name that chassis

[oldskoolracer]

Hey guys, this 'thing' arrived with the parts lot I just picked up from ebay - yeah the RC10 bug has hit me pretty hard. Any idea what this thing is? Looks to me like a chassis sheet cut into a custom onroad chassis. Total hack, but I guess a 14 year old did it, so I'll go easy on the criticism.

On top of that, the suspension geometry is totally screwed. Don't know if you can see it in the picture of the rear tower, but the shocks lean way forward and bind when they bottom out. Would this thing be any good for some on-road action? I mean, literally ridden on a road, not a carpet. I guess it's pretty valueless so I was thinking of turning it into a decent street runner. I have this ridiculous 7 turn motor I picked up in a motor lot that would go nicely, I think.

Can anyone shoot me a pic of the front shock tower / mount that I appear to be missing? Any ideas on where to go with this suspension geometry? I also have some beat up black-pans with the lot - would it be a better idea to just build a DS and can this chassis?

Thanks,

Dan

[jwscab]

I'd say that they chassis isn't a home brew, based on how clean the radii are on the 4 corners where it kicks out from the middle, that's pretty hard to make nicely without a machine. if it is, then the guy did a decent job.

the shock mount up front is a sort of an 'I' shaped piece of nylon that mounted right in the middle of the chassis, and had two mount holes for the top shock eye. it goes with the whole kit, the small adapters in the front arms, and the rear triangle shaped rear shock towers. I'm guessing the kit also had some small nylon spacers to bring the bottom of the shocks more forward, which you can easily do.

if you have a gold pan(or black, etc), I'd transfer that stuff to the pan, which will give your front suspension a kick-up making the tuning more forgiving, and try to find that missing center shock mount.

someone here might have the instructions for that kit (mccallister I think?) which would help you rebuild it.

here is a good thread with pictures showing the complete kit:
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15183&hilit=lowering+kit

[oldskoolracer]

thanks, cab, you make a good point, the outer shape of the chassis is pretty neat, I guess i was just focused on the cutouts which are pretty rough. i'll have to keep an eye out for a shock tower, nothing in the lot that resembles that. i think the guy was missing it for a while / broke it, because it looks like he was working on a 'custom' unit. haha.

i also noticed in your link that the rear suspension geometry is similar - the shocks are actually leaning toward the front of the car, out of the plane of suspension travel. i thought this was a big no-no, but I guess not. perhaps a spacer or two *will* do the trick after all.

thanks again.

[jwscab]

the shocks can lean a little either forward or back and have no effect on the geometry. if you notice on that thread, lto_dave used spacers (look about .2" or so) to bring the bottom of the shock forward.

[scr8p]

or just move the arm mount forward. a shorter wheelbase is better anyway.