Flat_Out

Nice find! I don't know a lot about this model's history, but it looks very similar to the chassis under the VW Golf Group2.

So, if it's radio controlled and Volkswagen related I have to have one in my collection! Some people collect strictly Tamiya kits, or SRBs, or monster trucks, etc... but me, I'm the VW R/C guy. When the Wheelie Bus came out, I thought it was terribly ugly but still had to have one for my collection. The kit was an easy build and has a nicely detailed body. The Bus body (despite being a bit cartoony in proportion) is way better detailed than any other Bus body you can get now. So, with that in mind, I thought I would build a little street cruiser Bus based on that body. As many people have figured out by now, it's a bit too oddly sized to fit on any production chassis. So... you can see where I'm going with this. When I want something that doesn't exist, I make it. Here's where I'm at. Mr. Smashy V2.0 in the background with box.. And the parts to build the chassis: Only the rear axle and a few bits of hardware are missing from the pic. I designed and cut the 3 main chassis parts just to fit this body and work with other spare bits I had laying around. The top plate (brushed aluminum) might need to be re cut, I'll have to see if I can get it bent correctly. You'll see how it all fits together soon. I had to order some hardware that will be here on Monday. The rear axle will be the same as in my black and red split bug- straight axle threaded and pinned to accept wheel hexes. This way I can use the hexed Porsche wheels with a pan car style rear. Squeezing everything in the rear is tough, but I made it work. I mocked it up with a 540 but might just install a lil 380 for cruising around. The hardware will be here Monday. Until then I'll get the body painted with the green and white pictured, and assemble the chassis as far as I can. Using some of the paint masks I cut on the plotter too! I don't have time to cut all those mask by hand, so I did it the easy way. And... did Tamiya bite my style?? haha. my bus from 2005! A "Herbie" bus body stuck on a TLT chassis. Old old pic... It was Mr. Smashy V1.0 I'll update soon with the chassis assembly progress.

Very cool, bugjammer! Other than the example at the top, I've only seen one other (which was quite used), and neither seller would ship to USA. I've actually been looking for one to put on an RC12e chassis that I have. Though most AE purist will frown at that... Do you have a stash of them tucked away?? I went out to the garage to take a closer look at the Mardave chassis, and just realized that the body with the pods is just like the first generation Bolink Digger. Did you add the pods to the Digger, or did Bolink take your body and remove the pods? I don't know how I never realized that... the Bolink cars in my garage are on the shelf right about the Mardave cars! I think I might have too many Bugs out there! It's apparent how different the Digger and Mardave bodies are though when looking at them side by side. Here's a couple of the first generation Digger bodies that I have. These were the versions sold on a Jerobee chassis. Sadly no side pods for me though.. haha And I never thought about the battery set up on the yellow chassis. Both of the Mardave V-Dubs I have came from the UK. I guess at some point the chassis was switched out and holes drilled for that style battery mount. Here's a pic of the two side by side- Thank you for the info bugjammer! It's nice to talk to the person who created that body. One of these days I'll find one for my collection!

Same chassis and body set up as my "Snowhopper"

Yeah, that's got to be the same rack. Those are the same dimensions as the base of mine. The light mount on the front does extend beyond that too.

I got one of the RC Lighthouse roof racks to mount on my "Snowhopper". Not sure exactly who produces them as they are sold buy a few different companies/sellers, but thats where mine came from. It's mounted to a Kamtec lexan body but has the same basic shape as the og Scorcher bodies. The roof rack was a bit long, and the rear legs had to be extended quite a bit. I think it looks ok on the snow car, but will definitely use a shorter rack on any future cars I build. Just keep that in mind if you're shopping around for a rack!

Mine too!!!!

Looks like a "Taipan". I've got a similar chassis but it has slightly different cage and nerfs. I had no idea what a Taipan was until I posted pics of my chassis on here and started asking questions. They're pretty cool! Can't wait to start working on mine!

I had thought about trying it out in the sand, but I would never get it clean again! Maybe one day it will make a trip up to the mountains with me, but for now it'll be shelved. The cars I run, I either run around work in Corona or down at Sunset Beach. There's lots of large industrial parking lots and dirt fields near work. At home it's all alley and street. The beach is fun if you've got some paddles and it's not a crowded area. Hit me up sometime if you want to go bash!

Cool! I've never seen anyone else from LB on here. I moved here from Costa Mesa late last year. This build was more about building something that I wanted as a kid. It doesn't snow much on my display shelf!

