It only took 30 years....

[dabigboy]

Hi all, just picked up an RC10 off the 'bay. I've been into RC planes and helis for years, but never got much into cars. Best one I had was a "Black Wolf" from Radio Shack back in the 1990s. Recently a buddy of mine got me to come to the local indoor track. I ended up with a LaTrax Rally, been having a lot of fun with that. I started looking into other types of cars and stumbled on the RC10. It jogged my memory. I remember looking through RC magazines in the 1980s/early 1990s and thinking the RC10 buggy looked really sweet and oh how I'd love to have one. Now I see they are fetching some decent coin as collectibles...I bid on several before finally getting this one. It's obviously been run hard, but I love a project, so I'm looking forward to the rebuild. It actually still runs, I drove it around the yard a bit with the ancient AM radio. Haven't decided if I'll go with lipo or nimh yet. I'm planning on keeping it mostly original, so running NiMh with the Novak 610 would be in keeping with the theme.

So far on the to-do list:

- Modern radio upgrade
- New rear tires
- Clean up/straighten the nose plate
- Clean and refill the shocks
- Replace one bent CV shaft
- Clean up janky wiring to the motor
- Paint and mount the body
- Replace the missing wing
- Clean and lube the transmission
- Replace one missing wing mount post
- Switch to new NiMh or LiPo battery
- Clean & whiten the plastic bits
- Straighten or replace the bent nose plate struts
- New wheel bearings

Not looking to dump a ton of money into it, just want to make it a nice solid runner that I can play with around the yard, and admire on the shelf and enjoy childhood memories now and then.

Matt

[matt1ptkn]

... and enjoy childhood memories now and then.

Matt

That's what its all about. Welcome to the addiction and to the forum.

[XLR8]

Welcome to the forums.
Happiness is having an old RC10 to rebuild. It'l pick you up when you're feeling blue.

[KidAgain]

Nice find bud, yah clean her up put some new cheap electronics in her and fire away.

You can do a brushless motor-esc/lipo combo for under 50$ if you look hard enough and dont mind it being from (overseas), maybe even cheaper.

Jake

[dabigboy]

Was out of town for a few days, but back on the RC10 now.......

Have it pretty well pulled apart. Most of the white plastic bits are taking a hydrogen peroxide bath now. Tonight I cleaned and serviced the rear shocks. I never had an RC with oil-filled shocks...fancy.

I managed to straighten out the nose plate posts to near perfection, think I'll just use those rather than trying to source new ones. Also got the nose plate and tub straightened and looking square with the world again.

Bearings have arrived, though from what I read I may have to get a different set for the rears.....took a closer look at the box and noticed I have a CE buggy (kit #6011).

Based on some posts here, I ordered a set of rear tires from a Hotshot. Apparently those work with the original wheels. I just needed some decent knobbies, the ones on the car now are almost slicks they're so worn. Front ribbed tires are in pretty good shape, so I'll try to run those I reckon. I like the vintage look of the ribbed fronts, though I may end up with knobbies up there too.

Think I'm gonna get the Futaba 3PV for this car. The only fancy features I want are multi-model memory and expo, this seems like a solid computer radio without a ton of frills I don't need.

I'm also leaning towards brushless and LiPo now. Doing some more research on the board here.

My one big question mark is what to do with the steering. The stock linkage had major slop and I don't see a way to improve it.

I got a chance to try out a couple B6 buggies today at the local indoor track, a RWD and an AWD version. Very nice. My RC10 may never be as slick and quick as a newer buggy, but I'm sure enjoying the resto process!

[andrewm707]

Looks great!

[dabigboy]

I got busy playing with the buggy and stopped updating the thread. It's up and running. I've been having a blast with it in the front yard, also took it to a couple local indoor tracks (carpet offroad).

Here's a quick video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4ctDljgJEI

At the local tracks I took it to, I really got a kick out of watching it hop through jumps with the modern high tech buggies. I couldn't keep up in the turns of course. I did take it easy on the largest jump at one of the tracks out of fear of breaking something. At that track I managed to blow up both bearings in one of the front wheels (which is why the stock wheel is seen in the pic....CE bushings won't fit my JConcepts wheels). Also popped a turnbuckle a couple of times. Overall though, I'm quite impressed with the durability of the buggy. I see that high-traction carpet can be really hard on the buggy, but it's holding up nicely.

Another video, from 405 Raceway in OKC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrtOPcuEEdE

Initially it had massive understeer. I added nose weight, loosened the front, and tightened the back, which helped a lot. I also finally figured out the buggy was sitting way too high, even for bashing in the dirt. Since making those videos, I've fabbed up some shock spacers and got the rear to sit lower so that it's at the same level as the front, suspect it might handle the carpet a little better now. Can't really tell much difference sliding around in the dirt....

I didn't want to mess too much with my offroad setup just for a few outings at the carpet track. I'm thinking of setting up my next RC10 resto for high-traction just to see how it can hang with the TLRs and YZs and other modern rigs. Might be interesting!

For the radio, I ended up buying a 4PLS radio off a friend. I'm liking it quite a lot. Also the cheapy Turnigy 4370kv motor and $20 mystery ESC are working great.

It's not like the zippy modern buggies I've tried, it's different. It has more "character" in its driving mannerisms. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I really like it!

Matt

[KidAgain]

Did you figure out the steering slop issue?

Its great you're having fun with the "vintage".

[JTSpeedDemon]

Nice RC10!
I have one as well! The original one, you have a Worlds Car I believe.
I actually have those SAME rims on my RC10!!(non original beater wheels/tires off Ebay)
I took mine to the track recently, and while I didn't race it, it was fun to bash around on the track! They were soaking down the track so it was MUDDY!
And yeah, after seeing some of the crashes/tumbles in the dirt oval racing, I am REALLY glad I raced a Traxxas Bandit instead!
The Bandit was fast, VERY fast, but the RC10s vintage cool factor totally eclipses everything else at the track.