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

Ì received this 12L the other day from LurkingCAT which was in pretty good shape for its age. It will be a tennis court runner since that's about the only place that I'll be able to use it. The surface of the moon is smoother than Astralian parking lots and roads.

I will likely do an 80's themed stock car complete with vintage radio and fiberglass roll over antenna to compliment the vintage theme. I'm actually really looking forward to it......

Here's how I received it.

The 12L is such a cool little rocket. There's just barely enough car to hold all the electronics.

I couldn't help myself

Nearly ready for reassembly already

Frankentruck wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 2021 12:28 pm The 12L is such a cool little rocket. There's just barely enough car to hold all the electronics.

Yeah, which is why I want a stock car body to use full size electronics and reasonable sized batteries. Not much room under GTP bodies.

A small car requires a small area

Are you going to use lipos and brushless?

Good to see the 12L arrived safely! First time I've sent a roller in an envelope as a letter.
Originally I was planning this as a runner myself, but never got around with this one. Nice you are already making progress!

1300GT wrote: ↑Sun Jun 13, 2021 3:49 am Are you going to use lipos and brushless?

I plan to run LiPo's and brushless, a very mild combo. If only I could remember the brand that had saddle packs with the molded battery humps in the case.

LurkingCAT wrote: ↑Sun Jun 13, 2021 4:44 am Good to see the 12L arrived safely! First time I've sent a roller in an envelope as a letter.
Originally I was planning this as a runner myself, but never got around with this one. Nice you are already making progress!

Thanks again, it was funny and a bit odd to have a car arrive in a bubble mailer

Assembly has begun !!!

So far so good and coming together nicely. The little tweak screw plate was interesting to make out of a tin can but a great idea, wonder why AE never supplied one ?


Shock spring thing and damper washers all assembled, a tiny tiny amount of the diff grease on the washers and the whole pod moves smooth as butter.


Diff put together, I like the original idea of thrust bearings on the axle, saves side loading the bearings. Just like new.


Rear axle installed

Not that there's much exciting about the front end of a 12L but here it is assembled on the car..... complete with high performance spring steel turnbuckles

Nice! I have the same kind of project with a RC12LW: https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=46273&p=525449#p525449
Does a brushless motor fit in the very small rear pod?

folkdeath95 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 13, 2021 12:04 pm Nice! I have the same kind of project with a RC12LW: https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=46273&p=525449#p525449
Does a brushless motor fit in the very small rear pod?

I will try and get back to you, lol.

RC10th wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 5:09 am

folkdeath95 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 13, 2021 12:04 pm Nice! I have the same kind of project with a RC12LW: https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=46273&p=525449#p525449
Does a brushless motor fit in the very small rear pod?

I will try and get back to you, lol.

I was just curious. For mine, I chose to use a mod brushed motor with four cells NiMh batteries.

Servo and receiver in place, tested and all working ok..... I shortened the servo wire a fair bit but may shorten it even furthet once I work out esc placement.

That's coming along nicely. Just a note as I went through a similar resto-mod with my RC12L3 build, when you go to brushless, if you're using 1S LiPo, you may need to hunt down a 1S-compatible ESC, and I learned those are pretty uncommon and rather expensive. Most of the inexpensive brushless ESCs aren't really 1S-compatible and 3.7 volts is below the low-voltage cut-off, so they often don't power up. You're probably already familiar with that build.

It's starting to come together, the motor showed up yesterday and I've ordered the body. Hopefully that doesn’t take 2 months to arrive.

I'm going 2 cell provided I can get some batteries to fit without looking hacked in. I'm trying to keep the "era" theme and feel with it. The motor is a bit unusual and out there but quite fitting I think. Just need to solder it up to the ESC.