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BODY PAINTING
Your RC12LC does not come with a body. Associated
and many other companies make a large selection of bodies
that will cover most customer preferences.
TRIMMING THE BODY. The body can be painted before you
cut out its holes; however, it will be much easier to locate and
cut the mounting holes for the body mounts and antenna tube
if you painted after trimming. Trim the sides and cut out the
wheel wells. If this is your first attempt, only trim off a little at a
time until it clears or fits. Then cut out the mounting holes.
Racer’s Tip: Mark the areas you want to cut or trim with a
marking pen. Then use an X-acto knife with a new blade to
score the lines you just marked. You can then flex the body at
the score line and peel off the part you want to remove. Be very
careful around any sharp corners to prevent the body from
tearing where it is not suppose to.
MASKING THE BODY. Thoroughly clean the body using a mild
dish soap and water. Then dry it with paper towels or cotton
cloths (something with very little lint). Because you will be
painting on the inside of the body, you will need to do all your
masking on the inside of the body as well.
Now mask the body off according to your paint scheme.
Use automotive masking tape for best results. Take the time to
press all edges down with a Popsicle stick or your fingernail. To
prevent overspray from getting on the outside of the body, put
masking tape on the outside of the body at the body mount and
antenna tube holes. When painting Lexan bodies you will
always apply the darkest color first and the lightest color last.
This prevents the darker color from ”ghosting” through to the
lighter color. So first mask the section to be painted white. The
next color you mask is the next darker color nearest to white,
and so on.
PAINTING THE BODY. Now that you have the body masked,
it is time to apply the paint. The body is made of Lexan
polycarbonate. The paint will be applied to the inside. They
make special paints designed just for Lexan bodies. The most
common is
Pactra R/C Car Racing Finish
which is available in
most hobby shops. There are two different ways to paint the
body. You can apply the paint by brushing or spraying it on.
Brushing the paint will always leave streaks in the paint, but will
look good from a satisfactory distance. Spraying gives you the
best looking finish but does require some extra effort and a safe
place to apply the paint. You want a well ventilated location and
you want to be certain that the overspray will not get on any
thing else you own.
Apply the paint in very thin coats, letting the paint dry
between coats.
WARNING! If the paint is sprayed on in
heavy coats, the paint thinner in the paint will stay liquid
and attack the Lexan. The body then becomes brittle and
will crack easily.
Spray your darkest color first and let it dry. Then peel
off the next layer of masking tape and apply the next lighter
color. Continue with this process until you have applied your
lightest color paint. If you do make a mistake, the only product
that we have found that can remove the paint without damaging
the Lexan is Synthetic Reducer, which can be purchased
through a automotive paint supply store.
MOUNTING THE BODY
Every body requires different body mount heights. For
the front you can add or subtract washers under the body
mounts to raise or lower it. You can also cut the height of the
body mount down, but this occurrence would be rare for a 1:12
scale car. For the rear the body mounts are height adjustable
The sides of the body should be slightly below the bottom edge
of the chassis.
RC12LC MAINTENANCE
You will find your RC12LC car will give you many hours
of trouble-free operation. Even so you should periodically check
all the moving parts: front A-arms, steering blocks, steering
linkage, pivot balls, and so on for wear, missing or loose parts.
Replacing, tightening or cleaning of the parts in questions will
greatly improve the performance of your car.
MOTOR TROUBLESHOOTING. Because the car is low
to the ground, it is possible to get dirt or debris in your motor.
This can cause motor problems. If you are having problems
with your motor you will need to check these things first:
1) If the motor does not run at all you should check the
wiring connections first. Are all the wires and capacitors con-
nected properly? Are all the solder connections in good shape?
A bad solder connection will have dull finish or it will be rounded
under the edges. (This means the solder has not properly
bonded the parts together.) Pull on the wires to make sure that
the connections are really solid.
2) A sticking brush could be caused by dirt or the brush
braided wire getting caught or hung up on the brush holder.
Either of these can prevent the brush from being able to slide in
and out inside the brush holder so that it is making contact with
the commutator at all times. You can normally correct either
problem by pulling the brush out of the brush holder a very
small distance and then letting it snap back into the brush holder
from the spring pressure of the brush spring. To prevent these
problems in the future you should clean the brushes, holder
and commutator. You should also reroute the brush wire over
the top of the brush holder and then down into the spring slot
on the right side of the brush holder (behind the spring). This
way the brush wire cannot get caught or bent over the outer
edge of the holder. Always keep in mind that the brushes need
to be able to move freely in the brush holder.
3) To check for a shorted motor, you will want to remove
the motor pinion from the motor. This will prevent the vehicle
from getting away from you or causing any damage. With a
fully charged battery pack, turn on the radio transmitter followed
by the car. Now give the car full throttle. Does the motor seem
to reach full speed? If you are using a high revolution motor, it
should sound like it is turning at a very high speed. Next, with
the motor still running, place one finger on each side of the
motor end bell so that one finger is contacting the positive side
and the other is contacting the negative side. We are not trying
to make electrical contact, we are just going to be looking for
excessive heat. If the motor is shorted it will get extremely hot
on one of both sides of the end bell in less than a minute. This
means it will become hot enough to burn your finger at the end
of the minute. Following the above procedures will help to pre-
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