Please Recycle: Scrapyard Score

[crazydave]

My buddy works in a scrapyard, and on Saturday he found this in a pile of scrap.
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/pages/phpGallery/albums/userpics/10007/scrap02.jpg
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/pages/phpGallery/albums/userpics/10007/scrap01.jpg

At five cents a pound for scrap, he paid 10 cents for it, and gave it to me. When he told me he had it for me, I thought I might be able to identify it right away, but when I got it, I had no idea what it was. Decent race quality design, pillow ball suspension, lots of adjustments, with a bunch of sport level composite pieces. The only markings are on the motor, which has a "SMT" on one side, and "15" on the other, and the radio gear is labeled "Smartech".
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/pages/phpGallery/albums/userpics/10007/scrap03.jpg

I did a search, found this, and said, "Yep that's what I got."
http://www.hobby-estore.com/smartech.html

So it's apparently a decent quality clone. It's missing the front dogbones, a rear stub axle, a wheel, and the Tx, and I already have some CEN parts that will work in their place. It's also missing a pair of 5x10 bushings. Which frustrated me, because I have a bunch of extra 5x11 bearings, but since it is a bushing equipped car, I dremeled down a couple 5x11 bushings to fit. So right now I have four wheels on it, but I need to go back and put the CEN stub axles in all four corners so it matches, and I still need to get the dog bones in the front end. I should have it all ready by this afternoon. Then I just need to hope the engine fires, and the radio gear is good. I have backups of all that, so I'll get it going one way or the other, but the motor is tight, seems to have plenty of compression, and seems to have been stored properly (It was full of after run oil), so I'm really hoping I can get it to fire.

The CEN wheels narrowed it to 190mm, which kinda sucks, there's a better selection of 200mm bodies. I want to try to put as little money into it as possible, so I'm looking at 190mm bodies, and considering a Porsche 911, or a Lotus Elise. I'm broke so that's going to be at least 2 weeks, but I will keep you guys updated, and hopefully soon we'll be seeing this car running.

[focus07]

Cool find! And keep us posted and pics when its done and painted.

[Been 2780]

thats a nice find hope it works out for u

[Evil3]

Well I can see why it was tossed, as it is a Smartech (they make cheep cars), and the engine is a Smartech .15.

Although it might be a crappy car, you can't beat what you paid for it, as it should make a fun play car for use in an empty lot.


Also you do know you can buy 5 x 10 bearings. ;)

[crazydave]

Well I can see why it was tossed, as it is a Smartech (they make cheep cars), and the engine is a Smartech .15.

Although it might be a crappy car, you can't beat what you paid for it, as it should make a fun play car for use in an empty lot.


Also you do know you can buy 5 x 10 bearings. ;)Yeah, it could have been something cooler, but aside from the missing pieces, it doesn't look like it was run much. Probably broke real quick, and they didn't want to mess with it, or they upgraded to something similar, and "borrowed" the parts. Either way, it's got some life left in it. So I'm excited to make use of my spare parts.

I was going to buy the bearings, but didn't feel like packing up to head off. When I realized the whole car had bushings, I figured why bother if I can't afford to do the whole car. If it works out, I might upgrade those type of things, we'll see.

[crazydave]

Alrighty, I believe I have a working chassis. Got four wheels, and an equal number of dogbones, and everything is spinning freely, well, as much as bushing equipped car can. Looking down in the radio box, everything looked good, but pull it all out and you can see there was a puddle of water in there for a while. I had to clean the rust off the battery terminals with a wire brush, and I didn't even bother with the Rx. I just stuck a CEN one in there to match the Tx I'll be using with it. Radio gear is confirmed working, I have steering and throttle. Now it's all up to the motor firing.

http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/pages/phpGallery/albums/userpics/10007/scrap04.jpg

Hopefully I'll try it tonight. We'll see how I feel after I get off work.

[Been 2780]

looks like its comeing a long great

[crazydave]

It fired right up! At first I gave it couple tugs, and it didn't quite feel right. I already started to think it wasn't going to start, but I pressed the fuel priming button one more time, and it fired right up on the next tug. Kinda startled me, because I wasn't actually expecting it to fire up so easily.


I just ran a tank through it, and it ran great, it was faster than expected, but I need to replace the bushings with bearings ASAP, because the whine the driveline was making was a little annoying. The CEN tires are rock hard, so basically it drives like a drift car. I want to replace those right away too, but I don't have money for all that, so I guess I'm just going to go ahead and buy a body for now, until I can afford the other stuff.

[arow884]

great now you've got me go out to places and trying to find one cheap! well i did find a model train control from 1970, brand new! no luck on anything else tho :p

[crazydave]

Last week I saw a large spray painted sign laying on my street corner that said, "Nitro RC $75". I had been by there earlier in the day, and it wasn't there, so where was I when this guy was standing there? :confused:

[stang444]

great now you've got me go out to places and trying to find one cheap! well i did find a model train control from 1970, brand new! no luck on anything else tho :p

Yea now Im gonna go scrap yarding!!!!

[crazydave]

After spending some time with it, I realized, the motor still has good pinch, it just felt odd when I was starting it, because the pull start was slipping. I also discovered the ear is cracked off the steering servo in such a way that it took the whole side of the case with it. I can replace both of those, but I'm running out of broken CEN car to rob from.

I went to the LHS for my birthday the other day, and decided to just grab whatever they had on hand. They actually had the '69 Camaro that I wanted, but it cost $7 more, and the wheels and tires already put me over budget, so I had to settle for a Skyline. I also got some HPI chrome mesh wheels, and V-groove tires.

When I was mounting the body I screwed up royally, don't know what I did, but I managed to get the mounting holes about a half inch off. So since I have two sets of holes, I wasn't feeling this body any more. I was just going to do a single color, when I decided, what the heck, let's experiment. I streaked in four shades of blue (if you count aqua as a shade of blue), grey, and backed it all with silver. The sunlight makes certain colors jump out. These pictures look good, but I should take some under different lighting, so you can see how it changes.

http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/pages/phpGallery/albums/userpics/10007/skylinescrap02.jpg
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/pages/phpGallery/albums/userpics/10007/skylinescrap01.jpg
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/pages/phpGallery/albums/userpics/10007/skylinescrap03.jpg
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/pages/phpGallery/albums/userpics/10007/skylinescrap04.jpg

[Been 2780]

i like the way u did the body

[LSXEric]

So how much have u paid fr the whole thing? I'm thinkin like a 50$ desent nitro sedan is a real good find! Cheap fun!
__________________________
Holy crap:eek:

[crazydave]

So how much have u paid fr the whole thing? I'm thinkin like a 50$ desent nitro sedan is a real good find! Cheap fun!
__________________________
Holy crap:eek:

Well, body wheels and tires came to about $70 at the LHS. Could've came up cheaper online, but I was searching for instant gratification. Since the other stuff was all spares, it worth it, but if I had to put much more money into it, it probably wouldn't be worth it, since it is a generic car that can be picked up for cheap. I saw an ad for nitrorcx.com in the mag, and checked them out, and they have a very similar car for $120. But I love a good project,and making use of my spare parts is priceless. Now though, since my stash is becoming depleted, if someone gave me the same car, I'd just throw it in the parts box.

[Oddman102]

You made out great on this car...

And the coloring on the body works perfectly! I love it!!

For as little as you've actually put into this car, can't argue with the end results.

[crazydave]

Thanks Oddball, I'm really happy with how it came out. It drives pretty good too. Here's a shot of her all dirtied up.

http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/pages/phpGallery/albums/userpics/10007/skylinescrap05.jpg

[Oddman102]

Still looks good even with dirt... Now that, is a nice car!

[Fiero_Man_121]

nice, nothing better than cheap rc? as long as she runs itll be fun!

i do alota that sorta thing when im lookkng for vintage rc stuff, i pays in the long run, im glad it came out as well as it did though.