. I noticed, too, that the diaphragms have changed. The originals are basically hemispherical with a tiny lip around the edge whereas the re-re is mostly flat. Another change is to the brass bits that hold the o-rings. The original had separate parts that held one o-ring each; the re-re has one deep part with two o-rings stacked inside. The change probably makes no difference at all in operation but is cheaper to manufacture. All 4 bodies had the exact same blemish in the exact same spot, so I think Schumacher may have had a problem with the tooling when this batch was made. You can see a deep vertical groove in the hex portion of the shock bodies in a few of the photos.

The rear shocks were polished, disassembled for inspection, and put back exactly as they were. All I did was clean everything and replace the oil. The fronts got a complete rebuild. As stated earlier, the shafts were bad, so the o-rings had to go, and the diaphragms were cracking.

The handle of an Xacto knfe is perfect for seating the seal assembly. Just make sure you remove the blade first as you'll be holding that end.

Like the chassis, I polished the shocks not to perfection, but to ~ how I would have maintained them when racing.

[1911Colt]

The iconic Top Cat front end survived really well. The crash back bands were broken, which probably tells us something about the last time the car was driven.

The front plate has been very crudely modified to give more steering. Guilty. I remember doing it. I was too poor to have a Dremel, so I used side cutters. I am very lucky the piece didn't just snap. Schumacher released about 14 improvements for the front end to improve steering, but that all came later, and I never did any of them. You can also see where I hacked away at the top plate to clear the area around the steering actuators.

The front was pretty much a disassemble - clean - reassemble job. The steering rods are re-re parts because one side had been replaced with what looks like an airplane aileron actuator. The balls and cups are from a Bosscat (I think). I cleaned and re-used the slot head screws. The front springs are the old green AE that I cut down with those same side cutters mentioned earlier. I wanted to re-use the white spring seats as I bought those with the springs, but one was damaged. I had some in the bin from one old Schuey or another, so on they went. One upper shock mount was missing, so again, re-re bits were used. Oh, and I replaced the broken crashback o-rings.

[Retro rc]

Hey colt nice topcat. In regards to the cougar 2 team battery strap you’ll need to change the rear bulkhead to use it.

You have the original bulkhead without the step in the battery holder for the battery brace. There was a running change in the cougar that had it and that is what the re re topcat and cougar have now.

The layshalft bushing on the topcat and mk1 cougar were both plastic, although Schumacher offered the Ali ones as an option.

Most people upgraded them at the same time as putting ball racers in.

All the early Schumacher shocks I have all have that same “slot in the hex of the shock bodies as well so it’s definitely a tooling thing.

[Retro rc]

Groove in the shock

Layshaft bush

C2 works bulkhead

C2 bulkhead

Nip topcat motorguard

Original Tc-cougar bulkhead

Revised mk1 bulkhead

[1911Colt]

Thanks Retro, great info as always! Do you recall the original bulkheads being weak in the middle? Mine is strong in the direction in which it is designed to work (shocks pushing up against it), but very flexi if I push straight back on it. My re-re TC and Cougars' bulkheads are much stronger in all directions. I notice too that the mounting point for the rear upper link is smaller on the new piece. I think this must be to reduce the leverage acting on the mount, making it stronger. I don't know if I worded that well, because it is counter-intuitive that a part would get stronger by having material removed.

[1911Colt]

So, I went to an RC swap meet this weekend. Who knew that was a thing? I don't follow the market, so I could be wrong, but I think I scored big.

I can take a joke and'/or constructive criticism, so if I screwed up and paid too much, please fire away. Anyway, I picked up some bits that proved useful for my TC resurrection.

The 2 batteries were $10 for the pair. The 410-M5 (with a 20T Axial motor attached ???) was $10. The Speed Gems "Diamond " was $5. I got other things for other kits, but those are relevant to the TC.

I bought the 410 to steal the plug and heatsinks to go on a T1-x. The heatsink is not correct, but better than nothing. I race with the seller a couple of times a week, so I believe him when he says the 410 works. The motor is "period correct" piece for the TC. More on that later.

The Yellow batteries just plain look cool. I am cycling them now in attempt to resurrect them. They only hold about 450 mah at this point, but that is up from 26 mah on the first attempt. The 1700s responded very well to cycling and work perfectly well.