Hey guys, welcome back to my YouTube channel and we have another video for you today, and it's regarding body shells for your touring car. In the future I will do a start to finish video on cutting and preparing and making a body for your touring car, but this is just a a quick video just to show you a few tips to make sure your current bodies are on your car correctly. Um, yeah, there's just like three or four tips here just to kind of get you going and I hope it helps. Um, yeah, if you uh if you like it, please like it. If you want to comment and ask any questions down below, please do that.
Here we go. Uh so, the first thing we should check is the wing height. Now, before we get into that, we need to make sure that the car is correct in terms of weight. Uh so, if you're at the track, make sure you got your weight back, your race battery in and uh the race tires you're going to be using cuz they do have different sizes. So, yeah, the rear wing is so important to the setup of the car. And if you've ever driven a an RC car where the wing's fallen off, especially even in off-road, you can really tell how important the wing is. If the wing comes off, the car is undrivable. Um, and quite often I see people making mistakes at the track. Even recently, some guys coming up to me saying, "Oh, my car's kind of over steering. It's over rotating midc corner." And I say, "Con of bring your car over with a with a body shell on.
Let's have a look." And their rear wing height is around 109 to 110, which is way too low. So, because it's a vital part of the car setup and how the car feels on track, my settings are 115 to 117, uh depending on if it's a larger track or smaller track, I have the wing around 115 for a smaller track. And then for a quicker, bigger size track, I have a 1117. So, I'll show you how you measure that to start with. So, you get your verier. Uh make sure it's on. Yeah, it's on. And then this point here onto your setup board. And then so I'll try and do it with a camera right in front of me and then you just touch the top of the wing like that. So one side 116.6 and then on this side got 116.4. So it's about4 difference from the either side. So that's fine. I think anything within 1 mil from left to right is should be okay. This is a used wing, so it might be a little bit bent or maybe the body post or something, but that is a vital part you need to do to your body shell. If it's too low, it's going to be over steering.
If it's too high, it might be under steering. Um, and yeah, so between 115s, 117 mil. Make sure yeah, you do that.
Okay, on to the next bit. Next up, let's focus on the front of the car. So quite often another it's probably the second most common mistake I I find is you need to have the body post holes reamed out not too big but the body needs to be able to fall on its own weight. Quite often I see they aren't and they bind up. So you have to imagine if you're driving around this the track and then the body posts go down when you're braking and the front of the car is compressing the body will stick on the body post. So when the front pops back up again when you accelerate and the weight transfers to the back of the car then the body is like kind of stuck on the body posts. So another thing yeah just make sure the body is able to fall on its own weight. And then the next part or the front the body the the splitter height we like to run between six around six mil depending how bumpy your track is.
So we've got just under six here. So that's one important measurement. to make sure the static gap is around 6 mil, 5 to 6 to 7 mil depending how bumpy the the track is. But then when you compress the front of the car, make sure the the lip doesn't touch the ground. So you can kind of see here, make sure the camera's in it correctly. It's still a tiny gap. Not a tiny gap, but a big enough gap so the body has some movement. Um, another mistake that I find is the gap between the bumper and the body shell. So, again, it shouldn't be binding up. It can rest very softly, but a lot as long as the body drops on its own weight um, and it's super close, then it's all good. But if it binds up or the gap is too big, when you break the uh the body will start rubbing on the ground. So, make sure you have just the right amount of foam there.
Okay, on to the next bit. Now, let's look at the side of the body shell. So, we need to make sure our clearances are enough for the wheels and on the track surface. So the way I do it is once it's cut, just give the body a little poke on the side and then if the side of the body rubs on the tires, then you remove it or you cut a bit or Dremel a bit off. That's fine. Okay. So the show you a bit closer.
I don't have a body tuck on the car just yet, but it is slightly rubbing or touching the rear wheel. So, if I get bumped on the side, that can get caught up and then I get a body suck. Or if I hit a curb and the rear of the car lifts up, that would also create a body tuck. So, my way of fixing that, I get a a Dremel machine, let's kind of move you uh up a bit.
And I'll just slowly try and generate more of a space. Let's see if that works.
Now we are all Yeah, now we're all good. So do that on both sides obviously. And the next part I would do is simulate the car being on the track. So just grab or poke your fingers onto the body posts and on the rear of the car and then just compress the car to the side. So kind of like drag the body towards towards me and I can see if anything's touching the ground. So the back of the car is not touching. A tiny bit here is rubbing on the floor. I don't like any of my body rubbing on the floor uh at all because especially if you're running running over a curb, it can grab the car and throw it sideways. So yeah, a tiny bit underneath the D13 bit.
So again,
Now let's try it again.
Okay, now it's fine. So it has a perfect clearance all the way around the car.
And then obviously do the same on the other side. And then yeah, let's go to the next bit.
I forgot to say earlier when talking about the rear wing height, this is how I adjust the the rear of the body. Uh they're RC Maker horizontal body mounts, I think, and they are a lifesaver really cuz before using these, I had to ream holes through the back of the body. And if you don't do it correct first time, it's very hard to adjust the the height of the the wing and the body on the rear. But these these are brilliant. And I know they're they're a bit more expensive than yeah, not using. Um, but they're very useful and I've had the same two pairs for a couple of years now and they're yeah, they're absolutely fine and they don't they don't wear out.
The threads don't wear out and they're fine in crashes. So definitely pick up these if you can. It makes things a lot easier if you are using horizontal body posts. Um, one of the final mis uh, yeah, problems or mistakes people make is when they do make the body. Try and move this camera back a second. The line from the, let me zoom out.
