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

Hi all,
I found this site a little while back, I've been sitting quietly browsing and reading through a lot of threads. There's so much good info here and so far I like the vibe. Thank you all who contribute!

I'm another one of those guys who got into RC racing many years ago, did it for a good while and then quit. Now nearly 20 years later, my interest in RC has resurfaced. Not so much for racing, but just playing generally. I've decided this Houge car needs a restoration, so I'll share my progress.

After sitting in a cabinet and then a box for nearly 25 years, I’ve gotten the itch to resurrect this old car. The last time it was run was around 1997 or so when I stopped racing the first time. It’s a little crusty, but I’m sure it can be cleaned up and brought back to life.

As you can see, I have 1 slight problem- the trailing arms are not present. And I don’t have them. 7 years ago I made a move 2000 miles across the country, much downsizing was done and a lot of things just didn’t make the move. Like a lot of bits and pieces of RC junk, I mean stuff, that had accumulated over the years. Sadly the arms were in that group. If I recall, one of them might have been broken anyway.

I’m not certain yet what all I will do on this, first thing is to get it apart and start cleaning, then decide how far I want to go with it. I would like to find a set of trailing arms for it, mostly because it’s a Houge chassis and that’s what it’s made for. And they’re just cool. But that may be a stretch finding any these days, it might take a miracle.

I’m planning to start disassembly this week and begin the parts list and searching. I’ll post updates and pics as I go. I will say I’m in no hurry to get this done, and I don’t work fast, so it will likely take a bit longer than some do on a project.

Here's a few pics before I start, and this is what's left of the car. I also have 1 set of 2.2 rear wheels and tires, a Novak 410MXc, Futaba Magnum AM, and 16 stock motors of various types.

Be back later.

surprisingly, you can find the houge rear arms fairly often. In fact, one of the members here I think made some aluminum versions and probably didn't sell too many(this was a while ago so this may not have happened, don't get your hopes up too high). But you should be able to find a set of arms for less than $50 keeping your eyes open on ebay.

did you drill the arm mount holes for the A arm suspension? If not, it's possible the chassis is an Andy's chassis, which could also fit Houge or Andy's rear arms. (I think at some point, it's all the same design just switched hands) and the andys swing arms are beefier but harder to find. I beleive the Houge chassis never had those arm mount holes drilled for a-arms.

the telescoping drive shafts are also quite desirable so that's awesome that you have those.

keep taking pics of your progress!

This chassis has a number of added holes drilled by me, the ones for the a-arm mounts, the ones for the Stealth tranny, and also notice in the very back there are some extra holes. These were for an adjustable rear toe assembly that I first used with the a-arms. Can't remember who made it, but it allowed you to loosen the front 2 mount screws and then adjust the amount of toe via a threaded rod across the back. It was pretty slick.

The reason I removed the trailing arms is due to I was only racing dirt oval, and wanted less rear toe in. Also the arms didn't hold up well to reckless drivers plowing in to me at wide open throttle.... I had at least one broken this way.

Speaking of the Stealth, it is a bit unique and holds a secret inside, we'll get to that a little later. It was and is my favorite part of this car!

OMG! Was that convenient or what? Thank you JC for posting the link, does this mean I owe you now? And I was just scouring the Bay last night with no success, I really didn't think I would find just the arms. I did the BIN, couldn't care less about the additional $10. Now let the fun begin!

That Robinson kit in the pic looks exactly like what I had at one time. I just couldn't remember who made it.

Great score.

When my Houge had excess camber I tried a mod with a Shapeways 0-0 mount.
Works fairly well.

