Going to convert my Mini Trophy

[kgb424]

That is part of the biggest problem with the Mini Trophy is need 0 or Zero offset wheels or they rub on aluminum carries and you have Dremel them to work right, look at my pictures I shaved both the top and bottom of carriers

So I could try out other 1.9'' wheels I already had and they would rub the rear fenders, So I flipped the side body mounts and used spacers and the opened up the rear fender well so the tires don't rub on the inner fender

And I'm limited to using 1.9'' Mud Thrashers that are about 98mm tall, the 2.2''/3.0'' that are in the pictures in my posts, they will not work on the rear with out my 13mm wheel widers

I don't want to butcher the fenders on the Trophy truck body, that's why I bought G-Made zero offset 1.9'' bead locks and the Mud thrasher cause they were all I could find to fit

And there is still no options for 98mm to 100mm 1.9'' Street or Touring or Rally tires, I might have to clip the knobs of the Mud Thrashers cause they are too aggressive for street use

[kgb424]

I'm going to leave as a Trophy Truck, I put the front body posts back in with no problems, but for some reason the rear fender body mounts at the back of fenders is off 3/8'' to 1/2'' short

Maybe its, cause I cut the 2 of rear braces/bumper mounts for rear bumper too make it a Rally Car, going to order the 2 new braces/bumper mounts and see if that does the trick

To bring the body mounts back where they should be

Going to look at tires and wheels and see what I can find

[kgb424]

Your right the HPI Super Rally on road tires are 2.2'' and I don't think the 2.2's wheels would not clear the rear swing arm or the fenders

The HPI WR8 off road Rally tires are 1.9'', but I can't find any where, if the tires only work with the WR8 wheels, or if they would work with normal 1.9'' bead locks or normal glue on wheels like the stock Mini Trophy wheels

kinda of like the Proline Crawler tires will only fit certain wheel with no problems, or you need rings and are harder to mount than others

[kgb424]

I bought this part set, too get the 2 brackets at the bottom of the picture, hopefully replacing the brackets, will fix the rear bumper beaning short and the body posts go the holes in the rear fenders

[kgb424]

The brackets brought the rear fender body posts back to where there they were before, I tried to convert the Mini Trophy

I also found the fake spares, they been lost for a while and the part tree for the brackets also has the mounts and handles for the spares

The original ones are around here some where, so I can replace them now if I choose too

[kgb424]

I finally added some ventilation too my Mini Trophy, I've been wanting to cut the windows out, but never did cause, I wanted to keep the body original

Now I can go brushless and use the extra stock setup from my EXO, its the Castle 2900KV brushless motor and Castle AE3 ESC

It should be a nice combo cause the Mini Trophy is lighter then the EXO and it will breathe now and get air flow,

And not a big fan of the flip up rear deck might take out and leave the back open to make it even easier to change batteries

[kgb424]

I found a set of extra Arrma shocks, for a Vortex Stadium truck, I changed out the front shock springs and that stiffened up the front end of the truck, could add a little more preload

And for the rear I added a spring to the second shocks, and now the rear does not bottom out anymore, I should of done this years ago

Cause now the suspension is actually working now, and its a lot better than it has been for years

[kgb424]

I stiffened up the front even more by using a set of front EXO shock springs and added a little preload

To stiffen up the rear, I found these red aluminum shock nuts, they don't thread all the way on to the shock body

But does thread enough to preload the shock spring and now the rear is a lot firmer also

[kgb424]

I took a set of crawler tires and made some slicks, I belted the inside of the tires with duct tape, then mounted them on Axial bead locks

Then snipped off all of the lugs, the used my cordless drill and some sandpaper to shaved/sanded all the side lugs, so now the tires should corner great

I then shaved/sanded the bottom of the tire, then cleaned them with some Simple Green and there very tacky and sticky

[kgb424]

I never liked how the ESC is supposed to fit it the back corner of the Mini Trophy

And don't want to use the interior cause it retains the heat from the motor and ESC

So I made a aluminum plate and mounted the ESC on top of the Transmission and the plate is removable, so I can replace the spur gear if needed

And used Velcro to attach the ESC, and with the windows cut out, now it will breathe and keep every thing cooler then before

I made changes to the Mini Trophy

[kgb424]

I like it, I can reach thru the window and turn it off and on

And also reach thru the window to plug the battery in

So much easier now, I also notched the battery tray holder so the positive and negative wires and balancing wire plug into the battery pack

You have to unplug and plug the wires in when I change battery packs

Using a Axial 20 turn brushed motor and a Axial AE2 esc for now

Going to run it tomorrow, and check out the shaved tires

[kgb424]

I found these pictures and I like the Flatbed, not sure I want to cut up a bug body

It is sitting on a TA01/TA02 chassis and doesn't look that bad

[elmoracer]

Is that a Tamiya hardbody that was used? Looks pretty good but I agree that I wouldn't want to hack up a good body to make one.

[kgb424]

I looked online, this what I found on the Tamiya Database

Sand Scorcher 250mm wheelbase White ABS

Blitzer Beetle 260mm wheelbase Black ABS

Monster Beetle 247mm wheelbase Red ABS

The truck picture is above is a San Scorcher body, I think

I'm going to look and see if I can a rough condition bug body

It may take a little while too find one

[elmoracer]

Yeah it looks like a sand scorcher just by the shape of the nose. Would make a pretty cool project, wish I had the resin skills to pull something like that off.

[kgb424]

I started working on the rear shelf/body mounts

It needs more shaping, its close to shape of the body, and it is over rear shock tower, so I can drill holes and use body posts

Just not sure, how to attach the rear shelf to the bug body, or what height to attach at, I got it taped in with masking tape

I'm using aluminum plate, cause I don't think polystyrene would be stiff enough or strong enough

I have some plastic Skulpt and drywall tape and Shoo Goo, just not sure if it will last in a rollover or hard impact

Maybe I need to re-make the shelf with some tabs to attach to the body

Cause I don't want to drill holes in the body if I don't have too

[kgb424]

Now for something completely different, I found this picture and love it cause its

So far outside of the box, just not sure of what scale of airplane motor, I could use too

Make my own crazy car

Yeah Baby

Contact

[elmoracer]

If you could find a small enough multi-cylinder radial plane engine that would be really cool! As far as attaching anything structural to the body, why not use a 2 part epoxy? Seems like that would hold better than any type of resin adhesive or glue. I used a little bit when repairing a clod tailgate once and it held really well and was fairly easy to bodywork.