Mounting a Body - The Japanese Way

[_oliK 108]

Last week's Build Tip on Mounting a Generic Body Shell inspired me to do a little piece on how I mount some of my bodies.

I first saw this mounting style in some pictures of japanese drift chassis, and reverse engineered it. First the rear:

I guess it's pretty self explanatory. This setup allows changing the ride height quickly, but you're left with huge ugly body posts. I might switch to stealthier body post extensions in the future.

For the front you need these two pieces and a pair of body post extensions: The upper one you can make from any kind of plastic packaging or Lexan scraps, and the bottom one can be 3D-printed like mine or made from acrylic or whatever. Or make it a blue aluminium one and sell it for 60 bucks each. the only important thing is that the top one can slide over the bottom one, and sits just snug enough so that the body doesn't move.

Cut your body posts and extensions to size for proper height and maximum adjustability, and mount the lower brace like so:

The top part is then glued and taped into the body (It's a bit hard to see here):

You then slide the body on from the front, and pin it down in the back.

 

Pro:

-concealed body posts in the front

-very sturdy

-body doesn't fall of as it would with magnets or velcro

-less pins to go missing

-no tilting of mounts required when changing bodies

-can be built from scratch, without magnets or anything, cheap

-easier to build than drilling front holes

Con:

-rear body posts still there

 

Feel free to copy, there's also a ready-made version avaible here.

If you want, I could upload my .stl files for the brace.

Cheers!

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

Nice!

[waterbok 1282]

Are you running a Marine ESC with water coolant? 

[_oliK 108]

5 hours ago, waterbok said:

Are you running a Marine ESC with water coolant? 

Why would I?

[Superluminal 3750]

Possibly because it looks like you have a fully functioning rad / intercooler plumbed in

[_oliK 108]

I see! Yes, it's a Yokomo item that's been painted and weathered, it does look quite amazing.

[TurnipJF 9192]

If your shell and post locations allow it, a further refinement that I've seen using the system is to have the rear body posts pointing backwards rather than upwards, as they do on a CC-01 Pajero for example. That way, the body posts exit the shell somewhere on the back of the boot lid, where they might be seen as an oversized version of the quick-release clips that some modified full-size cars keep their boots closed with.

[_oliK 108]

Eeeh, nahh. I think I prefer cutting them down and hiding them in the window, where it doesn't disurb the body lines that much. You could also pair it with magnets in the back or whatever.