Old "new" guy - Intro

[CNGH]

Hi all, been lurking the last week or so trying to re-learn (and also just learn learn) all the things i'd forgotten and never knew about my "vintage" rc10ce. i think i'm picking up some of the lingo, but forgive me if i misuse any or give horrible descriptions of things i don't know the name of. anyway, figured it was time i made a somewhat proper introduction and also start asking some questions.

so first the intro. i bought (or rather my dad bought) my rc10 back in 1990 or 1991. it's a CE gold pan with bearings, pretty much stock, except for a novak t4 nesc and a race prep racing stock motor. i never raced it, just drove it around in front of my house as a kid. then, one day i crashed it and broke the actual ball screw attached to the rear bulk head that the ball cup goes on for the right rear suspension. the screw sheared off leaving a part of it in the bulk head. not knowing better, and not having money, and probably not wanting to admit to my parents i broke my "expensive" toy, it went back into a box, where it sat for the last 20+ years.

fast forward to present day. driving to the office i noticed a r/c car hobby shop nearby which got me thinking about my old rc10. after a few months, and when i actually remembered to look for it, i picked up the rc10 from my parent's house (who needs public storage when you can keep all your stuff from when you were a kid at your parents', amirite??). i decided i was going to try to restore it to running condition and re-live some childhood memories. i then went on ebay and began looking for parts, i found the team associated webpage and ordered parts, and finally, a few days ago, i got the parts i needed to replace the ball screw thing. i was able to screw out the remaining part that had sheared off in the bulkhead, fasten the ball cup and get the car on all 4 wheels again.

after putting a charge onto a 20+ year old battery pack, i actually was able to run it for about 5 minutes before the battery lost charge and the car drove off on it's own (which freaked me out) a short distance before crashing into my car tire (full-sized car). so, at least it works.

so, with the intro out of the way, onto the questions! as an old noobie/newb/nub, i don't know anything about today's modern r/c cars, motors, esc's, controllers, etc.

my goal is not to have a display-only car, but just a runner. i don't want to make it "current," i just would like to use compatible parts/motors to get it running around my front yard; but that being said, i'm open to suggestions.

Question 1: you guys with experience, knowing what you know now, if you were in my shoes what would you do? if you had your "druthers," what would you have rather done at the beginning?
Question 2: i plan to disassemble and clean the car and parts, what cleaner/technique/tools do you recommend?
Question 3: where can i find motors that are compatible for a pretty much stock rc10?
Question 4: should i still use my 20+ year old electric components? after 5-7 minutes of driving, the esc was SUPER hot...
Question 5: i'm already stocking up on spare parts from ebay, and may have enough for a second rc10 (lol, what can i say?) that i'd be willing to modernize - if i modernize, what mistakes/pitfalls should i avoid?

i guess that's enough for now...sorry for the novel of a first post/intro!! thanks for all the information already contributed, i've already learned a lot. hopefully i can return the favor some day.

-mike

[Charlie don't surf]

Question 1: you guys with experience, knowing what you know now, if you were in my shoes what would you do? if you had your "druthers," what would you have rather done at the beginning??

Kinda depends on your long term goals (or lack of) with your old toy. If it means a lot to you, treat it accordingly-

Question 2: i plan to disassemble and clean the car and parts, what cleaner/technique/tools do you recommend?

Tearing it down will help re-familiarize you with the RC10, find out you forgot to put diff lube in 20 years ago etc.. standard tools are 3/32, 1/16, 5/64 an .50" hex drivers and 3/16, 1/4 and 8/32 nut drivers. Gentle degreasers like Simple Green or straight Dawn dish liquid-

Question 3: where can i find motors that are compatible for a pretty much stock rc10??

Any brushed "stock" motor, or brushless 3300-3000KV motors are safe-

Question 4: should i still use my 20+ year old electric components? after 5-7 minutes of driving, the esc was SUPER hot...

You can, it's a pain and makes it not as fun IMHO- you can put a new BL system in that buggy for under hundred without trying hard- add LiPo battery for 50min of run-time

Question 5: i'm already stocking up on spare parts from ebay, and may have enough for a second rc10 (lol, what can i say?) that i'd be willing to modernize - if i modernize, what mistakes/pitfalls should i avoid?

