RC Can Be An Inexpensive Hobby - Part 2.

RC Can Be An Inexpensive Hobby - Part 1.

Now for car number two. Literally. This is a vintage black plastic Traxxas Hawk. Distinguished from the white plastic Traxxas Hawk by the obvious color of the chassis. The black version had a much longer production run so that will be the version you would most likely find. This is an awesome starting point because Traxxas hasn't changed the components very much over the years. That means the parts interchange among all of their 2wd offroad vehicles is very high. That is a very important factor when choosing the right $40 truck. If it costs big bucks to repair and restore the truck it won't be a low buck project. This truck is very similar to modern Rustlers, Stampedes, and Slashes. In fact you can say this is their grandfather! This puppy came in stock condition with the addition of a 13T trinity and a Duratrax/Novak T4 esc. It did not come with a radio but it did have a servo and a receiver.

The restoration was straightforward as I was told. I did not do the restoration. It was taken care of by one of our engineers. He cleaned the chassis and inspected it for damage considering the running gear. It was is pretty good shape for its age. For the next step he rebuilt the shocks with 20wt oil. He reused the springs that came with it since they seemed well suited to the chassis. The steering and the gearbox were in good shape as they arrived so they were left alone.

The tires are some pretty nice ones from Team Losi. Grippy pin spikes with bars down the middle are on the rear. The fronts are some pretty rad asymmetrical ribbed and mini-block combination. You can tell I really don't remember the exact names of them but I like them any way. I am extremely impressed with these and am curious about wear. So far they have been holding up great so I think these tires are sweet.

He was going to run an Epic 14x2 motor but the only esc with reverse he could find had a 20T limit. I went into his stash and pulled this Trinity Green Machine 3 and rebuilt it. I reused the springs and installed new trinity brushes. He used the stock gearing and that was a great combo. Much quicker off the line than the Evader. He reused the stock oillite bushings and plans to upgrade to ball bearings soon. For the radio he used his trusty JR XS3 Synthesized.

The truck did not come with a body so I offered an old ford f150 extended cab stepside racing body. I have no idea who made it but instantly regretted giving it up after it was painted. He masked and painted the rollbar area. His daughter chose the eye searing orange and I sprayed it then backed it with whatever was left in various cans in the paint lab. I think it was white followed by metallic red and finally bright red. For decals we raided and old HPI Civic set for the grille and graphics and cut up some Tamiya R34 Calsonic Skyline headlights for it. We finished it off with some sharpie around the windows. The front body posts were too long. I removed them and replaced them with ball studs. I carefully used a body ream and made the holes so the body snaps right on without pins. The back is held on with conventional mounts and pins.

As you can see this truck was cheap easy and apparently fun. Check us out tomorrow when we discuss the performance of both of these vehicles.

RC Can Be An Inexpensive Hobby - Part 3.