What do you do with spare parts from a RC Kit?

[Pylon80]

You can do the TC Way. Here are the steps: 

- Keep the leftovers from your first TT-02 in a box/bin/bag.

- Buy expensive hop-ups, but do so as a slow bleed so you don't really notice what's happening. Every time you replace a stock part, keep it and add it to the leftovers.

- After 2 years or so, look at the box of leftovers and say "wow I almost have a second TT-02 in there!"

- Spend a hundred dollars on the tiny bits that are still missing and obtain a second, absolute junk stock, chassis 😀

- Start upgrading the second chassis and repeat the steps above 👍

[chris.alex]

23 hours ago, Klausen said:

Parts related to the car, I keep in the kit box. Screws, bolts, shims and so on, I keep in a general sparepart box.

That's what I do, too. Only the vehicle-specific parts stay in the kit box; the rest goes with the general spare parts.

[alvinlwh]

2 hours ago, Pylon80 said:

After 2 years or so

I didn't wait 2 years, just 2 weeks. 

[Andreas W]

2 hours ago, Pylon80 said:

You can do the TC Way. Here are the steps: 

- Keep the leftovers from your first TT-02 in a box/bin/bag.

- Buy expensive hop-ups, but do so as a slow bleed so you don't really notice what's happening. Every time you replace a stock part, keep it and add it to the leftovers.

- After 2 years or so, look at the box of leftovers and say "wow I almost have a second TT-02 in there!"

- Spend a hundred dollars on the tiny bits that are still missing and obtain a second, absolute junk stock, chassis 😀

- Start upgrading the second chassis and repeat the steps above 👍

Hehe. I actually thought about buying the parts needed to build a second M-05 of the leftovers. I stopped when I passed the price for an M-07 concept (but that would mean another chassis which will generate leftovers ).

[Pylon80]

1 minute ago, Andreas W said:

Hehe. I actually thought about buying the parts needed to build a second M-05 of the leftovers. I stopped when I passed the price for an M-07 concept (but that would mean another chassis which will generate leftovers ).

It's always the small parts that make it unpractical. Like the kingpins, bearings, suspension shafts etc. These add up very quickly.

Interestingly, one can still build a TL-01 from brand new parts for around 150$ in 2025, when that car went out of production decades ago and was never rereleased. So there are exceptions.

But in any case the M-05 is a wonderful little car and is going away, so hold on to your M-05 bits in case you change your mind one day

With that, I'll go try to source F103 parts for the next bits-a-build 🙄

[KILLorBE]

Not sure what I do with the spare parts, some are in the kit box and some are all over the place (Hobby room, living room, bedroom and there's a quarter scale on the balcony, which sadly can't be salvaged anymore...

Time to make changes!

[OoALEJOoO]

Like many members, I store all spare parts in some kit's box, got two full of them already. My thought is that at some point in the future, all that plastic in various shapes and sizes will be useful for something. It's just waiting there for a use to be discovered. Most of the parts will probably rot there for a decade or two though.

The thing is, not many things beat the feeling of finding a real use of some of the parts! The latest, 1050 plastic bushings work wonderfully as spacers on door hinges. You just need to open the ID from 5mm to a bit less than 6mm with a file. No more scratching doors against the floor .

[OldSchoolRC1]

I pretty much never throw anything away. It comes in handy!

This is 35 years of spare parts. I used to group them by kit, now some are grouped by kit, but most are separated out - body posts, suspension pins, steel gears, plastic gears, driveshafts, etc. Helps when custom building. Also I have an HPI box, Axial Box, Tamiya box...etc. Whatever makes sense for the amount of parts I have.