They look fine but do not say Gorillamaxx 😜😜

The slots in the chassis plate are for threading the straps through, which adds strength as well as holding power to the packs - the ends are also intended to be doubled where they secure to the chassis. You may not need to shorten the straps at all.

Yeah good point Mike. I have already doubled the ends over but did not thread them through the chassis. Will have more of a play later today.

So I have been holding off with this build a little bit. The massive question has always been in my mind, do I keep the purple theme, or anodize blue instead. I have always wanted to try to find Hardcore Racing Titanium Bumpers in either Purple or Blue, and which ever I found first, would make the decision for me... Well, the G1 is staying purple, as a friend contacted me noting he had a new condition set of Purple HCR Bumpers I could have as he did not need them...

So that kick started this build off again. With some time off over the Christmas period, I set about deanodising my Proline Powerstroke shocks, and think they came up looking really good. For anyone contemplating deanodising any aluminium parts, I highly recommend that you look into Caustic Soda as an option over the oven cleaner products. The parts bubbled away and within a minute each part was clean of any blue, and back to their natural silver...

An excellent youtube video of this process was made by a good mate of mine, take a look if you are interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hcb2cD-V34

As these shocks were used when I picked them up, I was never really happy with the scratches they had for a build like this. By removing the blue, they are now a lot harder to see. Onto some pics, this is what they started out like:

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...228_163628.jpg

As you can see they were pretty beat up:

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...228_193846.jpg
http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...228_193849.jpg
http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...228_193856.jpg

Then came out looking like this:

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...212521_001.jpg

I have no clue why, but one of the caps did not react as well to the caustic soda as all of the others, and came out looking darker & dull:

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...228_212536.jpg

Nothing that a bit of sanding and polishing with the dremel could not fix tho:

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...228_213835.jpg

looking good !!

You have way more patience than me, my friend! I am getting better, but I have always struggled with this level of showmanship on my RCs(I historically have built for go rather than show). Looking forward to the finished truck pics!

Thanks guys! I know it is stupid, but I have always enjoyed the building aspect of this hobby. A definite majority of my time spent online is researching what others have done with their builds, I really enjoy seeing what others come up with...

Same here, I like the building more to :)
But you have to break them to repair them again :)

Indeed.....

Building is just as fun as driving these things ...

So I pushed ahead with the Powerstrokes and I am pretty happy with the outcome. I must admit I was nervous to start on deanodising as I love blue anodising, but the scratches & scrapes showed far too much with the blue on there, and silver polished covers it up much better.

Anyway, here are some pics of the finished product:

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...104_205928.jpg
http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...104_205932.jpg
http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...104_205940.jpg
http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...104_211147.jpg
http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...104_211151.jpg
http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...104_211155.jpg

Will be using a set of KMaxx Spring Retainers which I think are a cool upgrade for the Powerstrokes. Here is a pic of them compared to the stock black plastic ones:

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...104_211915.jpg

Then a pic of the finished shocks with the KMaxx Spring Retainers:

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...104_213630.jpg
http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...104_213636.jpg
http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...104_213640.jpg

Then a pic with my other set of Powerstrokes:

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...104_213733.jpg

this looks awesome again !!!

Almost ready to pack up a truck and have u work on it !!

Looks great, Sam! I like Blue as well(see my Monster logo!), but silver aluminum is classically sexy in its own right, and goes with everything - never a bad choice!

Small update, as I received an order of 8x16x5mm bearings from Avid RC. Here is a quick look at what they look like installed. I went with rubber on both sides and feel they are a solid product:

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...206_193946.jpg

I am very close to having my 12.9 grade metallic blue hardware shipped over from the states. The friend of mine that bought them all for me has just had a baby, so is understandably busy. I posted earlier in this thread with a pic of the hardware he has ordered for me. Unfortunately I tried to source metallic blue from seemingly all of the distributors locally, but no one in Australia could help me. Everyone has regular 12.9 grade, but no metallic blue, and no one was willing to order it in for me. Oh well, my money does not stay local, I tried.

A bit of background as to why I want to only use metallic blue stems back to when I first got into this hobby. My first hobby grade RC was an OFNA Dominator. It did not take long for the modding bug to hit, and all of a sudden I was learning about great companies like Smash & Bash Racing, and DUH Engineering. Both being backyard startups, SaBR had already closed its doors, but DUH was just getting started. I got to know Eric quite well, and ended sending him quite a lot of my money for various Titanium parts he was manufacturing at the time. Here is a pic of the various parts I purchased from him back in the day:

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...8_170133_1.jpg

Eric was into his Maxx Hybrids, using Proline Bulks to mount Maxx suspension onto a Dominator chassis. And thus the start of my Maxx obsession began haha. Here are some pics of the hybrid build that he did that got me hooked:

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...r/Trucks/5.jpg

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...r/Trucks/4.jpg

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...s/DSC00383.jpg

Anyway, Eric only ever used metric blue hardware on his builds. I have not seen many others use the same, and as he was the builder that got me hooked on building trucks like this, I decided I wanted to continue the tradition. Still with the great strength of 12.9 grade, just that little bit different from everyone else:

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...kforVBS1_1.jpg

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...latHeadPic.jpg

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...CapHeadPic.jpg