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I decided to crawl under the house today and pull out my old Rustler to see what kind of shape it was in. Let me just say it is horrible, the steering servo is froze up, the motor is getting there and even the plastic has corrosion all over it.
I remember this thing being alot bigger but then again I was a kid. I originally was gonna clean it up a bit and sell the sucker off. Although since then my plans have changed and I have decided to restore this truck! Short story is my girlfriend has a son and it looks like we are probably gonna take things all the way to marriage (way.....WAY down the road) and I figure this would be a great gift for him when he gets old enough to run R/C stuff. Ofcourse it will also be another project to have fun with, on top of that I wouldn't mind seeing what I can do with it.
Comparing pictures it seems that the newer model Rustlers haven't changed much other than the electronics in them. I'm thinking of upgrading with the Velineon waterproof system and just regular NiMH batteries.
Most likely I will throw an aluminum chassis and then put RPM everywhere I can. New waterproof steering servo is in order and ofcourse new gearing for the upgraded power. The motor I had in it when I was a kid was the Stinger brushed motor, I have never seen a brushless motor in action. Also I will need to get another body, the one that I had on it as a kid lasted about a week before it was absolutely crap. (EDIT: Come to think of it If I were to change chassis, and put RPM everywhere then I may aswell just build an entire buggy from scratch, so for now I may just upgrade the electronics and everything that is rusty, new tires and rims and call it good...I will just have to see what happens)
Chances are I will be spending about the same amount of money as the newer RTR kit if not more to rebuild this buggy but eh its all in fun and it will eventually be a gift that I can say I put alot of effort into.
So any advice, comments or criticisms are welcome!
Ofcourse now for the pictures....
Ok guys, so I spent about 2 hours yesterday and broke down the front end and cleaned all those parts. Left the house around 8pm and got back about 11pm. Immediately started breaking down the rest of the truck, took all the nuts and bolts dropped em' in some concentrated carb cleaner for about and hour and then proceeded to wire brush and sand the metal components. While I was letting the screws etc. soak I cleaned the rest of the plastic parts, cleaned the motor, servos, throttle control and the transmission gears.
Got everything cleaned up and what rust I could remove off the bolts (The RC Screwz Rustler Screw Kit is in need) and began assembly of the truck. I worked on this till 4am and finally called it a night.
Woke up 11am and went straight to finishing the truck, I finished it about 2pm and took it out for a spin. I can't seem to get the steering servo to turn fully to the left and the motor is on its last leg. It goes but it's not near the power it had when I was young. I remember being able to go in reverse, pull the trigger forward and pop a wheelie with this thing. Let's just say that doesn't happen anymore...lol
I took four of the stock springs from my T-Maxx and used them to replace the ones that were on it. They were in horrible shape, only thing really usable on them was the shock caps and springs. These shocks brought the front stance up quite a bit higher so I had to compensate a little on the back and moved the shocks in the 2nd to last hole on the a-arms. It has a level stance and much higher ground clearance now.
So I figured up the cost of the RPM stuff I want to get and that comes out to about $70 and then the Traxxas Velineon system is around $150. Waterproof steering servo will run about $30, a waterproof reciever box $10 and another link receiver for what like $30? I'm debating on what to do with the rims, I was thinking about sanding the roughness off the original ones and spray painting them chrome and get a set of the stock Rustler tires. If not that then go with the All-Star black chrome wheels and maybe some of the Rustler Talon tires which shouldn't run me more than $40 for a set of wheels and tires. Oh and I almost forgot, I need a body, I'll prolly go with a Traxxas ProGraphix stock shell. So that comes to a grand total of $330, I still have all the same batteries and tower hobbies quick charger that I had when I was a kid and believe it or not all of them still hold a charge pretty well!
Here are some pictures:
I remember this thing being alot bigger but then again I was a kid. I originally was gonna clean it up a bit and sell the sucker off. Although since then my plans have changed and I have decided to restore this truck! Short story is my girlfriend has a son and it looks like we are probably gonna take things all the way to marriage (way.....WAY down the road) and I figure this would be a great gift for him when he gets old enough to run R/C stuff. Ofcourse it will also be another project to have fun with, on top of that I wouldn't mind seeing what I can do with it.
Comparing pictures it seems that the newer model Rustlers haven't changed much other than the electronics in them. I'm thinking of upgrading with the Velineon waterproof system and just regular NiMH batteries.
Most likely I will throw an aluminum chassis and then put RPM everywhere I can. New waterproof steering servo is in order and ofcourse new gearing for the upgraded power. The motor I had in it when I was a kid was the Stinger brushed motor, I have never seen a brushless motor in action. Also I will need to get another body, the one that I had on it as a kid lasted about a week before it was absolutely crap. (EDIT: Come to think of it If I were to change chassis, and put RPM everywhere then I may aswell just build an entire buggy from scratch, so for now I may just upgrade the electronics and everything that is rusty, new tires and rims and call it good...I will just have to see what happens)
Chances are I will be spending about the same amount of money as the newer RTR kit if not more to rebuild this buggy but eh its all in fun and it will eventually be a gift that I can say I put alot of effort into.
So any advice, comments or criticisms are welcome!
Ofcourse now for the pictures....
Ok guys, so I spent about 2 hours yesterday and broke down the front end and cleaned all those parts. Left the house around 8pm and got back about 11pm. Immediately started breaking down the rest of the truck, took all the nuts and bolts dropped em' in some concentrated carb cleaner for about and hour and then proceeded to wire brush and sand the metal components. While I was letting the screws etc. soak I cleaned the rest of the plastic parts, cleaned the motor, servos, throttle control and the transmission gears.
Got everything cleaned up and what rust I could remove off the bolts (The RC Screwz Rustler Screw Kit is in need) and began assembly of the truck. I worked on this till 4am and finally called it a night.
Woke up 11am and went straight to finishing the truck, I finished it about 2pm and took it out for a spin. I can't seem to get the steering servo to turn fully to the left and the motor is on its last leg. It goes but it's not near the power it had when I was young. I remember being able to go in reverse, pull the trigger forward and pop a wheelie with this thing. Let's just say that doesn't happen anymore...lol
I took four of the stock springs from my T-Maxx and used them to replace the ones that were on it. They were in horrible shape, only thing really usable on them was the shock caps and springs. These shocks brought the front stance up quite a bit higher so I had to compensate a little on the back and moved the shocks in the 2nd to last hole on the a-arms. It has a level stance and much higher ground clearance now.
So I figured up the cost of the RPM stuff I want to get and that comes out to about $70 and then the Traxxas Velineon system is around $150. Waterproof steering servo will run about $30, a waterproof reciever box $10 and another link receiver for what like $30? I'm debating on what to do with the rims, I was thinking about sanding the roughness off the original ones and spray painting them chrome and get a set of the stock Rustler tires. If not that then go with the All-Star black chrome wheels and maybe some of the Rustler Talon tires which shouldn't run me more than $40 for a set of wheels and tires. Oh and I almost forgot, I need a body, I'll prolly go with a Traxxas ProGraphix stock shell. So that comes to a grand total of $330, I still have all the same batteries and tower hobbies quick charger that I had when I was a kid and believe it or not all of them still hold a charge pretty well!
Here are some pictures:
Last edited:
uke:
