Build Thread Resurrecting the NitroHawk

[Mister 4x4]

And we're off!

After spending an hour or so just getting my shed/shop area cleaned up to the point I could actually do something, I found the NitroHawk and pulled it out of the old 'Tupperware' gig bag my pal Jeff Pitman swiped from his wife for his R/C toys. I've also got a box with a few sets of mounted rims/tires and the original hammered body and an F-150 Nitro Rustler body I picked up after acquiring the 'Hawk from another friend. Jeff had run the 'Hawk in street mode for most of the year we'd been running almost every weekend and switched over to a Traxxas 4-Tec, which he loved, but never quite figured out how to keep it from swapping ends when he hit the brakes. Another pal Rob Hutson wanted to play, so Jeff sold him the 'Hawk, and Rob joined us for a couple weekend before deciding it just wasn't for him. About a year later, Rob asked me if I wanted the 'Hawk just before he moved to Colorado - "Just come and get it." Well, of course I will. He said there was something wrong with the drivetrain, and one of the rear axles just spun freely (probably just a set-screw came loose). I never really did anything with the 'Hawk - just kept it in the bag and let it sit with the other cars as I ignored them for the next 24-ish years.

Fast forward to today: After I got a spot on the bench cleared off, woke up the stereo to get some tunes going, I jumped into triage to figure out just how bad it's gonna be. Not all THAT bad, turns out. The engine felt 'seized,' but that doesn't mean anything to me at this point. I pulled the igniter and dribbled some After Run oil into the cylinder and just let it sit. Also dumped a bit into the carb's throat, since it too is locked-up. The pull starter is toast - the plastic mounts are cracked [again] - Jeff had Hell with those things, which doesn't bother me since I have a starter box and a hand-held I used on the SuperTen when its pull-starter went STB. Here we are - not horrible... needs some TLC, though.

I really need to pull this chassis completely apart and soak everything in Purple Power, but I want to see if it's all gonna be worth it first. After a half hour of soaking and me examining everything I could, I noticed the 12mm hex on the flywheel and figured WTH - gave it a gentle turn. It started rotating slowly, but started getting a little looser. I added more After-Run and shot the carb with some carb cleaner, then dribbled a little down the throat. It's still hangin' tough, but I'll work on it more tomorrow. The transmission is butter smooth, and there's nothing wrong with either of the rear hubs - I don't know what Rob was experiencing (maybe he'd locked up the engine, I don't know), but so far, so good.

Since Jeff (and Rob) ran the 'Hawk in 'street mode,' (slammed with very little suspension travel), and I'm planning on hitting an outdoor off-road course, I need to let the 'Hawk stretch his legs again and stiffen up the suspension to keep from bottoming out on landings. I poked around my stash of Kyosho spare parts and found a set of shock collars, so I installed those (the black spacers between the shock tops and spring retainers), and while that certainly stiffened things up a bit, there's not much in the way of obvious to let the legs out a bit.

Well, the front upper shock brace at least had some adjustment holes, but none that corresponded in the body bracket, so I remedied that and added a few new holes (Hey, it's mine now, right?!) Even though the angle is different than the pic above, suffice it to say that the front arms were pretty much straight across before I modified the shock bracket. This is MUCH better, and should help keep the 'Hawk from submarining on the landings (provided I can figure out how to drive the off-road track).

The rear is another story. I'm going to need to fabricate a better rear upper shock bracket, and since this is less than straight across.

First things first, I need to extract the nasty old receiver battery pack and possibly relocate it to some midships (if possible) for better weigh distribution (why they put it there, I'll never know). The upper shock bracket shouldn't be too bad - I just need to get the upper shock heads pushed inboard a tiny bit and down - more down than in, though. That'll stretch his legs a bit and hopefully keep from bottoming out on landings. I also need to come up with some kind of a body mount system, since that center peg hole is right in the middle of an air vent hole in the body I'm planning on using.