Lots of different recipes here for "modernizing", all of them work- do what makes the most sense to you... I've seen guys (myself included) spend 5X what I should have adapting something that I didn't need to if I had just searched for the "right" part-

i guess that's enough for now...sorry for the novel of a first post/intro!! thanks for all the information already contributed, i've already learned a lot. hopefully i can return the favor some day.

-mike

No worries!!! Welcome to RC10Talk!

[mikea96]

Welcome to a great site filled with tons of great info and lots of great people!

[CNGH]

No worries!!! Welcome to RC10Talk!

hey guys, thanks for the welcome and for taking the time to answer those questions. i'm sure i'll have quite a few more as i go through the process.

i did order some jc racing wheels from the UK... that was almost a week ago, but i haven't heard anything, not even an email (except from paypal confirming my payment). i even paid extra for order tracking. is this the usual MO for them?

[Charlie don't surf]

Yeah, they can be a bit slow

[klavy69]

Hi again Mike and welcome to the forum.

Yep, JC wheels can be here (to the US) as fast as a week and as long as a month. My experience is from both ends of the spectrum. They are worth the wait though and make modernizing your buggy easy. I run one of my first CE I ever had with JC wheels and handles better than any old is new build I've done in the past...
Todd

[DMAT]

they are pretty nice, i just put a set of 2.2 anacondas on mine. fit right on and the glue is drying at moment. took a little over 2 weeks for mine to arrive.

[RC10th]

1. - I would restore it to as original as possible, basically the same way you remember it. If your tires are good I would put them aside and get some worn ones just to run around on. You always remember your first so if you want to change it too much I would get another car for that.

2. - I would invest in a good set of Allen drivers and a screwdriver that fits the Phillips screws snug. Using the "L's" are next to useless. As far as cleaning I like Simple Green and a stiff toothbrush. Simple Green also helps condition the nylon.

3. - Depends if your going to stick with brushed or go brushless. Pretty much any brushed motor will work as long as your MSC or ESC can handle it. If you go brushless I wouldn't go lower then 10.5T.

4. - I would try to use as much of the original equipment as you can. The ESC must be old if it ran away when the battery went flat. MSC's had a tendancy to run off often. If so I would upgrade to a period correct ESC that didn't run away. 7 mins was considered quite good in the day.

5. - That's pretty open ended depending on what you want. I would avoid the 6 gear if building a mondern brushless RC10. Lots of threads here with parts lists of what fits and doesn't fit etc. As Charlie said, it would save you money instead of "experimentation" which someone else has already basically done.

Good luck and be certain to post updates.

[CNGH]

thanks klavy, dmat and lil_general for your thoughts and advice. i still have the stock wheels and stock tires, but the tires are really worn down. but i'm looking forward to the jc wheels b/c they look pretty awesome. guess i'll try to remain patient.

since it looks like it may be a couple weeks till i have a set of proper wheels and tires, i decided to disassemble the car a little so i can clean some parts and apply new grease to the tranny and new oil for the shocks.

i purchased a spare 6gear off ebay (just in case) and it arrived yesterday. i took it apart, except i couldn't get the e-clips off the slip gears(?) on the spine plate. also, one of the axle gears couldn't be removed. so, for the time being i put that one aside and proceeded to disassemble my main 6gear. i had the same problem with the e-clips, but at least both axle gears came off pretty easily.

i suppose i'll have to look for small tool or screwdriver to get the e-clips off. what do you guys use?

and any thoughts on how to get that stuck axle gear off? it spins fine, i just can't for the life of me pull it off from where it attaches to the spine. i guess i need to go to the gym and build up some muscles or something.

once i start cleaning (i have dawn dish soap and an old toothbrush), are there parts that can't be cleaned with that? (obviously electronics and motor. but what about ball bearings, shocks, gears, screws?) sorry if that's a noob question, but i didn't see it in my search.

i'll see if i can post some pics. everyone loves pics

-mike

[pj_elia]

Congrats on rediscovering your RC10. My parents never had the means to buy me an RC10 so when a college roommate offered me his old RC10 car and gear, I jumped at that. He used to race up until the early 90's. It was now '98 or '99 and he gave me enough stuff to put together a solid runner. My first love was a hand-me-down Tamiya Boomerang that my older brother's best friend broke and handed to me. Those are my 2 main cars. Both are near stock and a blast to drive, though I'm looking to update electronics and other things like you are. My main reason is just to increase reliability and run times. Good luck with yours.

