Vintage nitro rustler restoration.

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OBS4EVER

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I have been wanting a nitro rc for a while, but didn't want to spend 400 or more to get into this side of the hobby, so I looked on eBay for a few weeks, then found this awesome vintage rustler for auction. I placed a bid for the starting price of $90 and somehow won. I have been working on it for the past couple days and am going to be posting updates as I go along with my repairs and restoration. Here is what I have done so far.

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I cleaned off the dust and oil residue. She looks sharp.
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I replaced the old school AM reciever for a flysky gr3e so I can bind my GT3B transmitter along with adding a 3d printed reciever box I found on Thingiverse. The exhaust was also pointing downwards, so I moved it back where it should be.
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I moved the throttle linkages to the factory position. The linkages were mounted backwards from how they should be. I also saw that the servo mounts were broken, so I added some m40 washers to hopefully prevent it from popping out of place. I noticed the rear shocks are completely out of oil, so will be will either be buying new rear shocks (Traxxas for some reason still sells the ultra shocks in black) or rebuilding the current ones. I am excited to get this up and running( fuel is on the way) and enjoy it. There is no reason to have a shelf queen. I like to use my rcs, but don't abuse them, so they will still look nice.
 
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Nice score. Looks like it wasn't used too much. If the white yokes break, swap them to the brushless 2wd ones.

Looks like they swapped headers. These cars had a straight header that mated to a rubber pipe that immediately curved. They kept cracking and making a hole at the bend.
 
That is interesting, I had seen a original picture on rcscrapyard and It makes sense that the original rubber piece would crack. I wonder what brand the header is. also, there are a few small dents in it, would that decrease my power at all, or is it fine.


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I wouldn't think the dents would make an impact. You may be able to use needle nose or a screw driver and push it out from the inside.
 
That is interesting, I had seen a original picture on rcscrapyard and It makes sense that the original rubber piece would crack. I wonder what brand the header is. also, there are a few small dents in it, would that decrease my power at all, or is it fine.


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You could try filling it with water, cap the ends, and stick it in the freezer, so it pops out the dents when it expands.

Adam Drake video about doing it to pipes.
 
I had noticed my steering turned half as far to the left as it did to the right, so this Evening, I tore down the front end, it turns out, somebody with dyslexia put a right caster block on the left side.🤣 I pulled out my trusty 3d printer (because I'm cheap) and am printing the correct caster block so my steering works properly.

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Nice car, welcome to the nitro RC world.
It will be hard but very rewarding in the end, just don't give up!
 
Hopefully it'll start. My Fuel got here today.🎉 I'm so excited. I will post an update when I get the chance to start it.
 
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I was able to get it running (barely) yesterday. The little pro .15 sounds awesome. I found my exhaust was broken internally and the seal in the middle was also destroyed. The exhaust would fall apart while running, causing the engine to run extremely lean then stall to even keep the engine idling, I had to set the engine to run extremely rich to even keep it running. So I bought a new exhaust ($15 on eBay) and have spares from the old exhaust.

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I got a chance to go to my "local" hobbytown which is 40 minutes away, and I picked up some shock oil, the correct caster blocks to fix the no left steering issue, and a rebuild kit to fix the leaky rear shocks that had no oil in them. I would have taken pics of the rebuild process, but I would rather not have to clean shock oil off my phone. The rebuild went well and the suspension feels new again. Overall, my experience with nitro has been great so far. I just need to work out a few issues.
 
My bench is a mess, I have been working on changing the front steering knuckles/caster blocks to the ones that are on the electric rustler. I 3d printed the parts out of tpu, I am just waiting on new wheels and axles now. I have also replaced the exhaust and the engine actually will prime without blowing into the exhaust line lol 😆. I will post when my parts get here and how it looks then.

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I was going to buy new wheels, but I decided to be cheap and bought some chrome Rust-Oleum paint instead. I repainted the wheels ant they look almost as good as new.

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