Re-inventing the 1/8

[Greengaunja]

Scorched landed.

Thought shipping would be faster but hell, who am I to complain? I ordered it late Thursday lol. Im just glad the front bracket is in so I can finalize my template in time for for the Wednesday delivery of my 400 ×300mm carbon fiber plate. Already I've decided to do a couple more tweaks to my custom 1/8th GT SWB chassis.
I've been debating whether or not that the two inches I've added to the width will be sufficient. Seriously wondering if I should add more. The thinking here is, if I overdo it I can always trim it back. But I can't add width. I also have this idea of using the Senton side skirts to hold the mid sections of the body in better than my last setup. This will be needed, especially if I'm pushing for 150mph. At least this way batteries will be fully inside chassis.

Secondly, I've been wondering about can sizes. Putting the center tower in line with the rear and front has the drawback of putting the motor closer to the rear differential input cup. And severely limits motor options. This is key because since I found out a PPS mount raises the motor more, allowing for a motor can larger than the HW 4985. I don't want to close that door should I need or want a larger motor. Although I'm expecting this build to be lighter than my EXB Senton 8s, the thought process behind the power train remains the same. Slow down acceleration to keep it planted and use that torque to slowly build up more speed down the stretch. However it was noted that I would likely have to trim some of the pinholder off and I knew there was a possibility I'd need to grind the input cup shorter. That's when it hit me, make the chassis slightly longer, just not long enough to lose its SWB status. So what I've done is, moved the center tower ahead 3mm and added 3mm to the front of chassis. The front dogbone will remain 116mm(subject to change slightly). The rear 82mm Senton shaft will be replaced with the 85mm Senton driveshaft. I foresee another Scorched order coming up due to my custom shaft guy being swamped at the moment.

 

[Dan B.]

Scorched landed. View attachment 281691Thought shipping would be faster but hell, who am I to complain? I ordered it late Thursday lol. Im just glad the front bracket is in so I can finalize my template in time for for the Wednesday delivery of my 400 ×300mm carbon fiber plate. Already I've decided to do a couple more tweaks to my custom 1/8th GT SWB chassis.
I've been debating whether or not that the two inches I've added to the width will be sufficient. Seriously wondering if I should add more. The thinking here is, if I overdo it I can always trim it back. But I can't add width. I also have this idea of using the Senton side skirts to hold the mid sections of the body in better than my last setup. This will be needed, especially if I'm pushing for 150mph. At least this way batteries will be fully inside chassis.View attachment 281692
View attachment 281693
Secondly, I've been wondering about can sizes. Putting the center tower in line with the rear and front has the drawback of putting the motor closer to the rear differential input cup. And severely limits motor options. This is key because since I found out a PPS mount raises the motor more, allowing for a motor can larger than the HW 4985. I don't want to close that door should I need or want a larger motor. Although I'm expecting this build to be lighter than my EXB Senton 8s, the thought process behind the power train remains the same. Slow down acceleration to keep it planted and use that torque to slowly build up more speed down the stretch. However it was noted that I would likely have to trim some of the pinholder off and I knew there was a possibility I'd need to grind the input cup shorter. That's when it hit me, make the chassis slightly longer, just not long enough to lose its SWB status. So what I've done is, moved the center tower ahead 3mm and added 3mm to the front of chassis. The front dogbone will remain 116mm(subject to change slightly). The rear 82mm Senton shaft will be replaced with the 85mm Senton driveshaft. I foresee another Scorched order coming up due to my custom shaft guy being swamped at the moment.
View attachment 281694View attachment 281695

Flip your motor mount and mount the motor towards the front on the opposite side. You pick up the needed mm’s that way and the car is more stable at speed with the added weight bias over the front. Thanks to @K-BASH for that tip.
@Tex Koder makes some beautiful motor mount drilling jigs.
The carbon side plates I cut came in perfectly at 10x23cm. Just cut them out and drill the holes.

P.S. I love your caliper.

