RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

I'm pretty sure we all have things we hate when we receive a second-hand R/C car and it turns out to have some things that are somewhat out of order - more than we had expected. Let's list them.

My list:
10) Bodies that have windows that are supposed to be clear painted black (or any other solid color).
9) Cars less than 10 years old caked in a layer of dust so thick, the car must have done some time-tavel to acquire it.
Cars that on closer examination appear to have been dunked in a lake.
7) Cars where the diffs are filled with some crazy choice of grease or oil - I've had 1:1 scale motor oil, a ball diff filled entirely with graphite grease, thin oil that dripped out of the gearbox, and shock oil.
6) Cars that have most oil and grease applied on the outside of the gearboxes and a thick layer of dust/dirt caked on as a result - a royal pain to clean up and a very good way of hiding damage.
5) Cars advertised as "A good runner" with incorrect assembly that means it could never have run well - sometimes competition cars, which means the previous cars of the previous owner should have been worse...
4) Cars advertised as "A good runner" that looked okay in the pictures that turn out to have some 'original' assembly that both make them a bad runner and means you can throw various parts in the bin.
3) Cars advertised as "A good runner" that looked okay in the pictures and when you receive it, until you mindlessly try to give it a spin and discover the whole drivetrain makes a horrible stone grinding noise because of some 'original' engineering deep inside that makes you wonder what the owner was smoking.
2) Cars with crude repairs: wood screws to hold together broken chassis, nails as hinge pins, various unrecognisable bits to make the diff run 'smooth' (read: loose as heck, no diff action whatsoever), etc.
1) Cars with smartly hidden damage that was hidden from view on purpose, and when you point it out to the seller he gets angry and says you are the scammer, eg. gearbox that turns to have zero intact screwholes because they are all cracked and painted and sanded hot glue was used to 'repair' them.

Or maybe I should cut down on buying really cheap cars....

Wood screws are a classic.

Mismatched high-value items, like wheels, turnbuckles, and A-arms, particularly when not evident in the eBay images, are a particular peeve of mine. What good is a single titanium turnbuckle?! Or RPM arm?! That doesn't add value to the transaction, it just adds frustration.

Chassis that are profoundly damaged, gouged, etc, not clearly evident in the pics.

Busted electronics in WYSIWYG auction items. Sure, the electronics would be expected to not be functional some of the time, but the number of times that they don't actually work seems to exceed chance probability.

Extensive rust on screws, hingepins, and turnbuckles is just a major pain in the butt.

Gearbox damage doesn't bother me so much. Unless the car appears new-built or has clearly been well-cared for (and therefore usually commands a greater price), I basically anticipate having to rebuild and replace most of the gearbox internals.

Oil, grease, mud ... these also don't bother me. Cleaning the vehicle is not difficult to do (I'm going to tear it apart anyway), and besides, the dirt likely netted me a significant discount on eBay relative to the same car cleaned. Part of the excitement of getting a second hand car is seeing what it looks like under all that garbage, at least it is for me.

I only have one...or two.


What's up with all the otherwise would-be clean classic RC10 pans that have been ruined by some lazy-ass moron that can't figure out how to adjust a steering servo?

Really?.. Is it easier to drill a friggin' hole in the side of the thing other than to turn a screw driver & allen wrench?

Or; the Billy-Bob red necks' that figure that by hoggiing out a 1/8th of an once of aluminum out of the chassis (and making a mobile cheese grater) makes it go faster and keep up with those who can actually drive...?

Tires and wheels that look like an entire tube of glue was used to make sure those suckers never slip! Glue all the way around the bead, both sides with glue dribbled onto the rims and tires in copious amounts.

Stripped threads and Lexan bodies trimmed badly or ripped/cracked/badly scuffed.

Ha, I've been contemplating starting a similar thread for a while now. I just didn't want to come off as more of a negative person than I already am.

A lot of what was said sums it up for me. If I had to choose one thing though it would be getting R/C's in all around way worse shape than expected. That always makes me do this when I'm unpackaging them =

HI!... Poeple who drill holes in everything to make the car "Lighter".

people who advertise that a chassis is in 'like new' condition , then find out that every screw is stripped out .

i have had people who say " extra chassis included " ... then receive it and it is actually a "BROKEN extra chassis included " .

Other than that , my experiences have been fairly honest .

I have been keeping lunsford in buisness for years, everycar I buy seems to be missing at least minimun 2 turnbuckles, what gives someone out there collect the things??

my pet peeve is the person who advertises that they have a new, vintage, nothing wrong with it, best car in the world but also states that "due to the nature of this hobby it is sold as is/No refunds". To me this is a person that is hiding something.
Todd

People that don't know what NIP means.

Diggley wrote: What's up with all the otherwise would-be clean classic RC10 pans that have been ruined by some lazy-ass moron that can't figure out how to adjust a steering servo?

Really?.. Is it easier to drill a friggin' hole in the side of the thing other than to turn a screw driver & allen wrench?

Yep... Here's how I feel about that:
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=14474

And for some reason, another thing that bothers me aside from something done completely wrong like putting rear shock springs on the front shocks.. (is it that hard to figure out?) is when people put one way treaded tires on the wrong way (treads pointing backwards).

- Super-glue on both beads of tires
- Front springs on rear shocks or vice versa
- Rusty all-thread as tie-rods
- Rear bulkheads butchered for batteries...how hard is it to flip the thing around?!
- Over-use of servo tape, hot glue, JB Weld, etc. when mounting electronics
- Cutting ESC wires extremely short
- Servos with no ears
- Dyed RPM parts

Okay, I'll have a go at this......

In no particular order....

1. Buying three second-hand cars for parts, and finding them all with the same broken part (Cougar lower front suspension mount, anyone?).
2. Cars that come with their own livestock (spiders a specialty).
3. Like previously mentioned, wood screws, and enlarged screws in general - if you have to drill the hole out double size to fit the screw you have, go find more screws!
4. The smell of long-dead nicad packs, that sellers throw in to be nice..... that hangs around for ages.
5. Clockwork 15 minute nicad chargers that will charge a 1200 pack in half an hour - and contribute about half the total package weight from the other side of the world....
6. Selling a new in pack part that is rare, but which you never thought you would need.... a week or less before picking up the rest of the car, missing that rare part (happened too many times!).
7. Any vintage rc car that I win that has a separate plastic 'glass' section..... I think Australia Post know when that's in a package, and choose that one for street football....
8. Painted chassis'. I mean, why would a Raider be better if it was painted white???? With house paint?? Including the suspension????
9. Missing parts from 'compleat' (note the spelling) cars..... just another project for the pile....
10. Old bodies. I see some meticulous bodyshells on here..... the majority of my older cars (and my newer ones, for that matter!) have completely trashed bodies. I did a count the other day, and I have nearly 20 barely usable Cougar or Cougar 2 bodies..... and yet, I keep them all!!!!
11. Mixing metric and Imperial screws...... thanks a lot, now nothing works!
12. ANY mechanical speedies....

I could go on.... oh, wait, I just did....

Alex

i only have 1 thing i hate about getting a second hand rc car.
i can deal with incomplete cars : then its a project, and projects are fun.
scruffed up parts : then its a basher that i can let my little cousins and other RC-DISinclined drivers play with.
however when you discover that the part/s that is missing has disappeared off the face of the earth, aside from already being attached to only the most avid RC enthusiasts shelf queens ,... ( as in the front end parts of a Marui Samurai ) thats my 1 pet peeve