[CNGH]

got most of the car disassembled and am gonna work on the shocks.

i opened them up and they were still full of oil, so at least no leak

it's 20+ year old shock oil and i figure i may as well replace it. my question is: how do you get rid of the old oil? just toss it in the trash? i know it's not a lot of oil, but i guess i feel weird just throwing it in the trash, haha.

also, i have 20wt and 30wt oil, new in the container, but also 20+ years old. is it still good? assuming it's ok and i can use it, does the 20wt go in the rear shocks and 30 in the front? or...? i have the original silver springs, as well as new green springs.

and, as a sidenote, my ebay vintage rc10 got here the other day. it's a cadillac gold pan, 6gear with bushings. the pan is in better shape than mine, and it also has (i think) the original kit tires (not the kidney bean kind, though). but the front edge of the nose plate is bent forward so the reinforcement brace bars don't sit flush. but that's cosmetic i think. decisions decisions.

[pj_elia]

got most of the car disassembled and am gonna work on the shocks.

i opened them up and they were still full of oil, so at least no leak

it's 20+ year old shock oil and i figure i may as well replace it. my question is: how do you get rid of the old oil? just toss it in the trash? i know it's not a lot of oil, but i guess i feel weird just throwing it in the trash, haha.

also, i have 20wt and 30wt oil, new in the container, but also 20+ years old. is it still good? assuming it's ok and i can use it, does the 20wt go in the rear shocks and 30 in the front? or...? i have the original silver springs, as well as new green springs.

and, as a sidenote, my ebay vintage rc10 got here the other day. it's a cadillac gold pan, 6gear with bushings. the pan is in better shape than mine, and it also has (i think) the original kit tires (not the kidney bean kind, though). but the front edge of the nose plate is bent forward so the reinforcement brace bars don't sit flush. but that's cosmetic i think. decisions decisions.

Just toss the oil or soak it up with a paper towel and light it! As for the the old oil, I would use it, then again I'm not a racer and don't really notice the differences in shock oil weights when just bashing around the neighborhood.

[flipwils11]

Hi Mike, sorry for coming to this thread late. You are very much where I was when I discovered this site a few years ago but unlike you, I sold my rc10 in high school so I had to find another one to relive my RC youth. A few words of advice based on my journey.

1). Don't resist the move to modern technology. I tried to run an old FM radio for nostalgia and dealt with glitching that sent the car at full speed into my garage door one day, denting the door and making me livid! I also used nimh batteries in all their mediocrity and avoided brushless motors as well. Boy was I wrong. Reggie is right, 50 minute run times with lipo and superb power. I actually get sick of running the car because the batteries (5200mah lipo from hobbyking, turnigy models) last so long. And brushless is so much FUN, plus 2.4ghz radios are superb!

2). Trying to keep period correct tires and wheels handy for bashing is frustrating. Fleabay searches and high priced "vintage" stuff, hell, I prefer to keep that option for shelfer projects. Bashing and running is much more enjoyable with modern rubber and tires IMHO.

3). Budget is not as bad as you might think. The very good (not best) gear is ridiculously affordable to what I remember as a kid in the 1980's. A lot of it is Chinese stuff admittedly (flysky radio, hobbywing brushless system, and hobbyking lipos and servos) but damn it's great for having fun!

[CNGH]

hey pj and flip, thanks for your suggestions.

i'll just drain the old shock oil into some paper towels and toss 'em (my wife may get mad if i set them on fire and then burn the house down...always the buzzkill ).

i think since i now have 2 vintage rc10's, i'll make one a brushless runner and keep my old personal one stock (for now)...and maybe down the road invest in an esc that runs both brushed and brushless.


on a side note, has anyone ever tried using coca-cola as a solvent/cleaner? i have some screws that are grimy and rusty and i've heard about people using coke to clean everything from toilets to driveways... or should i just use something like CLR? it'd be less sticky i suppose, haha.

[K-TOWN-KITT]

I have recently been using Goof Off graffiti remover and it's been working pretty good with a wire brush but if you scrub it too hard with the brush the bluing starts to come off, at least it does on the turnbuckles.