The line from the front bumper to the side of the body shell. I've seen so many people where they have this sticking out and it's not in line. It kind of like Yeah, it looks a bit like that. And when when it's on the car, it looks super funny and super weird, but you really need to make sure there's like a straight line from the front bumper down the side of the body shell into the back of the car. Just make sure it's a clean line. And when it's on the car, it looks Yeah, it looks much better. But I think that's it for now. I will be making a body shell making video, but it's taking a bit longer. Yeah, it'll come out in a while.
But that's kind of just a few tips to make sure your current body is yeah, on your car properly. if you need to make any adjustments. And yeah, as always, I hope it helps. And on to the next one. Cheers, guys. Thank you.
Hey guys, welcome back to my YouTube channel. Uh, so I'm currently in the UK as you can see from the background. It's not my usual setting. Um, and I'm creating a body. So, I've entered into the BRCA Nationals this weekend at West London. So, as I'm making this body, and as I said before, we have a whole A toz body video coming at some point, but I just want to show you how to get the perfect circular wheel arches. Uh so until about a year ago, I used to use the wheel arch or wheel template you can buy from many RC brands and just draw around the outside of it and then cut it with your uh circular sorry your curved scissors. And that's fine, but they don't normally come out completely circular. So about a year ago, a friend showed me a different uh process and since then I've been getting pretty good at get getting perfect circular wheel arches. So, we're going to go into what tools you need, what I use, how I do it, and uh yeah, as always, thanks for watching, and hopefully it's helpful for you. Okay, so let's get into it. So, what tools do I use? I use a compass cutter or I think in some stores it's called a paper circular cutter. you can get it from most stationary stores or I bought mine, I think it was off Amazon for about eight pound or something like that. It's quite cheap and you can get it from yeah, most online stores. So, first of all, let's get into the measurement. So, I have it set up to be, you can see there, 33.5 millimeter. And then I've glued uh I've glued that into place. So, this is the only measurement I I use on the front and rear, although the process is slightly different from cutting the rear, which I'll show you in uh a minute. But, yeah, that's the measurement I use. So, 33.5.
So the next step is to mark on the front where the axle is. So directly in the middle of the axle, just a little point.
And then you get your circular cutter.
So there's two ways of doing this. You can either kind of freehand it after you pierce a tiny hole with the circular cutter directly through the middle of the mark. You can either kind of freehand it and just do it in the air, or you can get a bit of plastic, which I use kind of one of my one of my screw boxes, and then kind of move the show around on on the box, but I just tend to do it freehand really. I think I find it a bit easier. Just start off nice and sorry, nice and softly.
And I continue to do that until the blade starts to go through the body.
It's a bit difficult to do in front of the camera at this at this angle.
So, give it a good few runs through.
Now, I didn't really do it very thorough on this part. So, so that should be enough. And now we just Sorry, get a bit closer.
It should just snap off like so. Might get a little bit of dodgy bit like this. And then we'll just get the oh the sanding drum.
And then this just to clean it up. And there we have a perfectly circular wheel arch. Now, after that's done, you want to just take off these sharp edges here.
Like, so there's a few reasons for that.
One, it can grab the carpet or grab the curb and chuck your car off. And also, it can damage your tires. So, that's the let's get to the the back section because it is a slightly different process, but I'll show you that as well.
Okay, so let's get on to the rear wheel arch. I forgot to mention, we need to make sure the car is set up before we do the front wheel arch. make sure it's set up correctly for the track. So, the ride height set correctly and the car weight is correct. So, you have the the race battery in it. as well as just the overall weight of the car is correct. so, yeah, let's double check the front wheel arch is not rubbing on the tire. It's not. So, that's perfectly good. And then let's get on to the rear wheel arch. So, what's different between the rear wheel arch and the front wheel arch? Well, we have the wheel arch a bit lower. Um, most modern bodies, especially the Avalon body, they run the rear of the body up quite high. So, you don't need the the wheel arch to be as high because the front wheels turn. So, you need a bit more space and the rear wheels obviously stay straight and you can run a bit of a smaller wheel arch. So, how do I do that? So, as previously on the front, we would do the dot directly in the middle of the axle.
And now on the rear, you go down about one to 1.5 mil below the rear axle like that. And then we just do the same process. So, I'll show you again as the umbrella tries taking off.
So, we pierce on the black mark about there. Mind your
fingers so you don't impale your fingers. And then we start making our circle.
Again, it's pretty difficult to do this in front of the camera correctly, but given it a go.
You just keep going until see that it went through the body, which is a good sign that that kind of section that I've been going over a few times is done. And now always try to spend a bit more time on the the edges or when it gets to the bottom of the body shell because that can kind of stick and you don't want to rip. You really don't want to rip that. So I haven't done this section yet. sets.
Okay, it's going to have to go through now. Do find, especially on the Avalon body, the rear of the body is quite thin compared to the front. So, you actually do need to do a bit a bit less. So, then the satisfying bit pop straight straight off.
And there we go. I know it does look a bit funny compared to the front one, but that is what a lot of the top drivers do.
So, we turn that noisy thing off. So, we have cleaned it up a bit. And again, we need to smooth off the sharp bits.
Okay. See how it looks. see how it looks on camera.
Yeah, you can maybe go a little bit higher. So, maybe just do 1 mil on the bottom of the axle instead of 1.5. But that's pretty much how the top guys do it. Um, if you look at all the photos from ETSs, the the front wheel arch is perfectly circular from enough space for the the tire to turn and the rear is a bit lower. And uh I think it gives the body a bit more strength on the rear because it helps with body tucks. If this is really thin here, it kind of folds over a bit easier. And yeah, that's how that's how we do it. And I hopefully hopefully that helps. any questions, fire them down below and I'll happily answer. And uh yeah, on to the next one. Cheers, guys.
