Yikes, car is too heavy

ChristopherK

Pinewood Ninja
Mar 3, 2019
26
5
3
57
Charlotte, NC
So my son and I finished the body of his car. I didn’t take into account the weight the wood filler that I used to seal in the tungsten weights would add. Right now the car and wheels etc is dead on 141grams. The problem is we haven’t painted the car yet. It’s basically a hollowed out wedge and there ain’t much left I can hollow out. I put a lot of tungsten in there and got the COG between 3/4 and 1 inch in front of rear axel. Here’s the question. There’s some wood between the back of car and the back row of tungsten weights. I’m thinking maybe 3/16”. What would be the downside of sanding that down almost to the tungsten rounds. Is there a disadvantage to shortening a car once the weight is already added to the back? It will of course shift the COG a little to the front but it should still be less than 1 inch. The other question is how much weight will the paint add?
 
I would recommend taking out a tungsten cube (front-most center) and leave the open cavity there. Do all the other steps you need to do, then use tungsten putty to fill that cavity up until you’re close to 5 oz. Use tape to cover it all up. A different scale will be used at weigh in and can give different results. Using putty will allow you to easily make the adjustments needed to get it 5oz as needed without dismantling the car.
 
Get a sharpie. 3 kids I helped this year just colored the cars with them didn’t add even a gram to the body plus actually looked great.
 
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Another simple and weightless coloring method is Monokote Trim sheets. Like 5.00 per sheet. All colors and adhesive backed. That’s what I cover my cars with now and also do trim details with. When the adhesive backing is peeled off it literally weighs nothing it is that thin. Looks real nice too.
Just an option. Keeping in mind tuning and weight I never paint cars
Again, just an option and my own 2 cents worth of opinion.
 
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Thanks for all the help, I chiseled, sanded, then sanded some more and I got the weight down to 138.75g. I’ve got exactly 3 gm to spare. I test fitted some HVAC tape to cover the entire bottom of the car. It got me exactly to 141.75 gram. The tape was right on 3gm. My only worry now is if the scales are off at weigh in my only option would be to trim some tape. Is it necessary to have the entire bottom taped or just areas with holes?