 

[Greengaunja]

Flip your motor mount and mount the motor towards the front on the opposite side. You pick up the needed mm’s that way and the car is more stable at speed with the added weight bias over the front. Thanks to @K-BASH for that tip.
@Tex Koder makes some beautiful motor mount drilling jigs.
The carbon side plates I cut came in perfectly at 10x23cm. Just cut them out and drill the holes.
View attachment 281703

P.S. I love your caliper.

Sweet Jesus, it never did occur to me to flip the mount around! I usually follow @K-BASH and his builds but I must have missed that one. I'm going to do a rough of that idea now and see how it goes. And you're right, that would only help keep it planted by putting more weight forward.
The jig is a great idea. Especially if secured with a clamp. I was going to tape and mark all, including bore diameters and take it to a friend's shop and make use of his drill press. The thickest CF I've worked with is 3mm and that's a rough go cutting and keeping holes precise.
Thanks. These calipers are actually older than me, lol. My stepfather got them early 70's. Mitutoyo 505-626. He was a hobby mechanic and those calipers were key in alot of awesome builds. Gifted them to me about 21 years ago. Surprises me how many people don't know what they are or how to use them. When I go to my LHS with these in my hands, they know I'm going to be there awhile lol. What's really funny is I've found far more use for these in the RC hobby than in work or anywhere else. When my custom shaft guy asked to physically see my 8s for end of pin slot to end of pin slot in cups measurement(custom length surgical steel, reduced back and forth play), he was skeptical of my own measurements. Until told how I measured them lol. Perfect fit too, not.

 

[Dan B.]

These calipers are actually older than me, lol. My stepfather got them early 70's. Mitutoyo 505-626. He was a hobby mechanic and those calipers were key in alot of awesome builds. Gifted them to me about 21 years ago. Surprises me how many people don't know what they are or how to use them. When I go to my LHS with these in my hands, they know I'm going to be there awhile lol. What's really funny is I've found far more use for these in the RC hobby than in work or anywhere else. When my custom shaft guy asked to physically see my 8s for end of pin slot to end of pin slot in cups measurement(custom length surgical steel, reduced back and forth play), he was skeptical of my own measurements. Until told how I measured them lol. Perfect fit too, not.View attachment 281718

That’s beautiful, man. I haven’t seen a Mitutoyo in a long time. Respect. Kind of like using a slide rule instead of a calculator. Don’t judge me, I’m using a $40.00 digital job.

 

[RedOctobyr]

Very nice. I confess I prefer my digital calipers (Mitutoyo at work, Amazon-special for home), to analog. Fewer risks of accidentally mis-reading the body & dial combination, and being off by 0.100" or something. Digital makes that a non-issue, and is quicker to read.

My micrometers at home (Starrett) are analog, but we have digital ones at work.

 

[Greengaunja]

Very nice. I confess I prefer my digital calipers (Mitutoyo at work, Amazon-special for home), to analog. Fewer risks of accidentally mis-reading the body & dial combination, and being off by 0.100" or something. Digital makes that a non-issue, and is quicker to read.

My micrometers at home (Starrett) are analog, but we have digital ones at work.

Very true. In fact, I just noticed in the 3mm I was measuring off above the needle falls right between 18 and 19! Damn now the whole build is ruined cause I didn't measure off .118 exactly! Lol I hear you, when ULTRA precision is needed digital is the way to go as it saves time checking, double checking, and then doing a final check to appease the math gods. I have a metric digital (or dual?) caliper kicking around somewhere in the garage.

 

[Greengaunja]

Skow week at work equals time to move this build along!
Carbon Fiber plate came in.

finalized template and peeled off aND checked the symmetry. I'm anal for symmetry!

Traced my template 1/8 larger than the actual template for a simple reason:margin error. I will sand the final dimensions in for a Uber smooth edge. But what to do with all the leftover carbon fiber?

More custom parts starting with the tower braces! Which brings up a slight issue. The braces need to be secured solidly otherwise, what good are they. Although CF can he tapped, the threads won't last very long. So I decidedĺCut grooved into each back half and imbed locknuts.

