Saito2
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Posts posted by Saito2
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5 hours ago, RCvet said:
I miss the days of here's the place and time, show up or don't. Not interested in negotiating with everyone about time and place that works best for them and then no meeting ever happens as a result. Or to your point, 300 unaffiliated guys who have no real connection show up and cause trouble and don't even know each other. I built some real friendships back then under my old model that does not seem possible today.
There's something different about the times now too. Old car meet-ups were much the same in my area back then. Street rods had already degraded into fiberglass and billet easter egg colored machines run by the well-off elderly by that point and were adored by all. Muscle cars were a bit more fringe and just getting together with any fellow muscle enthusiast, regardless of brand was a good time just to be around fellow gearheads. Gradually, the shows got bigger and with the advent of the internet and social media, muscle cars gained mainstream appreciation as the aging baby boomers, now empty-nesters, having money to blow. In the late 2000's, thanks to Barret Jackson on TV and baby boomer-demand, the price of old 60/70s rides shot up. Every goof with a 4-door '74 Plymouth rotting away in his backyard suddenly thought it was worth a mint. It's weird to see grannies that once scowled and my loud street machines, disturbing the peace, now giving me thumbs up and trying to egg me into doing a burnout, lol. Times change and we all get old. Interestingly, the broad knowledge base all car guys had has become more segmented and broken up because specific-make forum echo chambers allowed guys to talk specifically about their make/model car.
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3 hours ago, RCvet said:
Exact opposite say of Schumacher Cat or Optima Mid of time of which I had both and always went back to the 870c.
It makes me want to try one out but they are just too pricey for me. I run an old rear motor Optima regularly and whiles its built like a tank, a total tear-down seems daunting. I'm kinda stuck in Egress-land when it comes to vintage 4wd racers and that puts me a bit off the pace.
43 minutes ago, Howards said:25 degrees total, with 15 of that coming from the C hubs, 10 deg at the bulkhead.
Thanks. I saw the flat chassis plate and glanced at the scrub radius and began comparing the Yoke to my Egress in my mind so I thought I'd ask some geometry questions. With no kick-up and only 10 deg in the front hubs, I see why the Egress is still at a disadvantage in that area (as well as others).
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Thanks for the pics. Nice buggy. Yokomo's are a bit alien to me outside of their coverage in RC Car Action. What a beautifully simple and effective platform,
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Just now, Smokescreen38 said:
Whoa. Your Nova looks like it rolled right out of an early/mid 70s street race. It looks mean with those traction bars and the slotted mags are perfection. What's under the hood?
Thank you! That is precisely the look I was going for (basically what we all did as kids BITD). I still kick around the idea of adding a Grump Lump hood scoop with some lace paint but PA cops get fussy about hood scoop height. Its just a 4 bolt 350 with Vortec heads (center bolt valve covers do ruin the vibe a bit and prevent me from running some cool gold Moroso or cast M/T valve covers). Its actually a long distance cruiser drivetrain with 2.73s and a Saginaw four speed. The Saginaw might lack the durability of a Muncie (or Chrysler's awesome A833) but its 3.11 first gear lets it pull out with some grunt. My days of side-stepping clutches and ripping through the gears like a wild man are over
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How much caster and kickup did these Yokomo's have? It looks like zero kickup from what I can see in photos online but I can't quite make out if the front bulkhead adds some. Still unsure about the caster angle too. Thanks.
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3 hours ago, Smokescreen38 said:
That is an awesome Dart Sport. We don't see many around here set up like that. Nice.
I'll race ya! Just don't ask me to take any turns at speed......or stop with any authority, lol.
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I agree with Twinfan. I had to shim the diffs in my Super Avante to eliminate side-to-side play but don't recall having that issue with the original Avante series. I'd suggest driving it first before looking into modifications. The stock shocks are pretty nice too.
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Cars once consumed my life. The field I spent the longest in has been professional automotive restoration. I started at a Corvette specialty shop and then went on to a Corvette/muscle car resto shop for many years. The owner was one of the "original 7" from the Bloomington judging teams. He was good friends with Chip Miller of Carlisle fame. This car, the Purple People Eater, sat in back by the mixing room of the shop for years before truly discovering what it was:
We restored a lot of various Mopar concept cars for Steven Juiano's (RIP) collection along with some of the Rapid Transit Caravan cars.
Th
The Diamante, pictured above, we sprayed in pearl white. I still have the cardboard I sprayed the "Diamante, by Dodge" emblem on:
The next shop I worked for kinda looked down on muscle cars and didn't do much past 1960, but a paycheck is a paycheck. We did many Packards and Cadillacs but really did everything from Rauch and Lang electrics to a 1949 VW:
I still remember painting the "VW" logos on the hubcaps and trying out different thicknesses of oil pump gaskets to get the correct oil pressure in time for the Hershey show.
I had to make parts for the purely mechanical brake system by hand for that car because you aren't getting parts (even VW parts) out of a catalog for something that old.
