My very own RC10 build/restoration

[fbmstar]

So, a buddy gave me this fine beauty a couple of weeks ago. He got it free at a garage sale. It's actually the reason I joined this board, so i figured I'd share the progress with you all. I haven't had an RC10 in my possession for about 25 years, but after receiving this, i remembered that building an RC10 has been on my to-do list for about 25 years. Not really sure what the end goal is at this time, but i'm leaning towards a black chassis, white components where I can afford them, and hard anodized shocks. I'm also unsure how much will be restoration, or buying new. I've already picked up a second RC10 since then, but that one is pretty well done, so i'm gonna leave it as is and just build this one the way I want it. Hope you all enjoy the progress!

[Frankentruck]

Very cool car under all that swamp muck!

[fbmstar]

Bare Chassis.

I had to trim the front off the chassis, as it was de-laminating pretty bad. I sanded the whole thing and then put some epoxy on it to seal up the front and fill some gouges. The epoxy came out real thick and uneven, so I sanded that off and tried some autozone UV resistant clear coat on it. That was too shiny and prone to scratching, so I picked some Tamiya clear coat. I don't think it will hold up to abuse, and the chassis didn't really come out as i would've liked, but gonna move for the time being. Might refinish it or go black tub.

Also threw all the white parts in the ultrasonic cleaner, and tried bleaching them. Those also didn't come out as nice as I would like, but again, moving on and will revisit later.

Got some shocks, towers, and misc hardware in the mail. will update soon hopefully

[fbmstar]

Very cool car under all that swamp muck!

Lol, thanks! I don't even want to know this thing's history.

[Worldsman]

Very nice Projekt for the cold days !

[Bottom Feeder]

So, a buddy gave me this fine beauty a couple of weeks ago. He got it free at a garage sale.

How do some of you guys get this lucky? Jeez.

Good memories of the RC10 Graphite. I bought one back when they were brand new in '89 or so, my first 'real' RC car which started my decent down the RC10 rabbit hole.

[juicedcoupe]

Also threw all the white parts in the ultrasonic cleaner, and tried bleaching them. Those also didn't come out as nice as I would like, but again, moving on and will revisit later.

Hydrogen peroxide and sunlight. Might take a couple days. But keep an eye on them because it can over-lighten them.

Since the yellowing on yours doesn't look bad, it shouldn't take much. They aren't supposed to be "white", but more of a cream color.

[fbmstar]

[/quote]
How do some of you guys get this lucky? Jeez.

Good memories of the RC10 Graphite. I bought one back when they were brand new in '89 or so, my first 'real' RC car which started my decent down the RC10 rabbit hole.
[/quote]

Man, I couldn't believe it when he texted me a picture of the box and told me to come pick it up for free. It included an RC10GT, this RC10, some Losi (i think) truck, a Tamiya Frog, and a Kyosho Sideways, as well as a handful of transmitters and misc parts and 4 Radio shack cars. Apparently he was haggling over 10 bucks for a couple tonka trucks and this box came with the deal, lol. I tried telling him there was some money there and to just sell them, but he wanted to "pass the karma along".

Looks like I'm gonna be going down the same path as you with the same starting car, just 30 years or so later.

[fbmstar]

Also threw all the white parts in the ultrasonic cleaner, and tried bleaching them. Those also didn't come out as nice as I would like, but again, moving on and will revisit later.

Hydrogen peroxide and sunlight. Might take a couple days. But keep an eye on them because it can over-lighten them.

Since the yellowing on yours doesn't look bad, it shouldn't take much. They aren't supposed to be "white", but more of a cream color.

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to give that a whirl. The bleach really didn't do anything, but I only had it in there for a couple of hours.

[Bottom Feeder]

a Kyosho Sideways

Now there's an r/c car I completely forgot even existed. Blast from the past!

[RC10th]

Looks like there is an RC10GT off to the right of the RC10..... which you say was included in your haul.

[fbmstar]

Looks like there is an RC10GT off to the right of the RC10..... which you say was included in your haul.

Yes, SIr. I actually cleaned that one up before getting into this graphite build. It cleaned up real nice. I was planning on making a thread in the B/S/T forum once I was allowed, but I guess cleaning a car is technically restoring it? I'll put it in that sub forum if you'd like to take a look. Here's the link: https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46742

Anywho, I have made a little progress on this build. Was going to wait 'till i had some more finished pictures before posting, but I suppose people enjoy the in-process pics too.

Got some shock towers and shocks in the mail recently. Some standard aluminum (custom made?), standard fiberglass, and long/tall fiberglass towers. The shocks are front/rear truck shocks. Still unsure if i'm going to go with truck or buggy shocks at the moment.

The original shocks are pretty rough after cleaning, so I'm gonna re-anodize them.

Working on some tooling for the stripping/anodizing process.

Making some custom rims for the TQ70 tires. Outer dish blanks are done. Still have to make the inner dish blanks and do some machining to lighten them up.
See this thread for more details: https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=46719

More to come

[fbmstar]

Made a little progress on this. Found out the transmission is basically garbage. Was looking into replacing it with a stealth, but since the chassis isn't cut for one, i decided to leave it original and rebuild the 6 gear. Haven't really done anything on the rebuild yet aside from ordering a new case.

I did re-anodize the shocks. They came out OK. I think the temperature in my garage was a bit high, and they dies didn't set in as well as I've seen in the past. I was expecting the caps to come out darker, but the gray-ish look is kind of growing on me. Seems to compliment the car pretty well. Here's a picture of the shocks next to the others I bought for comparison.

Did a little more assembly, however. So far I've replace the shock towers, wheels & tires, battery box, tranny case, tie rods and got a j-concepts body for it. I think I've bought all the parts I need aside from some transmission parts. Just need to paint the body, finish the front rims, and make some misc. parts like tranny brace and wing tubes. Here's how it's currently sitting.