Customizing RC Lowriders

RC lowriders are scale, remote control versions of the full-size lowrider automobiles known for their lowered suspensions, distinctive styling, and highly creative customizing. The real lowriders first became popular back in the 1950s and 1960s. They’ve been a part of the American car culture ever since.

The origins of lowriding actually date back to the 1940s. That’s when some imaginative auto enthusiasts first began lowering their vehicles to give them a more sleek, aerodynamic appearance. Over the next few decades the sport of lowriding gained wider appeal, finding perhaps its greatest following in California’s Mexican-American communities. The typical lowrider was an older make of an American car — usually a Chevrolet, Ford, or Buick — whose owner had dropped the suspension, added shiny chrome wheels, and customized the body with an elaborate, glistening paint scheme.

Of course, what’s popular in the radio control car hobby often echoes trends in the full-scale auto world. RC lowriders are a perfect example. At a much lower cost than full-scale, RC lowriders have become a favorite way for car enthusiasts to express their originality through vehicle customizing and modifications. The first RC lowriders appeared in the late 1990s. Their owners came up with ingenious ways to make their models hop and bounce, such as using fishing line attached to small electric motors repurposed from tape players. In the years since then, RC lowriders have become much more sophisticated and realistic.

Like the full-size versions, RC lowriders are frequently customized in more ways than just by changing the wheels and the suspension height. Many owners like to finish their models with high-gloss “candy paint” to give the bodies deep, rich color. Thin pinstriping is then often hand-applied to detail the exteriors with unique patterns. Lighting kits are another favorite addition. The bodies and chassis of RC lowriders are a blank canvas for drivers to express themselves using a wide variety of options.

The RC lowrider community has a lot in common with full-size lowriding. There’s a strong appreciation for individuality and creativity. RC lowrider enthusiasts are passionate about having cars that stand out from the crowd. It requires a great deal of patience, imagination, and ingenuity, as RC lowrider fans search high and low for the best parts and components to complete their signature machines.

You can learn more about the RC lowriders niche of the hobby by going to this separate blog. For some ideas on how you might customize an RC lowrider of your own, read on.

Personalized Bodies for RC Lowriders

With so much emphasis on originality and customizing, you might think that if you’re like the majority of today’s remote control hobbyists — lacking the time, experience, or desire to build a kit from scratch — then RC lowriders are not for you. Fortunately, that’s not the case.

One of the premier manufacturers of RC lowriders, Redcat Racing, offers assembled, 1/10 scale RC lowrider chassis that you can top off with your choice from the hundreds of separately available bodies that will fit. Finish the scale body you select with whatever paint colors, designs, details, and accents you want. Then install it on the chassis. Now you have a mostly factory-built RC lowrider that’s still reflects your own personality and is like nothing else on the street.

When you check out the Redcat Racing lineup, you’ll also find 1/10 scale RC lowriders that come 100% ready-to-run. These are complete with a radio, installed electronics, and even patented hopping systems to reproduce that distinctive, real lowrider bounce. Redcat Racing lowrider RTRs include detailed, fully finished bodies in several of the same styles that are most popular with the full-size lowrider crowd — the 1959 or 1964 Chevrolet Impala and 1979 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. The bodies feature expertly applied paint schemes in several different colors.

Even if you buy them ready-to-run, the Redcat Racing RC lowriders can still be customized. The same factory-painted bodies that are included with them can also be purchased separately in unfinished form. Whenever you’re ready, you can buy a clear body and enjoy the experience of giving it your personal touch.

RC Lowriders in Candy Colors

Once you’ve selected the clear body styles you want for your RC lowriders, it’s time to finish them with a look that demands attention. Need some inspiration for a spectacular color scheme? Visit nearby auto shows where lowriders are on display, or look at photos of lowriders online and in automotive magazines.

The people who paint full-size lowriders are undeniably true artists. They’re fearless, hard-working, and incredibly talented. The finishes they give their prized vehicles are perfectly smooth and highly polished, whether created with a single color of paint or with multiple hues. Brilliant candy colors are very popular, as are sparkling metalflake paints.

Whether you find the perfect color scheme for your RC lowriders in a magazine or from your own imagination, it’s easy to bring it to life on your models. The manufacturers of popular RC car body paints, such as Pro-Line and Duratrax, offer an enormous selection of colors in high-quality brush-on and spray paint formulas. Their colors have names like Candy Blood Red, Electric Green, Blue Ice, and Candy Purple. From those brief descriptions alone, you can easily picture how great they’ll look drenched over your RC lowrider’s body.

Some especially talented owners of real lowriders go as far as to decorate the hoods, sides, and rooftops of their cars with elaborate, airbrushed murals. That’s certainly not a requirement for RC lowriders, but if you’ve got the gift, go for it. The sky’s the limit!

Tires and Wheels for RC Lowriders

In addition to their unique and distinctive body treatments, another characteristic feature of both the real and the RC lowriders is their wheels and tires. The classic full-size lowrider often rides on narrow whitewall tires mounted to gleaming wire wheels — preferably Truespoke® wire wheels, a highly respected manufacturer known for its creativity and innovation in creating totally original chrome wire wheel designs.

Radio control hobby manufacturers such as Redcat Racing recognize how important these wheel and tire types are to the real lowrider owners, so they reproduce them as close to scale as possible for the RC lowrider market. Gold and chrome finished wire and spinner wheel sets, as well as whitewall tires, are available to fit your RC lowriders. They make it easy to duplicate the looks of the real vehicles, right down to where the rubber meets the road.

Other Options for RC Lowriders

A good part of the fun in customizing RC lowriders is that almost no idea is too wild to consider, much the same as in the full-scale lowrider world. If you wander through the vehicles on display at a show of lowriders, you shouldn’t be surprised to see reverse-opening hoods, trunks, and doors; custom-cut T-tops; and lots of other clever modifications, many of them operated by custom hydraulics.

Here again, the more technically savvy and experienced RC hobbyists often follow suit, equipping their RC lowriders with extra servos to activate similarly extraordinary features.

But if you’re not quite that adventurous, you can still have a blast taking your RC lowriders over the top with easy-to-install options like LED light kits and chain steering wheels. RC manufacturers offer gleaming gold and chrome parts and accents that you can put anywhere and everywhere — just like the full-scale lowrider owners do.

There’s nothing else in the RC car hobby quite like RC lowriders for letting you show off your creativity and imagination. If you enjoy customizing, RC lowriders are the remote control cars for you!