Hey guys...

[Chad]

...I have gotten rid of almost all of my larger-scale vehicles, and have settled into the range of 1/36 to 1/16 scale, and absolutely love it! I run both nitro and electric, but generally prefer electric.

My current project is a cheap 1/24 New Bright VW Beetle (new body-style). It started off as a very cheap car...when you turned the car on, the motor ran in reverse full-time, and pulling the trigger on the radio reversed the motor's direction to make the car go forward. When you let off the trigger, the car started going backwards again, and the front wheels ****ed to one side, making it turn. We all remember these from our childhood...very little steering control, but we loved them anyway!

First, I had to give it proportional steering, so I modified the steering assembly to turn in both directions. I didn't want an over-complicated steering mechanism, so I drilled a hole in one side of the front axle, glued a straightened body-clip into it, and it sticks up through the chassis. A small nitro linkage slider fits over it, and is screwed to a servo horn, attached to a Hitec HS-81 servo. The servo/slider simply moves the steering wire/clip/post forward and backwards, steering the car. The servo is mounted via 3M servo-tape.

I cut out the old AA battery holder and glued on the battery door, and a 6v 5-cell 1600mAh Orion Marathon hump-pack now sits on top of the battery door, very low in the chassis...it is attached with Velcro. The very tiny Novak Spy Micro Reversible ESC and smallish Losi 2.4GHz MRX-3000 Spektrum DSM receiver sit on a lexan tray, Velcroed to the top of the battery. The motor is the stock one that came with the car, and puts out good power at 6 volts. All wiring and connectors are Deans. I am controlling the car with a Losi MTX Pro 2.4GHz Spektrum DSM 2ch radio with EPA on both channels.

I am not yet done with the car, everything is worked out and pretty much test-fitted, but it all needs to be final-assembled. Right now I am making sure the chassis is strong enough for the demands of *real* driving, and reinforcing all the little mounts I have added. I am also trying to figure out the paint-scheme I want to use...the basic red body leaves a lot to be desired.

Anyway, that's about it for now...I wish I would have taken before pictures, and more pics of the progress, but I will try to get some of all the mods I have done.

[alfred]

Sounds like a great build man......Welcome to YM. And please post some pics when you can, im sure that the members here would love to see it.