Mixed up some 20 minute epoxy, buttered the inside halves, set the nut and bolts, sandwiched together and threw them in the vise.

Now patience isn't one of my strengths. I could have waited until Monday and had use of a shop drill press. Luckily im handy and have tools. Since I couldn't use a punch pin to "prime my holes", I used a glass/tile carbide arrowhead bit. This prevent the drill bits from walking away from where your hole is supposed to be. Past experience show me that on 2 and 3mm plate, the bit and CF heat up and the result is the bit and hole "shift" away. I figured the issue to be the speed. It's hard to control a cut or borebif you make the cut too fast. So I wanted to make my bore hole slower. I needed something that wouldn't "cut" into the plate. I needed to scrap out my bore at high speed slowly. See the contradiction there? It's good I like to experiment because I now have a great way to make the hole. I used a carbide tipped masonry bit. These are meant for concrete and meant to be used with a hammer drill. I did my boring without the hammer drill function of my drill. The result was a high speed slow scraping. And straight, accurate clean holes.

And got a near perfect line up!

Now with the drive train lined up, I need to offset the braces. Pretty much like this:

Once I get far enough ahead, the next step will be sanding the shape and bevels into the braces so when bolted, they pull down flush with the chassisAlso found some old 7075 aluminum I had from a parking ramp rail job a few years back. 21 3' 1x1/2 solid bars. Decided to make some battery hold downs that I can attach some 2mm CF plate to. The other 6 are for a friend's Limitless build. Man, grinding and cutting and drilling and filing this crap makes me wish I cheaped out and installed 5052 bars.
Looks like I'm spending the weekend

sanding and filing away.....

 

[Dan B.]

Skow week at work equals time to move this build along!
Carbon Fiber plate came in.View attachment 282764finalized template and peeled off aND checked the symmetry. I'm anal for symmetry!View attachment 282765View attachment 282766View attachment 282766View attachment 282769Traced my template 1/8 larger than the actual template for a simple reason:margin error. I will sand the final dimensions in for a Uber smooth edge. But what to do with all the leftover carbon fiber?

View attachment 282770More custom parts starting with the tower braces! Which brings up a slight issue. The braces need to be secured solidly otherwise, what good are they. Although CF can he tapped, the threads won't last very long. So I decidedĺCut grooved into each back half and imbed locknuts. View attachment 282771View attachment 282772Mixed up some 20 minute epoxy, buttered the inside halves, set the nut and bolts, sandwiched together and threw them in the vise.View attachment 282773Now patience isn't one of my strengths. I could have waited until Monday and had use of a shop drill press. Luckily im handy and have tools. Since I couldn't use a punch pin to "prime my holes", I used a glass/tile carbide arrowhead bit. This prevent the drill bits from walking away from where your hole is supposed to be. Past experience show me that on 2 and 3mm plate, the bit and CF heat up and the result is the bit and hole "shift" away. I figured the issue to be the speed. It's hard to control a cut or borebif you make the cut too fast. So I wanted to make my bore hole slower. I needed something that wouldn't "cut" into the plate. I needed to scrap out my bore at high speed slowly. See the contradiction there? It's good I like to experiment because I now have a great way to make the hole. I used a carbide tipped masonry bit. These are meant for concrete and meant to be used with a hammer drill. I did my boring without the hammer drill function of my drill. The result was a high speed slow scraping. And straight, accurate clean holes.View attachment 282774View attachment 282775View attachment 282776

And got a near perfect line up!View attachment 282777

View attachment 282767

View attachment 282768

View attachment 282778
Now with the drive train lined up, I need to offset the braces. Pretty much like this:View attachment 282785Once I get far enough ahead, the next step will be sanding the shape and bevels into the braces so when bolted, they pull down flush with the chassisAlso found some old 7075 aluminum I had from a parking ramp rail job a few years back. 21 3' 1x1/2 solid bars. Decided to make some battery hold downs that I can attach some 2mm CF plate to. The other 6 are for a friend's Limitless build. Man, grinding and cutting and drilling and filing this crap makes me wish I cheaped out and installed 5052 bars.
Looks like I'm spending the weekend View attachment 282788sanding and filing away.....View attachment 282787

Beautiful job, man. You’re doing really well with some very tedious work. And you said you weren’t long on patience, lol?

