My "very late" RC10 CE

[Asso_man!]

I still like these wheels better than the jcracing wheels, but they aren't 2.2in.. Too bad they don't make them in 2.2"

They actually did, but they're hard to find nowadays.

[BWX]

Oh really? That's interesting.. I'll have to keep and eye out.

[Asso_man!]

Oh really? That's interesting.. I'll have to keep and eye out.

I'll have to check, maybe they were 2.1" but you can see them on the November contest winner car on the home page. I have a few NIP sets of the rear ones you have there (2.0") if interested.

I kinda of envy you having your original buggy! Good luck with the resto/refresh and keep in mind not to change it too much.

[BWX]

Thanks I just spent $40 on jcracing wheels so I think that will hold me for quite a while..

Yeah I never bought another RC car, ever.. I just have this one, and I bought it lightly used some time around 1998 or 1999.

I had no idea what an RC10 was, but I am proud to say just on instinct alone, I picked out a used RC10 for my only hobby grade RC car ever. I guess I can spot quality!

I raced it at a small local club for couple years and had a blast, I took my younger nephew with me towards the end and he got a T-Maxx and another RWD truck that he raced there too. Then I moved out of town, and now just mess around with the RC10 once in a while.

I actually got into micro RC helis about 4 years ago, and then into electric RC planes last year. I spent a small fortune on them this past summer!


The refresh/ brushless upgrade will be fun though, and driving my old RC10 "FPV" style will be fun too!

[BWX]

Did a whole bunch of work the last couple days.. Nice to work on the ole girl, haven't in several years.

Got some stuff in too..







(Got new brushless motor and speed control too..)




Cool tools I found in my toolbox..


So it's a "C Stamp".. I figured it was..


Old motor- IIRC it was a 15 turn Triple. With good batts it is actually pretty OK for a brushed motor.


Last time it'll ever have original stuff in there...



Steering still works good..


Front end feels pretty tight still. Could use some new ball end caps though.. Also ordered RPM front and rear arms..




81 tooth delrin gear. Might need to get an 84 tooth for brushless motor.. will have to order it.

*EDIT** that's an 85 tooth.. I have an 85, an 81, and a 72.. So I should be set.




Now comes the hard part.. Damn these things were STUCK on there. Had to be careful not to wreck the finish trying to get them off..








I can't believe this thing still works perfectly, and looks this good after all these years.



And then after some Citrus Goo-gone and some elbow grease...





Speed control.. etc..


Motor in..

[mk-Zero]

Lookin' good, cleaned up nicely!

[slotcarrod]

Do you remember if your car originally had a black motor plate and nose plate?

[BWX]

Do you remember if your car originally had a black motor plate and nose plate?

Oh no it was definitely all gold.

I replaced the motor plate (still have original one), and replaced the nose plate (don't have original one) years ago.


Yup, it was all gold tub, and all black parts. Not one white part on it originally.

Lookin' good, cleaned up nicely!

Yeah thanks! Not too bad. If the bottom looked better, then I would probably not want to run it as much, so I'm kinda glad it's all scratched up, that means I'm not destroying any collector "value" it might have.



I got some more done last night and yesterday...

Pics: (will add to this post)



Bearings still good. I remember paying a pretty penny for the bearing set that I got for this car. Just for the Stealth tranny it was something like 80 bucks, then for the rest of the car it was something like 90 bucks - this was back in about 1999, or 2000.

I have seen bearing sets on ebay and amazon for modern RC10 B5 for around 25 bucks.. I guess now would be a good time to order all new bearing for this car in case they ever go bad. Can't believe how much cheaper they are now.

This car came with all bushings I believe. Maybe it had one or two bearings somewhere, but I don't think so.






Here's the angle I had my front kick plate at (experimenting for better pavement handling). I remember it was extremely hard to bend it. I have a feeling the new one is not quite the same quality and strength , but I could be wrong.












I debated whether or not to keep my DIY bumper.. but for just FPV and general "bashing", as they say, I'll probably keep it on there. I wanted to even it up a little and lighten it, and create more room for front tires as I will be installing 2.2" tires when I get my jcracing wheels. I basically just carved it freehand with wire cutters about 15 years ago, and just eyeballed everything. One of the sides was further forward that the other, and I discovered that I didn't even have all the bolts in that are holding on front suspension.







progress...




It is made out of this stuff that they made the curbs out of at the local track I used to race at. It was a big green 50 gal. barrel that was cut up. This stuff is so freaking strong, and lightweight (for it's strength) and easy to cut and shape with wire cutters and a razor or utility knife. I am amazed it isn't the only thing ever used for RC car bumpers. All the RPM bumpers that I bought were all destroys with one hard landing or impact, sometimes not so hard.. especially when cold. This thing is about bullet proof. And free.. (to me)

I just found this in an old box I was looking through - I was looking for my old RC lexan paint.. Didn't find my old paint, but scored this..


It's getting there...




That's better..


More room..


Maybe not enough...




Nope.. more shaping necessary... (this is 2.0" nobby tire..)




Also going to drill extra holes so all three bolts per side can go through bumper plate.


Or just cut it off...






Yeah that's better.


Flattened it out a little too..




More progress in build..


Original suspension geometry restored..


Going to try to use a washer instead of letting these tubes just get bent into shape of chassis. They always seem to get bent when installing them w/o a washer. Also on my custom suspension perch tower, there is not much room for these tubes to pass.


Has to use shorter bolt on this side because I wanted to try new location for body mount post.



Seems to work ok..


I think it looks pretty cool now actually..




Some weight simulating batt/ electronics. Everything looks good.



Ok post getting long.. Will add more pics in new post.