That's Dana Mecum's (from Mecum Auctions) personal Packard (at the time I worked on it). I had to fix something in the transmission, which for a torque tube drivetrain means pulling the whole rear axle out and back to get the transmission out. V16 Cadillacs, ultra rare Cadillac Broughams, XKEs, you name it, I've been working on and around these cars. I could go on but it'd be boring.
Then, just after the birth of my daughter, a fire that consumed every waking moment of my life, went out and its for the best. I left the trade with a crippled back, shot knees and reprioritized my life. Family first. The stress level of working on all that exclusive stuff was simply not worth it. I can sleep at night now.
I still have some toys of my own but its not the same...
That's my MGB and Nova. The Mustang's sold and I bought a Miata to commute with now.
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You know, even the standard 50529 touring car gearset has a note in the instructions about not being compatible with "1/10th RC off-road buggies" and no one that I'm aware of has ever had an issue with using them in DF01s. I've had them in a Dirt Thrasher, Top Force and Manta Ray for years without issue.
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At my old job I was the fastest builder with zero QA mistakes in the 5 years I worked there. I usually had some deep podcast about economics, literature, comic books, engineering, or even RC jammed in my ear while my hands just "did their trick" on their own. When I came home, working fast was the last thing I wanted to do. I'm absolutely driven to build and fiddle with things (my safe space) so the concept of a desk job or computer work is lost on me.
I savor my builds and re-builds. Flush cut side cutters may make quick work of trimming off sprue but I'd rather carefully trim parts with a knife, feeling the various grades of plastic yielding to the blade's sharpness in their own unique way: the crisp hardness of ABS/PC, the soft and buttery give of standard PA or the grainy grit of glass reinforced plastics. Its probably why I still prefer JIS fasteners to hex as I feel more connected to the process of tightening down fasteners, almost like the enjoyment of driving manual vs the dullness of automatic. The satisfaction of finally getting that pinion mesh "just right"...all of it a joy to the senses "in my hands". When everything is built up slowly and carefully with utmost attention, I feel better and can sleep at night. If something didn't quite go right, I'll be back at it, grinding away at the problem until I'm satisfied, so no, I am not a fast builder.
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2 hours ago, urban warrior said:
But what are yours exactly? They look more round and not so "squared" like Clod tires.
I'm going to guess Jconcepts Golden Years tires. They look great too!
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Tamiya's tiny paint cans were $4 and change at one point. Now they're $7.75. I realized I messed up in being lazy and not painting my backlog of bodies earlier.
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Aside from any "surprise" re-releases (like a Falcon), I'm going to try not to buy any new vehicles and concentrate on finishing what I've got. I've been scratching the new vehicle itch by piecing together stuff I already have, like the pseudo-Astute I'm slowly working on and hopefully getting some Evo parts to merge my Hornet and DT02, which separately haven't seen much action.
I'll be looking at cheaper ways of doing things as the financial situation here looks dicey for the future. I've been holding off on painting because I loathe it and now Tamiya PS paint is up to $7.75 a can, so it might finally make sense to get my airbrush up and running. Truthfully, I want to complete some projects because I don't know if it will be economically feasible down the line. I've given up all my other hobbies at this point. The long term goal over the year is to buckle down and once projects are buttoned up, return to cheaper hobbies like writing, art and (poorly) banging away on guitar. To that end:
-finish 9 RC10 projects
-finish Astute project
-paint Bruiser, Clod Buster, Lunch Box, Double Dare and possibly Blackfoot bodies
-if TBG has another sale, while the post office isn't on strike, try to get King Cab/USA-1 bodies to finish those off
-merge DT02 with Hornet
-pie in the sky entry: start 3 axle Clod-based "Monster Mack" project
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8 hours ago, Kowalski86 said:
Is that "hacked up" tub from "Project Dune Runner" by any chance?
Yes, that's it. I did a little hammer/dolly work at the front of the tub sides, which had been cut back as you recall. Fortunately, Associated nose tubes are longer than they need to be and there was just enough material left at the front of the tub to anchor the nose tubes (with new holes added at the end). The transmission is from another RC10 I bought on here while the Dune Runner's is slated to be rebuilt alongside of it for one of the RC10s I have in pieces. Its hard keeping all the pieces (and plans for them) straight in my head sometimes, lol.
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I've had similar "mess up" points usually with the thought Why did I buy that? running through my head when I look at it. Usually my mechanical curiosity gets the better of me. I broke my vague rule of not buying designs past the first 100 with the BBX and TD4. It worked out ok with the BBX, no real regret there, but the TD4...
Well the point I realized I messed up with the TD4 was just recently when Tamiya was blowing them out super cheap. I bought mine for $100 less than their original $350 asking street price a year ago and while I missed out on some further savings that's not the issue in my mind. Those recent, steep, fire-sale prices pretty much sent a clear signal that this is likely a dead platform which is not a situation I like to be in. The build was new and interesting enough to balance out the irritation from the various odd quirks throughout assembly but in the end, I didn't need it. I have a bunch of 4wd buggies already. With the US market no doubt fully saturated from the recent Tamiya USA sale, I probably couldn't get $100 for my new-built, never run TD4. Oh well. Its a pretty cool paper weight.
