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Why cut down the chassis to save weigth and add stiffeners to increase weigth ? Been following the " whats old is new " thread and love all the cars posted .

rctenracer wrote:Why cut down the chassis to save weigth and add stiffeners to increase weigth ? Been following the " whats old is new " thread and love all the cars posted .

I think it is more to be able to slam down the body. I did it to one of my projects just for the hell of it, to see if I could do it.

Actually, it was because I was sanding it and went through the bulkhead by accident. I didn't want to waste a chassis......

I don't understand slam the body. cut it out to sit lower?. my question is why cut down a chassis and lose the ridgity of it and add braces to regain the ridgity? Is it for looks or functoin ?

I was thinking the same thing. I think it's mostly just to be different, But usually does look cool.

Toasted Coastie wrote:
Actually, it was because I was sanding it and went through the bulkhead by accident. I didn't want to waste a chassis......

I f'd up when I was working on it.....

cutting the chassis adds front to back flex. now the reason i added stiffeners to mine was to limit the front to back flex. the stiffeners weigh a lot less than i cut and drilled from the chassis. so yes you do still save weight. just not as much. the stiffeners also help limit chassis tweaking (the bend front to rear you see in a lot of used pans).

now what the stiffeners do not do is reduce torsional twist. so these cars still retain that that flex.

now a stiff chassis is good but it does have its downsides. it will be a lot more twitchy over small imperfections in the track. while a chassis that flexes more with help absorb some of those bumps. now this makes the chassis that flexes a little more forgiving and easier to drive on the track. the stiff chassis will need more accurate suspension tuning and setups.

also cutting the sides will lower the center of gravity a little. and when you use a truck rear shock tower you can lower the body. this does change the aerodynamics of the buggy. but for me its mostly for looks.

now why did i cut my chassis. well i was building a car similar to the one i drove as a kid but adding some of them parts i wanted but couldn't afford back then. the chassis on the buggy i cut has already had a 1" hacksaw cut in the side of the pan. i guess they couldn't "hack" it. anyway the chassis had a lot of other damage done to it also and i wanted to try to limit the amount i invested in the car. so buying a better chassis was out of the question.

will it help "me" on the track? i highly doubt it because i am and have always been a driver of limited skills.

I cut my chassis down so that I could lower the body. The slammed body just looks cool. Thats all.

rctenracer wrote:I don't understand slam the body. cut it out to sit lower?

Exactly! Trim down the chassis sides and add a truck rear tower and it makes it look like this.......

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=1726

Going to have to give it shot on cutting down a chassis. Have a 10t chassis that someone drilled a hole in the side to adjust the servo. Will a dremal and cut off wheel work?

rctenracer wrote:Will a dremal and cut off wheel work?

that's what i use....

The only reason I cut my tubs was strictly for looks. I have not driven the cars enough to be able to feel the difference between a normal tub vs any other.

A dremel and a cut off wheel will make quick work of cutting the tub. After I finished cutting my tub, I took a DA sander to the edges to clean everything up and make the cuts appear to be nice and clean.

Well I have two rc10t tubs that have holes drill in them for what I am guessing is to adjust the steering servo ( why do poeple do that?). Thanks for the info on cutting down a chassis.

rctenracer wrote:Well I have two rc10t tubs that have holes drill in them for what I am guessing is to adjust the steering servo ( why do poeple do that?). Thanks for the info on cutting down a chassis.

Because without that access hole, the only way to adjust the spline position of the servo bellcrank/servo saver is to completely remove the servo, then guess where the spline should be aligned based on where it comes off. This was in the days before servo sub-trim adjustments in radios. It was a pain in the ass, but if you had patience, you could do it properly without the need to drill an access hole in the tub. Plus, you really only need to align it once.

Eau Rouge wrote:

rctenracer wrote:Well I have two rc10t tubs that have holes drill in them for what I am guessing is to adjust the steering servo ( why do poeple do that?). Thanks for the info on cutting down a chassis.

Because without that access hole, the only way to adjust the spline position of the servo bellcrank/servo saver is to completely remove the servo, then guess where the spline should be aligned based on where it comes off. This was in the days before servo sub-trim adjustments in radios. It was a pain in the ass, but if you had patience, you could do it properly without the need to drill an access hole in the tub. Plus, you really only need to align it once.

Doug thanks for the info. But I still hate the holes .

rctenracer wrote:Doug thanks for the info. But I still hate the holes .

Me too, but it was the ONLY hole drilling in the original tub that I could understand and agree with a need for better access—like the plug holes in later diff covers. Those annoyances were ONLY behind the everlasting offset front battery cup holes for inline battery placement, long after everyone stopped using resistor speed controllers and longitudinal battery layouts.