Which brings me to this: After my SuperTen's McLaren body got trashed, I struggled to find a new body (since the SuperTen was technically a 1/9th car, needing a 240mm wide body. I decided to have some fun and found a Mobil 1 Porsche GT1 HPI body at the LHS for $20, so I grabbed it and made the SuperTen into a Baja Porsche. It took it in stride, and I had fun running this body for a bit. Then I tried to suck my wife in by painting a 1/10 Monte Carlo NASCAR body to look like her '96 Z-24 Cavalier (which it did), but she wasn't having it. Then HPI started making SNRS4s and I found I liked their Viper GTR body just fine.

I was sitting here contemplating what to do for a body, and decided to just toss the Baja Porsche body on - WINNER!! I just need to trim the fenders a bit and get it mounted up now.

I know I'll find the F-150 body in the next few days, but I still need to fit it and paint it. In my head it's got a red face and black tail with yellow eyes/headlights, a la Darth Maul. But, I diggin' the 'Baja' look. According to Amazon, the radio should be here tomorrow, so I might even get a chance to run it, providing I can get the engine back to operational and the new radio gear on-board.

Stay tuned!

 

[WickedFog]

Oh man, another blast from the past! Love it!

 

[watertrucker]

That is so awesome. I have a Nitro Hawk in my collection as well. It looks like you still have the Image .12 engine but with an MIP stinger pipe. That is one sweet truck. Definitely a keeper. Thanks for sharing pics

 

[Mister 4x4]

That is so awesome. I have a Nitro Hawk in my collection as well. It looks like you still have the Image .12 engine but with an MIP stinger pipe. That is one sweet truck. Definitely a keeper. Thanks for sharing pics

My pleasure! When Jeff was running in street mode, the 'Hawk was plenty fast... it just had issues turning tight on the asphalt - which admittedly, was not what he was designed to do. The MIP Stinger really woke-up the engine, from what he said. I loved how it sounded like a rabid mini-chainsaw. Jeff tried all sorts of tricks, one of the most effective being a roll of pennies stuck just behind the front 'bumper,' which really helped the 'Hawk hang tough on the road courses we came up each weekend. If it would've been AWD and maybe had a shorter suspension arm package, look out - I'm sure it would've done awesome with the extra directional traction.

This is pretty much how the 'Hawk came to me, so aside from stretching his legs, freshening up the electronics and getting him running again, I plan on just getting him out a few times to see what the local R/C club is all about (off-road racing and crawling, primarily). If the engine goes STB, I'll try to rebuild it, but I have a spare OS-MAX .12 "Red Head" I'll toss in to keep things alive for now. I definitely want to get some new pics and maybe a few videos together to share with Jeff, so he can see that the 'Hawk wound up in good hands after all.

Oh man, another blast from the past! Love it!

Ha - I told you I've got some old junk. LOL!!

What she doesn't know is that this is my new 'gateway' car. I'm still planning on getting the Kyosho FW-06, but if the 'Hawk can't hang with the 'run what'cha brung' crowd on TNT Tuesdays, I'll be looking into an AWD buggy/truggy replacement with more power and sustainability.

Speaking of 'old junk,' I still have that Kyosho Pegasus on the wall, and just remembered I have an old school Novak Rooster ESC (if I didn't smoke it running it in a 9.6V Tyco Turbo Bandit when its electronics STB). I'll just replace the wiper arm speed controller with the Rooster and see what happens - probably need to get a new hot motor to replace the tired old Mabuchi RS-540 can that's in there now. The half-worn Mud-Stars ought to do OK on the track surface, but once they're completely bald, that car's done. Crap, that means I'll need to get a decent charger and a couple/three battery packs. Electrics... GRRRR...

I still say that 2nd Pegasus chassis is screaming for a Nitro engine. I guess I need to start doing some research on cheap buggy transmission/brake/gearbox assemblies, since I'm sure the entry-level electric drive train wouldn't hold up. Maybe I'll just get a rear diff and transmission/brake from a PureTen and go shaft drive. Yeah - that's the ticket.

