TOPIC:

Agreed, a 10T will probably still be too fast... But I will try it before I shell out for another motor.

I have now put two battery packs through the 10T motor and I am liking it, it does seem a lot more controllable than the 9T was.
My first run was cut short by a broken front left upright. This was no surprise as I knew the part had a crack in it when I assembled the car. I was able to repair the part by glueing it then making some small aluminium braces for the front and back to hold it together. I removed some plastic from the upright so the braced part is no wider than it was before.



I probably should do the same mod to the other side before it breaks....

BODYSHELL REPAIR & REPAINT

This bodyshell was in fairly rough condition so it is ideal for a "basher". I also had used it to practice brush painting the lights and window frames for my standard MB resto. The main issues were the front body clip hole had been punched through, the roof was scratched up and the driving light brackets were broken from the nosecone. I have already posted a detailed thread on the nosecone fix so I will not cover that again here.





I repaired the hole in the front using the soldering iron welding trick as explained in Lars' "Battered Body Treatment" article. This was made harder by the stickers either side of the repair which I did not want to damage if possible. Also I realise the repair will be a high-stress area so I do not know how long it will last.



I taped up the stickers on the sides and bonnet and carefully cut around them using a scalpel. The stickers on the roof were removed as these were damaged beyond repair. I also taped up the number plates and the badge on the bonnet. I then gave the whole body a good sand and smoothed over the casting marks on the mudgaurds. I was able to remove the sunroof which made smoothing the roof easier. I then applied two coats of light grey primer (with a light sand between coats) and finally a coat of "Italian Red".





When the paint had dried I removed the tape and I honestly was surprised at how good this shell now looks!! The paint colour is darker due to the grey undercoat and the colour difference is noticeable around the stickers but when I think back to the rough old shell I started with this now looks a million dollars in my eyes.
Finally I re-assembled the shell and brush-painted the window frames and door dandles.



I do not have any windscreen wipers or a rear number-plate shroud for this shell which did not worry me until now, but now that it looks this good I will have to find some to finish this shell off.

Top work & a nice save on the decals

Great work, looks the cat's whiskers.

Another battery pack, another broken part.. This time it was the upper suspension arm (H3). I suspect the part was fractured already as I did not hit anything, I was just driving around and then I noticed the front wheel wobbling. It is also on the same side as the damaged upright so it is a fair assumption that the left front wheel has taken a hard knock in the past. Luckily I have a spare re-re Frog H-tree so it was an easy fix.

Great save on the bodyshell

Here are a few pics of the shell when I first un-masked the stickers, I wish I had included them in the above post.





And a close-up of the bonnet repair.

Due to the rarity and high value of original Monster Beetle driving lights I do not want to fit a genuine set to an over-powered basher. I had spare some Midnight pumpkin lights so I made up a bracket to mount them to the MB nosecone. I wanted the new mount to be flexible so an impact would not place too much stress on the driving light mounts.
I used a parts sprue, some leftover RX antenna tubing, some silicone nitro fuel hose and two 2x6mm screws.





They are a fair bit smaller than the genuine lights which also means they are less susceptible to damage. They do not look as good as the standard lights but they do look better than no lights at all.

Exaust system. The rear bumper had been cut to mount a switch by a previous owner so I did not mind drilling some holes in it to mount a set of Sand Scorcher pipes...



I was unsure about this mod at first because I could not imagine a real monster vehicle running a VW engine, but I do think it looks cool now.