Why NIP parts?

[Groomi]

Hi Guys,
I've finally got around to signing up here, having enjoyed perusing all your old-school Schumacher threads. I've got an old XLS I'm about to restore, a Bosscat Works to rebuild and then race for the fun of it, enough spare parts to build a Procat (which I'm tempted to copy some of the mods seen on the Bosscat prototype threads) and have also found a load of Top Cat parts I think in a delivery of bits and bobs today - might be tempted to try to collect the rest of the bits and build up.

Anyway, I come from the school of 'waste not, want not' and have a 'make' do' attitude to most things. As such, I find it interesting reading about all your restorations using 80-100% new in packet parts. Don't get me wrong, they are wonderful machines and to see them literally as good as new is amazing, but I struggle with the term 'restoration', when presumably a whole load of part worn (as opposed to worn out) parts are sidelined. In classic car circles the practice would be frowned upon!

Truth be told, I'd love to do a NIP build, but finances and Wife would never allow it. Instead I'll be seeking my thrills by trying to build up the best I can from a pile of used bits. Where parts need to be replaced then I'll see if I can make copy parts myself - reasonably straightforward for GRP chassis, less so for complex plastic components.

I'll post up threads of my progress on each one and in the meantime will carry on following all your great builds.

[Bormac]

Hi Groomi.

Glad to see you here and also glad to hear you are an avid schuey fan too

Mate the whole built with nip parts thing for me represents the ability and fortune of hunting down new old stock and puting a quality build together. All the cars that come into my posession are all in used and varying conditions. Much like everyone else here I tear em down, clean em up and rebuild them. Some end up on the shelf and others for the track. Building a new car from new old stock is not as easy and will always end up costing a bomb. While restoring cars is awesome, building from new parts is almost the ultimate for some of us.

It's not like we can walk into our local hobby shop and buy these parts off the pegs, rather it takes a tonne of searching and good luck to build from new.

Personaly I value all my builds no matter how they started.

[Groomi]

Ah, so like an RC antiques hunter?

[CAT3K]

I like restoring mostly (and it's cheaper ) and i've yet to do a complete NIP build. However that hasn't stopped me from building up a stock of NIP parts to one day build one.. one day

Paul.

[RedScampi]

For me it's a matter of finances and availability, as well as esthetics. Most of my builds wind up using a combination of used and new parts to achieve an acceptable finish level. I do the same with my full sized car hobby. Since I drive my cars I realize how foolish and expensive it would be to replace every part with new. Instead I repair and recondition the pieces I can, and replace only what is necessary to bring the vehicle up to my standards. My cars will never be show queens but I'll get much more out of them by driving them.

[DerbyDan]

Welcome to the board Groomi.... & great 1st post

I completely know where you are coming from & I must admit it is far more satisfying taking a car that looks in a very bad way - re-building it & getting it up & running again using as many of the original parts as possible, even if aesthetically it may not be the neatest looking thing for sitting on display on your shelf. Even so a few choice 'new' parts can turn a rough looking car into a thing of beauty - often a new shell, wheels & tyres are all it needs!

The problem I guess with R/C cars is that many/most of the parts are plastic, metal parts can be polished, painted & bent back to shape, but plastics are difficult to restore or repair - certainly to a level where the part looks new again, my main bug-bare, are cross-threaded screw holes

It all depends on what you want to achieve from your build - i'm lucky enough to have built an almost 100% new JRX2, a new built Mardave Meteor & I also have an un-used TopCat project on the go - which despite being unused, has been poorly built. These cars when finished will look super fresh sitting on the shelf & will bring me back those exciting childhood memories of when I built these cars new when recieved as Christmas or Birthday presents, the first time round But I also like to build cars that I will use.... & I must admit for me there is nothing more fun than having a blast with a vintage buggy - especially rigged up with modern electrics.... for these runner cars, so long as the parts are serviceable & the car is built to be mechanically sound & perform to its best then the appearance of the parts is less critical...

[jamin]

For me its all about building my ideal/perfect (shelf) car, which means new parts, even down to the nuts and bolts!

I want my builds to look like they've come from a newly built up kit from BITD.

The hunt for NOS parts it also appealing! I reckon most of us on here spend more time looking for parts than we do building!

The old parts on my build are not wasted, I sell them on

If I were to build a runner, then I'd definately use worn parts, no point in wasting those lovely NIP parts! Hahahaaaa

[Groomi]

Thanks everyone for the replies and welcome.

Good to hear that some of those used bits end up on runners. From my perusing through threads, the runners don't tend to get talked about too much - would be great to read and see more!

So what's the view around here on making your own parts (either upgrades or copies)? I love the Luke Procat thread for some great ideas and would love to read more about that sort of thing.

The Wife is away next week with the kids, so I'll try to take some photos of my cars/pile of parts. In the meantime it's back to creating an Excel spreadsheet listing part numbers across the various Schuey models to then build up an inventory of what I've got. Happy to share once finished if it's of any use to anyone.

[DerbyDan]

The hunt for NOS parts it also appealing! I reckon most of us on here spend more time looking for parts than we do building!

It must be said that the interaction with like-minded R/C fans when looking for & buying spares - be it a rare NIP part or something just to keep your vintage racer or the track, adds a real sense of community & enjoyment to the hobby.

Groomi - with enough forum posts you will be able to have access into the buy-sell-trade area where you will be able to offer/request parts.....

[CAT3K]

The excel spreadsheet would be awesome. It's been on my to-do list for a long time, but with little time and lots of procrastination, i've never got it done

Most of the cars i've restored have had at least an indoor test after being built. There's some buggies i feel bad about bouncing along the track barriers, but others i don't mind too much I've even lent out one of my buggies to be raced by a new racer (My CAT 3000)

Paul.

[Coelacanth]

If you're rich and money's no object, NIP is great. For the majority of us, however...

[Groomi]

Groomi - with enough forum posts you will be able to have access into the buy-sell-trade area where you will be able to offer/request parts.....

That could get expensive...