Inter-Fab Viper EX-10

[morrisey0]

I purchased this roller from a guy that I horse-trade with semi regularly in regards to RC cars. He B/S/Ts in all RC, and he gives me a buzz when he gets "vintage" stuff. These are great guys to have on your side! From a couple of cars I had gotten off him previously, and some pics he had shown me, I knew that he liked to make dragsters out of old pan cars. I am certain this would have been the destiny of this car if it had stayed with him, as he already had stuck a drag body on it and a brushless set up. When he texted me about this car, I think I was in a bidding war with someone else he knew that was interested in it, but once I told him that I didn't want the body or any electronics, I think that is made me the victor.

So, all I knew about this car was that it was a Viper EX-10, it had a Hot Trick (or similar) chassis, it had a quick-change batt tray, and lots of awesome aluminum. All of this made it worth purchasing. From this forum, I learned that Viper was probably inter-Fab made, and from there I found a few pics online and a couple of RCCA ads for it, but really nothing more. It is almost like this didn't exist.

ex10.jpg (47.62 KiB) Viewed 1427 times

ex10.jpg (47.62 KiB) Viewed 1427 times

I could not find any definitive pics of the wheels that would have come on the car, but from the ad, they would have been bling. As to not go crazy on the budget, I just went with some pmg aluminum wheels, and ended up with some BBS style wheels. These were really the only mechanical parts that needed to be replaced. Everything else really just needed some cleaning and polishing. The chassis plates had been scraped up pretty well by someone removing electronics with a screwdriver very quickly. The aluminum needed some work, but it didn't come super polished, so I didn't super polish it. Just that raw, machined look. So yea, this is half the build, just cleaning and polishing a little. Please note in this pic, the small bearings at the front of the rear "pod." The rear pod not only rotates around three shocks, the whole thing pivots on bearings.

[morrisey0]

So, after cleaning and polishing, electronics were added and most things dialed in.

When it got time to choose a body, I knew that with the BBS style wheels, I couldn't go Nascar or anything American along those lines. I have learned to avoid GTP like the plague because I hate painting them. So, I needed something Euro or Asian, but there isn't all that much available in the pan car size body realm that meets this criteria. After A LOT of searching, I found a British manufacturer that made, what I hope will be, the perfect body for this car; a Cosworth Sierra. Not my first choose, the specs were too damn perfect to the chassis to pass up. Because the body is so much narrower in the rear than the chassis was intended for, I have rigged up a body mount plate that will later be made of a similar red material to the chassis plate, so the black printed bracket is temporary.

[LTO_Dave]

This is stunning! I really love any quick-change cars from that era.

[morrisey0]

Decided to try to actually finish this one up before diving too deep into something else. Decided awhile back that I wanted to put some more red into it, so put some different Tekin electronics in it. Factory Works cut me a rear body post mount out of some red G10. Swapped the steering knuckles for some black ones because I didn't like them being the only white nylon part on the car. Swapped out the wiring on the ESC and motor to get rid of the blue wire, because again, didn't like it being the only blue thing on the car. I think I am about at the red/black mix I want. Next is to work on body and decals, which I did pick a theme to go for. It isn't the flashiest Cosworth out there, but it has the right colors and the wheels are close enough. And TBH, single color paint schemes give me less chance to screw up big.

[Frankentruck]

Some SCR cells seem like just the ticket for this sweet racer.
.

.

[morrisey0]

Some SCR cells seem like just the ticket for this sweet racer.

You are correct, and thank you for the cells! I wasn't planning on putting any batteries in this rig, but you are right, some red Cadnicas will do just fine!

[Frankentruck]

They look right at home in there. Very nice!

[morrisey0]

Lots of playing around with body post positions and widening the wheel track, and now it sits just about how I want it. Lots of decal work still to design and install, but it is coming together.

[LurkingCAT]

Really cool car, and you've made it into a gem. Well done!

[Dadio]

The whale tail cossie is just such an icon

[morrisey0]

Had a bit of time today to devote to decals for this, and I have most of the designs down, and have a decent plan. The problem I am running in to is the reds, which there is a bit of. What I have down so far is all cut vinyl, but the rest (or most of the rest) will need to be printed sticker paper, and getting the red of one to match the red of the other is not going well. I picked up a few different brands of vinyl, and chose the one that was the closest to what the printer was putting out, and figured I could just tweak a little from there, but that tweaking is just going on and on. I feel like I have the reddest that the printer can put out (and far red red in P'shop) while printer on the glossy sticker paper, and it just isn't red enough. Hopefully the magic answer pops up soon................

[GoMachV]

I don't know if it helps or not but when printing on clear material, white is often printed before the color. Not sure if that is an option. Without the white backing, it's hard to get a bright color. I would think red would change shade quite a bit without the backing, especially when the stickers are placed on darker colors. With my stickers it is absolutely necessary to back them

[morrisey0]

I have only experimented with printing on clear a few times, and found the results so poor, that I only print on white at this point. This is going to lead to the next issue of all the red advertising decals that are all over this car, that will need to be printed as they are too small / detailed to cut, weeded, and transferred. If / once I get the red printing correctly, I am going to have to fill in the gaps between the letters with black .............. which of course won't match the black of the car.

[Coelacanth]

I can weigh in on this issue of printing on clear sticker paper as well. I had terrible results too, as morrisey0 said. The colored/red areas were too transparent and became almost invisible when applied to a dark painted body.

I got much better results making my own sticker images with a black background, then printing them on good quality white vinyl sticker paper. After cutting out the stickers with an X-Acto knife, and before applying them, I colored the barely visible white edges with Sharpie marker. Not perfect, but about as good as it gets for home-made stickers.



To minimize the amount of black ink used (inkjet printer), I removed all the unnecessary black background except for the actual planned sticker surroundings:

[morrisey0]

Eventually settled on a red after A LOT of experimentation. Under some light, they match perfectly, but as the lighting changes, the difference is obvious. Oh well, it is what it is.

I got the whale tail painted, just haven't gotten it on. Swapped back to the original steering knuckles as they allowed a wider track, so happy with track in front and back now. I think my to do list is down to only about 3 items.

Oh, if you can't tell, it is a Texaco sponsored car! Between the text and stars, I think there are 15+ reminders of that.