Basis Tips & Tricks(new tips addded 7/22/99)

Tires/Wheels

Capping Your Own Tires

First Aquire an old used inner tube from a bicycle. This can be one that's been
already removed from a bike, or if your quick you can get the one off your sisters bike.

Next cut the inner tube in a strip like a wide rubber band, making it about 1/2" wider
than the width of your foams.

Apply Rubber Cement or regular Tire mounting cement to the foams themselves.making
sure to aplly the cement over the side of the foam.Slide the rubber ring you cut earlier onto
the foamy, make sure it is centered on the wheel and there are no wrinkles or bubbles.
Smoothing around the wheel with your thumbs helps remove air bubbles and wrinkles.

Let the wheel cure over night. With a VERY sharp X-acto knife trim the foam even with the side of
the foams. Hold the knife at an angle matching the front face of the rim itself. Be careful not to nick
the rubber or the foam if you can help it, this will tend to make the Caps wear prematurely.

Out of Tire Compound? Can't afford anymore? Too Cheap to pay the exorbenant prices they charge for it?

If any of these apply to you, its your lucky day. you can have about a years supply of tire compound for around $3.00.

No kiddin. Several racers at our track have had real success using common Hand Cleaner Like GOOP® or any NON-Pumice type hand cleaner. It can be applied at the track just like regular compound, except you have to spread it on. This seems to work ok, but from the racers I have talked to they prefer to put it on the night before a race, and cover the wheels/tires with sandwich bags, and leave them covered until the races the next day. They say this makes the tires more even, and soaks in a little more so it's not apt to wear off as quickly.

Now there is some sacrifices for using this stuff. Tires appear to wear a little more than normal, but if your using regular compound anyway, your not going to notice much of a difference. One other thing is that it's reccomended to wash these tire/wheels occassionaly to remove the Goop , it seems to revive the tire and start over like a new one.

Just fill a sink with HOT soapy water, drop the tires and wheels in and let soak for a while, takem out and rinse and your ready to go. Apply Goop as you normally do and your ready to race again.

Paint Pens

One of the simplest painting tips I have found to paint a body is a simple trip to your local
craft shop or Wal-Mart to pick up a couple paint pens. These pens are very handy for doing detail
lines on the bodies of vehicles before putting on the actual body colors. they come in a variety
of basic colors, and varying tip sizes.

Make sure you do the detaling with the pens prior to actually painting the body with a good lexan paint,
as the paint pens are not lexan paint but the regular RC paint will hold this paint on.

I have done some very nice detil work using this method.

Making Your Own Decals

 Ever seen a cool logo or emblem somewhere that you thought would look so cool on your RC vehicle?
Well, here,s how you can use that decal or logo. First make a trip to the store to get some CLEAR double
sided carpet tape, 3M makes a great one. Also pick up some laminating paper (clear). like the ones you can
pick up to laminate social security cards, ID cards etc.

Next cut out your logo, or emblem. Lay it face up on the table then place a piece of the laminating tape on the top
of it. hold it in a U shape over the middle of the emblem and rub out towards the edge with your finger to remove
all the wrinkles.

Next, flip the emblem over and place the double sided tape on the back side of the emblem. This may take several pieces depending on the emblem width. After you have done this, trim all the excess tape off the emblem.

Now, peel off the double sided tape backing, and place the emblem on your car where ever you would like it.

Ever stuck a decal on the car only find it's either crooked or has a huge air bubble in the middle you cant rub out?

If so then you should try this. Take some windex, or other suitable glass cleaner, and dilute it 50/50 with water. Lightly mist it over the body where you want the decal to go. Remove the backing from the decal, and place it over the misted area approximately where you want it stuck down. You'll notice it doesn't adhere and you can adjust it to where you want it.

After you have it where you would like it take a small plastic squeegee, or a piece of scrap lexan that has had the sharp edges lightly sand so as not to scratch the decal, and start at the middle of the decal and work out to the edges and squeeze out the glass cleaner under the decal. do this until the decal is entirely smooth and stuck down, set the body aside to let the glue on the decal take a secure footing. I usually leave them over night, but they are handleable in about 30 minutes to be safe.