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I have a decent pile of well used vehicles that I mostly pick up to use as part donors. Sometimes in these lots I find one that isn't all that bad, but will never be shelf quality, at least not without replacing a lot of the parts. So I strip them down for a cleaning and then make myself a runner, just for giggles.
Seriously though, I don't giggle very much while I'm doing this. It's just an expression.
The obvious candidates are the ones that have a bad, or old and faded dye job, and the parts can't really be used for a proper restore. I had two of these handy, and decided to see what I could do with them...this 10LS and a 10T (another post)...
The chassis is discolored on top, and the bottom has some fairly good scratches, but no real damage, so it's still plenty sturdy for running. The dye job I doubt was pretty when new, and had faded to a nice shade of BLEH.
The original:
Chassis stripped down before cleaning and a bit of buffing
The only things I really needed to replace were some hardware bits...a few stripped or rusty screws, the two big dampner washers, and the locking collar - which I already had in my spares, so no money spent (always a plus). Unfortunately, I didn't think to toss those washers and collar into the dye bath with the rest of the parts, it can wait till the next time I get that color boilin'.
So I threw all the non-black parts in the dye bath (some just to see what would happen, like the fiberglass T and the servo saver - didn't expect much from those, and I wasn't let down). I had read in various places that the plain RIT dye "ain't what it used to be", but that's what I had handy, and after all, this rebuild was part experiment, so that's what I used, the Rit Navy Blue.
I left everything in the bath for 5 or 6 minutes, then checked...everything was DARK...a good bit darker than I planned on making it. I like the color, but was VERY surprised how fast it worked.

I didn't use anything fancy in the rebuild, or mod anything, so there's not really much point in doing a step-by-step on this one. I'll cut to the end and save some time.
Here's the end product:
I did save the original dyed and faded wheels, I just didn't have the extra time to mess with removing the beat up foam from them. Someday - then the wheels will get dyed also. New wheels and new capped tires, team Phantom motor. I need to find a place to run it where I can get some traction...it spins out way too easily. My daughter's elementary school just repaved their parking lot in asphalt, I think that'll be the next place to try...
Like I said, just another one to have some fun with.

definitely good enough to have some FUN with
run it enjoy it
marty

That is a good looking dye color IMO. Although I thought the plain RIT didn't work, needing the RIT DyeMore synthetic colors instead...

That's what I had read. Maybe that's only for certain materials, or maybe Rit had recently changed the formula...don't know.
I also did some 10T parts in purple, and it was so dark, it was almost black. After draining the dye, I put plain water in the pan and reheated for few minutes, to draw some of the dye back out. Did that twice...it's a bit lighter, but still VERY dark.

This was my RIT Dyemore Purple... I think that was like 1-2 minutes...

yeah, the standard stuff changed formulation and doesn't work as well. It still works, but especially for black, for instance, the parts are actually really dark red/purple. some of my stuff i re-dyed over pink still flash like a burgundy color with a camera flash, but look black to the naked eye.

R Cane wrote: ↑Sun Oct 08, 2017 1:01 pm
I did save the original dyed and faded wheels, I just didn't have the extra time to mess with removing the beat up foam from them. Someday - then the wheels will get dyed also.

not really necessary to remove the foams

It turned out nice. Gotta love the runners in the crowd

have you figured a body for it yet?

Todd

klavy69 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:47 pm

R Cane wrote: ↑Sun Oct 08, 2017 1:01 pm
I did save the original dyed and faded wheels, I just didn't have the extra time to mess with removing the beat up foam from them. Someday - then the wheels will get dyed also.

not really necessary to remove the foams

It turned out nice. Gotta love the runners in the crowd

have you figured a body for it yet?

Todd

The wheels aren't a big deal, I thought I'd strip the foam then dye them like the other parts, since it should come out the same color, and match nicely.
Right now, I have a somewhat tired stock car body that came on a different chassis - it's fine for zipping around the parking lot. Someday, I'll paint up something nicer for it.

good to see a runner back to life

The issue with 235mm and other 2wd pan cars is, they need a real clean/smooth surface, even to bash around! I don't have any in my area, so bashers are either offroaders or 4wd DTM

Show us some vids!

Lonestar wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2018 9:37 am good to see a runner back to life

The issue with 235mm and other 2wd pan cars is, they need a real clean/smooth surface, even to bash around! I don't have any in my area, so bashers are either offroaders or 4wd DTM

Show us some vids!

I have the same issues here. I really like those cars, but yeah - parking lots are the only action around here for them, so I don't have many. Before too long, the new asphalt at the daughter's school will have too many pebbles etc to run these on. Way too wet here now to take it out there. It might be a little while still. Supposed to hit 70! degrees here tomorrow, but will probably still be too wet... raining all day today.

R Cane wrote: ↑Sun Oct 08, 2017 1:01 pm I didn't use anything fancy in the rebuild, or mod anything, so there's not really much point in doing a step-by-step on this one. I'll cut to the end and save some time.
Here's the end product:

rc10ls05sm.jpg

rc10ls06sm.jpg

I did save the original dyed and faded wheels, I just didn't have the extra time to mess with removing the beat up foam from them. Someday - then the wheels will get dyed also. New wheels and new capped tires, team Phantom motor. I need to find a place to run it where I can get some traction...it spins out way too easily. My daughter's elementary school just repaved their parking lot in asphalt, I think that'll be the next place to try...
Like I said, just another one to have some fun with.

Turned out really well, glad to see a runner reborn and live to see another day outside! I am surprised the T-Bar and pivot ball mounts didn't dye well, usually they do, although I haven't tried with 'modern' dye. What kind of capped tires are those?

duckhead wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2018 11:39 am I am surprised the T-Bar and pivot ball mounts didn't dye well, usually they do, although I haven't tried with 'modern' dye.

They will take with dyemore.

I don't know any specifics on the tires. As much of my gear, they came to me in a large lot of items. New, but not in a package of any kind to help id them.

R Cane wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2018 11:52 am I don't know any specifics on the tires. As much of my gear, they came to me in a large lot of items. New, but not in a package of any kind to help id them.

Gotcha, I was just curious as I loved the TRC capped tires back in the day. Quick Google search, looks like BSR *might* still make them: http://johnsbsrracing.com/cap-tires

Might have to see if I can pick up a set