Rusty RB6

[Duncan]

So i race sunday put the car back in the warm house to dry out get the car out today and find a car full of rust. Rusty springs rusty screws rusty drive shafts the rust has even stained the white wheels. Great value for money

[brooksy]

I take it you didn't try and get most of the water off then?. I always wipe my cars off with kitchen towel if I run in wet weather,then use a paint brush to clean as much dirt off as possible.

[Chris-S]

Originally Posted by Duncan

So i race sunday put the car back in the warm house to dry out get the car out today and find a car full of rust. Rusty springs rusty screws rusty drive shafts the rust has even stained the white wheels. Great value for money

Not spray gt85 over the car and wipe off the dirt/water?

If I have raced my car in the wet, it will come apart that night to be dried out and cleaned. Will take an hour at most to clean one car.

[jonathan may]

Originally Posted by Duncan

So i race sunday put the car back in the warm house to dry out get the car out today and find a car full of rust. Rusty springs rusty screws rusty drive shafts the rust has even stained the white wheels. Great value for money

can,t really blame the car for that

[racingdwarf]

all cars will do this if you don't GT85 them or use wd40, B4's would rust something nasty if left after a wet days racing. also most of the bearings used in kits now are not rubber sealed, have very little tolerance for water, if you get them all out and oiled within hours of a really wet day you may just about get away with it, but if not

After 25+ year of racing I fell foul of it at the last stotfold meeting, it was serious wet! but clean astro, was tired by the time I got home to norfolk and left the car, just sprayed a heavy coat of GT85, monday night no rust but every single bearing had to be replaced!

also about the worst thing to do is take it home and leave it un oiled and in a warm place, just speeds up the process. As far as I know as I don't have one the RB6 isn't made with stainless steal or aluminium for driveshafts,screws etc

Oh yer, and snow is the devil, only thing to break out is a tamiya lunchbox

[bert digler]

Originally Posted by Duncan

So i race sunday put the car back in the warm house to dry out get the car out today and find a car full of rust. Rusty springs rusty screws rusty drive shafts the rust has even stained the white wheels. Great value for money

That's made in china for ya great isn't it back in the day of quality European American made stuff that did not happen parts where properly protected if you left it for a month maybe but not a day

[h0m3sy]

Originally Posted by Duncan

So i race sunday put the car back in the warm house to dry out get the car out today and find a car full of rust. Rusty springs rusty screws rusty drive shafts the rust has even stained the white wheels. Great value for money

There is no way I would do what you did, as stated in an earleir post, it takes around 1 hour to strip and clean a 2wd car. What's 1 hour at the end of the day? I also own an RB6 and I'm surprised at knowing how much you've spent buying the car that you forget about or just disregard the maintenance part. Like with any car, you look after it and it will look after you. It's not the car or Kyosho's fault this time mate, problem lies a little closer to home. Lesson learned I hope.

[Duncan]

I understand the screws ( i have stainless on the way ) but the springs / drive shafts / hing pins and bearings are all a shock. i have raced my ZX5 many times in the wet and never had this much rust in fact i did race my ZX5 on the same day and that has not rusted ? and yes i did clean the car of all water before i put it in the box.

[ruf]

Originally Posted by Duncan

I understand the screws ( i have stainless on the way ) but the springs / drive shafts / hing pins and bearings are all a shock. i have raced my ZX5 many times in the wet and never had this much rust in fact i did race my ZX5 on the same day and that has not rusted ? and yes i did clean the car of all water before i put it in the box.

From a metallurgical standpoint, rust-resistance and strength are typically mutually exclusive in steel qualities. Stainless is probably one the weakest categories of steel available, but is used often in marine applications. High-load components like the ones you listed may have been made from higher strength steel that is more prone to rust. An additional option could have been to coat the higher strength steel, but that may have been omitted for cost or wear characteristics or tolerances.

Bottom line is that don't assume that rust means cheap. It generally means that more maintenance is required for the application.

[dale]

After any wet race day you need to spray WD40 over the car, aiming it especially at all of the moving metal parts like hingepins, balljoints, shock shafts etc. And use that little red straw to get plenty into the bearings as well. Then run the motor (with the car in the air) and spin the front wheels to work it properly into the bearings.

Then wipe the excess WD40 off, and the car can be put away.

Its hard going out to the garage to do this after a days racing, but the car will rust if you dont, and thats harder to cope with.

[RogerM]

I'll happily admit to not being quite as bothered about a dirty car as some, they are off-road after all but I never leave a car wet for long.
I've run my RB6 outdoors in some "interesting" conditions and as yet I've got nothing of note rust wise on my car so they can't be all bad.

I do remember having another brand of car a few years ago where bits where rusty in the kit ... now that I was unhappy about.

[Neil Skull]

I am afraid that any car will do that, especially if some grit salt been put down to melt snow or ice.
if in a hurry the blow of as much water as poss with airline, then spray with gt85 or wd40 or similar and airline again. then spray with a silicone spray. Its not perfect but will stop most in a hurry.

[Rich D]

I reluctantly accept that a wet meeting will mean almost a full new set of wheel bearings at the minimum. I too use an airline and gt85 but you'll never dry it all perfectly without completely stripping it down.