TOPIC:

Kontemax wrote:

You should use a carbon fiber plate. Aluminum is no good, it doesn't fix with the plastic and the glue and it bends...

Well, that turned out to be truer than I thought.
At first the epoxy appeared to have bonded well but at this point even the weld between the plastic parts has become brittle.
So I'll be taking a new approach and use some additional FRP (from a Group C bit I'm never gonna need).

A couple of 18T 32dp Traxxas pinions have been ordered so I can use a 540 motor...
Have been reading contrary reports on these - and how well pitch matches.
Only way to know for myself is to try of course.

Becoming more of a slow build. RC's a bit trivial at the moment.

I'm gonna have a go at glueing the chassis with some fast setting Araldite (hope it arrives soon) next...
With the new intricate connection plates I've fabricated, there won't be much strain on the weld itself anymore.
So a good bond would be nice for smooth detailing but most of the forces will be redirected around it...
Pics to follow.

So I gave myself a huge amount of work trying to get a decent finish on this chassis nosejob.
As said, the first bond seemed to hold well but started cracking later on...
Next attempt, two-component (rapid) Araldite :



Some baking paper in between here because I will not be glueing everything together - just the chassis parts :



Nice that this stuff sets faster but I actually think the steel epoxy provides a better bond.
Were it not for the weakest link (where the cracking starts) - the bit of the chassis pointing up on the sides...
So I went for some fiber glass filled J-B Weld there :




After sanding (and screwing around quite a bit in between) :



Then I could show about a thousand pictures of unsatisfying effort to get a smooth surface on top.
Saving the two stars mostly provided lots of fiddling with a mediocre result.
Only thing to do... sand it all down (leave a remnant of the stars though) :





And accept the level I have achieved with that (more or less, there was more fiddling involved) :




More to follow...

Great job! Really can't see the difference with the other side

Thanks! Silly thing is that I'll be covering up the surface with reinforcement plates.
Guess even what you don't see has gotta look good anyway...

About those plates... I'm going from the single aluminium one (in the middle of the pic below) to a setup of three layers.
Some smaller bits (made from tough aluminium profile) will go on top and a FRP Group C part will be modified for the bottom :



The slots in it happen to fit the width of the holes I drilled in the chassis :



Last cutting phase :



Primed, painted and the FRP polished :



Overspray will be buffed out and I'll look for some black lock nuts but this is the result so far :

I think I might leave out the larger alloy plate on the bottom altogether (doesn't seem to be needed anymore)...

Nice job Edou.... I went with a re-re Grasshopper chassis ($13.00 USD) since my restored Rockbuster isn't worth much anyways.

Thanks, time spent on this little project is a bit over the top for a chassis that doesn't really hold any value.
But it's mostly about a junkyard rescue and what I can learn from the materials I'm using in the process...

Needless to say I am still not fully satisfied with the result (a bit more fiddling might be required).

Nice job looks very good and a great save its not about value in this hobby its nice to restore a car using as many of the original parts as possible and not taking the easy option with re release bits.