SRB Cage Racer - part 2

July 2014: Before I left the USA last month, I went crazy at RC4WD and ordered up some scale shocks (Old Man Emu) complete with gaters, plus a pair of Axial Corbeau scale seats and some more of their LED lamp housings.

Once back home (with my metric drill set!) it was time to build up the vehicle with a prototype chassis. This I fabricated from 2mm aluminium sheet, and folded the sides to effectively create an angled skid plate that raises the sill area approximately 10mm - adding strength to the otherwise flat chassis, and also in an effort to gain more interior space (so Willy's big old head fits inside!) - and try to get as much height as I could for the rear suspension mounts, without the whole thing looking gawky...

Once the cage was bolted to the sills, as it stands, the rear 70mm shocks are compressed about 5mm, but fortunately the shocks do not run out of travel before the swing arms hit the bump-stops on the upward stroke.

At the front, I had to remove one of the posts that tension the OEM springs, so that the 70mm OME shocks would fit to the existing top and bottom mounting positions.

By widening the front track by 15mm, the cage now sits comfortably between the front suspension uprights, and offers enough clearance to mount round LED headlights in the original Rough Rider position.

Now that the car is sitting on four wheels (I am still waiting for my design of freewheel front hubs for hex wheels to be 3D printed), I can finalise the position of the essential electrics - yes my intention is to make this a runner, but at the same time, try and hide or at least disguise everything so it works as a 'technical' scale model too - and also the additional location holes for the seat runners, pedal box, front and rear bulkheads etc.- before ultimately getting the final chassis plate laser cut and professionally folded.