drew840

iTrader: (40)

I have heard numerous times that you can boil plastic R/c parts so they will be slightly more flexible instead of brittle...

I bought the tekno wing mount kit for my Revo and have heard that they can break fairly easily, SO I want to boil the plastic pieces so they will not break the first time I crash..

QUESTION (finally) ... How long do I boil the plastic for , in order for this to help...

I dont want my new wing kit to break... do I put it in boiling water for 20 minutes or 2 hours...

all input and responses greatly appreciated...

Thank you.

Turbo Joe

iTrader: (41)

You don't actually boil the parts, you boil the water, turn off the flame and drop the parts in....that's it. Leave them in until the water is cool. Done.

It works well on some parts, depending on the material.

Nitroaddicts

iTrader: (8)

You can change colors of plastic this way to...

muchomadness

iTrader: (2)

I have never tried it on any material other than nylon. It works great when using "RIT" brand fabric dye to change the color. Just remember you can always make the color darker, but you can't go lighter!

I boiled the water, then dropped in the parts and boiled them until I got the desired color. It usually takes no longer than about 5-6 minutes.

Hope that helps!

AreCee

iTrader: (1)

It really only works for Nylon and then it's hard to tell if there is any improvement since Nylon is flexible to begin with.

Composite plastic shouldn't see much of a benefit but it won't hurt.

Graphite, forget about it, no effect at all.

Turbo Joe

iTrader: (41)

I did it with my all my ZX-5 parts and it made a huge difference.

NIDAS

But when you do that you get more flex in the boild parts.

arghh

so is this good idea for the wing only or to all plastic part..upper/lower arm, wing stand, front/rear hub, rim..

Turbo Joe

iTrader: (41)

Yeah well...the way I look at it, if it breaks...I lose.

I don't really think that the fact that my arms can flex slightly more before they break is going to keep me from winning the Worlds.

Turbo Joe

iTrader: (41)

I did everything but the chassis.

santinuchi

Now I can see how you may want more flexible parts to reduce breakage, but can you really tell where it works? usually you cant tell what will break a car, you hit something one time and from the stand say wow, that should be broken but it's not, and then tap something and say how the hell did that break? Would more flexible parts especially in the suspention are area change the handeling characteristics of your vehicle, especially if it's enough to keep the piece from breaking? Is it worth it in the long run?

Turbo Joe

iTrader: (41)

Well...let's see:

I probably broke 4 or 5 of each arm (front and rear) in 2 months. Pretty much every time I went out, I broke at least one...and 1-2 rear towers a night.

After I boiled the parts, I've pulled a few kingpins out of the front knuckles and I've broken one rear tower...not a single arm. Well, I may have broken one arm -- I think --but nothing near how it was before.

I was wondering about how I would know definitively, since there are so many variables. I've had some savage hits that I know would have broken arms...and broken nothing. I'm pretty hard on it and I didn't have really high hopes for it, but it does clearly make a difference on my car, as well as others. HPI used to tell people to do it on certain cars...that's where I got the idea and the procedure from.

Handling difference? If there's a difference, I can't tell. They may flex a tiny bit more, but you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference in a blind test. It wouldn't take much extra flexibility to help. They used to break at the inner hingepin...a little tiny bit of flex would go a long way to stop that.

arghh

ishkk ishkk isshhhkkkk.... wonder what brand of car is that..hopefully not same as mine because i never never experience like that..

Turbo Joe

iTrader: (41)

ZX-5 Kyosho It's a great car.

I race on a 1/8th scale track with big jumps, run in the gas class race with 1/10 gast trucks and practice with 1/8 buggies) and I'm not a very good driver. I'm not horrible, but I'm not any expert. It's taken some hits for sure.

It hauls ass...but when you clip a pipe at 35 MPH, you're gonna break stuff.