 

[Tex Koder]

Skow week at work equals time to move this build along!
Carbon Fiber plate came in.View attachment 282764finalized template and peeled off aND checked the symmetry. I'm anal for symmetry!View attachment 282765View attachment 282766View attachment 282766View attachment 282769Traced my template 1/8 larger than the actual template for a simple reason:margin error. I will sand the final dimensions in for a Uber smooth edge. But what to do with all the leftover carbon fiber?

View attachment 282770More custom parts starting with the tower braces! Which brings up a slight issue. The braces need to be secured solidly otherwise, what good are they. Although CF can he tapped, the threads won't last very long. So I decidedĺCut grooved into each back half and imbed locknuts. View attachment 282771View attachment 282772Mixed up some 20 minute epoxy, buttered the inside halves, set the nut and bolts, sandwiched together and threw them in the vise.View attachment 282773Now patience isn't one of my strengths. I could have waited until Monday and had use of a shop drill press. Luckily im handy and have tools. Since I couldn't use a punch pin to "prime my holes", I used a glass/tile carbide arrowhead bit. This prevent the drill bits from walking away from where your hole is supposed to be. Past experience show me that on 2 and 3mm plate, the bit and CF heat up and the result is the bit and hole "shift" away. I figured the issue to be the speed. It's hard to control a cut or borebif you make the cut too fast. So I wanted to make my bore hole slower. I needed something that wouldn't "cut" into the plate. I needed to scrap out my bore at high speed slowly. See the contradiction there? It's good I like to experiment because I now have a great way to make the hole. I used a carbide tipped masonry bit. These are meant for concrete and meant to be used with a hammer drill. I did my boring without the hammer drill function of my drill. The result was a high speed slow scraping. And straight, accurate clean holes.View attachment 282774View attachment 282775View attachment 282776

And got a near perfect line up!View attachment 282777

View attachment 282767

View attachment 282768

View attachment 282778
Now with the drive train lined up, I need to offset the braces. Pretty much like this:View attachment 282785Once I get far enough ahead, the next step will be sanding the shape and bevels into the braces so when bolted, they pull down flush with the chassisAlso found some old 7075 aluminum I had from a parking ramp rail job a few years back. 21 3' 1x1/2 solid bars. Decided to make some battery hold downs that I can attach some 2mm CF plate to. The other 6 are for a friend's Limitless build. Man, grinding and cutting and drilling and filing this crap makes me wish I cheaped out and installed 5052 bars.
Looks like I'm spending the weekend View attachment 282788sanding and filing away.....View attachment 282787

You did a fantastic job on the chassis braces!
Great use of the scrap pieces of CF.
Brilliant and simple solution to installing a locking nut within the brace itself.

Only small thing I noticed..
That you didn't do the same on both ends of the brace... How will the other end mount securely to the bulkheads?

 

[Dan B.]

How are you cutting your carbon?

 

[Greengaunja]

You did a fantastic job on the chassis braces!
Great use of the scrap pieces of CF.
Brilliant and simple solution to installing a locking nut within the brace itself.

Only small thing I noticed..
That you didn't do the same on both ends of the brace... How will the other end mount securely to the bulkheads?

Only three are needed. The upper rear is a pin going through it. You missed one of the uppers because it's a black M3(comes down through steering plate) and the silver ones are m4 that come up through chassis

How are you cutting your carbon?

I'm using a jigsaw with a Bosch diamond coated blade. They have a carbide blade specifically for carbon fiber. Don't waste your money, you get a handful of cuts and it's worn out out. The diamond blade I've have since last year. It's cut carbon fiber parts for my SCX10.iii, TT02, and now this chassis. And still good. The trick is to go slow and steady. Don't force it or allow it to get too hot. For finishing touches, I use Rotozip tile bits, one straight and one pointed. The grooves in the chassis, I used a ball-nosed dremel tile bit in the Rotozip.
If using the jigsaw like me, cut about 1/8 outside of you lines and sand the rest. Sometimes the blade, due to being very thin, cuts at a slight angle.
Just yesterday, my LHS suggested I try a Serpetine saw. Their tech guy says he's gotten great results with one.

