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So I was at my folk's house recently and spied my old rc10gt hanging up on the wall. (just where I left it, decades ago) I took it home and am now toying with the idea of bringing it back to life. It has a HPI NitroStar .15 SS engine - so assuming I can clean that up and breathe life into it, I'll go ahead with the rest of the project.

I am curious about a few things, maybe you guys could help enlighten me?
I want to do a loose conversion to a buggy-style. A metal rollcage/sandrail type would be sweet but I know of nothing aftermarket unless I make it myself, correct?
Definitely need new wheels and tires, any recommendations for a set?

Cool to see another GT that's going to be brought back to life. The engine should be salvageable with some cleaning and oiling. Just need to disassemble the engine and check the bearings as you are cleaning.

As for the buggy cage. There was nothing as for an off the shelf cage. New era made a roll bar/chassis brace type thing. But it was nothing like a tube buggy. You could either braze or weld one up out of brake line with a little work if your skills allow it. If not you could ask around.

As for wheels and tires I'll leave that to the others. As for simplicity you could possibly be looking at changing axle stubs and what not. Or be searching eBay for 1/4 wheels depending on the year of your truck.

Thanks. As for wheels, I'll have to refresh myself with [old] standards. I currently have some old HPI 5-spoke wheels with 'dirt hangs?' on there.

Figured the cage was a DIY or nothing affair. I happened to come across an old Proline/parma? RC10 buggy body I had in the spares bins, maybe I'll use that.

Started to pull the truck apart yesterday. Chassis-wise, things look passable. Probably will want to replace some ball ends/balls to remove some slop, and sort a few other points but other than that things are functional.

Need to confirm engine runs first though, so started to tear it down and take a look. Insides are clean! Piston/sleeve look great, as does con rod. However nothing spun, it was acting seized. I didn't think it was so I took my heat gun to it. After warming the crank shaft/case and interior, about 2 decades worth of old dried, goopy oil started to warm up and ooze out. I could now move the crank! It got better after cleaning it out a bit. Same for the carb. Looking hopeful so far...

However, I few plastic bits were so old they just cracked. I'm looking to replace if anyone might have any parts source info. This is for a HPI Nitro Star 15ss engine:
- Carburetor gasket (little black plastic ring cracked to pieces)
- Throttle arm boot (is this part #1683?)

I think a lot of the parts of the HPI 18ss engine are compatible with my 15ss - but HPI's site is a little short on discontinued products' documentation

p.s. I'll try to take some pics going forward

I highly doubt you'll find the parts for the carb. You could scour eBay, you never know, but I think it's unlikely. I would just ditch the hpi carb and find a cheap used os carb to stick on there. An os 10E carb from an os 12/15cv should work well, but might require some mods to get it fit on the hpi.