Little update:
I had a couple hours to work on this the last 2 nights. Here are a couple pics of the progress.
Last Nights progress:
Finished asembling the rest of the stock chassis minus the nitro parts. I gotta say I like it. It seems to be a quality setup. Fit and finish is really good. Installed the steering servo (airtronics 94359). Motor mount and motor is installed. The RCM Jammin buggy motor mount is a perfect drop in fit. Also on these pictures you can see the 2 speed pinion that I made in a little more detail. I need to add a couple shims behind the small gear to get the gear to gear spacing right. You can see in the pics that the pinions are closer together than the spurs right now. I'm just waiting on some shims I ordered to get here.
Tonights progress:
Got the top plate for the steering servo cut and installed. Replaced the plastic center diff top plate with a carbon fiber one I had in a bunch of old parts from a Hyper 7. It just luckely fit perfectly so I figured what the hell. Made the battery box from my last 2 pieces of carbon fiber angle from graphiteelegance. They were salvaged from another battery tray that I dodnt need any more so they are kind used and scuffed up before I even started, but its all I had and this stuff is expensive since graphiteelegance closed for "vacation" so I'm using what I got for now. They are a 2x2 and a 1x2 angle stock. The 2x2 is mounts next to the spur gears and I left it 2 inches tall for 2 reasons. 1) it will protect the lipos from the spur, and 2) I am planning to mount the brake servo to the back side of it between the battery tray and the front dog bone. I overlapped thee 2 pieces on the bottom and then drilled 3 holes thru them and thru the aluminum chassis. I counter sunk the CF so the screw heads were flush and lipo could sit flat. Then I tapped the holes in the chassis so I could just screw it down directly to the chassis without anything protruding out the bottom. The chassis is 7075 so it should hold the threads. The whole assembly feels really solid and I'm pretty happy with it considering I started with just a buch of used scraps. Then to hold the battery in I put a layer of Velcro on the bottom of the tray to hold the lipo and to provide a little cusion for it too. I also mounted a strap over the top by using a couple convieniently located holes in the chassis that were meant for someting to do with the nitro kit.
Here are a couple pics of how it sits right now. You can really see the scufffs in the CF in the battery tray close up.
I am going to be traveling the rest of the week for wor so I wont get a chance to do any more for a few days at least. Hopefully this weekend I can find a few more hours.
Things that still need to be done:
-Mount the esc: It should fit nicely behind the lipo. I just need to figure out how best to position it and hold it down.
-Mount the brake servo: As I mentioned I am planning to mount it to the side of the battery tray between the lipo and the front dog bone. There is enough room to fit it no problem, I just need to devise a bracket. I'll probably make something up with the last few scraps of CF angle I have sitting here. I then need to bend the brake lever so I can pull it from the front.
-Install the CC BEC. Not sure where this will get tucked yet, but its small.
-Make a Rx mount. I might make a mount that screws to the front shock stay or Io might keep it simple and just mount it on top of the steering servo. Havent decided yet.
-Figure out how to neatly run all of the wires. That is the toughest part of every conversion IMO.
-Glue the tire and wheels. ( I freakin hate that job)
-Paint the body. I was thinking blue and really spending some time to get a really nice job done with a bunch of detail colors, but now I'm thinking I might just go with a solid red paint job and stick to a more tradidtional Carrera color scheme. Any sugestions?
I'll update again when I get some more progress.