 

[RedOctobyr]

Wow, fantastic work!! And thanks for sharing both the experience, and the tools.

How thick is that CF plate? The only stuff I've used, for my helicopters, was pre-cut (thankfully), and was maybe 2mm thick or so. This stuff looks much thicker!

For starting the drilled holes, have you tried short, stubby center drills? They are very stiff, and designed to accurately make a starter hole, at your desired location, without walking around. Then you change to a more-conventional drill. One example:

https://www.amazon.com/1-5-Center-Drills-Cobalt/dp/B00UKDOEYA

I hope the locknuts stay secure in the braces. Are the nuts themselves also kind of glued in-place with the epoxy, so the nuts don't spin? Something like square nuts could be a candidate for that application. They would be less likely to rotate within the cavity, while tightening them, since the square sides give a larger contact surface (against the inside of the CF) than hex nuts.

Looks like someone needs to lend you a milling machine! Having to do this all by-hand doesn't look like fun.

 

[joshludden]

Wow, fantastic work!! And thanks for sharing both the experience, and the tools.

How thick is that CF plate? The only stuff I've used, for my helicopters, was pre-cut (thankfully), and was maybe 2mm thick or so. This stuff looks much thicker!

For starting the drilled holes, have you tried short, stubby center drills? They are very stiff, and designed to accurately make a starter hole, at your desired location, without walking around. Then you change to a more-conventional drill. One example:

https://www.amazon.com/1-5-Center-Drills-Cobalt/dp/B00UKDOEYA

I hope the locknuts stay secure in the braces. Are the nuts themselves also kind of glued in-place with the epoxy, so the nuts don't spin? Something like square nuts could be a candidate for that application. They would be less likely to rotate within the cavity, while tightening them, since the square sides give a larger contact surface (against the inside of the CF) than hex nuts.

Looks like someone needs to lend you a milling machine! Having to do this all by-hand doesn't look like fun.

Oh, but it does!

 

[Greengaunja]

Wow, fantastic work!! And thanks for sharing both the experience, and the tools.

How thick is that CF plate? The only stuff I've used, for my helicopters, was pre-cut (thankfully), and was maybe 2mm thick or so. This stuff looks much thicker!

For starting the drilled holes, have you tried short, stubby center drills? They are very stiff, and designed to accurately make a starter hole, at your desired location, without walking around. Then you change to a more-conventional drill. One example:

https://www.amazon.com/1-5-Center-Drills-Cobalt/dp/B00UKDOEYA

I hope the locknuts stay secure in the braces. Are the nuts themselves also kind of glued in-place with the epoxy, so the nuts don't spin? Something like square nuts could be a candidate for that application. They would be less likely to rotate within the cavity, while tightening them, since the square sides give a larger contact surface (against the inside of the CF) than hex nuts.

Looks like someone needs to lend you a milling machine! Having to do this all by-hand doesn't look like fun.

It's 5mm thick. Went with 5mm because it's what Scorched uses and I figure they know more than me and must have had a good reason to settle on that Thickness.
I filled the cavity with the epoxy. They may have moved up and down or out of position but won't spin regardless. The depth of the groove was very close to the flats of the nut. Had to use vise to fully close the gap between the two pieces. Of the M4s.
As for the center drills, yeah they would have worked fine too. Everything used except the epoxy and carbon fiber I had on hand.
I gave thought to building a cnc milling machine. I would LOVE a drill press like my buddy has in his shop. Doubles as a manual milling machine with a milling table. But his has thicker shanks. With most drill presses, it's actually dangerous to use to mill because the chuck shanks have no horizontal strength and can shatter.

 

[Dan B.]

