My first RC10 restoration

[Camshaft]

Hello, my name is Cameron. I posted the following on Ripper7Racing; acerpower sent me here for help. This is my first experience with non-Tamiya vintage stuff (I've spent a ton of time on tamiyaclub.com drooling over Shodog's showroom). I currently own a Tamiya Lunch Box (re-release), a Team Losi Micro-T, a Team Losi XXX-T Brushless, and the RC10 that I'm currently restoring. I look forward to chronicling my restoration and learning as much as I can from you guys, I want to restore this thing the right way!

Reposted from Ripper7Racing:

11/20/07
Several months back, a friend of mine stopped at my house for a surprise visit. He noticed that I was running my Lunch Box and said that he had an old R/C car, and wanted to know if I wanted it. I went back to his house to play tennis, and afterwards, he dug the car out of storage and showed it to me. What I saw was a dusty and dirty RC10, with a Tekin Rebel ESC, a Futaba radio in great shape, and a Tekin battery charger. I offered him $20, and he took it. I had a busy summer, so I stuffed it in my closet and promptly forgot about it. Last weekend, when I started my new job at the hobby store, I decided to bring it along. From the information I gathered over the weekend, the buggy in an RC10 Team Car, hence the black chassis tub, which is sadly dented, scarred, and generally FUBAR. I expect to restore this car over the course of the winter, and keep it around to let Jen (my girlfriend) drive it gently around the backyard.










The transmitter is in pretty good shape. It only has a couple of small scuffs, and the protective plastic is still on the name plate and the trim adjustment plate. The battery holder is corroded, and has a small crack in it. Thankfully, they carry new replacements at work.

Part I: Electronics Test

I decided that before I start to sink incredible amounts of money into this thing, I might as well make sure that everything works - knowing that the car's electronics are good means I have one less expense to worry about on this project. To that end, I purchased a new antenna for my radio, a new Tamiya style connector with contacts, and a Deans-to-Tamiya connector to let me test everything before I go through the effort to change the connector back. I also found a new gear cover for 50 cents - not a bad deal! Once I put some AAs into the transmitter and hooked a pack up to the car, I was pleased to discover that everything works - even the transmitter's analog voltage indicator!



I bought a few more parts last weekend, and won one heck of an eBay auction:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&sspagename=ADME%3AB%3AEOIBSA%3AMT%3A11&viewitem=&item=260181610774
Guys, please do me a favor and keep your eyes peeled for a clean front plate.

Part II will commence this weekend, and will probably consist of parts cleaning, or fixing that dodgy tie rod, as soon as I figure out the stock setup or one that works better.

My most recent eBay win:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&sspagename=ADME%3AB%3AEOIBSA%3AMT%3A11&viewitem=&item=110192085463
Don't get me wrong, I mean, I'm happy and everything, but I still feel a little...well...violated. $7.80 for loose battery hold downs? Yikes...

11/21/07
I'm trying to locate a clean used white arm to replace the incorrect black one, and then cleaning up all of the others. My new chassis came today; I dug into the thing as soon as I got home from college. I made a brief stop at the hobby store to pick up parts for this car, as well as some Micro-T parts (but that's another tale for another thread). Three hours later the buggy has been reduced to its component parts, and a few bits of old discolored nylon are now sitting in a tub of OxyClean. Luckily, I'm not working on Black Friday so I hope to get a fair bit of work done.

[mikedealer]

nice find.. the parts as they are look pretty clean from the picture.

before you start ebaying, tower carrys a bunch of parts still for this car, shock towers come to mind etc etc.

good luck

[Camshaft]

The arms are pretty well scuffed on the bottoms, and the battery tray has a bit of flashing, but on the whole it looks good. The servo mounts were giving me fits, not wanting to sit at the same height, but at least they cleaned up nice. The chassis plate was a mess, though. The new one is beautiful!

[mikedealer]

ya a true restore on these cars requires replacing most parts as im sure you know..

usually when i get a "runner" car that i restore, the only things that are usually good are the:
Motor Plate
Rear Bulkhead
Tranny Brace
Front Bulkheads
Rear Hub Carriers

Most everything else will have scratches on it lol.

