Team Associated RC10L Pan Car Vintage R/C Car Early Production 1989
Item History & Price
Team Associated RC10L - "early production" 1989 release part # 8002 model. I have a funky obsession with these cars that started in 1993. Now I like to pick up a neglected one here and there and make them nice again having done nearly twenty now. 10 years ago you could get a neglected roller for as little as $30. Now a fiberglass kit runs about $75 and a graphite about $100 or more. Prices increase about 50% before Christmas
...I have restored many of the 10L/10LSS/10LS kits and wasn't aware of the differences on the 89 release until I got this one.They had no rear chassis braces, no nerf wings, the mono-shock was all gold, there were no black rubber o-rings in the white damper washers, they had no servo mounts, no motor spacer, they used a 32 Pitch spur gear, had small washers under the pivot balls under the t-bar and had thrust bearings with washers spacing out the hub on the left side and axle on the drive side. The manual (which is included in the listing) also has RED lettering on the cover instead of the more common blue.
About my restorations - Typically on all my restorations I replace the spur gears with a new one, but this kit had the original 32 pitch spur in good shape so I decided to leave it. On all my resto jobs I replace the diff rings and diff balls and have done so here. I only sell these rollers as a complete rolling chassis, meaning, no missing parts, pieces, hardware, bearings, fluid, etc. If you want to use it as a shelf-queen or a basher that's up to you, simply add your body and electronics just like these kits came from Associated when new. Every one of the 19 or so I have bought has been missing something. I've found the most common areas to be the belleville washers in the thrust cone, as well as the thrust cone itself, rear axle spacers, and rear axle bearings. Next would be parts related to the damper set-up for the rear pod. Missing springs and shaft are the most common. After that finding a front wheel bearing replaced with a stack of washers or similar is pretty normal. I'm not a fan of the fiberglass cars. I've bought four and three had severely tweaked chassis. I'm guessing something heavy got sat on those and after 25 years or so tweaked the fiberglass permanently. If you plan on driving the car proper tweak is CRUCIAL for the car to even be drivable on a paved surface. If it's off the car will spin out if there is even the slightest wheelspin under throttle.
This kit - has been totally disassembled, cleaned, white parts brightened slightly yet not overdone, all oxidation and gunk removed from the aluminum parts with a light hand polish finish, appearance of carbon bits "freshened" (soap & water, light pressure with a clay bar, ***light*** polish, then wax - its easy to burn through the sealant on the carbon and ruin it, I don't recommend trying to polish it unless you are fairly familiar with properly detailing automotive finishes) all missing parts replaced using the rare white parts (no black parts substituted) , nearly all fasteners replaced, and reassembled. The diff is lubed with ASSOCIATED diff lube as well as the damper washers. I still have two bottles of original 20 wt. Team Associated shock fluid left in my stash for the monoshocks. You don't want to use the modern shock fluids available as that fluid leaks out of these shocks. I didn't believe the first person who told me that, but after it leaked out of the first two buggies, stadium truck, and four pan cars I finished one weekend I found out they were right. This car has the OG 20wt in the shock. This car also has the kit wheels/tires in lightly used condition. They are not perfect, but are damn nice with very minimal cracking. I wouldn't use them to drive on, but if treated with some tire sauce I'm sure they could still provide ample traction.
