ok, first for the story, It may be long winded so I'll apologize in advance
A good friend of mine, my wife's best friend's husband, Edgar, has recently decided to start getting in to R/C cars. Edgar doesn't have a lot of money, He immigrated here from Columbia 10 years ago and his mechanical engineering degree isn't recognized, so he's actually going BACK to school to get it again, in the mean time he has a crap job in south Florida fixing the greens keeping equipment at a golf course. His wife just got laid off, and they have a new baby.
Right, so they don't have much money and he went and got a $80 Nikko truck from toys r us, Edgar was stoked, he’s never had an r/c car before and was perfectly content driving it around his neighborhood.
In the mean time his brother in law, AJ, a pompous arrogant little... who has a bit of money, goes out and buys a T-Maxx 2.5 and thinks he's the bee's knees. He shoves it in Edgars face every time he's out driving that his is "a real gas car" and Edgar's car is a "toy"
Everything with this AJ guy is a dig.
Edgar is a great guy and I have never liked AJ, I mean not even a little. The way he treats people absolutely appalls me.
Anyway, his wife was talking to my wife and my wife was like "well, Kev has about a million cars now, I'm sure he can help Edgar out" and I was like "absolutely" She offered to pay me, which I flat out refused. (Over the last couple months, buying rc stuff, fixing it up and reselling it has become my new found hobby/passion. but I'm still new at it and anything more than minor upgrades is still a work in progress.)
To me, knowing that Edgar will have a buggy that will eat AJ's Maxx for breakfast is worth more than any money his wife would be able to give me.
Now that the story part is out of the way, let’s get down to business, shall we?
Here’s what I have put together so far.
A futaba 3 channel fm controller and receiver.
A MACH 427 engine
And an Ofna Violator, aluminum shock towers, body brace and electronics holder thing down the middle. Everything else appears to be stock.
The car is up and running, and it’s fast, really really fast, like OMG *giggle*snort* fast.
I’m going to HIGHLY suggest that Edgar find a hobby store in the Ft. Lauderdale area where he can find someone to teach him about the basic maintenance and help him with the driving a little hehe. I would do it, but I now live 1200 miles away If you guys have any knowledge of a good r/c store in that area, please let me know. Spanish speaking would be better, but not a must.
And here are my questions
1. I would like the 3rd channel to turn LED lights on and off, is that possible?
2. What upgrades should I do to make the car more durable?
3. Edgar is a HUGE mx racing fan, I think he would get the fox logo tattoo’d to his forehead if his wife would let him. So I want to get a custom painted body themed around a fox logo he likes, with his old racing number on the car. I’ve tried painting a few bodies, I’m getting better, but what I want is WAY out of my league. Does anyone on here do custom bodies? I want it all paint, no stickers. Someone PM me on that one if you’re interested in tackling the job and we’ll figure it out.
Thanks for taking the time to read all that. I hope you aren’t late for something now
I appreciate any insight, help, pointers, tips, etc..
p.s.
If this thread and my project generates any interest, I will post pics of the progression. I have until December to finish it and ship it, his wife wants to give it to him for Christmas.