Wraith is going on a DIET!

[mewalsh100]

I had my Wraith built up with all sorts of scaler items, aluminum body panels, LED light bar up front, rear light bar, fuel cell, hi-lift jack, fire extinguishers, etc. Since I'm building a true 1.9 scale Truggy, I figured I'd get the Wraith back to fighting weight and bag a lot of the non-essentials. So far, I snubbed the front nose, did a type of FastBack mod, blacked the interior floor pan and patched up all the old LED and accessory lighting holes in it with aluminum, I also fabbed up an aluminum dash since the old lexan one was mangled.

Waiting on my BGR Fab front and rear shock towers. In the meantime, I'm re-positioning my electronics. Receiver used to live up front, and ESC road shotgun with passenger seat delete. Using an RC4WD fuel cell to position the receiver out back, moving the ESC up front where the receiver used to be. My PullerPro 3500kv and BLE are due here Wednesday. Can't wait to see the difference with the increased brushless power and weight loss. (Was running a 13T CrawlMaster and BR-XL.)

I'm also going back to a lexan body versus all the aluminum panels. Have an un-painted ProLine Wrangler Rubicon body laying around that should do nicely.

[tokyo banana]

That dash looks so clean!

[HumboldtEF]

Nice! I always seem to build heavy rigs but I've been looking at a few areas for weight savings on my Wraith and I happened to pull one of the seats out and man are they heavy, they seem to be solid plastic and pretty thick. Anyway I picked up a set of the Gmade Gom seats which are definitely lighter and a similar size.

I may just get started on that tonight and I can post up a pic and some weights of each if you'd like.

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by tokyo banana

That dash looks so clean!

Thanks man! I'm thinking about doing a whole floor pan next.

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by HumboldtEF

Nice! I always seem to build heavy rigs but I've been looking at a few areas for weight savings on my Wraith and I happened to pull one of the seats out and man are they heavy, they seem to be solid plastic and pretty thick. Anyway I picked up a set of the Gmade Gom seats which are definitely lighter and a similar size.

I may just get started on that tonight and I can post up a pic and some weights of each if you'd like.

The Axial seats are heavy! I was thinking that when I put the passenger seat back in. I would definitely be interested in what the weight difference is. Where did you score the GOM seats?

[HumboldtEF]

Originally Posted by mewalsh100

The Axial seats are heavy! I was thinking that when I put the passenger seat back in. I would definitely be interested in what the weight difference is. Where did you score the GOM seats?

Okay I finally weighed the Gom seats and they aren't the huge weight savings I had hoped for.
The stock Axial seat is 1.9 oz, 3.8 oz for the set
The Gmade Gom seat is 1.4 oz, and 2.8 oz for both

So 1 oz of weight savings, oh well at least it was something

side by side, the Gom seats are 3/8" taller and 11/16" wider at the bolster



Also the side bolster sticks out farther, just a bit past the cage. The interior panel could likely be trimmed to allow the seat to move inwards. Maybe with some heat these can be bent inwards as well.



RPP has the seats for sale though I imagine there are better options out there, maybe a 3D printed one since it should have a honeycomb inner structure.

[mewalsh100]

I like the look of the GOM seats! Are you going to go ahead and use them then? I agree - I think you could probably use some heat to mold them to fit. That way you're not hacking on them. Thanks for the info!

[HumboldtEF]

Originally Posted by mewalsh100

I like the look of the GOM seats! Are you going to go ahead and use them then? I agree - I think you could probably use some heat to mold them to fit. That way you're not hacking on them. Thanks for the info!

Yeah I will be using them after all. I'm not sure I'll be putting my driver back though, Homer might just be too fat.

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by HumboldtEF

Yeah I will be using them after all. I'm not sure I'll be putting my driver back though, Homer might just be too fat.

DOH! LMAO!

I've been looking at different driver options. I did order a Spawn lexan Interior for weight savings, but it's back ordered in to January. I'm still going to go ahead with this interior since I have another Wraith chassis that I can build up over time for my daughter. I found these drivers on EBAY and they look legit, if not a bit pricey.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-10-scale-....c100290.m3507

If you scroll through the pics, he's even got one mounted in a Wraith and the scale looks great!

[mikemcE]

I’m lovin the dash also. How is it mounted? I may have to bend one up!


Hang up and Drive

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by mikemcE

I’m lovin the dash also. How is it mounted? I may have to bend one up!


Hang up and Drive

Hey Mike - I mounted it the same way as the stock lexan unit. Just measured up and marked out the two holes that mount it to the Trans tunnel. Even used the same hardware. I laid all the patterning out on the aluminum stock with a Sharpie first. Then cut to the outer perimeters, did my bends and cleaned up the edges.

Looking at doing a whole floor pan next. Due to the complexity of the bends, I think it will need to be in 3 pieces, Driver side, Passenger side and Trans tunnel. Then I'll either use pop rivets, some small stainless hardware, or ideally, spot weld it.

[mewalsh100]

So I just ordered one of the drivers figures from the Ebay link above. You can specify driver (they're NASCAR), seat color (Black or Gray) and Harness color. Pretty cool.

[mewalsh100]

Got the Proline dash decals stuck on the aluminum dash. Body is taped up and being painted tonight!

[mewalsh100]

Not exactly the color I was going for, but I guess it'll do. I bought a Fluorescent Powder blue, not realizing it had to be backed with a solid of the same color. I ended up backing it with a darker can of blue I had laying around. at $10 a tiny can, you'd think there was actual gold in the paint!

[TheLetterJ]

Yeah, fluorescent colors seem to turn out best when backed with plain ol' white. I hate finding that stuff out the hard way!

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by TheLetterJ

Yeah, fluorescent colors seem to turn out best when backed with plain ol' white. I hate finding that stuff out the hard way!

Yeah. I should've known better. I did a FLO green body a few years back. I ended up going back to buy the solid green to back it. And then white behind that. Oh well, it turned out ok and it's just going to get thrashed up any way!

[84yoda]

When are your BGR shock towers arriving? I ordered the rear from amain today, but front is out of stock. I should have the rear here tomorrow. But the reason I ask is I've seen a few people mention about the front not having the 2 side braces, and being wobbly so I was going to see if you noticed that yet.

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by 84yoda

When are your BGR shock towers arriving? I ordered the rear from amain today, but front is out of stock. I should have the rear here tomorrow. But the reason I ask is I've seen a few people mention about the front not having the 2 side braces, and being wobbly so I was going to see if you noticed that yet.

I ordered them direct from BGR. They're supposed to be showing up tomorrow. I haven't heard about that issue? I'll post when I get them installed with my impressions. Did you hear about that here on the forums?

[84yoda]

Ya, I came across this thread yesterday.

Stiffening up front end after bgr tower install

Edit: When I get my front tower ordered, Im thinking about trying those 27mm standoffs from rc4wd or reuse some plastic from the cage. I can't imagine it being that bad, but definitely keep us posted.

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by 84yoda

Ya, I came across this thread yesterday.

Stiffening up front end after bgr tower install

Edit: When I get my front tower ordered, Im thinking about trying those 27mm standoffs from rc4wd or reuse some plastic from the cage. I can't imagine it being that bad, but definitely keep us posted.

Will do. As soon as you mentioned the issue, I started thinking about the same types of solutions that were in that thread link. If it does seem to lack stiffness, I don't think it'll be too difficult to engineer a fix. I'll post up when I get them installed.