- Gene Husting replica, in memory of Brussels 22-03-2016-

[Asso_man!]

A few years ago, I picked up not less than 3 early Edinger RC10 rollers in various shape and more or less complete so as to complete my Box Art RC10 project (http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=11914). There were two A-stamp chassies and one non stamped one. The left-overs have been sitting in a box for too long and I had to do justice to these unicorns. The last weekend saw quite some progress as I spent half a day cleaning the plastic parts of two complete cars and another half day cleaning pretty much all the hardware including nuts, screws and washers! I really hate to put new stuff on such old chassies although it's a pain to clean and remove the rust. All steel parts have been spending at least 24 hours in WD40 after what I would clean the threads of the screws by pressing one screw at a time between my fingers while unscrewing it with the other hand in a cleaning tissue. The heads of the screws were also clean with a fine tip. My fingers are still sore today but the result is there.

So I decided to first restore the eldest car, a really early model including all the specs of an early Edinger RC10 (although I need to source the tires and rear recessed spring cups that went to the box art project):

- no stamp chassis in used condition with some scars and scrapes that might get a resto and new ano at a later stage
- early ball cups with full rounded sleeve
- double servo saver
- recessed shock pistons
- tranny center plate with a large c-clip instead of the later bolt
- specific gear cover
- two holes rear shock tower
- shock collars without lips
- light ano all around

The plastic parts are somewhat yellow but I will leave them as such and won't go the peroxyde way as it gives a nice overall patina to the parts.
I have no specific plans for the car as we speak and I am torn apart between going for a replica of some sort, and if going that route, I would still have to decide which one, or leave it totally stock. I already have a box art car and two new built edinger cars that are complete, so I would mind going with one of these three options:

- build another box art car or something along these lines (I have a spare set of box art shock towers, battery hold-downs and G10 tranny brace)
- build a Curtis Husting replica of the car seen on the cover of the original RC10 manual



- build this one that belonged to Gene Husting I believe? I'd love to do this one, but it involves to machine some parts and that might be the most difficult part unless a good machinist around volunteers?



I'd appreciate your views/opinions here

Anyway, here are some pictures to illustrate all my blah-blah above

Clean but yellowed plastic parts



All what makes it an early model:




For the first time I noticed that some very thin R and L letters are actually factory included in the C-hubs



And here is the painful cleaning of the hardware:

After sitting overnight in WD40



Hand cleaning:



The result (note that some very light hand polishing was also involved):



Then late at night yesterday I couldn't resist putting stuff together. This is really a first mock-up as I haven't decided wich route this one should take yet.

No stamp chassis:

[R Cane]

Very nice!

[Bubbleboy]

I am so looking forward to this build. Love that some aging is going to reman.

Ahhh....The memories of mine back in the '80s. I remember cutting out the rear arms just so the spring cups would stop hitting

[yellowdatsun]

Just a note for future reference, and as a tidbit for the others: They make half-gallon cans of carb cleaner, which comes with a bucket to put your parts in and dip. Usually it doesn't take long, but even the absolute worst parts, RC, auto, motorcycle, whatever, comes out looking new. After pulling it out, do a quick rinse with brake cleaner, and let it dry for a few seconds. Stuff works miracles, and saves HOURS of time.

[duckhead]

The last couple pictures you posted makes the car feel like a box art car to me, but if you already have one of those, maybe give the Curtis Husting RC10 manual replica a go.

Either way, everything cleaned up well and looks great so far, looking forward to more progress!

PS> What specific process did you use on your nylon parts for cleaning?

->Mark

[Asso_man!]

PS> What specific process did you use on your nylon parts for cleaning?

I don't use any specific process; for plastic parts I use dish soap, a toothbrush, round brushes and pipe cleaners for small holes and pin holes. I also use WD40 to clean plastic parts that have grease or rust residues. For metals parts, I first dip them overnight in WD40 and then clean and dry them. Where needed I use a metal brush to remove rust, a steelwool pad for bigger parts and a fine grit sandpaper foam pad to give the bigger parts a better and smoother look. For the nose and wing tubes I used a metal polishing product that works wonders. That's it! Oh and lots of patience, attention to detail and obviously elbow grease

Here is a picture of my basic tools:

[Asso_man!]

