Blue Fronts And Green Rears

[markbt73]

I keep thinking about getting a new kit, but as has been discussed (and argued about) recently on here, there just isn't very much to get excited about among the new kits out right now, at least in the range of affordability. I'd love to go drop $400 on a Hilux, but it just isn't in the cards right now.

So I've decided it's time to attempt a restoration.

I've had this Associated RC10LSO since 1995. It's the graphite version, with the Dynamic front end. It's a late enough kit to have black nylon suspension parts instead of the white, which I kind of wish it had so I could dye them some cool color. I raced it on a carpet oval for a couple years, then briefly used it as a basher out on some tennis courts near the apartment I used to live in. But for the past few years, it's been gathering dust.

Last night, I tore it apart, right down to the bare chassis plate. It's in surprisingly good shape; there are only a few little chips in the graphite along the front of the chassis, and all the plastic parts are there except for the right-side guard, which I remember breaking and throwing away. It needs some screws replaced, because they have stripped heads, but that's just a good excuse to replace them with blue aluminum. The rear axle needs a rebuild, and some of the bearings are a little crunchy, but other than that it's not too bad. It just needs a good thorough cleaning.

And new tires. The Bolink foams that were on it are worn down pretty far, and now they're all dried out. But Tower still carries 1/10 foams, in the ubiquitous blue front and green rear compounds, so new sneakers are easy.

Then, I have to decide on a body shell. When I was racing it, I ran it in stock class with a Chevy NASCAR truck series body, painted in a garish green, purple, and silver that I could easily pick out as being mine. Later, it wore a Carson Lancia Stratos body that I picked up on a vacation to Germany a few years back. It looked good, but the wheels stuck out a bit too far to be scale. This time, I want something equally interesting, a proper high-powered rear-wheel-drive bodystyle for a high-powered rear-wheel-drive chassis. I'm leaning towards either an HPI Pantera or Countach, to take advantage of the low front end and slightly-wider-in-the-rear proportions.

It will get a simple stock motor of some kind and probably a TEU101 ESC, and stick-pack battery holders, to be an occasional runner. It's a ton of fun to drive, difficult to master, but very rewarding. Even though it was designed for oval racing, it doesn't mind turning right one bit. It actually handles road courses really well.

But all that seems a long way off, when I'm staring at this:

Wish me luck.

[Blacque Jacque]

Good luck ! I never had an AE pan car, but they always looked so purposeful, no extraneous parts or weight, a proper racer.

The chips in the chassis can be filled by a little regular epoxy, degrease it first of course.

Just curious, what are the dimensions of that chassis ? Front / rear track, wheelbase etc. ?

[markbt73]

The wheelbase is just slightly longer than a touring car, about 10-1/4 in or 260mm. The standard body shells made for these cars were 8 inches wide, so 200mm touring car shells fit okay if you fudge the wheelbase a bit. But it's a bit wider in the rear than in the front, which is why I'm looking at the newer HPI shells that are 200 front and 210 rear.

[mb_c11]

A couple of notes:

- The blue and green tires currently available at Tower might not be the same as your old tires, as they're possibly made by another manufacturer. Also, there's better tires available these days, that have more grip and less wear (eg. GRP magenta and pinks). If you're running on a racing track, use tire additive (ask what they allow for pancars) for even more grip.

- Why not pop in a brushless set and lipo? You'll have very long running times and blistering speeds.

- Body. You're better off using a group c Le Mans-style body, imho. The current trend of using gt bodies seems to be aimed at scrubbing off speed by reducing downforce, which I think is stupid. If you want to go less fast, pop in a slower motor, and don't screw up the way your car handles.

- Concerning the chips in the chassis, just put some superglue on. You should also seal the edges of the chassis plate with superglue...

- Side guards are better left off, as they tend to serve as skis in sharp high downforce turns and touch the track.

- I don't know what condition your shocks are in, but they might require a rebuild or even replacement.

[pmdparts]

That's a neat project--I think its cool that you kept the car for all these years. I hardly ever get rid of any R/C that I bought new. I also thought that I'd let you know that I have a bunch of parts for LS/LSO cars. Some are used, but I also have a ton of NIP parts from Asssociated and from aftermarket manufacturers. Check the link to one auction that I have going right now:

RC10LS parts

I even have a sealed package of the blue "Factory Team" aluminum screws that you mentioned before! They are part# 8115 for LS/LSO.

PM me if there is anything specific that you are looking for! I have lots of used wheels/tires, but probably nothing that you would want. I do have one set of new (but unboxed) foams on white "finned" AE style wheels.

Good luck with the project!

[markbt73]

Thanks for the comments, guys. The chassis is back together, with the diff all rebuilt and silky smooth. I disassembled and cleaned all the suspension parts front and rear, but the only parts that needed replacing were the pivot balls in the front arms. The shock is nice and smooth and doesn't leak, so I didn't even crack it open.

http://picasaweb.google.com/markbt73/RcStu...137606903981090

BUT... Since starting this project, things have changed. I had originally planned to make it a gentle runner, but my wife and I are buying a house with a gravel driveway, on a gravel street, so a car with no ground clearance is not really going to see much use. So I'm going to focus more on off-roaders for a while. That's fine, though; it looks so pretty with the carbon-fiber all polished up that I don't want to get it dusty anyway. I get the feeling that it will end up with a clear body shell, and enjoy a well-earned retirement in pride of place on my RC shelf.

But I can see, years from now, pulling it down off the shelf, dropping some electrics in it, and showing the kiddies how it was done back in the day.