Chuck

The car is in pieces on my table. After fighting with the old servo tape, and a certain amount of cursing, I managed to get it all off without scratching up the chassis. It's amazing how well that stuff was hanging on after more than 25 years! I also gave the chassis a general cleaning, and got it to this point. Any suggestions on how to improve the appearance or is this pretty much it? It's just a bunch of small spots and scuff marks. I could leave it and call it patina.
Got the tranny opened up, notice the 64 pitch gear set(awesome!) . Assuming this was made by Thorp, but I couldn't be sure. I was a bit surprised at how good this thing looks inside, only a small amount of soil in the right case, the left case is visibly clean. The gears look great still, bearings are good and the diff still felt normal to me. Prior to disassembly this was a very free spinning gearbox even with no spur gear. These Stealth's are quite amazing! I'll just give it a cleaning, relube the diff and put it back together.
Now about the telescoping axles, wondering if anyone has an idea who might have made them? This was clearly a kit that included the diff hubs, they're different than any of the others I've seen. I'd love to be able to find some sort of assembly instructions but not knowing who made them, I don't know what to search for. Probably no chance I'll ever find it. Oh wait, I just remembered what happened when I said that a week ago about the trailing arms... What I'm not sure about is diff tension. There's no spring like the stock setup so I'm guessing I just assemble it, apply some thread lock to the screw and tighten until it feels "right". Any other thoughts appreciated.

One last thing for tonight, a small package arrived today... I'm pretty tickled with the purchase, these arms are as nice as I could expect to find aside from new ones.

Back later

Yes thorp made the 64 pitch gears. The telescoping drive parts I think are csc. There were a handful of companies that made different versions but I think csc made the ones with those outdrives I could be wrong. There's not much to know. You build the diff as usual replacing the outdrives. Then bolt the adapter on externally. They might not play nice with the houge arms though, the universal area is pretty tight

It might be worth a shot using boot polish. https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=44808&p=511597&hilit=kiwi#p511597
Looks like General Zod has had some good luck.
Alternately, Stoner Trim Shine does a pretty nice job on plastics.

Chuck

Shoe polish, huh? That was an amazing difference on the Hyperdrive car, I think I'll give it a try. Thanks for the tip!

Making progress on this project, the dirty work is done. Replaced some pieces with shiny new ones, the rest were cleaned, polished and/or given a fresh dye bath. I also did the shoe polish trick on the chassis and while it didn't hide all the blemishes it sure helped a ton.

I've been fighting with the rear shocks, for starters the long shocks are simply too long, IMO. Due to close tolerances with the telescoping axles, I had to put some rubber tubing inside the shocks to significantly limit the down travel and avoid rubbing. End result is somewhat limited suspension travel. I know the solution is shorter shocks, but I don't have anything else at the moment and I'm not sure what to look for. I like the looks of the golden oldies and not too crazy about modern shocks on this car, so it is what it is. I also ended up using the shorter springs from the old shocks, with the long springs there was entirely too much preload due to the reduced length with the tubing inside.

With the rear shocks mounted on the back of the tower and so far inward, the stock wing tubes won't be usable any longer. I've seen a few pics where some folks have bullet style wing mounts attached to the tower, I've tried looking for those but have not had any success. Can any of you suggest where I might find some or what to search for? I don't even know who made them or if anyone still does.

Here's some pics. Next post should be of a nearly complete car.

If you are going to run this car you should try to find 1.02" rear shocks. Otherwise there is a risk of breaking an arm e.g. when landing from a jump. Another option could be to use a taller shock mount like with A&L arms.

Great transformation

As for the rear shocks 1.02 is probably a better fit, my 27.5mm big bore work well in my Houge.
I never have been able to get satisfactory results with the rear shock behind the tower however.
Or really really good results in the front either for that matter.
Your car may be different but the 2 reasons for me are…

The lower shock eyelet binds on the upstroke.

The geometry of the shock to the trailing arm is far from perpendicular especially when compressed.
A & L uses an adapter that places the upper mount far ahead of the factory mount and in my opinion is
closest to being “correct” for their trailing arms. Although I really don’t like the “look”. Pic below.

I found spacing the lower shock mount out a little (2mm) and keeping the upper mount back as far as possible just barely kept my suspension from binding.



Just my opinion,I am sure others have had different experiences.

Chuck

the shocks should be mounted on the front of the tower, and the instructions called for another hole to be drilled inboard to change the shock geometry.

the factory 1.32" shock limiter settings should be fine, as well as using the offset spring cup, the 1.32" shock from the kit should have a 5/8" long limiter placed inside, which is actually quite a lot of spacer, but that's what the manual calls out. The houge kit came with solid spring cups which pushed the spring up and away from the arm and wheel.

let me dig up the little instruction sheet and i'll put it up on the scans section.(if I can find it)