Tecnacraft "Nice Set of Wheels" Ad

[CNA75]

I am going to give this a lot of effort to make it happen.
Joe

...and it will be really appreciated by all of us if it does happen. Are you thinking of doing other items beyond just wheels (e.g. turnbuckles, wings, etc)?

[jgproducts]

I have a lot of stuff running around in my head. Not sure how much I can make happen and what I can not do. Will have to see what I can do with what I have. I have a call into the folks who made the Aerofoil wings for me in CA. Going to see if they still have the molds or maybe evne some stock laying around. But I really doubt it after all these years.
My do soem retro ti-rod sets. I actually still have some Titanium stock. Been pricing alum today. Not as bad as I had thought. I would like to do RC-10 stuff first and most likely some Optima centers and some Losi centers which we never really had except a few prototypes for the JRX-2. I would also like to maybe make some stuff for 1/4 scale cars.
Once I know about pricing I can give more details. I am going to try hard to keep the price down. I would like to make a little for my efforts but not trying to make a killing. Just want to bring back somethings that were true works of art back in the day. A lot of people tried to copy us but never had the quality we had. Or so I think.
The problem today with a lot of things like hubs and turnbuckles is that they atre made in China and are very poorly made. But today it is about the cost not the quality.
I guess I had never realizied that Tecnacraft would have been so popular. And the reason you guys are having a hard time finding wheels is that we really did not make that many of them. I would guess that there were less than a couple hundred sets of each ever made.
I wish they would have been this popular back then. lol

[murphy3428]

here is some picks of a set of wantabe tecnacraft style wheels from back in the day for touring cars. I got these last year the quality just isn't there I guess they were looking to sell quanity instead of quality

[jwscab]

I know I drooled over them alot, but as a younger kid, I could never afford them, especially since I wouldn't want to run them after I got 'em!

If the price is reasonable, I would be interested in a set. If I might make a suggestion or 2, maybe consider the following:

original style wheels, but set the front wheel bearing size to allow multiple models, standard and metric. HPI used to have this on their front wheels, then used adapters to fit the appropriate models.

possibly consider going to 2.2" diameter, allow the use of more modern rubber.

both things will expand you market, and would keep the value of the orginals where they are. heck, you might end up not keeping up with demand by being able to cover many different models that way.

again, just some suggestions, looking in as a consumer......

+1 on the turnbuckles too! my favorite choice in tie-rods, hands down.

[jgproducts]

Were those made by See's or JPS? I know that after we slowed down both of them tried to copy some of our stuff. I will probably make some centers for Touring too. Mabe the BBS and a spoke pattern. The shop I went to see this maorning is going to make a few sample for me to see. I want them to look exactly like the old ones. The new ones will have some kind of mark to show that they are new run. I do not want people selling them as original and hurt the value of the originals. I think a lot of folks will just be happy to be able to afford some. Keep your fingers crossed.

[shodog]

those mesh wheels were made by Happy time RC. Overall i was impressed with their quality considering they were only $40 a set. I used them on my wrangler



Joe, in addition to the Rc10 wheels, you should consider a set for touring cars. I would absolutely love a set of staggered deep dish tecnacrafts for my touring cars.

[jgproducts]

I never had heard of them. Yes Touring car is on the drawing board. As is some 1/4 scale too. Will make them rim and insert with a pan car style look so guys can put foams on for show.
I have been thinking about this for years and just did not know what the response would be. I would never sell the stuff that I have because it could never be replaced. It is all packed away wrapped up nice and sfe in sealed tote boxes. I think I have at least 1 piece of everything we ever made. May have to do a museum someday. lol

[shodog]

I would love to see pics of everything. In fact I'd be willing to help. Just send everything to me and I'll take some photos for you

[murphy3428]

Actually that might not be a bad way to advertise your come back showing how far ahead of the game tecnacraft really was and by cataloging every thing that tecnacraft produced back in the day so that people could have a reference to go by. That is what I have found to be the most difficult, is to find any info on the old tecnacraft stuff it seems like there was more different styles then I thought. I really feel that a museum site would be killer!!!

[jgproducts]

Funny thing was that it all started with the wheels. 1/10th and 1/4 scale. We made very few sets for the Clod and Blackfoot trucks. I would say less than a 100 sets. We first made the machined wheels for 1/4 then had the rims done in spun alum. Nice for looks but were very fragile running them.
We did RC-10, Optima, Ultima, Pan Car sets for the most part. Made a few prototypes but never produced them for the JRX-2 and T. We sold more pan-car's than anything else. There are a lot of those out there somewhere. They were all expensive to produce. We did not make a lot of profit on them, but they were very cool and got us into the headlines at the time. We made several special sets for Eldabrock for the sprint car they had.
The stuff I have has been boxed up since 1998 when I sold Tecnacraft. I really do not know what all I do have. I just grabbed stuff and put it back for memory sake.
Guess it will be like Christmas when I open them up.

[shodog]

you sure about the JRX2? I have a set of them. I modified them to fit RC10 by chamfering the hole near the pin, I know numb nutz move.

[jgproducts]

Yea, We did make them. Brain Fart. We made more of the JRX-2 than for the truck. I was thinking about the Schumacher Cat. I have a bunch running thru my head. Just got off the phone with the guy who is going to help me with the new stuff drawings. He is way more CAD smart than me. Got to gather up some touring car wheels to get sizes from.

[aconsola]

This is great to see. I'd love a set each for jrx-2 and jrx-T.
I bought a bunch of the turnbuckles a while back from an ebay seller in South Carolina. there were several hundred in the lot, many broken or bent, many new, but all mixed up(even got 2 that were only threaded on one side).
The item description said they were warranty returns and old stock. Would that have been the person you sold Tecnacraft to?

Thanks for the efforts in getting some new production going!

[CNA75]

Schumacher CAT and Blackfoot That's at least two extra sets that I will need to order if you make them

[jgproducts]

Hey
That actually was me. I found a bag in a box and thought somebody might could get some use out of them. I think I have more somewhere. And a coupls of bags of new ones too. Just got to dig and find them. Glad you got some out of the pile.
Joe