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Being cheap and in need of some RC10 wheels for my current bench project, I dug into a pile of old parts. What surfaced was two chromed rear wheels with worn-out tires glued to them and two matching front wheels painted black (poorly). I stripped the chrome with oven cleaner and the paint with brake fluid. An hour in a boiling pot of water softened the glue enough to remove the tires. Now I have some wheels ready to go and saved about $30 (granted it took a couple hours, lol).
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Thanks for the update @River19. I am hoping the "boring" in "boring in a good way" doesn't equate to the boring I get from a run-of-the-mill DT02 (that was a lot of use of the word boring
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Ok, the title is misleading. Its more like projects.
About 15 years ago, when unscrupulous folks figured old ratty old Tamiya buggies were "collectable", we saw the end of the cheap fleabay project that could be picked up and revitalized. Surprise! Greed ruins everything. With reasonably affordable re-releases coming out by then, I dropped out of the old Tamiya hunt for awhile, refusing to pay stupid prices for crumbling plastic. Instead, I quietly began scooping up old RC10s that happened to come my way. Always being deep in some Tamiya or Kyosho project, the RC10s got squirreled away. I called them my retirement projects. Well, that was dumb.
The concept that a working class schlub like myself is ever going to be able to retire is probably a pipe dream. I'll die on my feet working (if all goes well and the ol' body holds together). Its not to say I haven't saved for retirement. Almost every spare dime goes towards it. We haven't eaten out in over 10 years at this point, lol. But, in the US, many of us are just one medical emergency away from severe financial hardship. Oh and look! Social Security benefits that we've all payed into our whole lives will drop to only around a 75% payout by 2033 if something isn't done to fix it. Fun! Sorry, rant over, I digress.
Admittedly disappointed at the prices of the Thunder Tiger RC10 re-releases, I decided to pull out some of those projects and get a game plan going. Everything will only get more expensive and more unavailable as time goes on. So, here's what I've got:
An old, pretty complete Cadillac RC10
A 2012 re-release I bought for about half price (they were $250 first time around), with little use.
Late, "zebra" RC10 Champ Edition with Stealth trans and fairly nice tub.
Old 6-gear RC10 with white Andy's wide front arms. If I can find some affordable short front arms (not the $30 AE wants for all 4 currently), I'd like to make this a short arm runner. The tub's got enough scratches underneath to warrant it.
This hodge-podge of parts started with a hacked tub that I was determined to save. Its got Andy's wide arms and a crunchy Stealth trans that need rebuilt. This will definitely be a runner.
Tub Team Car. Look! A black tub! How novel.
Graphite Team Car with A&L steering.
In addition to those pictured above, there are two more tub cars in pieces sitting in boxes, so 9 RC10s altogether.
I definitely have a love/hate relationship with the RC10. I hated the car got all the press BITD when I worshiped Tamiya (probably still guilty of this although I can both love and criticize RC companies simultaneously. What a concept!). I took great enjoyment seeing the Ultima clobber the RC10 in '87. As time went on, I really began to appreciate all the knowledge, passion and the people behind the RC10. Flawed in places or not, its a great product. The 2012 re-re seemed strangely dead to me and I admit that's weird. I imagine the current ones would too. I wanted to build new one and thrash it but not when I can buy a super-nice Kyosho for the prices Thunder Tiger is asking. I think a Hornet Evo will be more in line with cheaper, care free bashing. I do plan on digging out all those old magazines and following the articles while building up this pile of RC10s.
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Three MSCs hooked up to one servo? lol. Nah, that's something silly I'd try. I'm interested in hearing any replies myself as I plan to replicate the Monster Mack in that article someday...
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I had a Boomerang re-release with a body so thin that my pinky finger poked right through the lexan while I was holding it during painting. The seller directed me to Tamiya USA. I contacted them. They asked for proof-of-purchase and a pic of the damaged body and then immediately sent me out a new body, totally free of charge.
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4 hours ago, urban warrior said:
Is it possible to dye blue parts black?
Yes. I've done it to some blue Super Clod parts myself.
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Sometimes when I think in bed around 2am (which seems to be when my brain turns on to contemplate things for some reason), I roll through my stockpile of Tamiya parts cataloged in my memory. This morning, it occurred to me, thanks to a chassis tub given to me by @Kowalski86, that I have enough parts to build another Lunch Box, so that's what I did today. As intoxicating the smell of cracking open a new kit is, piecing something together from spares is so satisfying.
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5 minutes ago, Tigerstyle131 said:
Are these the Super Hotshot parts you are talking about?
Yep!
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I still remember painting the "VW" logos on the hubcaps and trying out different thicknesses of oil pump gaskets to get the correct oil pressure in time for the Hershey show.
870C/YZ10 question
in Other makes
Posted
...and since I'm not very computer savvy and don't know what "LLM" means, I was too slow on the uptake to get that.