saved from the closet: late 80's RC10 with vintage hop-ups

[Phin]

Can't tell you why the brake fluid doesn't work....I've always had great success with it. Let it soak overnight and see what happens.

A B3 top shaft will not fit in that transmission....nor will any top shaft from a stealth trans. The gears and parts in that transmission are metric and the Stealth parts are imperial. They won't work.


I strongly suggest you do some research and realize what you have on that car. You will change (and sell off it looks like) almost all of the best parts on that car trying to turn it into a runner. What you're going to end up with will be an entirely different car than what you pulled out of your parent's closet. You wouldn't have saved anything and you'd have to change the title of this thread.

Buy a decent donor car off ebay. Swap the painted parts on this car for the better parts from the donor then run the donor.

[shodog]

Have to agree with Phin, don't change it too much. Save a brushless and lipo set up for a B4.2. You should keep this gem all original. Just change out the less than plastic parts. Those transmissions are hard to come by. There is a slipper set up for the top shaft called the T100 tork slipper but it slips the top gear and not the spur plus they are rare as hens teeth. The gear in those trannys are aluminum with steel out drives. You could set it a bit loose to get some slip at the risk of eventually wearing the parts out of a 28 year old tranny. You can always pick up a decent 6 gear to replace it with.


#moderator note# don't offer to sell things outside of the BST section

[mk-Zero]

Thanks for the input guys

I guess I have some thinking to do about this car... I wasn't thinking about turning it into a shelf queen, but maybe that would be the best use for it, or if I do make it a runner keep it more or less with the parts it has and don't abuse it (i.e. don't let my 3 year old drive it, lol).

As for selling some of that stuff off, I guess I figured there would probably be someone who would like to have that stuff in their collection if its really that rare, I'm no collector...

For now I won't start changing things (tranny, speed control, etc) out, I'll just clean up what I have and get the new body painted.

[Phin]

You've got a great start for a restoration build but a lousy start for a runner build.

The trans won't last long with a brushless system and neither will the chassis. That skinny chassis is an oval/sprint chassis and too much of a wet noodle for offroad. After a few jumps and bumps the front nose plate will likely rip through the screw holes and break in two.

Get rid of the trans, motorplate, esc, and front shocks and what will you be saving to run? A thin metal front shock tower that will bend out of shape, a chassis that will tear apart, and a bunch of easily replaced plastic parts that already look beat up.

One way to go with that car would be to patiently keep an eye on eBay for a set of Hot Trick aluminum arms and towers. Replace the F&R arm mounts and rear bulkhead...maybe keep the castor blocks and knuckles if they're not broken. Find proper length front shafts for the Kyosho shocks (they should be shorter) and strip the anodizing off. Maybe strip the anodizing off the other aluminum parts too. You could then get them re-anodized red or polish them and leave them silver. If you polish them it would look really nice if you also dyed the chassis and towers black to match the trans case.

Do what lots of people here do....make the car look so nice that you'll feel guilty about running it.

[shodog]

The trans won't last long with a brushless system.....Get rid of the trans, motorplate....One way to go with that car would be to patiently keep an eye on eBay for a set of Hot Trick aluminum arms and towers.

Don't be so quick to dismiss the MIP transmission. It has essentially the same internals as the SP2 tranny that was the gold standard of trannys years before the stealth came about. One advantage it has over the stealth is an aluminum main gear that won't melt if the diff gear has been slipping under power.

As for hot trick arms, I would never recomend them as I feel they are a huge downgrade from the stock plastic arms. They are heavier and the way they mount to the suspension pins with screws and washers is super lame.

[Phin]

Don't be so quick to dismiss the MIP transmission. It has essentially the same internals as the SP2 tranny that was the gold standard of trannys years before the stealth came about. One advantage it has over the stealth is an aluminum main gear that won't melt if the diff gear has been slipping under power.

Have you seen inside mk-zero transmission yet? Don't assume his parts are in the same shape as that beautiful MIP trans you own, which was made from NIP parts. For all you and I know there could be an SRB plastic spool in there.

I've owned and played around with a few MIP transmissions and have adapted modern slippers and ball diffs to them. What the primary concern point are vs. a brushless isn't the gears stripping but the diff balls wearing grooves in the diff halves....since those diffs don't have diff rings. That's why I tried putting a modern Tamiya SRB ball diff in the last MIP trans I had. Unfortunately, I couldn't find if Tamiya sold the rings for that diff separately, and if they don't running the SRB ball diff doesn't solve anything.

Also, while you're right that the gears wouldn't melt, because they're not plastic, the case is plastic, and could melt. That's what I really don't want to happen.

As for hot trick arms, I would never recomend them as I feel they are a huge downgrade from the stock plastic arms. They are heavier and the way they mount to the suspension pins with screws and washers is super lame.

The Hot Trick arms are absolutely a downgrade in functionality over the nylon parts but function only matters on a runner, and I don't think he should be running this car. I think the car should be restored for form over function, and for form the Hot Trick arms are an upgrade.

[GoMachV]

I'm with Phin. This car will not perform near modern standards by any means, an attempt to upgrade it just diminishes it's history. The owner will ultimately need to decide a route, but updating that to brushless would be like putting a ls7 engine in an original 53 vette to make it faster. You ruin the patina

[Johnboy72]

I wish I could get my hands on it, don't know much about the MIP trans but this old girl is begging to be a sprint car restro. Lol

[vintage AE]

Brian, I knew eventually some of the more knowledgeable guys would come through. I knew you wanted a runner, so I didn't try and convince you to shelf this beauty. I guess your best bet is to find something you will enjoy running... restore this one for the memories and shelf it, or eventually sell the rare gem to someone who will do great things with it.

If someone else on this forum gets a hold of it you will see it get a good life.

[mk-Zero]

Alright, you guys convinced me. You are a persuasive lot, lol.

I think this quote from Phin sums up the situation:

You've got a great start for a restoration build but a lousy start for a runner build. 

I see you can buy a RTR (yeah, I know, but I dont really have time to build a car, id rather get something to run and spend time restoring this thing) brushless b4.2 new for like 250, so maybe I'll pick one of those up for a runner.

As for this car, I'm going to strip the paint off everything, paint the body, and maybe add a few more Hot Trick parts. There's a cool rear shock tower on ebay that would go well on this car.
Not sure what to do with the front towers and shocks, maybe just rebuild, strip the paint, and paint the towers red to match the HT stuff. Or get a HT front tower and put AE shocks back on the front. We'll see...

[GoMachV]

I think you will be happy with that decision. Id keep the front tower- you built it and it should be a key part of that car

[Phin]

If the front shock tower is Titanium you can anodize it with a few 9v batteries and some Simple Green or Diet Coke. Don't think you can do red but might be able to do gold to match the nose.

[vintage AE]

I think you are on the right track too. I would get some AE front shocks to match the rear shocks. As far as the front tower, I'd keep my eye open for a HT one, but use the one ya have until then.

[mk-Zero]

I think for now I'll stick with the Ti tower and Kyosho front shocks, they're part of what makes the car unique. Does anyone know if there are rebuild kits available for those shocks, or if the RC10 rebuild parts will work?

Anodizing the front towers would be cool, but I think I would only do it if red worked. Otherwise iI'll leave them raw or paint them red. I think the body is going to be gray with a black cage and red stripes. Should all tie together nicely. Black red and gray will match my garage nicely too, since its going to be a shelf queen.

[vintage AE]

You have a lot of jealous guys out there right now. That's a sweet garage, and car too