[KensRedZed]

A few friends recently acquired an aluminum chassis. Here's a step by step on how I fumble through a typical assembly.

Part 1: Installing the body to the chassis.

Glue the hood in place. I paint the body. Some people prefer to paint it after installing the body posts. Less chance of damage from handling. But, I have no patience.

   
   

Glue and true the tires to the diameter written on the chassis.
Press the bearings in by hand.
Install the axles in one front and rear wheel flush to the edge of the axle.

Now you'll need to guess on how many axle spacers it will take until the tires barely touch the inside of the body on all four corners. It will take a few tries to get the spacing just right. Too loose and the body falls off the chassis. Too tight, and the body will flex/break apart. Or, unglue the tires by force.

I have a drawer filled with various sizes of axle spacers from 0.06mm to 4mm.

This chassis required 11.15mm axle spacers in the front, and 11.88mm at the rear to create a snug fit to the body.

   

Here's the body sitting on the bare chassis. If I pick up the body. The chassis comes with it as one piece. I can set the ride height, etc.

   

Once I'm happy with how the car sits. I insert a toothpick through the body post hole and measure it to get a close guess on the post length. The Charger came out to 28mm front, and 29mm rear.

Install the body posts to the chassis and do a dry test. If all looks good, you can start preparing the body and posts for the epoxy.

   

Note the area where the posts sit in the body and scrape the paint off. Then use a sharp blade to make X-cuts in the plastic where the epoxy will be applied.

I also sand/rough up the end of the body post by hand. It helps the epoxy stick.

   
   

Then while the posts are still attached to the chassis. Apply epoxy to the inside of the body and on the posts. Make sure a small dab of epoxy goes into the posts. Quickly set the chassis into the body allowing the tires to center everything. You can adjust the chassis to make sure it's square, and that the tires line up with the wheel wells. Gently hold it together, and check it several times. Allowing the epoxy to harden while upside down to create a better glue fillet.

Ten minutes later, the 5-minute epoxy has hardened.

   

Now remove 1.15mm spacers from each corner of the front axle, and 1.88mm spacers from each corner of the rear axle. The tires have clearance, and body is square to the chassis. The end result is 10mm of axle spacers on all four corners.

Now that the chassis is at it's final and proper width. I can measure the axles to see how much to cut off each axle. The back end of a set of calipers do the job well.

   

Body installed on the rolling chassis. Axles cut.

   

This was the build sheet.

   

Motor and guide installation is next.

Thank you for looking,
Ken