For the life of me, I can't remember what that 3rd buggy is or where I got it from. The Turbo Bandit is actually on the bottom shelf of the bench underneath the pile of stuff that wound up here.

As for the 'Hawk, I'm sure I've got some partially worn off road tires mounted on a few sets of rims in a box in the garage (just need to find it now), but does anybody know of any sources for the Pro-Line Road Hawg and Speed Hawg tires? My SuperTen actually uses the Road Hawg I & III tires, with the Road Hawg II being the full-size truggy tires like these Speed Hawgs on the 'Hawk. I'd love to have a stash of these to fall back on, since I'm not familiar with the newer tires... but even then, they don't have much to offer the road racers these days, anyway.

 

[CertifiedMike]

Have you checked with teambluegroove.com about your lexan shortage? LOTS of cool vintage over there.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Thanks for that - Holy Cow! They even new bodies for the Pegasus and Optimas. There's an F355 body for the touring cars I definitely need to grab as well. Much appreciated!

I got the FS-5GT and wow, what a nice radio! The receiver's not much bigger than a fat stack of silver dollars. This is definitely going to be a nice set-up once I get things going.

I got outside to the shop/shed and even though it's been closed up all day, it was just a little colder than I'd hoped for, so I guess I'll get back to it when things start warming up again. I did unbox a bunch of Jeep parts that also showed up and consolidated them so I know what I've got when I can get a chance to get back to it as well.

Here's the shop/shed: a nice 15x8 plastic building on a platform (since that part of the yard is sloped and also the utility easement - no permanent structures allowed). I miss my 2012 Ram, but my '21 is SO much nicer.

I've since put the stereo up on the shelf to make more space on the bench. I'm thinking I need to clean-up the bench in the garage for the R/C stuff though, since there's plenty of light and the garage temps are a little more forgiving in the 'winter.' That, and I need to keep the airbrush stuff under control, since I want to build a new, bigger booth - the little hobby booth I have is nice for 1/24 cars, but not much more. That whole corner's going to be a bigger booth (with a bathroom fart fan for exhaust to the hose - I should be able to paint larger scale models and R/C bodies in there when I get it done.

 

[CertifiedMike]

Thanks for that - Holy Cow! They even new bodies for the Pegasus and Optimas. There's an F355 body for the touring cars I definitely need to grab as well. Much appreciated!

I got the FS-5GT and wow, what a nice radio! The receiver's not much bigger than a fat stack of silver dollars. This is definitely going to be a nice set-up once I get things going.

I got outside to the shop/shed and even though it's been closed up all day, it was just a little colder than I'd hoped for, so I guess I'll get back to it when things start warming up again. I did unbox a bunch of Jeep parts that also showed up and consolidated them so I know what I've got when I can get a chance to get back to it as well.

Here's the shop/shed: a nice 15x8 plastic building on a platform (since that part of the yard is sloped and also the utility easement - no permanent structures allowed). I miss my 2012 Ram, but my '21 is SO much nicer.
View attachment 214085

I've since put the stereo up on the shelf to make more space on the bench. I'm thinking I need to clean-up the bench in the garage for the R/C stuff though, since there's plenty of light and the garage temps are a little more forgiving in the 'winter.' That, and I need to keep the airbrush stuff under control, since I want to build a new, bigger booth - the little hobby booth I have is nice for 1/24 cars, but not much more. That whole corner's going to be a bigger booth (with a bathroom fart fan for exhaust to the hose - I should be able to paint larger scale models and R/C bodies in there when I get it done.
View attachment 214087

When you order, tell them I say hi!
Check
https://mciracing.ca/
for decals and window masks for TBG bodies too.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Yesterday I found that Three Rivers Marine has a huge Traxxas stash... but mostly rebuild parts and kits - no consumables like, oh, I don't know... tires, rims, bodies, etc. They can order... well Duh - so can I. I did buy a quart of 20% Top Power Nitro fuel from them, so I won't have to buy it in-bulk (Tower Hobbies used only sell their fuel by the gallon - which I still have 3/4 gallon of 15%, but it's 15 years old). I also D/L'd the manuals and exploded views (Illustrated Parts Breakout, as we lovingly called them in the Air Force), so now I should have part numbers the next time I go back if I need something, rather than just stare at the wall o' plenty wondering what's what (and for what). I guess if push comes to shove and I totally Eff-Up The 'Hawk, I know where I can just grab a brand new 4x4 Nitro Rustler and walk out with it.

