TOPIC:

I was recently faced with an opportunity to rescue a fallen Falcon while wrapping up details with another vintage purchase. Since The Falcon is on my goal list to have every 58xxx model offering from 1986, I took the challenge. It looked like it had a hard life for sure, but I wouldn't know the extent of the damage until I received it. Turns out the initial pics did not reveal the broken front shock towers or the broken lower bulkhead, so I didn't think it was really that bad. I also had no clue of the challenge to find Falcon parts . . .

 


So as I unpacked it, the front end was basically falling apart in my hands. The gearbox was very crunchy, and every shock was locked up tighter than Tom Thumb's badword. All the wheels have lip damage and the tires are in poor condition. Hey, at least there's a new Yellow Parts tree.

 


I disassembled the model referencing the manual here on the database, documenting all missing parts, hardware, etc.

 

 

 


In the meantime while searching for parts here and there, I stumbled across another crusty Falcon that looked to be in better shape. So like an idiot I jumped on it and figured between these two I should yield at least one near perfect model:

 

Out of the box everything just seemed very crusty, but all in all this model lived a better life and the parts survived better. 
After disassembly, I discovered the not so surprising secret of a failing lower bulkhead on both ends of the part. Curses.

 

 

It was at this point I realized I would still need to find some NOS parts, and now had two Falcon builds on my hands - One to be near perfect for my collection, and the other to be made entirely of unbroken survivor parts. So between the two models, fellow member @ EddyCH, TBG, MCI and eBay, I have been collecting all that is needed for two restorations. Amazingly, so far I am still under the dollar amount for a really nice complete model needing no restoration, and still less than half the amount for a NIB model - and that even includes my investment in an ultrasonic cleaner. Cool!





 

Through my documentation and cleaning process, I was able to identify and salvage nearly one complete set of hardware - only needing to add in a few machine screws and screw pins for the "Survivor" restoration:

 


Also for the "Survivor", I separated out the lesser of the shock parts after cleaning, and got them assembled:

 

 


One set of gears is toast, but luckily the other set is in great shape for the "Survivor" after cleaning:

 


The radio gear cleaned up ok and everything tested to be working. I had to purchase a parts Tx in order to get a battery door - Delivery pending.

 


I should be starting on the chassis build very soon. Hopefully the ball bearings show up soon (both models had the added friction bearings, lol)
 

It's nice to see an able to rebuild falcon with only 2. Congrats . The msc is not the good one if you want to stick to the boxart. I'm sure that mine is already brocken after resto. 🤬🤣 don't see too much your falcon the front will break . Like it  arrived with mine.

stingray-63 wrote:

It's nice to see an able to rebuild falcon with only 2. Congrats . The msc is not the good one if you want to stick to the boxart. I'm sure that mine is already brocken after resto. 🤬🤣 don't see too much your falcon the front will break . Like it  arrived with mine.

Yes, I'm on the fence with the MSC because I'm tired of sinking money into these two at the same time, lol. I would actually like to run mine with the non BEC MSC with a 4xAA battery holder strapped in on that little "shelf". I'm not sure I'm that concerned with the survivor model that I will likely sell. But now that you've immediately called me out on it, I won't stop thinking about it, lol. I also only have one of the coveted MSC lexan switch covers, and cannot find another one to the point I'm thinking of sending mine to TBG and beg them to start making them!

Nice idea for the msc cover. I will find a pict of mine to see the msc

stingray-63 wrote:

Nice idea for the msc cover. I will find a pict of mine to see the msc

I'm pretty sure it's black, with the orange wires:

 

 

Yes it has orange and white wires. 

stingray-63 wrote:

Yes it has orange and white wires. 

Good thing, you just made me buy it and now looking for another one, lol

The brown one is the same. Use it and run your falcon. I could sale mine to you 🤣🤣🤣

Hey Stingray, I was chugging along with the reassembly process, and discovered that the resistor wires are too short for the resistor to be mounted in the proper place! So this MSC is even more wrong than you thought, lol. I looked back at the pics and sure enough I can see where the PO had it mounted wrong because of the short wires. So I thought wait, I have another Falcon here, let me see if that one is wrong, too. Well, it has the correct MSC with longer wires so I can steal it for this build since it also has wires for BEC. The correct MSC I found and purchased today does not have the BEC wires (I'm pretty sure) so I'll go along with the plan of running the other one with the 4xAA battery Rx pack.

Here's a pic showing the short wires, and a pic of the other MSC I can steal for this first Falcon: