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A quick question -
The first 1/12th onroad I drove seems to be an I model. I´ve purchased this one from memory, but I remember the radiodeck to be longer. Did someone cut the radiodeck or did it come in this variant aswell?

A couple of days later I went to pick up a well used PB mini mustang with a boxfull of parts. Oddly - the parts box, was a RC12i box.

The body on mine was a C-group in purple, white, yellow and orange, with a dark silhouette of a city, on the hood, with a flying dragon above. Has anyone seen anything like that?

yes, servo mounting area has been cut off

Many thanks,
The one in Your picture looks very opmized - is it all ae parts?

Is it still possible to find a topdeck or will I have to mount the battery on the chassis?

Thanks,
Dennis

If you can't find one more local, I have a couple used upper trays dyed black

I believe you have an RC12e bumper which is much bigger than the RC12i bumper and you will need 2 standoffs for the correct top deck and appropriate screws top and bottom. This is what the front end needs to be original.

Isnt that an early car? Looks like it has the front end cutouts and no spring front arms. If that's the case, it doesn't need the front standoffs (although they do help for a runner). Not sure on the big bumper, I thought all 12i's had the small one as mentioned above. If you can't find an original, reign79 makes reproductions that look great! My upper decks are all newer gen that use the front standoffs but they seem to be hard to find

gomachv wrote:If you can't find one more local, I have a couple used upper trays dyed black

Thanks gomachv,
That sounds like a plan for a template if I can´t find one in natural.

Here is my early, mid, and late 12i
Note the early has different cutouts for the front suspension and rear end
The early also has a copied upper deck and I haven't cut out the servo hole yet. I also hadn't put the ride height adjuster on the rear of the late car yet. The early didn't come with one but it was easy to add. I made a drill jig to drill a hole in the 8-32 screw for the rod to pass thru

gomachv -
Mine has the cutouts at the front like Yours on the first picture.
And no spring on the front.

What is the long black stripe for on Your late chassis? Mine seem to have a small piece of that at the front.
Thanks -

the early cars had something there, mine just does not show it. The early ones were Kydex, and used as Chassis damper. On the middle and late cars they turned into a carbon fiber piece To make the chassis more rigid and allow the front suspension to work

Here is the underside detail of the three versions
You can see how they made the chassis flexy up front first, then made it rigid for the front end and cut out the rear as a (in effect) early t plate. You can also see that I double side taped my braces as I didn't want glue to fog the parts

Sorry Jeff, I'll defer to you as I thought I saw the holes in the chassis for the front standoffs.

Well, I have questioned that part as well as all the chassis I have seen- early and late, have all had those holes. I have one early upper that I used as a template for the one shown, so I know there were some without the mounts, but it may be that all the chassis were "ready" for them? I have always wondered that myself

I always thought the early kit chassis and radio trays had no provisions for a front standoffs. Here's the parts diagram picture from the manual and it shows no holes. I have a car that has no holes, radio tray nor chassis looks just like the picture below. Also early kits used the same front end uprights and pieces as the 12e, not sure when the actual change to the spring front end took place might be a question wc1982 could answer, many times retrofits to early cars were done after the changes came on the next model i.e 12L came out with the spring front end from the start. I'm wondering if any 12i kits came with the spring front susp or if it was only available as a retrofit.

The 12i definitely came with a spring front end mid way, that was my first "real" rc car. I have never seen besides in pictures the chassis with no front post holes, I always figured they didn't exist! Good to know. The chassis on the first car in my pics had the cutout front (early) and uncut rear (early) so I figured the holes were always there.