RC lowrider model cars




			BeSwitched '67 started out as a mildly tricked out RC lowrider toy car made by Radio Shack. My good friend Brian Archuleta from Colorado had send me this great looking '67 Chevy Impala knowing I would tear it apart and create something special out of it. The body style is really well done but the moves are very limited. Factory stock this ride can lift the rear go sides making the car go into 3 wheel motion, it can't lift the front. The wheels where also way off definitly not your typical lowrider wire wheels. This ride went thru different stages to figure out what would work and what not. The setup as it is today is different from the tech pictures on this page. It's very likely this ride will undergo some new changes in the future.






	I removed the original red paint and painted the car with Volvo Champagne color. The bumpers where all scratched and they were send out to my friend Ryan Happe from Scale lows in Indiana who got the parts cleaned and chromed. The chrome trim I did with household allu kitchen foil and applied 3M adhesive spray on the back, cut and finally polished to a bright chrome finish. Lights where added using leds and I added a pot meter to manually control the cars speed. A high torque motor provides enough power to have this baby hit backbumper within 3 hits.








First I started working on the rear lift setup by extending the plastic disc that rotates 360 degrees pushing the rear up and after a complete turn the car falls down again. I attached ball links and threaded rod to both the disc and the chassis to create a longer stroke making the car lift a lot higher and because the pivot point sits in the middle of the chassis it will also create a more dramatic 3 wheel motion effect.		Since this Radio Shack car didn't come with wire wheels I needed to create my own set. I cut the rim lip and back of the RS wheel with a razor saw. Pegasus makes 1/10 scale wirewheels and I cut the wire section from the wheel. I placed the wheel parts on the axle and than used superglue to mount it, cut away the excess material and used a rubber plumbing socket for tires. Whitewalls are cut out of sticky vinyl and transfered. Click on the wheel pic for details.


	Using most of the parts that came with the car I build a U-shaped front suspension that travels up and down. On the front I created a bucket so that the hinged suspension sits lower and it enables the car to lift and lowert he front. The steering servo is mounted to the two rods so it travels up and down with the rest of the steering setup. I repositioned the centre spring preventing the wheels of staying stuck in their last position.

The BeSwitched ride was featured on the cover of Lowrider Bicycle Magazine fall issue 2004. With that a complete article on three of my creations including Blue in tha Face and Big '64. I did all the photography and wrote the basic version of the article. Unfortunatly LRB isn't around anymore it was the only magazine dedicated to lowrider bikes and model cars.