Tummy Tuck - A Different Approach

[Mudinyeri]

OK, I'll be the first to admit it, there are already several tummy tuck writeups. After reading most of them, though, I decided I wanted to try one of my own that was a little bit different. This tuck gives you considerably more clearance under the belly - albeit not as much as some - and allows you to snap on the un-altered body just like new.

1. I started by removing the battery and pulling loose all the electronics.

2. I then chopped the gut off about 1/4" above the Atlast decal and just below the supporting structure to the control arm limiting tabs.





3. I then sliced just a tad more than 3/4" off of the top of the belly. (Make your cut line at 3/4" and cut right on the line. That will remove about another 1/16" if you use the fiberglass Dremel cutting blades.)



4. The remianing belly pan will be mounted back in its almost-original position. I used RV Goo (rubber cement) and, as you'll see in a bit, a couple zip ties to secure the belly pan.

5. Once the belly pan glue has dried, put all the electronics, including the frequency switch, back in their original locations. The smaller of the two boards will only have one mount, but we'll take care of that in a bit.



6. Slice a piece out of the plastic electronics cover wide enough to allow the larger board to stick through and remount the two pieces of the cover.



7. I used the angled piece from the discarded 3/4" of belly to cover the gap left by the now-shortened belly pan and pushed the small circuit board up into the holders in the top cover. You'll notice I also used a high-tech battery retention device (zip tie) which also ensures the belly doesn't bust loose if the glue starts to deteriorate.



The result is nearly an inch of additional breakover clearance compared to stock (in the background in the photo below).



Feel free to post here or shoot me a PM if you have any questions.

Oh, and yes, you can see some of the components of my 1:6 Nylint tube chassis in the background in pics 5 & 6.

[icu_runnin]

Nice!

[muslhed]

That's a very clean way of doin it! Nice job! About the battery.....how did you position it, and does it clear the body without modification to it? Pics of that?

[SlammedMini469]

thats basically what i did, except i only added about 1/4 inch of the bottom piece. i also couldn't reuse the stock board mounts, but i got more clearance. i used some thick copper wire as safety wire in case the jb weld breaks, and then covered it with a skidplate that is also screwed into the main chassis.

BUT i had to loose the interior :(

[Mudinyeri]

Originally Posted by muslhed

That's a very clean way of doin it! Nice job! About the battery.....how did you position it, and does it clear the body without modification to it? Pics of that?

The battery is positioned upright, as it is in the stock belly. As long as the top of the battery doesn't stick up above the top of the chassis more than about 1/4", the body will fit just fine.

Did you want a pic of the body on the chassis or a different pic of the battery?

[gregman_1]

Are you still using the stock battery? That's great!

[muslhed]

Just a pic without the body on, so we can see how far the battery sticks up. How did you secure the battery in after this mod?

[Mudinyeri]

Originally Posted by muslhed

Just a pic without the body on, so we can see how far the battery sticks up. How did you secure the battery in after this mod?

I'm still using the stock battery and I secured it with a zip tie.

Here are the pics:

[Snow]

great job but last 2 pics of battery looks like the glue isnt holding to good

but ill try it on my old chassis for practice before i chop up the 2 new ones i have

[muslhed]

Looks real good! Thank you for the pics. It does appear that the glue is seperating somewhat. Might try some type of epoxy.

[SlammedMini469]

i used JB Weld on mine, plus safety wire and the skidplate also hold it. mine is not going anywhere...

[RD400]

I went crawling with mudinyeri today, that tuck works great. I tried running my stock Nylint on the same line, no comparison. He could got 20 feet without feet with out touching his truck, I could go about 18 inches.

I am doing this to mine soon

[Mudinyeri]

Yes, I'm very happy with its performance. The rainbow flex was kinda fun too. I just need to re-attach the belly pan. I think JB Weld is the way to go. Liquid Nails just didn't hold up to the torque and stress on that thing.

On a related note, I think the TT also increases the flex of the frame (in a good way) considerably.

[Mudinyeri]

Haven't posted anything in this thread for a while so I thought I'd drop in an update. I've added an HPI Rubicon body to my tummy tucked Nylint for a little bling. Overall, they tummy tuck seems to have helped performance quite a bit. My biggest problem now is that huge front axle/differential. That thing hangs up on a lot of stuff. Oh well, maybe I'll solve that problem with my tuber/4 link that I'm working on.

Here are a few action pics:

[12flex]

looks sweet

just 2 big pointers and one small one

1 paint your wishbones black ( it'll make evrything look more realistic )
2 and please cut those body posts down

3 maybe get savage shocks, they perform better and look better than stock

LATER

[Mudinyeri]

Originally Posted by 12flex

looks sweet

just 2 big pointers and one small one

1 paint your wishbones black ( it'll make evrything look more realistic )
2 and please cut those body posts down

3 maybe get savage shocks, they perform better and look better than stock

LATER

Thanks.

1. Not gonna mess with painting the wishbones ... don't really care how they look and my tube-chassis build takes up too much time as it is

2. One of these days I'll get around to cutting them

3. I have a set of Savage shocks, but they're going on my tube-chassis. I also have a set of Traxxxs shocks, but the front diff is a much bigger performance-limiting factor than the shocks at this point