So, I just jumped on A-Main Hobbies and snagged some small parts, a set of pre-mounted Nitro Rustler RTXs w/Anaconda tires, and a set of All-Stars with slotted front and rear pins, a couple of receiver battery holders w/switches, a pair of body pin mounts, some hex adapters, a new pull starter and some servo tape. Since the GT1 body is missing its rear window (where the rear body posts are supposed to live), I'll need to make a bracket which will also incorporate some upper shock mounts. The rear shock tower is non-adjustable, but it was also a replacement that came with the MIP Stinger exhaust, so that explains why the shocks have no adjustment holes. I have a couple sheets of perforated metal while I've been making all sorts of brackets for my Jeep with, so that'll be a fun part of the project.

Here's the one I made for the 304's coil, utilizing the spare mounting points for the Sanden A/C compressor - I love making these little things since they come out looking cool and people are always asking where I found 'em - I make 'em!

And the one for the EFI ECU:

And the one for the EFI Fuel Sump:

All of the rims have the hex adapters, so I have a feeling I'll need to modify the fronts for some bearings, as the current 'Lite' rims on the car have Hex rears with bearings up front. Hopefully I can make that work with a stepped drill bit to carefully make the holes fit the 5x11x4BB (5116) bearings I seem to have inherited along the way. Otherwise, I guess I'll have 4 sets of cool black chrome rears with various tires mounted up. LOL!! Hey, according to the IPBs I D/L'd, the Rustler has the same Hex rears and bearings up front as The 'Hawk, but the product description on A-Main says they're all Hex front & rear and what I ordered should fit, so that oughta be fun to figure out. I guess we'll find out sometime next week when those all show up.

Hopefully, the pull starter will work as well, otherwise I guess I'll just use my starter box or hand-held. Dammit - I should've gotten some glow-plugs. Here's hoping some of the A3s or A5s I have will still work. Since the new GT5 radio/receiver is already here, I'm hoping to get The 'Hawk at least fired up over the weekend, providing we warm back up to at least the 60s. Still gotta soak the carb and clean out the engine, but at least it turns freely with no rough spots.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Got some stuff from A-Main and ebay for The 'Hawk - it all pretty much showed up yesterday (there's a similar entry in the 'What did you Buy' thread. Sorry for the double-tap - just trying to keep the relative things together.
Fronts and Rears:

Figured I'd give it a try, but I have a couple of starter boxes to choose from if it's a No-Go.

Gotta make a bracket for these, since the stock rear mount is right where the rear window on the GT1 "Baja" body was removed

Also grabbed a couple of AA 4-pack receiver battery packs, servo tape, and a set of Hex adapters for the wheels (if I need 'em)

From ebay:
Full set of Nitro Rustler wheels - which should fit The 'Hawk. If not, I'll figure something out.

After a bit of close examination, the Rustler wheels should fit, no biggie - just gotta make sure I have the right bearings. As for the others, I'm not so sure - both sets have Hex cut-outs on the backsides, and look identical, even though they're different part numbers, with the literature I found stating that 1 set is for rears on 2WD & 4WD Rustlers, and the other set is for fronts for 2WD, but are compatible with 4WD. I'm thinking it might be the opposite since both sets have the Hex cut-outs (indicating drive axles), but hopefully I'll figure it out tomorrow, since I'm hoping they'll be suitable appearance/practice wheels, with the Rustler 'Alias' Pins/Slots to be my track wheels.