"Basher" Set Up tips for pavement - If you've only run these cars on carpet the first time on unprepared pavement can be quite frustrating. Extremely soft foams make a world of difference, but even hard old vintage foam can be made to work well. The best thing I've found to bring back old dry tires is WD-40, seriously, sounds bassackwards, but works well. I buy wd-40 in the gallon jugs for various reasons, but SOAK the tires down with the stuff and let them marinate in a ziploc bag for a few days. Take a clean rag and wipe off all the excess letting them air out overnight and even the worst old foams will be ready to rock. After the tires the two most important parts are the diff and the tweak. I recommend buying some carbide diff balls and getting the diff buttery smooth. The tweak is crucial. They sell 4-corner digital scales now, some under $100, but this isn't necessary. The old fashioned way described in the instructions will get you there. Unless the surface is perfectly smooth you're going to want more ride height as well. Take some #4 axle nylons and instead of running them with the axle as high in the pod a possible, flip them, so the axle is as low in the pod as possible. Do not use the mono-shock to add ride height. Leave it at factory height, but switching to a softer rear shock spring will increase forward traction under throttle. Remove the ride-height blocks under the front suspension arms. The factory says 0* toe, but on a slippery surface 1* toe-in can help. Softer front springs will also give the front tires more bite. Go for .016 or .018 front springs. For even more rear traction replace the spacer under the t-bar above the aluminum lower plate in the rear pod with washers of the same thickness for the outer two of the three bolts. Do not run a nut & bolt in the center hole. ASSOCIATED ran plastic washers on the later cars if you want to stay factory. On the body you want to cut out the entire rear "bumper" section of whatever body you choose. Even more so if you are using modern high powered lipo batteries with low turn brushless motors. I've got a handle on my set-up now, but in the beginning I was running a high downforce body (Protoform P905B) with a large wing and a body mounted spoiler. I also added automotive wheel weights for ballast in the beginning, which made a huge improvement, but no longer find them necessary. Ride height if your surface requires it, soft "treated" tires, diff, and tweak are all it really takes. If you really want to go the extra mile, blowing off/sweeping/washing the surface then spraying it with some sugar water from a garden sprayer will really make the car stick, but isn't necessary by any means.
Bodies and parts for wide 235MM pan cars - Protoform makes two prototype style bodies for these cars. Tower Hobbies sells a wide 962 body. McCallister Racing is selling their old prototype and stock car bodies again as well as some others. Here on eBay TeamBlueGroove sells reproduction shells for a number of bodies that fit these cars. RC4Less carries pre-mounted & trued wheels and tires as well as some other items for use on pan cars. Windtunnelracing is also a source for tires and other tuning parts. Team Associated still has some parts available on their website for these cars. The best way to search is by part number which can be found in the kit instructions. There are multiple sources to download the kit instructions in pdf form if you google. The "white" parts are mostly unavailable from Associated. About the only parts I know they have in white are the front body posts and the upper & lower shock collars. Whatever else they do still have will be black. They do still have diff rings, diff balls, damper springs, as well as most hardware and bearings. However, it seems as if they are moving away from SAE sized hardware and bearings as supply is typically limited and/or discounted as if they are being closed out for good. All the modern stuff runs metric parts. You can also find substitutions for servo mounts, body posts, bumpers, shock parts, damper posts, tie rods and other random small items. You may have to go anodized blue, titanium, swap plastic to aluminum or vice versa, and black parts are available from time to time to replace white parts if yours are broken or missing.
...I have restored many of the 10L/10LSS/10LS kits and wasn't aware of the differences on the 89 release until I got this one.They had no rear chassis braces, no nerf wings, the mono-shock was all gold, there were no black rubber o-rings in the white damper washers, they had no servo mounts, no motor spacer, they used a 32 Pitch spur gear, had small washers under the pivot balls under the t-bar and had thrust bearings with washers spacing out the hub on the left side and axle on the drive side. The manual (which is included in the listing) also has RED lettering on the cover instead of the more common blue.
About my restorations - Typically on all my restorations I replace the spur gears with a new one, but this kit had the original 32 pitch spur in good shape so I decided to leave it. On all my resto jobs I replace the diff rings and diff balls and have done so here. I only sell these rollers as a complete rolling chassis, meaning, no missing parts, pieces, hardware, bearings, fluid, etc. If you want to use it as a shelf-queen or a basher that's up to you, simply add your body and electronics just like these kits came from Associated when new. Every one of the 19 or so I have bought has been missing something. I've found the most common areas to be the belleville washers in the thrust cone, as well as the thrust cone itself, rear axle spacers, and rear axle bearings. Next would be parts related to the damper set-up for the rear pod. Missing springs and shaft are the most common. After that finding a front wheel bearing replaced with a stack of washers or similar is pretty normal. I'm not a fan of the fiberglass cars. I've bought four and three had severely tweaked chassis. I'm guessing something heavy got sat on those and after 25 years or so tweaked the fiberglass permanently. If you plan on driving the car proper tweak is CRUCIAL for the car to even be drivable on a paved surface. If it's off the car will spin out if there is even the slightest wheelspin under throttle.