[BWX]

Got the body cut out. Holy cow that was not exactly what I would call easy. So hard not to make one mistake and wreck the whole thing. I do not think I have correct tools for the job. I am just using a few different pairs of different sized scissors, and a few different sized razors/ utility knives. Inside complex corners are extremely hard to get right..

Also most places, I'm just getting "close" and using very fine grit sand paper to get to the final shape/ line I am after. Very time consuming, but "safe".. Less chance of cutting too far and wrecking the entire thing.

Considering it was my first time ever trying to do this and make it look good.. I guess it isn't too bad.

Most of the irregularities that are shown are just the film that got messed up.. the actual lexan looks pretty good.

I have a bunch of paint coming in mail, and got a couple Tamiya cans at my LHS.. the right stuff, made for polycarbonate.
















Messed up on holes for wing. I was too tired and in a hurry and cut them way too far left.. Glad it was so far off as I was able to cut new holes in correct position.. Wings are cheap, no big deal.








I just like the shadow of bumper in ths shot.. LOL.

[Asso_man!]

Good work there. Do you think you could dye that green plastic black?

[BWX]

Good work there. Do you think you could dye that green plastic black?

Thanks! It's so fun to work on the old RC10 again after so many helis and planes the past few years.

Yeah I was thinking about dyeing that thing. I could try on some scrap first, I have a few smaller pieces around.

I was going to paint new body with white/ black/ green/ silver/ and this crazy purple/green iridescent paint I found- all from Tamiya.. So it'll be ok to leave it green for this body. But on future different colored bodies, it would look terrible green (I would just take it off), so I was thinking it might be good to dye it black. It would look good black for this body too actually, especially if green paint is just a little different shade.

I have always just used black permanent marker to get things black (shock towers, wheels), which actually can work "OK" sometimes, and if it scrapes off, repair is always cheap and easy. I don't think I would try that with this bumper.

I would like to look into actually using some sort of real dye on the bumper. I have never done any dyeing though. I'll have to find out how to do it right.. and give it a try on some scrap, hopefully it takes to dye well and then I will definitely dye the bumper black.


+++++++++++++++++
(will add more progress pics to this post later)

[broodenburg]

Nice post! You can really tell that you're having fun, and after all that's what it's all about!

[BWX]

Nice post! You can really tell that you're having fun, and after all that's what it's all about!

Thanks! And yeah it's pretty fun to revive this old beast. I have a few more orders coming in the mail. I think I might be getting a tiny little bit carried away here...

Polycarbonate PS-31 Smoke, Spray 100 ml

ASSOCIATED 6866 Classic Decal Sheet RC10

Tamiya PS-5 Black Polycarbonate Spray Paint

RPM 70542 Rear Arms RC10 (2)

Pro-Line Racing 1071-00 Dirt Hawg I 2.2" M2 (Medium) All Terrain Buggy Rear Tires

Tamiya PS-12 Silver Polycarbonate Spray Paint

Tamiya Polycarbonate Colour Spray PS28 Fluorescent Green

Team Associated 29142 XP ESC Fan Option

ASSOCIATED 6867 RC10WC Decal Sheet

RPM R/C Products 70442 Front A-Arms RC10 (2)

Tamiya 86046 PS-46 Purple/Green Iridescent

J Concepts Front Rips Tire, Blue: Buggy JCO305401

Pro-Line Racing 1073-00 Dirt Hawg III 2.2" M2 (Medium) All Terrain Buggy Front Tires

(from Amazon)..


And was just checking out small plastic parts and hardware for RC10 on Amazon.. then started checking around.. and seems teamassociated.com has good prices so I put in an order there for a bunch of stuff..



So my RC10 CE is getting hooked up! And will be running far into the future now with all the extra parts.


+++++++++++++++++++

Got some more done yesterday..

Had to come up with a way to run my 2200mAh 3S 45-90C airplane lipos. They are shorter than stock. Also I may want to run two at a time (as a 4400 3S, not a 6S 2200! LOL). And I actually came up with a system using velcro straps and velcro stuck to batts (already there for planes) and some fuzzy on bottom of pan. It actually works pretty good!


Antenna


ESC mounted..






Batt mounting system:




Straps doubles over three times and hole punched through...


Cut slits in batt carrier to slide straps through..

(can still use conventional sized batts)

It aint goin' nowheres...




Now here's the funny part...






And it fits!

[broodenburg]

3s wow. The old lady will have som serious power then! Very cool!

[BWX]

3s wow. The old lady will have som serious power then! Very cool!

Hehe!! Yup!

Yeah, that's why I was wondering if I will destroy stuff with that much power. Wondering if Stealth trans can take it. Also that's why I plan on starting out with large spur gear, and small pinion. I want to be able to go slow.. not crawler slow, but just not insane fast all the time, especially with FPV.

I don't own even one large 2S battery. I may buy one or two dedicated hard case RC10 2S packs eventually, but I will definitely be running this on my 2200 3S (also 2200 x 2 S3) RC Plane packs quite a bit.

Should be fun!

I do have that 85t spur:

..and also just ordered an 87 tooth just in case.. So those should allow me to tune out some of that speed when I need to. I am hoping anyways..

I also have a 72t, and large steel pinions for when I want to do high speed test runs. I used to have fun doing that even with my old 15 turn triple brushed motor on 3300mAh 6 cell NimH packs.. I think I had it going almost 40mph one time. On 3S / Brushless I think I can beat that though!

Edit-
I remember now.. That brushed motor was a 13 Turn Triple, not 15 Turn. So yeah it had some punch, especially with a good NimH pack..
If I remember correctly, that was the strongest motor I could run with the Rooster.