Custom Ultima chassis?

[Burniefloyd]

Hello All, like most new members I have been lurking for a while before joining. I have recently gotten back into the hobby after a whim ebay purchase and am falling fast! The info and knowledge here is amazing! Enough brown nosing and onto business... I picked up this chassis on ebay for a buck but I am not positive what it is. While I was waiting for my membership to activate it I think I may have figured it out but wanted to run it by you guys to see if there was something more to it.

It is a fiberglass chassis with Kyosho stamped on the front skid plate. After looking at it for a while I think it may be a homemade chassis for the Ultima. I put it side by side with my original Ultima and the metal piece in the front has the same grooves on the underside. It also looks like the sides of the original frame was cut down as well. Has anyone seen anything like this before? Was this a common mod back in the day? The frame arrived today so I haven't had too much time with it and I am not positive if everything is straight yet but if it is I may try to build it up and see what happens, otherwise it will be a pretty cool piece of wall art Thanks for looking.

[GoMachV]

Defiantly home made, cut down and modified as you guessed. Looks like they were running it as a sprint as the chassis is shaped at the rear.

[GoMachV]

Also has a Robinson adjustable rear toe kit, kinda cool and vintage
Rear tower is homemade, front looks like a modified rc10 tower. Front carriers are rc10... spindles are too...

[DennisM]

Defiantly home made, cut down and modified as you guessed. Looks like they were running it as a sprint as the chassis is shaped at the rear.

x2

[Burniefloyd]

Defiantly home made, cut down and modified as you guessed. Looks like they were running it as a sprint as the chassis is shaped at the rear.

Awesome, I would have never thought of a sprint car. I wonder how well it worked? Have to do some reading on sprints to see what it would take to put back together. Thanks for your help!

[losiXXXman]

The front tower looks to be a JG peice to me. I saw that on ebay too, but it looked a little too homemade for me. Just the hacking of an Ultiam chassis and bolting it onto the fiberglass... The Original chassis would have fit under a sprint body if you ran the cells inline and a hump pack or something.

I'd do one of two things with it. Make a new nose out of flat aluminum, put a low angle bend in it maybe 5* and make a custom upper deck. Build a nice sprinter or EDM. OR Make a new custom front nose plate with 20-30* bend, custom upper deck/brace and build another off road Ultima.

Cannot lose for $1 though.

[Mr. ED]

I was rather thinking trinity for the front shocktower. I have one shaped like this they made for the ultima, but that is a carbon one though. So maybe that was used as a template to cut out one from the same sheet as the lower chassis.
Rear shocks are rc10 items too: just so you know what 'd match for the front

If I were you : I'd re-cut and redrill the chassis to go inside the alu part in the front. Make it go all the way to the bend, or at least reach far enough so the steering posts are on it. That way the front edge won't catch the dirt and you will add stiffness to the front section.
In the rear you'll then need to re-drill the holes to keep a good wheelbase: just use the current rear gearbox holes as ne w fronts and rdrill 6 holes: for the bulkhead and rear gearbox holes.
A full length topdeck sure would help too: unless it's like 4mm thick the flat epoxy chassis isn't quite enough for stiffness.
(I have been playing with L shaped glasfiber reinforced plastic profile instead of topdecks and that could be an option if you can run one on either side of the chassis.)

If you need a cool buggy body to fit the chassis concept: checkout the traxxxas radicator repro by team blue groove.

[Burniefloyd]

Thanks Mr Ed. I checked out the Radicator body and it would look nice. I am not sure what to do with the chassis yet as I have a few projects to complete first. Also you cars are amazing, they are a big part of the reason I decided to restore the pair of Ultima's I have.

Thanks you all for your help, I really appreciate it.

[Mr. ED]

cool