In for a Penny,,
After getting home with my broken Hot Shot I brushed off the dirt and went right to work. I removed the old steering knuckles and bearings from the front arms of the car along with the ball links. Taking a good look at those plastic arms I wondered if there was an upgrade available for them? It also seemed that most of the cars at the track had dual shocks, hmmm, I thought to myself "Maybe I should go to that hobby shop I'd heard about in Pomona and see what was available before going any further". So off to Pomona I went.
That hobby shop was called "The Ranch Pit Stop". It was one of the top spots for R/C racers. It had a Road track and an Off-Road track. That hobby shop had everything. They carried all the stock replacement and hop up parts then available. Many of these aftermarket parts were from small time manufacturers. They had stuff you would not find anywhere else. I stepped up and talked to the counter guy and told him I had a Hot Shot that I wanted to hop up. I told him how I had busted up that front knuckle and had already bought aluminum replacements. I asked if there were metal arms to replace the plastic kit arms. He started to put parts on the case that he said would really make a difference in how the car drove and would take much more punishment than the kit parts. He laid out both front and rear upper and lower aluminum arms. He showed me a kit to add dual rear shocks and a better front shock setup. There was what he called a "Nerf Wing" that went on the bottom of the car between the front and rear tires. It extended out past the tires and would help to prevent damage in a rollover. He showed some rear knuckles he had and said since I already had the front ones I might as well get the rear ones too. He show me lots of other aluminum parts that he had in stock. He showed me wheels and tires. That counter was getting pretty full. Some of this stuff was expensive so I decided to just get the shock kits, rear knuckles, the Nerf wing and some hardened steel dogbones. I had bought some stock dogbones in Costa Mesa but these were HARDENED STEEL so I got four of them. These were NOT the last dogbones I ever bought! I stayed for awhile to watch the action at tracks and then started for home.
It didn't take to long to strip off the old parts and install the new ones. That Hot Shot was looking pretty cool. I decided to give the park another chance and off I went. This time no drama ensued. I drove it in the parking lot learning how it turned and handled. I still only had one battery pack and it was soon depleted. That sucked and I realized I was going to need to buy several more battery packs. Back again to "Franks" to spend more money!
I went into the hobby shop and Tony was in his customary place behind the counter. By now I had been going to this hobby shop several times a week for a couple of years to get magazines or stock up on the little parts and accessories I was using to build planes. I had also bought some big ticket items like the Hot Shot and several engines so Tony would sometimes knock down the price for me. I told him I needed some 6 cell packs for my car. He kind of smiled and said that everyone always buys just ONE when they buy the car but ALWAYS come back to buy more. He said I should also get a "Quick Charger". I had been reading about them and agreed as it took hours to charge up just one pack! When I bought my car he had told me that a quick charger was the way to go but I cheaped out and had gotten a basic wall charger. He showed me several quick chargers he had in stock. Some were 12V chargers that you could hook up to a car battery. Some used 110V house current. These were good basic chargers. Most chargers during this time period didn't monitor the voltage so no automatic cutoff when the battery was full. Overcharging a battery was common and the magazines all explained how to use a voltmeter to avoid overcharging and ruining a battery. One of the quick chargers recommended was an "Astro Flight AC/DC Auto Charger". You could plug it into the house current or use a 12V battery. It could charge 4-7 cell NI-Cad battery packs. You could adjust the current for the size pack you were charging. It had a ammeter, a 15 minute timer and jacks so you could plug in a voltmeter. That's the one I wanted and Tony had one in stock. We went through the dance where I would go "that's a nice xxxxxxx but it's kind of expensive, let me look at that other one again". He'd say something like "That other one only does this or that blah, blah, blah," I'd go "Yeah but I don't know". Eventually he'd offer to take off some dollar amount.This time was no different. I think he took off 5 bucks and I had 2 new batteries and the charger I wanted.
Getting Dirty,,,
After getting home with my broken Hot Shot I brushed off the dirt and went right to work. I removed the old steering knuckles and bearings from the front arms of the car along with the ball links. Taking a good look at those plastic arms I wondered if there was an upgrade available for them? It also seemed that most of the cars at the track had dual shocks, hmmm, I thought to myself "Maybe I should go to that hobby shop I'd heard about in Pomona and see what was available before going any further". So off to Pomona I went.
That hobby shop was called "The Ranch Pit Stop". It was one of the top spots for R/C racers. It had a Road track and an Off-Road track. That hobby shop had everything. They carried all the stock replacement and hop up parts then available. Many of these aftermarket parts were from small time manufacturers. They had stuff you would not find anywhere else. I stepped up and talked to the counter guy and told him I had a Hot Shot that I wanted to hop up. I told him how I had busted up that front knuckle and had already bought aluminum replacements. I asked if there were metal arms to replace the plastic kit arms. He started to put parts on the case that he said would really make a difference in how the car drove and would take much more punishment than the kit parts. He laid out both front and rear upper and lower aluminum arms. He showed me a kit to add dual rear shocks and a better front shock setup. There was what he called a "Nerf Wing" that went on the bottom of the car between the front and rear tires. It extended out past the tires and would help to prevent damage in a rollover. He showed some rear knuckles he had and said since I already had the front ones I might as well get the rear ones too. He show me lots of other aluminum parts that he had in stock. He showed me wheels and tires. That counter was getting pretty full. Some of this stuff was expensive so I decided to just get the shock kits, rear knuckles, the Nerf wing and some hardened steel dogbones. I had bought some stock dogbones in Costa Mesa but these were HARDENED STEEL so I got four of them. These were NOT the last dogbones I ever bought! I stayed for awhile to watch the action at tracks and then started for home.
 |
| Clockwise from top left Dogbones, Nerf wing, Front arms, Dual Shocks, Rear Arms |
I went into the hobby shop and Tony was in his customary place behind the counter. By now I had been going to this hobby shop several times a week for a couple of years to get magazines or stock up on the little parts and accessories I was using to build planes. I had also bought some big ticket items like the Hot Shot and several engines so Tony would sometimes knock down the price for me. I told him I needed some 6 cell packs for my car. He kind of smiled and said that everyone always buys just ONE when they buy the car but ALWAYS come back to buy more. He said I should also get a "Quick Charger". I had been reading about them and agreed as it took hours to charge up just one pack! When I bought my car he had told me that a quick charger was the way to go but I cheaped out and had gotten a basic wall charger. He showed me several quick chargers he had in stock. Some were 12V chargers that you could hook up to a car battery. Some used 110V house current. These were good basic chargers. Most chargers during this time period didn't monitor the voltage so no automatic cutoff when the battery was full. Overcharging a battery was common and the magazines all explained how to use a voltmeter to avoid overcharging and ruining a battery. One of the quick chargers recommended was an "Astro Flight AC/DC Auto Charger". You could plug it into the house current or use a 12V battery. It could charge 4-7 cell NI-Cad battery packs. You could adjust the current for the size pack you were charging. It had a ammeter, a 15 minute timer and jacks so you could plug in a voltmeter. That's the one I wanted and Tony had one in stock. We went through the dance where I would go "that's a nice xxxxxxx but it's kind of expensive, let me look at that other one again". He'd say something like "That other one only does this or that blah, blah, blah," I'd go "Yeah but I don't know". Eventually he'd offer to take off some dollar amount.This time was no different. I think he took off 5 bucks and I had 2 new batteries and the charger I wanted.
Getting Dirty,,,
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| This was State of the Art charging equipment circa 1985 |
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