These were some of my earlier cars and as you can see I was worried about strength at first. As I built more and raced more i realized I was leaving wayyy to much meat on n started removing much more wood.
Feedback on Ladder Bodies
- Thread starter Castoro Racing
- Start date
-
- Tags
- advice needed basx ladder body
These were some of my earlier cars and as you can see I was worried about strength at first. As I built more and raced more i realized I was leaving wayyy to much meat on n started removing much more wood.
These are really nice thanks for sharing. Is that carbon fiber on the spiderman car? Also I have seen other bodies with the curved cutouts like on the one to the left and I know bulldog had a curve like that on the front of his car in one of the videos he posted, but I am not sure the reason. Is this to add ridgity when leaving no supports?
I suppose so, Ive seen other folks do it n figured it was just for meat on your dfw side. If you are cutting them like I do it just allows for drilling two corners instead of four like in the center cut out. Not sure if i like it or not Im just down for trying anything.
Yea that wasnt a spider man car, I was goin for somethin n it didnt work out so I tried to make it look like spider webs. But yea thats just a stick on carbon fiber vinyl thing.
Yea that wasnt a spider man car, I was goin for somethin n it didnt work out so I tried to make it look like spider webs. But yea thats just a stick on carbon fiber vinyl thing.
According to Bulldog's dremel video, he curves because he shaves 1/16th off the DFW side after he cuts the pocket.
From what I have seen, some various options are:
1. Not cutting the pockets all the way through, gluing them in, and then sanding the top until its extremely thin.
2. Adding a cover of monokote, vinyl, or plywood veneer, then attaching the weights with double sided carpet tape.
3. Building an l-shaped weight module and attaching the whole piece to the body of the car, such as by first putting aluminum tape down on the body and then using VHB tape to attach the weight assembly to the body.
Curious if there are other approaches, and how easy it is to remove weights from carpet tape.
I would not use epoxy as I do not want my weights to be permanent. I used 1/64 birch plywood and glue covering either the bottom or top of the weight pocket. Than used heavy duty double stick tape (the kind that comes in window wrap kits) to secure the cubes. If I put the plywood on the top of the car I used foil tape on the bottom of the car.
If you just tape in your weights you can adjust if needed and reuse in other cars.
The weights stay secure this way and you are able to pop them out with a small flathead without damaging the car.
For whatever it is worth, I have been going back and forth on buying a dremel and a dremel work station, which would take up a decent amount of space in my tiny workshop. (I was also surprised how much dremel charges for some of their bits.) Earlier this week I tried making a ladder body with a coping saw, drill, and file. The first attempt took about 90 minutes and weighed around 8 grams. Given the extremely low volume of cars I make, I think I'm going to hold off on purchasing for a while and see if I really need it.
Similar threads
