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Oh, what a feeling! ('91 4Runner revival)

addiemonster

Pebble Pounder
Joined
Mar 27, 2019
Messages
182
Location
Sacramento
I got into RC crawling a couple years back with an SCX10II Honch. Loved it, and the bug bit me hard. Though I love my SCX10II's, I would always watch TTC videos on YouTube and see the OG SCX10 competing with the latest and greatest and still holding it's own. The huge diff pumpkin and rudimentary steering setup charmed me to death and I knew I had to have one.

Then it happened. RCC user Doomp had listed one here for sale. It was built to the hilt, but needed a little TLC to run again. His asking price was ridiculously low, and he included an entire bin's worth of spares, including metal upgrades, all the stock bits, two sets of wheels and tires, and even a working winch setup!

These are the pictures from his listing:

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I pulled the trigger as soon as I saw it. A few days later, a well-packed and fully-insured orange burrito showed up at my place.

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Included in the sale was the stock SCX10 transmission, but I had something else in mind. I recently sold my Element Trailwalker as a slider, but kept the overdriven transmission specifically for this purpose. I had to flip the skid plate around, but it was easier than expected. The upgraded hardware Doomp installed made it a breeze. I could tell right away he really loved this truck. I would have to do it justice.

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Once I had a set of SCX10II Wildboars fit to length, I installed my go-to combo: Hobbywing 1080 and Holmes Hobbies Crawlmaster Sport 550 15T. Every truck I put this combo in can run for hours and hours with zero heat issues, getting only a little warm after two or three 3S packs. You can't go wrong with it if you like a slow, technical crawl with a healthy amount of torque on a budget.

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I had just pulled the stock electronics out of my latest Marlin Crawler TF2 purchase, so I tossed the stock Twister servo in the SCX10 for now. I'll upgrade it to a Reefs of some sort eventually. Oh, and I added drivers to the well-painted interior it came with!

The only thing left to get it running was to bind it all to my DX5 Rugged, program the winch, and toss on some wheels and tires! I had two sets of Marlin Crawler TF2 wheels/tires laying around, so on they went. I think they really suit the truck, but I'm going to be switching to 1.9s with 4.7 or 4.75 tires very soon. I dig the look, though, so I'll be sure to get something with a silver center and red beadlock rings.

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The shocks I had originally tossed on were some Redcat Gen8 takeoffs, and I do like them but these ones seem incapable of holding oil. So for now, I switched them out for a set of Gmade G-transitions in a droop configuration. The wheel gap annoys me, but bigger tires will fill it just fine and the truck performs really well, even on 1.7 tires!

Seen here with my main crawling buddy and his trusty Sport:

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You may notice I was having some paint issues in some of these photos. Doomp had painted the lips of the fenders and the rocker panels with some sort of bedliner, which was a cool look for sure, but cracked and flaked off after just a few minutes of driving. I wasn't sure what to do about this, and then it hit me. Scrape it all off, sand the truck down, and start rusting it!

I also did a slight paint correction on the front bumper.

What you see here is the end result of two hours of scraping with a flat head screwdriver and a dull Xacto. Podcasts are great when you're doing tedious RC stuff. After the scraping, I sanded the body smooth again and then smeared brick-colored paint into every body line with a q-tip. I then wet sanded the whole thing, varying pressure and degree of sanding where I needed it to look more or less rusty. It's not done yet, as I need to give it a runny vinegar/steel wool liquid rust brush-over to get that streaky rust look down all the panels. Here's where it stands, as I wait for the steel wool to rust for a few days in a jar of vinegar:

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Oh yeah, and I figured since the truck came from Utah, it needed a Utah plate to cap it off. Anyone who knows Toyota's truck racing history will know this isn't a Marvel reference. ;-)

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Glad you dig the truck, makes me happy to see it back out on the rocks. I've had good luck with rustoleom truck bed coating, i dont know if my prep wasnt right or what happened when i sprayed it. I love the utah plates and im waiting for the rusty steel wool treament, Ive been in this hobby a long time and never heard of it. I'll be watching this thread for updates!
 
Sweet man! OG SCX10 was what started it all for me, still have two of them and won't part with them!
 
Glad you dig the truck, makes me happy to see it back out on the rocks. I've had good luck with rustoleom truck bed coating, i dont know if my prep wasnt right or what happened when i sprayed it. I love the utah plates and im waiting for the rusty steel wool treament, Ive been in this hobby a long time and never heard of it. I'll be watching this thread for updates!

Hey man, no worries. I think it's only a problem on the fenders because they flex a little more than the rest of the body. None of the rest of it has flaked. It might also be because it's getting colder around here, so maybe that led to it loosening up.