I'm using a jigsaw with a Bosch diamond coated blade. They have a carbide blade specifically for carbon fiber. Don't waste your money, you get a handful of cuts and it's worn out out. The diamond blade I've have since last year. It's cut carbon fiber parts for my SCX10.iii, TT02, and now this chassis. And still good. The trick is to go slow and steady. Don't force it or allow it to get too hot. For finishing touches, I use Rotozip tile bits, one straight and one pointed. The grooves in the chassis, I used a ball-nosed dremel tile bit in the Rotozip.
If using the jigsaw like me, cut about 1/8 outside of you lines and sand the rest. Sometimes the blade, due to being very thin, cuts at a slight angle.
Just yesterday, my LHS suggested I try a Serpetine saw. Their tech guy says he's gotten great results with one.
View attachment 282844

I‘m using exactly the same thing. I forgot about my Roto-Zip, I have tile bits for that too. Great idea, thanks.

 

[RedOctobyr]

A CNC mill would be so awesome! From what I've read, drill press bearings are also not set up to deal with sideways loads, only vertical. So even if the chuck, etc, survived, you could destroy the bearings. And I don't think they're really meant to handle a ton of torque, mine is just a taper fit between the press quill (I think that's the name), and the chuck. Side-loading that, and asking it to provide a lot of torque, is probably bad.

Which is a bummer, because a drill press is a lot cheaper and easier to move than a Bridgeport! A friend at work just got a used home-size manual mill for $2k, I think. He said it was movable with 2 people. That would be such a cool tool to have at home.

We just got a Wazer waterjet cutter at work, it looks really cool. I haven't gotten to use it yet, but I'm looking forward to having an application that will give me an excuse to use it. You'd still have a bunch of sanding to do, with something like this, but it could at least get pretty close to what you're trying to make.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Dan B.]

A CNC mill would be so awesome! From what I've read, drill press bearings are also not set up to deal with sideways loads, only vertical. So even if the chuck, etc, survived, you could destroy the bearings. And I don't think they're really meant to handle a ton of torque, mine is just a taper fit between the press quill (I think that's the name), and the chuck. Side-loading that, and asking it to provide a lot of torque, is probably bad.

Which is a bummer, because a drill press is a lot cheaper and easier to move than a Bridgeport! A friend at work just got a used home-size manual mill for $2k, I think. He said it was movable with 2 people. That would be such a cool tool to have at home.

We just got a Wazer waterjet cutter at work, it looks really cool. I haven't gotten to use it yet, but I'm looking forward to having an application that will give me an excuse to use it. You'd still have a bunch of sanding to do, with something like this, but it could at least get pretty close to what you're trying to make.

Thanks for the info!

Not long after my wife and I started our family a friend decided to sell his Bridgeport and offered it to me for $800.00 with a big pile of heads. It might as well have been $8k for us at the time, struggling to make ends meet and working multiple jobs between us. But boy, I still wish it would have been possible, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Kind of like 3D printing is now. Envision it, and build it!

 

[Greengaunja]

So this thread sort of died but the build never did. In fact, it's been one thing after another. During a test drive to size up my wheel alignments, it actually got run over by a lady in a Dodge Calibre. Surprisingly very minor damage, flattened GRPs, cracked T2T brace, scuffed Scorched skid plate and broke battery mount. Two batteries were mishappened but I likely did more damage than the Dodge driving it back while dragging batteries. I'm will say I owe the low damage completely to the PPS mount, which kept the majority of the weight off the XLX2 and batteries.

Then after repairs and several test runs,
the XLX2s MOSFETS crapped the bed. Castle warrantied it but it was over 2 months to get another as they had none.

So right there is where and how I missed the speed run season.Also didn't help that I ended up having to do my body's paint myself after a local airbrusher sat on mine for 5 months. So I used the time waiting on Castles warranty to experiment. I only had two clear ideas for my Protoform SWB Corvette C7. I wanted an Ajag style silver ghost flames on black, sponsored race car look.