It's done finally. Got the body mounted and detailed, added vintage electronics (my fav old school radio), and got the lights all wired up. There's an extra on/off switch on the side of the chassis for the lights.

I started to cut the masks for mine by hand and decided it was going to take forever, so I scanned it, converted to vector, and cut a set on the plotter in my office!

What are the tire/wheel specs on here? Looks great with the smaller diameter wheels!

Picked this up for cheap. It's an old Kyosho Minitz/Stepside chassis. Missing a good bit of parts, but looks like it's never been used! I'll either source the parts for it, or trade it off for something else I don't need

Definitely the wrong season, and definitely the wrong city for snow! It doesn't snow too much on my display shelf either

The Ski Patrol Snowhopper is about done. I moved into a new house a few months back and have been busy with home projects, but the Snowhopper has been slowly coming along. I've been planning this for a while now- gathering up parts, designing and cutting parts. I actually started with a vintage grasshopper, but ended up replacing most of the parts. Looking back I should have just bought a re-re! Trying to stick with a vintage look/style for this car. Here's the rough cut suspension parts, and some nerf bars I bent up- Some of the front suspension parts, red crp parts, and the modded chassis. Here you can see the front suspension block pushed forward, and a matching red modded crp body mount- Rear shot showing the waterjet cut shock extensions, and a center tab for the 3rd shock mod that mounts to what was originally the chassis resistor mount. I'm going to run a mechanical speed control (and vintage radio. I like old stuff like that!) and have an idea for where/how the new resistor will fit. Still sorting that out though... Also, I had an odd You-G shock, so I used that for the rear 3rd shock mod. Was pretty happy having a set of 5 on this car! A couple shots of the front suspension assembled. I've got to tweak a couple spots, and detail it a little better, but it's almost there. It consists of lower CRP arms, custom cut upper arms, custom cut rockers, in-board You-G shocks, modded CRP front body mount, and you can see a bit of the nerf's mounted. Chassis is almost complete here. Still need to add the rear body mounts on the sides of the chassis. Rear chassis view shows the Super Hornet lower shock mounts and customs uppers. Still working on the front bumper. Aluminum tube upper bar and waterjet cut plate to mount lights to. And finally the body mocked up. Gotta clean and detail it a bit more, mount the roof rack, finish the rear body mounts, mount the lights and wire them, etc... You get the idea... front lights to be mounted- And that's it for now! It's almost there. I'll be glad to get this wrapped up so I can finish up a couple other projects and add them to the showroom. Cheers!

I built this drift Beetle but have yet to add electronics and drive it. It's an ABC Genetic chassis with a reproduction of the old IMAI beetle body.

It was actually a complete vintage kit (front ski's and dual rear wheel adapters) from "ST Accessories". They are a little different than the vintage Parma dual rear adapters. Honestly I like the Parma style better, and will hopefully pick up a set for this car soon. I've got the packaging and part number for the complete winter set up pictured-

Thanks guys. I've got a couple details to wrap up on the chassis and body before it's all done. I'll start a thread for it this week and go into detail. The front suspension parts are either from the CRP kit or aluminum pieces I drafted and then cut out on the hydrajet at work. I wanted to move the upper arm's inside pivot point to correct camber issues in the suspension cycle, and cantilever the shocks inboard to be able to mount the body lower without cutting holes for a shock tower. Though ol' Bessy ain't cuttin to great these days, so i drilled the holes in the parts by hand. Plus I wanted a snug press fit for the bearings in the rockers. We've got to get the machine tuned up and cutting properly/precisely...

Ski Patrol is almost ready to hit the slopes- (just in time for summer ) A little more tweaking and it'll be all set! Sorry for the phone pics. I'll get better photos when its complete.

Hmm, I'll take a better look at it and see what I can do. I want to wrap up this project so I can move on to other things on the list. Amazing Fox you have there btw!

I meant with a custom upper link, but during the suspension cycle. You can set it to have whatever camber you like at ride height with a custom upper link, but with it being so short compared to the length of the lower link, it gives bad camber during compression and droop. Granted it's just a grasshopper and not something like a short course truck, but still bugs me a bit.

I just hate the weird camber the CRP kit gives you with the drastic difference in upper and lower link length.

Sent. Enjoy! The grasshopper was my first true hobby grade R/C, and since the re-re I've gone through a few kits. Had the lil motors and plates sitting around... Keep an eye out for my "Snowhopper- ski patrol" thread coming soon!

PM me your address. I've got to send out a bunch of stuff tomorrow and have this stuff laying around.