This kit - has been totally disassembled, cleaned, white parts brightened slightly yet not overdone, all oxidation and gunk removed from the aluminum parts with a light hand polish finish, appearance of carbon bits "freshened" (soap & water, light pressure with a clay bar, ***light*** polish, then wax - its easy to burn through the sealant on the carbon and ruin it, I don't recommend trying to polish it unless you are fairly familiar with properly detailing automotive finishes) all missing parts replaced using the rare white parts (no black parts substituted) , nearly all fasteners replaced, and reassembled. The diff is lubed with ASSOCIATED diff lube as well as the damper washers. I still have two bottles of original 20 wt. Team Associated shock fluid left in my stash for the monoshocks. You don't want to use the modern shock fluids available as that fluid leaks out of these shocks. I didn't believe the first person who told me that, but after it leaked out of the first two buggies, stadium truck, and four pan cars I finished one weekend I found out they were right. This car has the OG 20wt in the shock. This car also has the kit wheels/tires in lightly used condition. They are not perfect, but are damn nice with very minimal cracking. I wouldn't use them to drive on, but if treated with some tire sauce I'm sure they could still provide ample traction.
"Basher" Set Up tips for pavement - If you've only run these cars on carpet the first time on unprepared pavement can be quite frustrating. Extremely soft foams make a world of difference, but even hard old vintage foam can be made to work well. The best thing I've found to bring back old dry tires is WD-40, seriously, sounds bassackwards, but works well. I buy wd-40 in the gallon jugs for various reasons, but SOAK the tires down with the stuff and let them marinate in a ziploc bag for a few days. Take a clean rag and wipe off all the excess letting them air out overnight and even the worst old foams will be ready to rock. After the tires the two most important parts are the diff and the tweak. I recommend buying some carbide diff balls and getting the diff buttery smooth. The tweak is crucial. They sell 4-corner digital scales now, some under $100, but this isn't necessary. The old fashioned way described in the instructions will get you there. Unless the surface is perfectly smooth you're going to want more ride height as well. Take some #4 axle nylons and instead of running them with the axle as high in the pod a possible, flip them, so the axle is as low in the pod as possible. Do not use the mono-shock to add ride height. Leave it at factory height, but switching to a softer rear shock spring will increase forward traction under throttle. Remove the ride-height blocks under the front suspension arms. The factory says 0* toe, but on a slippery surface 1* toe-in can help. Softer front springs will also give the front tires more bite. Go for .016 or .018 front springs. For even more rear traction replace the spacer under the t-bar above the aluminum lower plate in the rear pod with washers of the same thickness for the outer two of the three bolts. Do not run a nut & bolt in the center hole. ASSOCIATED ran plastic washers on the later cars if you want to stay factory. On the body you want to cut out the entire rear "bumper" section of whatever body you choose. Even more so if you are using modern high powered lipo batteries with low turn brushless motors. I've got a handle on my set-up now, but in the beginning I was running a high downforce body (Protoform P905B) with a large wing and a body mounted spoiler. I also added automotive wheel weights for ballast in the beginning, which made a huge improvement, but no longer find them necessary. Ride height if your surface requires it, soft "treated" tires, diff, and tweak are all it really takes. If you really want to go the extra mile, blowing off/sweeping/washing the surface then spraying it with some sugar water from a garden sprayer will really make the car stick, but isn't necessary by any means.
Bodies and parts for wide 235MM pan cars - Protoform makes two prototype style bodies for these cars. Tower Hobbies sells a wide 962 body. McCallister Racing is selling their old prototype and stock car bodies again as well as some others. Here on eBay TeamBlueGroove sells reproduction shells for a number of bodies that fit these cars. RC4Less carries pre-mounted & trued wheels and tires as well as some other items for use on pan cars. Windtunnelracing is also a source for tires and other tuning parts. Team Associated still has some parts available on their website for these cars. The best way to search is by part number which can be found in the kit instructions. There are multiple sources to download the kit instructions in pdf form if you google. The "white" parts are mostly unavailable from Associated. About the only parts I know they have in white are the front body posts and the upper & lower shock collars. Whatever else they do still have will be black. They do still have diff rings, diff balls, damper springs, as well as most hardware and bearings. However, it seems as if they are moving away from SAE sized hardware and bearings as supply is typically limited and/or discounted as if they are being closed out for good. All the modern stuff runs metric parts. You can also find substitutions for servo mounts, body posts, bumpers, shock parts, damper posts, tie rods and other random small items. You may have to go anodized blue, titanium, swap plastic to aluminum or vice versa, and black parts are available from time to time to replace white parts if yours are broken or missing.
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