Just gotta wait for Saturday now and hope it stays at least in the 60s.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Well, it didn't stay in the 60s - it's only 35 today. Oh well, "bring the mountain to Muhammad," I guess. Set everything up on the computer desk and got busy.

The first set of wheels don't fit. Well... sorta. The rears are fine (hex drive and all) but the fronts don't have bearings and they don't really have provisions for bearings. I might just have to save those for rears only, or punch a 10mm hole for a couple of 5x10mm sealed bearings I have floating in my tool kit. I'll mess with that later.

The pull start is a bust - no way it'll fit this engine.

For now, the Rustler wheels fit fine, although I had to rob the 5x11mm bearings from the purple NitroHawk 'Lite' wheels. Even then, it's not quite the same as they don't lock down 100% and spin for days - I had to back off the nylock nut a-turn-and-a-half each to let them spin freely. I hope the nylock nuts will stay in-place once I start driving this thing around. But for now - NEW SHOES!!

Now, let's get that engine out so I can pull the carb, get that battery pack outta there, and start in on some much needed cleaning. I know I was planning on firing it up to see if it was worth a complete detail job, but I needed to soak the carb in Nitro to bust things loose, so out it comes.

Shortly after this next pic, I dropped the carb into a Solo cup with some old Nitro for a good soak. Worked like a champ, as now the carb is a carb again - everything's butter smoove, but I still need to pull the needle valve to get the rest of the gunk out.

Gonna let the carb soak overnight, just because, and take the engine outside for a blast of brake cleaner tomorrow afternoon, followed up with some picking and Q-tipping to get it all clean again. I also rubbed down the muffler with some rubbing alcohol and it looks almost brand-new again.

I'm thinking about relocating the battery pack to the void next to the fuel tank for better weight distribution, then just servo tape the Flysky receiver to the top of the steering servo. With the pack in the back like that, it's a bit tail-happy when I drop it from a foot and almost wants to bounce the rear end (even with these fatter 'proper' tires). I'm still going to make a new rear shock tower extension so I can let the legs stretch out even just a little more so I don't have to run super thick shock oil and 3/4" shock collars. I'm hoping for mid-range shock oil and no shock collars with longer legs to help soak up the bumps better - I've seen too many Baja races and pre-runners with upward of 40" of wheel travel. Controlled wheel travel is King for maintaining speed through the rough patches, after all.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Well, the pull start is toast, and the baggie of old parts that came with The 'Hawk has 3 other dilapidated pull starts in it, with the best one still missing two of the mounting 'ears.' I think the best I can do at this point is to either find a block-off plate (yeah, right), pay $76 for a NOS starter assembly, or klooge one together our of the pieces just enough to keep the backside of the engine sealed up so it doesn't blow nitro/oil everywhere while it's running. I'm not above just making a back plate, if needed.

A-main has a TRX.15 pull start for $18 and a TRX.15 block-off plate for $15 (back-ordered), and I need some 5x11mm bearings for the front wheels as well. Scratch that, I just found a starter motor cover for the TRX.15, still in the plastic, and it's smaller than the ones of the Image .15. So, cobbling something together it is.

If it turns out the Image .12 is just done, I might consider upgrading to a Pro TRX .15 or TRX 2.5, which would dispatch the cool MIP Stinger, so that's a last resort. The big thing is to just seal up the backside and see if I can get this sucker fired up with a starter box.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Caved and bought this:

I don't even care if it works or not - it'll seal up the backside of the engine and it's anatomically correct.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Carb's clean, engine's mostly clean, and even popped in an old glow plug to see if it still has some compression, and was not disappointed. I won't be seeing the new pull start until sometime next week, but I'll get by with one of the old ones stuck on just to see if it'll run (gonna use a starter wheel, anyway).

