First Graphite

[Tamlok]

Picked this up on ebay to expand the collection. Few questions. What kind of rear shock mounts are these? Never seen them before. Any ideas to remove marker from the plastic parts? Haven't torn her down yet, but it looks like someone "painted" the white parts with black marker.

[scr8p]

They're for use with A&L trailing arms.

[Tamlok]

Turned some wrenches this weekend. I obtained a parts lot that had a bunch of good pieces, which I cleaned up and used instead of the Sharpie painted parts that came with the car. Still have the shocks to finish up. I stripped off the old gold anodizing and going to try and use Metalcast paint on them like i did on the motor plate.

[TRX-1-3]

Hey nice progress. I love the single deck buggies! How well does the metalcast bond to aluminum? It looks like a "candy" paint for metal? I'm gonna go Google it. Lookin good.

[Tamlok]

Seems to bond just fine. I can scratch at it with my fingernail and rub with my finger and the paint does not chip or come off. I removed the old anodizing using a Dremel sanding attachment and was going to polish it before paint but got lazy. You can see in the pictures where the surface was not perfect and the color does not match. I plan on redoing it eventually, was anxious to start putting everything together. I have a set of shocks I am going to take my time with and hopefully they come out better. Metalcast also has a base paint, but you only need that if what you are painting is not shiny.

[shodog]

If you polish the motor plate then spray, you'll get a nice anodized looking finish. I used the metal cast clear red on a polished front section of a mountain bike frame. It looked awesome and was fairly durable.

[Tamlok]

Thanks for the input. Now I have to redo it.

[Tamlok]

This should be ready for paint.

[lmw94002]

This should be ready for paint.

Out of curiosity, what did you do to get that nice finish on those?

[Tamlok]

Put the shocks in the end of a drill held by the shock cap. Used 180 grit sandpaper to remove the gold anodizing. Used 1000, 1500, 2000, and 2500 grit sandpaper to get out the scratches and then finished it off with some metal polish. Did not take long using the drill to do the work (~30 minutes for all four shocks). The caps, I just used a wire wheel in a Dremel. They are not super polished like the shock bodies.

[Tamlok]

Didn't realize how narrow the graphite chassis is compared to the aluminum tub. Wanted to use this Tekin ESC, since it matches my color scheme, so I used an old battery cup upside down to serve as an ESC shelf. Seems pretty solid. Have yet to fit a battery (don't have any NiMH packs and a hard cased LiPO is out of the question).

[lmw94002]

I remember making an aluminum shelf for the esc mounting to the shock tower. Then creating a little vent in the roof of the body for cooling. Especially needed for those enduro races we used to have.

[Tamlok]

Some more progress pictures. Body is about the last thing I need.

[lmw94002]

That's looking really nice. Red ano really goes well.