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Hi everyone,

this shall be a build thread of a little restoration/upgrading project.
Starting point are three Outrages (Baja Stadium, ARR, and RTR) which I intend to make into two and run them as well.
The RTR being in my posession for well over 25 years. 20 if which in my parents basement but that's not important right now...
It saw plenty of abuse in its day. The other two were bought used but are in quite good condition.

Anyway, so far I took everything apart and removed a lot of old grease, grime and oil. This thread deals with refurbishment of the shocks. https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=50313
I also bought a set of Xtraspeed Ultima shocks and carbon shock towers. Camber links are Tamiya since the Ultima parts are too expensive and hard to find. Looks a lot better than before. Few things remain though.
1. How to mount the wing? The shock towers have no holes for the Outrage wing stays. So I could either drill them or source an Ultima top deck plus wing mount parts. I think I'll go for option 1 even though the wing stays will sit at an awkward angle. Any better ideas? 2. Tires. It seems there are not too many 2" options available in Europe. So it will probably just be re-re Ultima tires.
3. Paint and decals. The previous owner (luckily) did not paint the body. I kind of like the screaming combination of yellow and pink. To give it a little twist I want to lay down a very thin layer of gold and then do a proper coat of yellow. Has anyone done that and can tell me what to expect?
Finding a set of original decals is equally difficult here. So I plan to buy vinyl sheets of approximately the correct color and just cut them into shape.
4. Electronics. It was upgraded in the past and came with Robbe ESC and servo and a Graupner 40 MHz Tx/Rx. Motor is a Mabuchi Silvercan. Everything still works.
Not planning to go above silvercan power. Undecided on the rest though. Apart from the servo I'll probably run it like this and see how it does.

Once this one is finished I'll move on to the next one which will likely look a little more wacky.
Long shocks on all four corners and an RTR Outrage body plus either Truck wheels or modern 2.2" Buggy wheels.
Please form an orderly line to cast your stones...

MrRadar wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 5:41 pm Please form an orderly line to cast you stones...

I call dibs on the role of Mick Jagger

A little progress today.
Removed all but one sticker from the body. After cleaning and masking I layed down two layers of gold and three Tamiya Camel yellow.
Turned out a little too golden for my taste, but it was an experiment anyway. Undecided if I should add another white or silver before finishing with black. Any advice?


I also drilled holes into the rear shock tower for the wing mounts. Wing needed new holes as well. This part will be covered by stickers so it's no big deal.

I've always wanted a better example of one of these than the one I have. They're underappreciated I feel.

Lowgear wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 4:18 pm I've always wanted a better example of one of these than the one I have. They're underappreciated I feel.

Well, compared to an Ultima they are a wobbly mess. But still fun to drive. My plan is to have two ready in summer and "race" with friends. The third one will likely be canibalized for parts when we inevitably break something...

Small update today. Finished the paint work.
I backed everything with Tamiya Bright Silver and I feel this brightened the gold ever so slightly. Next was Black and the wind shield got a few coats of smoke.
I also found out that plastic wrap makes for a great overspray protection. Beats taping over everything by a long shot.
After the paint has properly dried I will reinforce a few points with gorilla tape to prevent further cracking around the body pins and paint abbrasion in general.
Overall happy with the result. Next will be self made decals. I ordered vinyl sheets in various eyesoring colors and will do my best to replicate early 90s coolness. Next body will be this one.
How do I remove this old paint? It came like this out of the box.
Brake fluid?

Body work is almost finished.
Vinyl sheets arrived and I made an attempt to somewhat recreate the original decals. Colors are hard to match of course but I got pretty close.
Taking pictures of these vinyls is almost impossible. Colors are brutal. There are some wrinkles on the blue and green since the vinyl needs wrap around two curves. With more effort it would probably look nicer but it shall be a runner at some point...
Time will tell how tough this vinyl is. It sticks quite well but scratches easily. For a shelfer it would be perfectly fine though.
Not decided yet if I add more vinyl or just slap on some more leftover decals from my Beetle...

Also have rubber now.
Thanks to Kyosho's poor availability Buggy and Truck tires are Tamiya. The buggy rears were a pain to install. Looks like Tamiya uses something a little smaller than 2.2".
The sand paddle tires are RC4WD 1.9" and they fit perfectly on the original 2" wheels.

MrRadar wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 3:55 pm
Well, compared to an Ultima they are a wobbly mess.

More Progress.
The postman brought me some goodies today. Thanks to @GoMachV Had to make a fitment check right away. The amount of front travel is insane. Adding the stadium truck wheels will make for a lot of ground clearance. I'm curious to see if the dog bones will actually play along. Will also need more hardware and a second set of camber links. The stiffness of the front shock tower is reeeeaaally nice. Flexing is now caused by the chassis itself.
I believe the two things to be called outrageous about this buggy are its box art color scheme and its noodly make-up.
Oh well, it has character...


I also bought paint remover for the RTR body. Tested it with some lexan scrap I used for color trials. Let it sit in a jar for ~90 mins partially submerged. Results are mixed. Colors used were black and yellow, both Tamiya.
Yellow was removed nicely and left the lexan clear and almost as new. Black was removed as well but the lexan is visibly hazy/milky. On the upside the lexan is still flexible and did not go brittle, so it appears the hazyness is caused by the paint itself and not the remover. I think I'm going to risk it with the old body, Maybe not submerge it but rather apply the remover with a brush, let it soak for a while and then apply a lot of elbow grease.

Very nice! I've been working on a similar project for years. I'd like to find some period correct shocks to complete the build.