I borrowed a friend's Badger set up and began practicing free-hand flames. Probably would have been better if it were gravity fed instead of the siphon/cup style bit beggars shouldn't be choosers Sometimes the best thing we can learn about ourselves is our limitations. And I learned free-hand air brushing is mine. Still I had a body in need of painting. So I decided to use stencils.
In keeping up with my habit of overthinking to the point of doing stuff bum-backwards, I did my main body colour first, painting over the stencils. After it dried, I realized my mistake. If your seeking to create the effect of flames spouting up over the body, you MUST do the flames first and leave alot of voids for the body colour to fill in. I was also trying 3 different silvers to try to do a "heat" effect, dark silver, light silver, and a translucent silver. Now this part I should have practiced first because I would have known then that I needed a longer dry time between coats. So what I ended up with was 3 silvers becoming one.

Granted, more practice, patience and preparation would have yielded better results but I'm not too disappointed on how it turned out. It still looks cool.
With the body done and dried, now I needed to mount the custom wing. Originally, I made mounts out of carbon fiber but I thought it was a bit too much and needed a contrast. So I made my own 7075 aluminum wing mounts, drilled and tapped and installed.

This body actually took alot of work and time to finish. Like my last one, I wanted lights but no light bleeding. So again, I made light buckets for front and rear. This was accomplished using epoxy sticks. What I did was tape and trace the body's light lens outline from the inside with epoxy putty rolled into a line about a quarter inch. When it hardened, the tape allowed it come off easily. Next I kneaded more putty and rolled flat strips about 1×3x1/4 and used them as walls for the light bucket and allowed it to half dry before molding it together and creating the curves.

Now previous experince with me crawlers showed me the even with a light bucket, an LED shining behind plastic looks like....an LED shining behind plastic. I wanted to simulate a real headlight where when you look ar one at night your never able to tell exactly where the bulb is because the whole lens is shining evenly. For that I needed the light to reflect and to do that, I lined the inside of the bucket with silver aluminum duct tape.

Next up was making my own wire harness string of lights, each bucket has 4 leds positioned fr effect. 1 on top and bottom of the bucket and 2 in the middle, it's widest point. For the rear, I wanted to keep it simple and didn't like the oversized light lens. So I made another light bucket , installed 3 red leds and turned what I assume is supposed to be the license plate into my rear light lens. I think they came out pretty good.

 

[Greengaunja]

Another very important step was balancing out this rig. And man, did it seriously need it. Remember, this is a swb and there is only so much you van do to evenly distribute weight to an idea 60/40 ratio. Losing weight wasn't an option for me yet the XLX2, TP 5670, and dual 4s batteries just wouldn't cooperate with eachther, leaving my corners sketchy. So if I can't lose weight there's only one option. Add weights. I used wheel weights, the type you add to the wheel drum. Each weight was 28 grams, total weight added amounts to just over 1564 grams. On the front.

Yep and 1415 grams on rear. So 2979 grams bring us to just over 6.5 pounds to evenly balance all 4 corners. Now I started tweaking and edging the build towards a 60/40 (r/f) distribution. I was able to chop out almost 4 pounds for the end result.

Two more thing to note done.
Taking a idea shared by another member, I ordered a temperature setup. This will give real time reading to the temps on the motor and esc, separately. Not exactly needed for speed runs but I intend for this a 'lot drifter too so could come handy.

Also, with my other PF Corvette C7 body i noticed tye issue of the front splitter liftingband wobbling around at high speed. To solve that problem, I installed some Losi mounts to my splitter and now they are clipped together and stable.

 

[Greengaunja]

Well now that everything has been brought up to date, I guess it's time to mention that this build wont even see a proper speed run as a Sentless. Ive noticed a few things done with the chassis that I didn't like. And decided to do it all over again.

Ordered another 5mm carbon fiber plate, cut it to spec, made my tweaks, and now I'm in the process of assembling it all. This chassis is being donated to my buddy, Drunken Kraton, for his Typhon speed run build.

The first of the three above became a favorite pic for me. I've submitted, rather late, for rig of the month so if you haven't voted go check out this month's line up. Some nice competition for me.