Looking for restoration process tips

[szac]

Hello again, all. I've found good threads on cleaning, whitening, removing paint, etc but am wondering about the steps or phases you guys find yourself building in. Any tips to ensure an organized build?

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

I'm not sure what you might be looking for and I've done far fewer restos on here than a lot of other members, but here's the thread from when I cleaned up my Dom. Not sure if it will unlock any secrets for you or not, but here it is

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=16969&hilit

[szac]

Aah secrets revealed! Awesome build, man. That is one bad a** late model. Your thread is just the kind of stuff I was wondering about.

1. Identify some loose goals (finding matching wheels)
2. Hit with the hose/WD40 (but only on select vehicles)
3. Break down, clean and bag (in to seemingly major components)

I'm an idiot and generality make two piles: fasteners and parts

Also: Ninja Assassin FTW.

[Coelacanth]

Disassemble, clean, reassemble...and replace parts if necessary. I actually quite enjoy taking a car apart, cleaning and re-lubing the moving parts, and putting it back together and seeing the before/after difference. One step that might be overlooked is to take pics of your progress and make a resto thread here, so we can all share in your progress.

[DaveM]

Hi,

Make sure you have a manual, they can be downloaded from Team Associated if you don't have one,

http://www.teamassociated.com/manuals/discontinued/

Cheers, Dave.

[Jim85IROC]

Another idea is to maintain a spreadsheet for your build. I started a spreadsheet when I started to embark on a massive drivetrain upgrade for my Camaro, and have since repurposed that spreadsheet for all of my other non-automotive builds, including my RC projects. It's great because you can break the whole vehicle down into sections (shocks/springs, steering, chassis, transmisson/slipper, etc) and within that you can list every component. Once you've got the parts list, you can add columns such as the part description, part number, price, quantity required, and some notes. I also have a "dependencies" column that I can use to identify when one part choice will interact with another part choice. I haven't run into too many areas with RC where that's been an issue, but if you do a WOIN build opposed to a strict restoration, you'll start to run into those issues.

Overall, it's a great way to keep track of your overall build, what parts you need, and how much you're spending.

I attempted to add my RC10T build sheet, but the forum software doesn't seem to want to allow it.

[szac]

Thanks everyone. Appreciate the feedback.

@Jim85IROC That's awesome, man. Thanks. I like the idea of breaking it down in to major sections. One of my builds is an RC10T and it's missing a bunch of parts. Have you tried to upload your spreadsheet to Google Docs? Here's instructions. The other day I was trying to think of a way to import the parts list from RC10.com to rows. Google docs supports scraping like.

[szac]

Hey just noticed that the associated website has per-vehicle parts list export*. Here's RC10T http://www.teamassociated.com/parts_export/?file=xls&product_type=all&vehicles_only=false&mapping=false&brand=&vehicle=RC10T

Nice! Of course those other features you mentioned would need to be added... But a good start!

Edit: I realize this is probably not news to anyone else

[Jim85IROC]

Thanks everyone. Appreciate the feedback.

@Jim85IROC That's awesome, man. Thanks. I like the idea of breaking it down in to major sections. One of my builds is an RC10T and it's missing a bunch of parts. Have you tried to upload your spreadsheet to Google Docs? Here's instructions. The other day I was trying to think of a way to import the parts list from RC10.com to rows. Google docs supports scraping like.

Yeah, actually I have an old version of my Camaro build spreadsheet on Google Docs, but I can't get to Google Docs at work to upload my 10T spreadsheet. If I ever get time to boot my home computer, I'll upload a copy & link to it.

[Jim85IROC]

I took a screen capture of part of the spreadsheet. It doesn't show most of the sections, but it shows the headers, and it shows the bottom where I totalled up the projected & actual costs.

[szac]

That's great, man. Thanks for sharing. I'm creating my own version for my builds.

[RC10th]

I just break em down into bags-o-parts. All the nylon goes into one bag, all the steel parts go into another, trans parts, shocks etc.

I then tackle each bag at a time, ie, clean nylon, polish hinge pins, clean bearings, rebuild CVD's etc. I do take note of what needs to be replaced in the cleaning stage and once everything has been cleaned I usually sit down and assemble it.

[szac]

I do take note of what needs to be replaced in the cleaning stage.

That's something I haven't consciously considered. In the past, I had examined for what needs to be replaced, then cleaned in the past. Your method is way more efficient since you're examining the part closely during cleaning anyway. Thanks!