The Next Level: Team Losi JRX2

[Eau Rouge]

What is the next level? It's the gauntlet being thrown down to you guys to step up to the next challenge in collecting and restoring vintage R/C cars. And that means a finished, complete, ready to run shelf queen restoration. Radio, motor, batteries, steering servo, decals and the works. Anyone can build a new kit out of the box it came in. It takes it to the next level to have a display model in race-ready condition--and period correct, too.

More than a few months in the making, I'm about 90% done on the JRX2 project. You might recall that I found this car this spring sold on eBay by a guy who had built the car when he was 12 (20 years ago) and could never get it to work right. It was new, poorly built, but relatively complete. When I got it, it was found to need a lot to be perfect. It has an original body, but 12-year old hands and 20 years have not been kind to it. Between a new/repro body and a V-wing, it's all that remains to complete this car in the state that I raced in in 1987 (I found pics of my original, I will scan them tomorrow and post here).


Here's the car:

Original, first run Team Losi JRX2
Novak T1 speed control
Race Prep "orange" stock motor
Novak NER-2x 27mhz receiver
Futaba S132 steering servo
Kimbrough servo saver
Thorp turnbuckle steering rod
Losi mini front bumper
Team Brood 1400mah SCR 7-cell "Team" pack
Trinity silver battery braid

Built and ready to run, as complete as it would have been taken to the track in 1987--but built with a lot more skill than my 17-year old hands would have even done.

Hope you like it...

[mrlexan]

Sweet Doug. Looks fabulous! I give you credit on the electronics, but if I tried to fill all my cars with electronics, I would definitely go broke.

[Eau Rouge]

Yeah, that's why I have been keeping my projects to a minimum. I really want to build cars as complete as I can get them for display. That may eventually mean that some electronics and battery packs move from car to car for photography or body-off display. Perfect electronics are getting tougher to find, and aren't cheap, so that's always an option.

Then again, my specific projects have been certain cars that I either actually owned and raced (Houge RC10, JRX2, TRC/Schumacher Cat), or desperately wanted (RPS Yokomo, Delta P12 Spyder). I figure that it's more special for me to build the perfect cars complete than to just buy as many cars as I can find (not that there's anything wrong with that, I just don't have the space for that anymore).

My goal with this car was to build it exactly as if I was racing this Sunday... in 1987. Now it needs an 80s paint job with correct decals.




doug

[mrlexan]

My hats off to ya................ BTW, I love that motor. Been looking for one forever, found one in Europe but it was lost in the mail. That is what I used to race with every Sunday back in my day.

[badhoopty]

way rad dude. very vivid, nice colors and super duper killer attention to detail. it wouldnt suprise me if all the hexes were squared with each other.


i got a couple rigs in period correct rtr condition, although i cant take credit for the build or the gathering of parts since they have just been ebay catches over the years. regardless, both are killer examples of survivors imo. the widearm is pretty trick. i remember some dude over at rcu went off that my sniping program kicked his bid out. i guess he complained about it to ebay and everything... its funny 'cause thats before i started using one.


http://pics.montypics.com/badhoopty/2007-08-01/1186019022_rc10_68.jpg
http://pics.montypics.com/badhoopty/2007-08-01/1186019230_rc10_23.jpg

i didnt put the powerpoles on the widearm btw.

[mrlexan]

it wouldnt suprise me if all the hexes were squared with each other.

LOL! That is how I do mine.... Seriously!

[badhoopty]

it wouldnt suprise me if all the hexes were squared with each other.

LOL! That is how I do mine.... Seriously!

dangit, now i'm gonna be freaking aware of it and start doing it.

[mrlexan]

[Eau Rouge]

Do you guys align all of the screw heads on your electric outlet covers in your house, too? The screw heads on the bottom of this car are all aligned.




I have problems. I admit it.

[MelvinsArmy]

What is the next level? It's the gauntlet being thrown down to you guys to step up to the next challenge in collecting and restoring vintage R/C cars. And that means a finished, complete, ready to run shelf queen restoration...................... You might recall that I found this car this spring sold on eBay by a guy who had built the car when he was 12 (20 years ago) and could never get it to work right. It was new, poorly built, but relatively complete. When I got it, it was found to need a lot to be perfect. It has an original body, but 12-year old hands and 20 years have not been kind to it. Between a new/repro body and a V-wing, it's all that remains to complete this car in the state that I raced in in 1987

Okay, time to bust your balls. So what did you have to replace or fix for this "restoration" then. Sorry, I do this when I'm jelous of other people's stuff.

I'd say that's the nicest Jrx2 project I've seen to date. Well done, I love it. I'm right behind you. I'm waiting on a rear bulkhead and shock spring collars, then I can finish mine. I did it the hard (stupid) way. I bought a well used Jrx2 and then I bought nearly every single part NIB to restore it. It has definitely been a fun project, but I could have saved myself a couple hundred bucks by buying a new built, or nearly mint car. That's why I had to bust your balls.

[Eau Rouge]

BTW, I found a couple original photos from the previous owner... for bing a new car, it had a lot of fixable issues. The diff was essentially glued together. The screws were almost all stripped out and non-original, the right rear drive axle was missing a pin drive, all of the shock collars were either broken or missing and the shocks were all completely built incorrectly. It's not surprising why the car sat in a box for 20 years.

[aconsola]

Fantastic job! Makes me want to build up one just like I used to race. My JRX-2 project has so many of the aftermarket parts I couldn't afford back then and is nothing like my old car(pretty much stock).
I remember those original battery boxes, they were terrible, especially if all you had were stick packs like I did. I've not seen many in recent times in as good a shape as yours.
I also remember the steering bellcrank being rather flimsy as it was meant to flex as the servo saver, but I think my first run car had white bellcranks. I had a jg fiberglass brace for the bellcrank to lock it in place so it would not flex. I then added the kimbrough saver. I wonder how long it's going to take to find that little triangle of fiberglass. . .
I never even thought of aligning hexes, something else for me to obsess over. Should e-clips all point up or down?
-Anthony

[mrlexan]

Do you guys align all of the screw heads on your electric outlet covers in your house, too? The screw heads on the bottom of this car are all aligned.




I have problems. I admit it.

YEP! and YEP! House and RC screws. Looks like we all might have that problem.

[Eau Rouge]

Ok, maybe not a literal "restoration" but more of a "reserrection" of sorts.



New parts include:

Shock cartridges
Ball ends & ball links
Turnbuckles
Diff parts: plates, balls, thrust bearing
U-joints
Steering linkage
All aluminum and steel screws
All nylon & steel nuts
Antenna and mount
Shock collars
Shock bottoms front and rear


Existing electronics and motor were removed
Diff was rebuilt properly
Bearings were all cleaned & lubed
5-link was rebuilt correctly
Shocks were cleaned, repaired and rebuilt
Diff cover was trimmed properly and polished



It was basically a ground up rebuild and restore. Fortunately, I had been collecting parts and pieces, and I had most of what I needed to replace the abused parts on the original car, and build everything correctly.

[mrlexan]

Shocks dry?

All my Losi cars are 90% dry. Everyone that I have gotten, prior to rebuild/restore, have all leaked. I think I lubed mine then drained the oil out, just in effort to preserve the O rings.