[Project] Restore My Black Stealth RC10CE Destroyed by Sandy

[MeltingPlastic]

Hey guys,

New member here. I recently went to my parents to help empty their ground floor as they live on the Jersey Shore and are having their house raised. Unfortunately they had a good amount of damage due to Hurricane Sandy and one of the casualties was my RC collection. I've stored it in a few bins since moving away for college and then now living out of state. My collection of RCs was mostly destroyed (Associated RC10 CE Stealth, 2 Losi trucks, Vintage Tamiya Lunch Box, Repro Tamiya Midnight Pumpkin and almost all of my electronics). As the RC10 was my first car I ever built on my own back in ~1997, I decided to keep it. The midnight pumpkin survived but the body is pretty trashed but can be cleaned up. Everything else was chucked as they were extremely rusted/oxidized/etc.

Here are a few pics of the RC10:















My plans are as follows:
1. Disassemble the entire thing and clean up all plastics
2. Determine what is salvageable of the metal pieces
3. Buy all new hardware to replace rusted hardware
4. Rebuild the Stealth transmission and shocks
5. Hopefully not go broke

From what I can tell it will take a bit should be doable. The transmission is seized right now so that's my biggest concern. The front steering seems okay but until i remove the servo, it's seized up.

What is a good place to get replacement parts/upgrades for this? towerhobbies was my go-to when i built my last truck in 03 but not sure if they are still the best place to go. There's a hobby shop by the rink i paly/coach at so i may stop in this week and see what associated parts they can get.

Any comments/suggestions/helpful hints would be great!

-Mike

[Corsa]

Such a shame, but I reckon I've seen worse, If it was me I say go for it, I like a challenge!!
You might be suprised what can be saved. You can do it.

[JK Racing]

Since AE has re-released both the classic and worlds, most parts can be found at Tower still, even some local hobby shops. You could order directly from AE if you had too.

Where did ya chuck them Losi's? Its all restorable to someone

[Asso_man!]

Wow I've rarely seen such a disaster. This really proves once again how durable an RC10 is, it's the only one which survived a sand storm. Also shows how sea salt and sand can attack the aluminium surface, even when anodized. I'm pretty sure you can restore this car to almost new condition. You'll have to dismantle everything and probably ditch the steel screws, but I'm sure you can clean the plastic parts nicely and even the aluminum parts can be brushed and polished back to like new condition although the anodized layer seems to have suffered. Here is some comparison to give you hope, my DS once looked like that:



Here is how it looks today:

[MeltingPlastic]

Thanks for the encouraging words guys. The Losis were beat up beyond repair from when I played with them in my backyard. If I remember correctly, one was an LXT and one was a JR. I picked up both off eBay in pretty bad condition to begin with so me beating them down then Sandy just finished them.

My goal tonight is to dismantle everything, clean all the plastic components with simple green and purchase the hardware kit from Team KNK which I saw in another post as the way to go.

Can anyone tell me what bearing kit I should get for the CE? Don't want to buy one and it be the wrong kit

[rctenracer]

Avid Rc has metal bearings for a $1.00 per bearing. Here is the bearing list for the RC10CE stealth.

8- 3/16x3/8 front wheels 4 , stealth top shaft 2, idler gear 2
2- 5/32x516 diff
2- 3/8x5/8 stealth outdrives
4- 1/4x3/8 flanged rear carriers

[MeltingPlastic]

Avid Rc has metal bearings for a $1.00 per bearing. Here is the bearing list for the RC10CE stealth.

8- 3/16x3/8 front wheels 4 , stealth top shaft 2, idler gear 2
2- 5/32x516 diff
2- 3/8x5/8 stealth outdrives
4- 1/4x3/8 flanged rear carriers

Thank you so much!!

Is there a list anywhere of what all the hardware is? I saw the exploded view with all the associated part numbers but it would be nice to know what is really what. Yes I'm showing my "new guy" stripes right here with this project.

[MeltingPlastic]

Started more on the teardown. Used some PB Blasted, simple green and hot water and got all of the front suspension off. Trying to get the rear off but the trans mount screws are so rusted they're not budging. I'm likely going to have to drill out the heads and hope I can grab the remaining portion with a pair of plyers.







I'm hoping to get my hardware and bearings and have the front assembled this weekend after cleaning up the pan. With the re-release, I should be able to find the shafts at my local hobby shop right? Would love to support local if I can otherwise I'll go to tower

-Mike

[Corsa]

Try soaking every nut and bolt with WD40 do this for a few days, Patience is the key here, and over time you may get lucky getting it to budge.

[MeltingPlastic]

Try soaking every nut and bolt with WD40 do this for a few days, Patience is the key here, and over time you may get lucky getting it to budge.

Unfortunately patience wont work here. The screws holding in the transmission and battery hold down are soo rusted that first attempt to turn them stripped them out so they'll have to be drilled out. I'm hoping to not destroy the pan or the plastics drilling them out tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. I have a feeling this project is going to set me back much more than I had originally hoped!

[MeltingPlastic]

So I stripped the chassis at work today so tonight I'll be cleaning up all the gold parts and preparing to start the rebuild.

One thing that I'm stumped on is I need to get new steering blocks and axles as one of my axles snapped and the other is pretty corroded that it's just easiest to replace them.

From what I thought, I needed 6217 and 6218 for my car, but they seem to be hard to come by at a reasonable price. I'm tempted to just put 6220 and 6221 in the car for now and maybe spend some $ on the proper ones. Can anyone clarify this for me is the 6220/1 the actual proper combination?

[scr8p]

You already have the 6220/6221 combo. All of the stealth CE's came with them.

[MeltingPlastic]

So I stopped by the local hobby hut by the rink I coach at after practice today. Asked if they had any Associated parts. Unfortunately they stopped selling associated stuff but he went into the back and came out with a box of all the remaining associated parts they had and told me to go through them. Found a bunch of stuff that may work, may not, but we shall see. Gave me a killer deal on the lot of all the parts below:



I know some of the pins, shock stuff and a few other things will work out for me. Most of the other stuff I'll probably hold on to or see about trading around for parts I still need. All I know is I plan to buy my electronics from Hobby Hut in West Chester, PA.

[MeltingPlastic]

Stopped by a different local hobby place tonight to see what they happened to have in stock. Once again, they don't carry associated stuff in store. Decided it was time to spend some money and spent $$$ on almost all the parts I need besides a body and transmission stuff.

I'm at the point where I'm now getting confused when it comes to the transmission. I'd like to potentially upgrade it. Is there a be-all post for stealth information?

[MeltingPlastic]

Still waiting on the parts I ordered but I figured I'd start looking into my transmission stuff.

Finally got the transmission 99% apart. The bushing from the top shaft is currently rusted onto it so I have the topshaft soaking in some PB Blaster to try to pull it off. Since I'm not sure if it will damage the shaft after pulling it, I'm likely going to do the B4 slipper upgrade.

I'm assuming my idler gear is acceptable so I'm good there. But I do need to rebuild the output shafts etc. Will the 7678 kit work for me? it says GT so i'm unsure but the kit is cheaper than building it up piece by piece. If the GT kit will work, that means the MIP Lite Drives that were in my recent purchase would work? Otherwise, piece by piece it is!