Maybe I'll actually finish this one. I got this buggy along with another chassis and some random parts plus batteries a charger and a discharger from HotRodJosh. He got a JRX2 project and basket case JRXT for parts. We both think we got the best deal! The purple dye is what inspired me as well as Josh's plans to polish the tub. The tub itself is solid with a small number of extra holes. Many of the holes appear to have beel filled with JB Weld. I'm not sure if I'll continue that or clean them out. The tub bottom is kind of rugged so I don't feel bad about polishing it, besides, the clean aluminum will look bitchin' against the purple. I got it stripped for the most part and the sanding has begun. I'm going to strip the shocks too, but sub in some less attractive front shocks for the polishing. I also found this old litesink in my parts box, incomplete but with a hacked on motor plate. I cleaned up the upper corners with a file then stripped it and polished it. It came out pretty decent I think so I'll use it in lieu of the stock motor plate. I'm going to finish dying the white parts and add the nip front white arms - dyed too of course! (If anyone wants to trade me some decent used or yellowed arms, etc. in lieu of dying these let me know! Enjoy the pictures, I'll post more as I go along.
oh man!! im glad you got that project, that purple woulda drove me nuts/ looks like itll turn out pretty good...
i wish id known you was gonna strip the tub! i just got a polished tub in the mail , wishing it was gold too
oh well.. howd you get them rear jelly bean rims to get that white? hopefully ill be getting a few fresh basket case goldpans here soon! boxed up my stuff to ship , and i only have a few left to play with!!
Thanks guys! The shocks are getting polished along with the tub although as noted I'm going to use a pair that is pretty rough and save the nice ones for a gold tub. The Litesink wasn't in too bad of shape but all I had for a motor plate was one that the top edge looked like it had been chewed on by two angry beavers. I used my dremel and a file to clean it up - looks pretty good, if not correct. I'll put another pic up soon. The purple is awesome! Just the way it would have been done in the '80's.
The wheels in the background are just standard front rims. The pic does make them look a little bigger for some reason. I got the rear rims white by bathing them in Super Clean then scrubbing them with a household cleaner. Of course it helps to start with rims that are not particularly yellowed to begin with. I clean up the edges by sanding them on a flat surface with progressively finer sand paper. On harder plastic you can bring them back to a high gloss with this method but the RC10 rims just get nice and smooth. I realize that there are purists who don't like polished tubs but to me its an awesome way to bring a beater back to life.
i don't think it's a "purist" thing as much as it is personal taste. me, i would rather see a beat to hell gold/black tub instead of one that has been polished. i don't like it....... it's just too much. but that's me.
scr8p wrote:i don't think it's a "purist" thing as much as it is personal taste. me, i would rather see a beat to hell gold/black tub instead of one that has been polished. i don't like it....... it's just too much. but that's me.
I do understand and respect your opinion. I just don't like the beat to crap look on my personal cars.
A quick update on this car. Shocks are polished but the tub is pretty rough so I left it "brushed" I may try to polish it later but right now I'm tired of sanding. I had to dye all the parts again since the originally dyed parts turned out to be very light in comparison to my batch. I threw everything in the bucket and it all came out pretty decent. A little darker than I hoped but it is what it is. The camera is not kind to the dye job, it does not appear blotchy in person. Oh, and I didn't dye my NIP short front arms. They went to another car that is much more original and the well used arms from that car are now purple. All the parts that got dyed were well used and yellowed for that matter.
HotRodJosh wrote:Nice....I may have to have ya polish a set of shocks...my fingers are hurting just looking at yer pics...
Know what would look nice? Polished SS fasteners....
It's BLURPLE now....
My fingers are hurting from BURNS! Do you realize how hot aluminum gets when you buff it? The dremel really makes quick work of the shocks, probably less than two hours all told. The tub is another story. I need to put it on the buffing wheel that I can't get to in my garage.
That car is not coming apart to polish screws! It might be cool to replace everything with stainless or aluminum though. Hmmm...Fastener Express here I come!
I got this buggy along with another chassis and some random parts plus batteries a charger and a discharger from HotRodJosh. He got a JRX2 project and basket case JRXT for parts. We both think we got the best deal! 
I had to dye all the parts again since the originally dyed parts turned out to be very light in comparison to my batch. I threw everything in the bucket and it all came out pretty decent. A little darker than I hoped but it is what it is. The camera is not kind to the dye job, it does not appear blotchy in person. Oh, and I didn't dye my NIP short front arms. They went to another car that is much more original and the well used arms from that car are now purple. All the parts that got dyed were well used and yellowed for that matter. 
