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I've had this Tyco Bandit on my garage wall for something like 2 years. I randomlly decided to do something with it today. The goals for this build are: $30 total investment, and 3 hours or less of work to get it moving under it's own power. Like most things in my life, I haven't even started the timer and I've already spent most of my money. The car was $9.99 from goodwill. The esc was $3.25 and the R6FG reciever was $10.91. Both from Aliexpress. On hindsight, I probably could have saved a few bucks by getting an R6F reciever (no gyro), but it a little late for that.
Total Spent - $24.15
Time - 0:00
The first step is disassembly. I got margainally further than the pic shows, but I'm not messing with the front suspension. It works fine. This cost nothing but took 11 minutes and 51 seconds.
Total Spent - $24.15
Time - 11:51

~$2.03/minute

$121.80 per hour...Hmm...

Got the chassis cleaned and steering servo mounted. I had to do some cutting of the chassis to make a standard size servo fit, but it was hardly a nice chassis to begin with. The servo is a clunky old futaba that I pulled out of my rc10gt, so I'm saying it cost $0. Cheating? Maybe, but I wasnt putting that servo in anything else.
Total Spent - $24.15
Time - 01:01:57

Got the esc mocked up and tested.
Then soldered it all together and tested it again. Realized that it cuts power too the motor when quickly applying the brakes from full throttle. I cant say its suprising, considering the esc was $3, but I've used them before and never had issues. Any idea what could be causing this?
Total Spent - $24.15
Time - 02:00:52

The build us finished! I decided to ignore the esc issue as it was already soldered in and I didnt feel like redoing it with another esc. Assembled and running on a 4.8v 2000mah nimh battery.
Took a few minutes to swap connectors on this random 6.0v 800mah I had. This battery gave it much more go, but significantly cut down on run time. It also seemed to minimize the power cut issue a bit? Not sure how that makes sense.
The last thing I did was swap out the dry rotted and cracked rear tires for some used vintage grasshopper ones. They're a pain to get on, but fit just fine and dont require tire glue to have a firm hold. These cost me $5.

Final Total Spent: $29.15
Final Time: 2:46:34

That would be a fun project....

Cool! Now do the F40...

ZED32 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 24, 2024 3:31 am Then soldered it all together and tested it again. Realized that it cuts power too the motor when quickly applying the brakes from full throttle. I cant say its suprising, considering the esc was $3, but I've used them before and never had issues. Any idea what could be causing this?

ZED32 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 27, 2024 9:31 pm Took a few minutes to swap connectors on this random 6.0v 800mah I had. This battery gave it much more go, but significantly cut down on run time. It also seemed to minimize the power cut issue a bit? Not sure how that makes sense.

Sounds like a "brown out", from a weak BEC.

1911Colt wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2024 7:08 am Cool! Now do the F40...

That build was finished months ago. I need to do a post on it. It's an old Digitcon digital proportional car with the same setup as this bandit.

The bandit was probably my first ever RC car my mom purchased for me at a yard sale. Very cool little truck I’ll always remember having so much fun with mine.

Ok I lied. The esc issue started really bugging me, and two more $3 escs showed up yesterday. No idea when or why I bought them, but might as well use one. Got it soldered together, and it seems to have fixed the issue. Then I made a custom rear bumper out of some aluminum tubing. I'm sure I'll manage to destroy it somehow, but it looks good for now.

Freaking awsome! I love to see when someone bring these cars back to life!