Radio Shack Tremor and Golden Arrow restomods

[addiemonster]

I'm that guy. The "they're ALL toys!!" guy. Some are just more expensive than others. That said, I understand the need for the delineation of "toy grade" and "hobby grade".

I also like to blur that line whenever possible.

Take, for instance, this amazing score I made when visiting a friend in Indiana (last summer, when travel was safe). Three late-90s vintage Radio Shack RCs, every one complete with radio and box, the Road Phantom having never ever even left it's box for more than display purposes! $60 for the whole lot.





Yes, I've seen the video of the Road Phantom running twin Traxxas Titan 550s. No, I'm not messing with mine. It runs great and is a literal new old stock RC!

Anyway, The one I took the most interest in (and the one that grabbed my attention in the second-hand toy shop) was the bright red, Hilux-bodied Tremor. 2WD, open diff, swing arm rear with proper double wishbone front suspension and all the styling Radio Shack/Tandy are known for.

I fibbed a little earlier. Every RC was slightly incomplete. The Flashtron and Tremor were missing the front bumpers, and the Road Phantom's radio had a broken steering stick. All of this has been remedied. I also shot a couple coats of clear over the Tremor's body as the decals are paper-based and will not last long out in the wild otherwise. Also snuck in a few cheeky Tamiya decals as a subtle hint about it's new electronics...



Sadly, I didn't get any shots of the limited chopping I needed to do to replace the stock steering gearbox with a proper servo. The rest was simple - replace the stock circuit board with a spare ESC and swap the weak stock 540 for a brand new Mabuchi!







Here it is with my re-release Blackfoot for size context:







I'm quite happy with the results.





Then I did the same thing with a Radio Shack Golden Arrow that I purchased from some dude's trash.





All it really needed was some elbow grease, a set of direct bolt-on Hornet wheels and tires, some bearings, a transmission re-grease, and of course a complete gutting of the entire damn electrical system. I'm amazed how much of this car is almost a mirror image of a Hornet or Grasshopper. I'm almost 99% sure you could replace the transmission gears with Hornet gears. In fact, I think you could probably just mount up a Hornet or 'Hopper transmission! Oh, speaking of which, I needed to order some AMPro transmission mounts to reinstall it, as the stock mounts require this weird press-on pin collar that just sucks to deal with and will likely break your car trying to get back on.

Anyway here it is with my re-release Grasshopper.







I've since swapped out the unbearably noisy ancient Traxxas servo. It's running a kit-stock Tamiya 540 for now, but a Sport Tuned or some other hot Tamiya motor is in the near future.

[OSRC]

Awesome finds! I ran a restomodded Golden Arrow back in the day, it was a blast!

[addiemonster]

Thanks! I have a whole backlog of Radio Shack/Tandy RCs that need "modernizing". A lot of them are actually Tandy releases of the old Tamiya QD (Quick Drive) series.

I actually sought a Golden Arrow after seeing a blog post about a guy whose local race track had a beginner class populated mostly by Hoppers and Hornets and the occasional RC10 or the like. Then the Golden Arrow came out and lots of kids started showing up the "hobby grade" racers following Christmas that year.

I'm not surprised, it's a really capable little buggy easily on par with beginner Tamiyas and the like. Somehow it ended up being my go-to buggy this past year and saw more use than my Hopper for sure!

[MusicMan74]

Hello addiemonster,

An R/C newbie here and I'd like some help please

Can you kindly elaborate on how you replaced the servo on the Golden Arrow?
The original servo had a flat section on the (toothless smooth) shaft which keyed into the original horn, which in turn was keyed with a white spacer that keyed into a plastic ring with the steering rods...

My replacement Futaba S3004 servo shaft has teeth (and no flat section) so I currently cannot 'push on' the original horn assembly.
Additionally, the Futaba horns included don't have holes large enough to fit the original steering rods... ugh

So I am not sure how to proceed with my Golden Arrow upgrade.
Can you please explain/share a few pics on how you got the steering assembly mechanism to interface with your new servo?


Thanks in advance,

Greg

[addiemonster]

Originally Posted by MusicMan74

Hello addiemonster,

An R/C newbie here and I'd like some help please

Can you kindly elaborate on how you replaced the servo on the Golden Arrow?
The original servo had a flat section on the (toothless smooth) shaft which keyed into the original horn, which in turn was keyed with a white spacer that keyed into a plastic ring with the steering rods...

My replacement Futaba S3004 servo shaft has teeth (and no flat section) so I currently cannot 'push on' the original horn assembly.
Additionally, the Futaba horns included don't have holes large enough to fit the original steering rods... ugh

So I am not sure how to proceed with my Golden Arrow upgrade.
Can you please explain/share a few pics on how you got the steering assembly mechanism to interface with your new servo?


Thanks in advance,

Greg

I'm so sorry I missed this! Life's been whizzing by me this whole year, but I'll find some time this weekend to pull my Arrow apart (it needs some repairs, anyway) and take photos of everything I've done. I honestly don't remember what I did, myself!