Further surveying of the chassis, there's not real good place to fit the dry cell 4-pack battery pod, except for maybe zip-tying it to the backside of the front shock tower - Jeff actually had it zip-tied to the front of the front shock tower in street mode. I suppose I could always relocate the fuel tank sideways to make room for it on the floor mid-ships, but then it's kind of losing its identity as a Nitro Hawk. I guess I can always put the pod in the space behind the rear shock tower once I get the legs stretched out a bit - I just don't want him tail-heavy and bottoming out coming off the whoop-de-doos.

It's supposed to be nice again this weekend (back to the mid-60s, anyway), so I should be able to get the rear shock tower extension/body mount bracket done, trim and mount-up the GT1 Baja body, maybe even fire it up, depending on how well that all goes. Meanwhile, I guess I'll just keep picking and cleaning until then.

 

[CertifiedMike]

Carb's clean, engine's mostly clean, and even popped in an old glow plug to see if it still has some compression, and was not disappointed. I won't be seeing the new pull start until sometime next week, but I'll get by with one of the old ones stuck on just to see if it'll run (gonna use a starter wheel, anyway).

Further surveying of the chassis, there's not real good place to fit the dry cell 4-pack battery pod, except for maybe zip-tying it to the backside of the front shock tower - Jeff actually had it zip-tied to the front of the front shock tower in street mode. I suppose I could always relocate the fuel tank sideways to make room for it on the floor mid-ships, but then it's kind of losing its identity as a Nitro Hawk. I guess I can always put the pod in the space behind the rear shock tower once I get the legs stretched out a bit - I just don't want him tail-heavy and bottoming out coming off the whoop-de-doos.

It's supposed to be nice again this weekend (back to the mid-60s, anyway), so I should be able to get the rear shock tower extension/body mount bracket done, trim and mount-up the GT1 Baja body, maybe even fire it up, depending on how well that all goes. Meanwhile, I guess I'll just keep picking and cleaning until then.

I bet the battery was so far forward to prevent wheelies!
Just a theory tho.
Try to keep it mounted low on the chassis too if possible.
Can't wait to see it ripping!!!

 

[Mister 4x4]

He was having problems steering. The nose was so light and the tires so wide that when he would turn the fronts under power, the car would just keep going straight. Once off the gas, it would catch and sometimes flip. It was quite a handful on pavement.

I actually reconnected with Jeff last night on LinkedIn, he's also pretty stoked about learning the 'Hawk is still around and that I'm waking it up. I need to let him know about this place. He still has his first 4-TEC, a new 4-TEC and a heavily modified E-REVO he still plays with.

 

[CertifiedMike]

He was having problems steering. The nose was so light and the tires so wide that when he would turn the fronts under power, the car would just keep going straight. Once off the gas, it would catch and sometimes flip. It was quite a handful on pavement.

I actually reconnected with Jeff last night on LinkedIn, he's also pretty stoked about learning the 'Hawk is still around and that I'm waking it up. I need to let him know about this place. He still has his first 4-TEC, a new 4-TEC and a heavily modified E-REVO he still plays with.

Ask Jeff to join RCTALK too!
An old and new RC will cover everyone!

 

[Mister 4x4]

That's the plan when I get home this evening - I've got a bunch of pics to share and catch up, and I'll definitely share this place out.

Just got back from Three Rivers Marine (a local Traxxas dealer, as well). He's got an entire wall of parts, so I grabbed a handful of 4mm nylock bolts, a half-dozen 5x11x4mm bearings, a bag of body clips, some 50wt shock oil, and a bulkhead/body mount kit that looks promising. I told the owner what I was doing with the 'Hawk, and he says he wants to see it when I get it running. He also said he can get any Traxxas parts (still available) within 2 days, no shipping.

Also swung by the Post Office and picked up my McLaren F1 bodies for the Kyosho PureTen FW-06 I haven't bought yet.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Well, that explains why the RXT rims won't fit the front hubs of The 'Hawk - they completely changed the hub assembly, requiring a hex 'spacer' in the rim with the axle spinning along with the rim inside of the bearings, instead of the axle being stationary with the wheel spinning on the outside of the bearings.

