Car number 2 is on the bench. This is going to be my "stunt" car, so it needs to handle jumps. This uses the RJ Speed body, which is oddly proportioned, which works to my benefit here because I can butcher a buggy with more suspension travel instead of using another touring car chassis. What I ended up with is the WLToys 124017 V2.*
You can see that the track width is close
The track width is almost perfect, but the 228mm wheelbase is a far cry from the 274mm wheelbase that I want. So, to get the wheelbase I want, a custom chassis is in order.
I started by adding tape to the bare chassis in order to trace it out and mark all of the necessary holes.
I added a couple parallel lines to help me align the halves when I transfer them to cardboard.*
I added wings because I want the chassis to extend all the way out to the body. I can attach the body to it, plus it will look better jumping with the bottom closed up. I may decide to narrow this and replace the wings with something lighter later.
Here's the cardboard all cut out.
Cardboard was transferred to 1/8" aluminum and cut out.
Next, I clamped the original chassis to the aluminum and transferred all of the holes that I'm using, then countersunk them. *Lastly, I bent the ends of the chassis to line up with the front and rear diff housings.
With the front and rear axle assemblies bolted up, it's starting to look like an RC car again.
And it's really starting to look like something with the body set into place
Now that the chassis is done, I need to focus on the center driveshaft. *I disassembled it and decided that making a new one would be difficult. Getting the flat spots accurate and concentric would be difficult. It would also require getting the length perfect or packing in a bunch of shims to get front and rear gear mesh correct. I think an easier solution is to cut the center shaft and sleeve it. I can add the sleeve with the two halves installed in order to maintain correct gear mesh, and as long as the sleeve fits properly, the driveshaft should atay true.