[Camshaft]

You certainly are correct - my rear bulkhead is in really nice shape! I'm cleaning it up now. The aluminum wing tubes seem to be cleaning up nice as well. I'm usually talking on the phone with my GF right now, but she's hanging out with her mother...so I'm cleaning parts! Hmmm, it's 1:20 AM...I think I'll make myself a leftover turkey sammich.

[acerpower1]

glad to see you made it over here.

[Camshaft]

I bought some more parts today (mostly hardware). I want to rebuild my tranny; is 7394 the correct part #? Also, I'm removing all of the components from the gearbox for cleaning - how do I remove the shaft that the slipper is mounted on?

[templeofspeed]

Here's a link to the Team Car manual in one piece (20+mb):

http://www.theshreves.com/rc_stuff/manuals/associated/teamcar_manual.pdf

To remove the topshaft you need to remove the crosspin first. What is 7394? I don't find it currently listed...

[Camshaft]

Part II: Parts Cleaning
Here’s the last picture I took of the buggy in its original form.

Here’s some of the goodies I bought last week.

I spent the better part of Thanksgiving break tearing apart the buggy, cleaning its parts, and mounting them to the new chassis I bought from eBay. Though I wasn’t scheduled to work Black Friday, I did have the audacity to go in and score some new hardware. To clean, I soaked the nylon parts in a tub filled with OxyClean and water, and then scrubbed them with acetone. A notable exception to this is the rear bulkhead; I had trouble getting one of the aluminum wing tubes out, so I scrubbed it furiously with acetone and a toothbrush. I only mounted a few parts to the chassis; the receiver needs a new antenna, and the ESC still needs to have its connector changed. Here’s some pics of the current progress:



A shot of the incredibly clean underside:

My fancy Imex aluminum servo arm, I know it’s probably not “period correct” but every old Associated needs a flash of gold:

Next week’s project will probably involve me working on my receiver, and ordering a rebuild kit for my gearbox. As always, I’ll spend the week hunting for parts.

templeofspeed, thank you so much for the manual! What an invaluable resource! By the way, 7394 is the rebuild kit for the RC10T tranny, according to my LHS's computer.

[Tadracket]

Looking good. Those white parts seem to be cleaning up nicely.

[Camshaft]

Thanks! It's not perfect but I'm a bit proud for my first restoration. I'm really excited to drive it this spring (very carefully of course!). Any suggestions thus far?

[Tadracket]

Are you mounting the electronics where you found them or re-arranging? I ask because the Rx being closer to the antenna tube would eliminate some wire clutter. You probably knew that, just throwing it out there.

I have nothing. It is looking good. All my restos are goldies. I am sure you'll get lots of tips from other users that have restored this particular car. I personally know little about the proper part numbers.

Good luck.

[Camshaft]

I was actually planning on moving the Rx over to the antenna side, that was probably the change I was most excited to make! I'm glad someone else thinks it's a good idea. I wanted to mount the ESC on the other side of he battery tray, but the Rebel is too big - back on the shock tower it goes. *sigh*

Will the black 3-piece wheels I got with the chassis I bought accept standard 2.2 buggy tires? I think they would look killer on this thing.

[Camshaft]

Part III: New Parts!

I had a friend spend the weekend at my house , so I didn’t get much work done. However, I did install the two new parts that came in the mail this week: my battery tie-down and rear shock tower. I had to grab some more new hardware from the hobby shop to mount these bits; I also picked up a new receiver antenna, and a black anodized motor plate. I need to replace the Rx antenna, is there any science to it besides soldering the thing on the circuit board where the old one was? I can’t imagine it being too difficult, I figure there's no harm in asking. Then again, I’ve never cracked open a receiver before; do they come apart pretty easy? Anyways, the motor plate was marked for a B4, but it looked exactly like the one I pulled off the truck. Will a B4 Stealth tranny fit this car?





I sold an HPI Savage X this weekend, and the guy who owns it has a nice gold tub RC10 he built back in the day. I made him an offer he liked and I plan on picking it up next weekend; more details later I promise.

[RC Chick]

Id be careful on replacing the antena wire on the reciever. I did that to one of mine, well I had it done and it's just not quite right. The range is very short now. I left the wire really long and the range was like 100 ft. I cut a little at a time and eventualy got it to go further but its still glitchy. I don't use it anymore its now in my shelfer just for looks.(old futaba stuff)

My point is Id never do it again, Id just spend the money and buy a new one. Just my 2 cents though.