Here's the video that taught me how to do the vinegar/steel wool technique. I did a Trailwalker body for my TRX4 with it, and I love how it came out. The vinegar dribbles down, leaving a stain line and depositing the rust as it runs down. AFter it evaporates, it leaves the rust behind, caked onto the paint.

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Bam! Okay, I know, they're cheap "MOHERO" Amazon specials. But the only beadlocks I could find with this color combo where $100+ Champions or other sets in that range, or a couple of Amazon options. My bank account was like "Mini Z 4Runner or Gucci wheels for the SCX10", and it's getting colder so I ordered the Mini Z.

I do like those Champion beadlocks, though, so further on down the line, who knows? I'm sure seeing a Jeep lug pattern on my Toyota will drive me to do it, eventually.

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(Mind the weird hair, I only just noticed it. Just did a quick 'n dirty driveway run and must've picked it up)
 
Rust job done. Mind the moisture, I couldn't wait to post shots of it so I snapped a couple between wet sanding sessions. :mrgreen:

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So with next to no fanfare, I have returned with an update to the SCX10.

I was having a few reliability issues with the truck on our toughest trail, Black Creek. Nothing broke, but screws backing out became a struggle. No amount of thread lock would solve the issue, and with it being a loooooong hike back to the car if I ever lost an important fastener, I made the difficult choice to revert the truck's front suspension back to a stock setup.

I removed the CMS kit, and gathered a few missing bits I needed to mount the servo back to the axle. I think I used Hot Racing servo mounts, a brand new front axle housing, and Atomik steering links. An Amazon special 25kg DSservo brand servo is handling steering in place of the RC4WD Twister I was previously running as a placeholder.

To do all of this meant I had to convert it back to a Y-link front, as well. Simple enough, I just ordered an Atomik aluminum Y-link and called it a day.

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After that, I wanted to make sure I retained the great articulation Doomp's custom setup had given the rig. To this end, I pulled apart and fully rebuilt my G-Made G-transitions in a more aggressive droop setup, mimicking all those cool "long travel" trucks you see slinking all over Moab.

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I think we're good to go. Sorry for the boring update, I promised someone I would post an update soon, and as soon as all the parts came in, I got to work on my first day off... a week after they showed up. :roll:
 
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This looks great! Im going to have to try the rusty wool next weathered body I do! I bet Doomp will be very happy when he sees this. Weathering always makes a rig pop!
 
The CMS always gave me problems too, i dont know if its because that CMS setup was a strc or what, i tried to hunt down a different setup but it was on sale at my lhs at the time. The Patina came out real nice i dig it alot.
Also when i built that truck i was trying to walk a line of performance and scale, those are G6 sliders (scale fab I think) and the aluminum plates were designed for the body to tuck behind them to narrow up the truck a hair and the inner fenders are trimmed accordingly, you probably already figured that out though.
Im happy you like the rig, when i started building it late 2017 i had taken about 3 years off from rc at that time and a friend had given me a beat to hell OG (yours now) and it rekindled the hobby for me again and after about a year it was finished but it was so pretty i never drove it much and when the UMG10 came out well it basically never got drove again after i yanked the electronics out of it.
With the OD/UD with a 35T HH, HW1080 and a 11T pinion i ran into constant esc/motor heat issues, I believe the OG UD gears were the culprit since they've been notchy since they were intruduced all those years ago, but i was usually driving at Cap Sante/Mt Erie/J&S hobbies so it was being pushed hard on the rocks. Besides scratching the body that was always my biggest problem with that truck. BUT im so happy your actually driving it and i hope youve had luck working out afew quirks of the OG's.
 
Me, literally yesterday: I love the look of this rig so much I just wish I could figure out how to tuck the sides in so it looks cleaner, maybe I can use a heat gun?

those are G6 sliders (scale fab I think) and the aluminum plates were designed for the body to tuck behind them to narrow up the truck a hair and the inner fenders are trimmed accordingly, you probably already figured that out though

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Two seconds later...



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Hahaha I thought i should throw that out there, Just in case you know. It doesnt skew the body lines too terriblely much. Giant punkpins AND body/slider over hang was to much for me on that build. I normally dont post much but check out my AR44 capra build thread for something waaaay different, I should post more build threads here for some of the crazy/funky builds I've done, BUT the (im dating myself here, was a G-Made R1 chassis with AR60's/4ws and a novak 13.5T sensored brushless setup) with mickey thomson 2.2 baja claws was probably the funnest build excluding the kyosho drx-ve subie on 4S which won me $100 in a parking lot drag race against a (new at the time) corvette. Dude shouldnt have talked shit on "toy cars"
 
That's a great looking truck. Good to see you gave it a good home and got it back out on the trails. "thumbsup"
 
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