I'm now thinking the easiest way to make the 6768X RXT wheels w/Anaconda tires work on The 'Hawk's front stationary axles is to fill the backside of the rims with some JB Weld, then bore some 5x11mm pockets into the center holes to stuff in some 5x11x4mm bearings like the stock 'Lite' wheels. I hope my buddy Dave still has his bench drill press in his garage. I just don't want to burn up the off-road 'slots' and 'pins' while I'm making friends after I wake him up (save those for the track). Just gotta find some metric Brad Point or Forstner bits now. But, that's for another day, since I still have the original 'Lite' wheels with the Speed Hawgs loaded up for now.

 

[Manxcat]

...I believe I swapped out the shock rods with shorter ones to get the on road stance...probably the springs too. I had a few shock sets for that thing. The best part of on road racing that was when any other cars would get close, they would touch those tires and go flying. That belly pan is pretty much brand new too, one of the last times I had it out I lost radio flat out and it just left. There was a mini van that had pulled up accross the parking lot with a family in it and that car took a beeline straight for that van. It went under the van at top speed then hit the curb on the far side and popped up in the air higher than the van. That pan was cooked! I put it all back together...but I had lost some nerve and moved it on. I was glad to see Eric ended up with it, if anyone in the world would treat something with respect, its Eric!
In another tupperware container that I took from my wife, I do still have some parts. You can see the roll of pennies with camo duck tape on it. Are those sliver things in the bottom right what your looking for for the wheels?

 

[Mister 4x4]

Hey! Ya made it! Glad to have ya back, Buddy!

The hex drives on the rears are perfect, and they now use those on the front wheels as well (with the later model Rustler front hubs) - which makes sense so they can use the same wheels for both 2WD and 4WD versions.

The 'Hawk actually has fixed front axles that the bearings directly ride on. Simple and perfect - those front wheels will spin for days with just a single turn. I'm going to modify a set of the new front wheels to work with the 'Hawk's axles, rather than make the 'Hawk work with the new wheels. The plan is to fill the RXT backsides with JB Weld, punch a 4mm hole through the center, then use an 11mm Brad Point bit to make the pockets for the bearings. In theory, they should mount up just like the old school Lite wheels. The wheels are cheap, and I'd rather mess up a set of them than the front hubs on the 'Hawk and have to replace the whole front steering assembly with Rustler parts.

The bracket I'm planning to make for the rear shocks is to augment the MIP Stinger shock tower and add a set of upper shock mounting holes just below the existing ones with a small platform over the top to mount up one of the body peg kits, since the rear peg is right in the middle of the rear window opening of the GT1 body. I'll be using some perforated sheet metal, so it should be pretty cool and durable. I don't know that going with longer shocks would be necessary - I like having the bump-stops you added, which should help keep the chassis from bottoming out on landings. I just hope the engine fires up and runs once I get it back together. If not, I'll drop in a TRX .15 so I can keep the Stinger. Keep 'em crossed!

That roll of pennies cracks me up! I remember you explaining why you did that the first time I saw them. Love the extra crystals, too, but I'm ditching my old AM radios. I got mad with the last 'runaway' the SuperTen experienced - hit a curb at WOT and just burned through the 2-speed nylon gears. That's the 2nd 2-speed it's eaten. I need to put him back together with the factory single-speed, but I might get another 2-speed ($250 - ouch). Then he's retired.

I'm planning on getting another car, but this time a Kyosho PureTen FW-04. It's basically the SuperTen's 'Mini-Me,' but in proper 1/10 scale. I just received a pair of Kyosho 1/10 McLaren GTR bodies for when that happens - one will definitely get a Blue-into-Black paint job. I picked up a FlySky 5GT radio - I think it's perfect for my needs (basic control and adjustability, better signal quality and range than AM/FM, can store up to 20 cars, and the receivers are only $22 - for around $70!).