Dave145's gold pan build.

[socal jared]

heres my quick 2 cents; and btw these answers apply to a "modern" runner build, not a period correct car.

1. Buy a new A&L steering/ bellcrank setup and for get your troubles. Easy to install and easy to order via their website. Daryl is a member here and a great guy who has been supporting the hobby for 20+yrs.
As far as rods/buckles are concerned, if on a budget just use regular associated turnbuckles or go titanium if you dont ever want to bend one.

2.Since youre building a runner invest in some good shocks like the V2 b4.1 shocks. They rarely leak and are fairly inexpensive on ebay. Much better option IMO for a runner.

3. Camber and other geometry settings are personal preference, however most run zero to -1 degree of camber. A small amount of neg camber helps with cornering.

4. There is plenty of good manuals out there for rebuilding the stealth, make sure its built right, and properly broke in, this will make for a VERY long lasting diff. SMOOTH!

5. Use the stock fiberglass or double up the thin ones. When buying towers make sure they are 3mm or thicker.

6. Slipper too tight? This could also be the cause of your #4 problem. The slipper takes the stress off of the diff and the other gears and needs to be set by holding both rear tires and holding the trigger down. The car should raise up 3-4" off the ground, make sure you tighten the slipper until you get this. (after the diff is set properly)

7. FLYSKY FLYSKY FLYSKY! great radio, cheap and does the job with ease. Also very cheap recievers for multiple cars.

8. Buy new ones if they have been sitting forever. You can also try a ultrasonic cleaner and bearing oil.

9. Lipo and brushless power with the right gearing and tires couldnt hurt either.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

[kaiser]

wholly molley batman, i don't need to see a vid to know this car is seriously messed up.

70wt is way to thick, rebuild the shocks and try 30-40wt oils. new bearings all around, don't rebuild them, they are $1 each.
i've never broken a factory shock tower on a goldie, and i'm not that easy on them. get all the extra alloy off and use stock shock towers. if the shocks are too worn just replace them with newer top load units.

both tranny's need complete rebuilds and possibly replacements, they've been thrashed badly.

that old battery can't begin to feed that castle system, a fresh nimh pack has trouble keeping up with a brushless system.

due to the poor condition of the car i wouldn't even worry about tires until it's rebuilt.

[RC104ever]

I see some big problems here. Your radio for one thing - if it randomly glitches and doesn't work, yeah, you're going to hit things. Next, you really need modern rubber and spiked or pin tires won't do squat on pavement. Most new tire compounds will work fine even in grass because they are softer.

Next, 70 wt oil is WAY too much for a gold pan. Stock is 20 wt - so you see the problem here. I put V2 adjustable shocks on mine, and its pretty sweet but you can keep your existing ones, just buy a shock rebuild kit from Tower Hobbies. I know you put your springs all the way down to compensate, but that's raising your center of gravity too much and the arms need to be parallel with the ground for proper handling.

So first step, go to Hobbypartz.com and order yourself a new ESC that will take a Lipo, get a Gens Ace Lipo battery, Lipo charger, Fly Sky transmitter and receiver (comes with one), then go buy a new set of shocks or do a rebuild.

Next I would get yourself setup with a set of modern 2.2" wheels. For bashing, like it sounds like you are doing, I like the Dirt Hawgs myself, they wear a very long time and will do pavement, grass, sand, snow - pretty much anything very well.

Good luck, hope that helps!

[Dave145]

The car is pretty beat up to say the least. I've built it straight from rollers I bought off ebay which is a bad sign right there. Where is the best place to get cheap long lasting bearings of this size? I know the Goldpan (and all associated cars) use smaller bearings than standard cars such as traxxas. Would my bearings still be readily available?

[kaiser]

AVID rc has the bearings for 1 dollar each.

if you are using more modern wheels b4 wheels bearings will work.

but that car needs a total and complete rebuild.

btw where are those pics?

[Dave145]

To avoid making excuses, I was trying to replace them with my video because then i could explain what everyone was seeing rather than typing it. The video is 22 minutes so YouTube wouldn't take it. Then Google videos wouldn't tame it and froze my computer. I finally settles on Dailymotion to upload it to and I'm waiting on that.

[Dave145]

Oh yeah and doea the compound if the bearing matter? Is it really better to get ceramic bearings over steel?

[kaiser]

dave, we don't need a video, body off pics would be better. you've described what it's doing well enough.
take some body off shots and maybe a 2 minute video if you want.
the siezed bearings are most likely the major contributor for your issue.

you don't need ceramic bearings, just get the regular metal ones, if you get avid's get their "revolutions" if available in you size.
they have a rubber shield on one side (the side you put out towards the dirt) and a metal shield on the inside. can't beat a buck a peice.

[slotcarrod]

Just get the cheap bearings and lube them after every 4-6 runs!

Get a new radio system! Rebuild your shocks, clean and set the car up exactly how the manual states! Get rid of all the extra metal crap! Your car will be great, but it sounds like you have a lot of work to do! That's all part of the fun though!

There are some excellent set up threads here for the RC10, you just have to do a search!

[Dave145]

ok here are the pics of the car. Mind the watermark, it came with the trial program i had to use to shrink the images.

[Dave145]

let me know if you need/want more of a specific area

[Dave145]

I guess it's about time I do this considering how often I'm on here and how often I need to post pictures of my mangled car so I've decided to start fresh with some new parts, my manual, and a "bang head here" sign (you know there's nothing like discovering the previous owner of your car/part stripped the hole ). Anyway I'll post up pics of it in all its various stages, and hopefully get it running again. Here's what it looks like now.

[Phin]

Is that metal brace you made welded to the tub?

[Dave145]

The ones that are flat on the pan are. I had a machine shop make them and weld them on when my chassis cracked.

[scr8p]

ouch....

i would keep whatever is still usable, then take the rest out back and shoot it.