So while I was working from home today, I was suddenly alerted by the terrorist attacks that happened at our national airport and in the Brussels subway. Many people were killed in terrible circumstances. It's a black and very sad day for Belgium in particular and for the whole free world in general. Even Barak Obama made a small address in his speech while in visit in Cuba. So I would like to dedicate this build to the people that died today. Peace and Liberty shall always triumph!

Here is the latest progress. I will most probably head towards a replica of Steve Husting's car pictured above, but will need a lot of help from my friends here to get there. In the meantime I wanted to finish the roller chassis that will serve as a basis and couldn't resist to mount temporary wheels to the chassis. I even cracked some NIP front and rear jelly bean chromed wheels!

I took great care of cleaning and rebuilding the tranny:



Found an Edinger stock motor that was left alone in the basement:



The chromed jelly beans



Mounted used early rear tires (no Goodyear writings) that will be replaced along the way with better ones as some knobbies were sadly cut away.



The chassis was completed with all the missing parts:



And here is the roller chassis as it sits right now. As from now progress will be really slow I guess...

[Y'ernat Al]

Nice.

Since you asked for opinions, I'd go the Gene route. Curtis has been done a couple times and I'm biased there. Like all genius ideas, each replica idea was independently hatched

You really need frp battery straps and if you cant get Goodyear front ribs, I'd just go with SRB fronts. Everybody ran SRB wheels initially becasue although the rear jelly beans fit Holiday Buggy's, the front had no aftermarket option until Proline/CRP got molds going. That's why the bearing rings came in there. For the battery strap, if you have an old 1st generation ftont shock tower laying around, or pick a toasted one up off the bay, you can trace and cut your own out of the lower portion.

The chrome wheels aren't bad despite the header cards actually. I don't know if they were being sold at that time but there are a few photos of chromed jelly beans on those early cars, including the rear of the Curtis car.

God bless the dedication too btw.

[jwscab]

those straps look fiberglass to me.....

nice dedication. sickening news.

[Y'ernat Al]

those straps look fiberglass to me.....

You are right. Small monitor.

[Asso_man!]

Yes these are fibreglass battery straps although not original ones but reproduced. The spring cups and shock collars are also repros.
As for the chromed wheels I am not sure they were available from the Edinger address, but they indeed appear on many early cars.
Keep in mind this is just a transition shape as I am only starting to gather parts and contacting fellow members to help reproduce the black shock towers and front machined lower shock ends. It will take time but I'm determined to make a Gene Husting replica. I will deano and polish another set of early shocks I have that show much more wear. These are too good to be altered.

[Y'ernat Al]

Awesome! McMaster sells set screws with nylon tips to avoid the acne if need be. Not authentic but maybe preferable.

And the really authentic shocks are worn really bad on the inside on only one side (where the lopsidedness of the slotted piston was driving it into the side of the shock body

[Asso_man!]

Good trick about the nylon set screws! You can make sure these shocks are used that way on the inside as they are the slotted piston version.
The more I look at Gene's car above, the more I am convinced it is actually the same car as the one used for the box art. The shocks, ESC, and front end are exactly the same. I also noted the screws on the back of the battery cups are also of the Philips type as on the box art car. So this is either a version before or just after or there was a few cars assembled with the same components?

[Y'ernat Al]

Yeah I'll buy that. I think there is a thread somewhere, maybe SCR8P was in on it, where there were other things, like actual imperfections in the tub or something that gave it away. I think they were talking about the video version though. I don't really remember.

And edit...that must've been a Gene thing to use the little rod collars to hold the shocks on.

[scr8p]

I'm still waiting for Brian to paint a body for my Curtis/manual replica.

I have absolutely zero interest in doing it.