Lessen's Mini-S

[Lessen]

My Mini-T needs new life so I figured a sprint car only seemed the natural way to go. I already have (will have whenever I finish it) an RC18 Late Model so why not add to th oval collection right?

Just the flat chassis and roll cage here.

With the rear end attached

I need to order the front/rear bulhead braces in order to finish putting it together. I had ordered it with everthing else from Stormer but they ended up not having it in stock so they just credited me and took it off the order. Right now I have an RPM bumper but for the right look I'm gonna go back to the stock bumper up front. I can't believe it but I actualy don't have one. Need to pick up one of those too.

 

[FastEddy]

Nice!!!
Not going BL with it?

 

[Lessen]

No, not right now. I'm just making the switch for the cool factor really. I don't even know of a dirt oval around here to race either of my oval cars. It's unfortunate though, I think I could really get into it. Our VRC Oval club has really peaked my interest in oval racing. I know of a shop not to far away that holds regular carpet oval races. Only 10th scale right now though.

 

[helotaxi]

No, not right now. I'm just making the switch for the cool factor really. I don't even know of a dirt oval around here to race either of my oval cars. It's unfortunate though, I think I could really get into it. Our VRC Oval club has really peaked my interest in oval racing. I know of a shop not to far away that holds regular carpet oval races. Only 10th scale right now though.

Isn't carpet oval more of a grip racing thing though. Not nearly the same as in the dirt lettin' the tail hang out.

 

[savagefan04]

lookin sweet!
how did u make the roll cage?

 

[Lessen]

Isn't carpet oval more of a grip racing thing though. Not nearly the same as in the dirt lettin' the tail hang out.

I was only saying what type of oval racing IS going on around me. Like I said before, I don't know of any dirt oval racing around here. Using a sprint car for traction oval racing is like driving a nail with a sledgehammer, a total waste of resources.

As far as the roll cage.. it's just the stock Losi Mini-Slider cage. There really isn't much to this project aside from buying the right parts to do the conversion and painting a new body. Just something different. It's significantly larger than a stock Mini-T too, longer that is. Just lookin at it next to my Rc18, the wheelbase is almost an inch longer.

Isn't carpet oval more of a grip racing thing though. Not nearly the same as in the dirt lettin' the tail hang out.

I was only saying what type of oval racing IS going on around me. Like I said before, I don't know of any dirt oval racing around here. Using a sprint car for traction oval racing is like driving a nail with a sledgehammer, a total waste of resources.



As far as the roll cage.. it's just the stock Losi Mini-Slider cage. There really isn't much to this project aside from buying the right parts to do the conversion and painting a new body. Just something different. It's significantly larger than a stock Mini-T too, longer that is. Just lookin at it next to my Rc18, the wheelbase is almost an inch longer.

 

[helotaxi]

Wow, double post within the same post. Haven't seen that before.

 

[Lessen]

Hmm.. the page was doing that slow loading thing so I copied my post, backed out and tried again. It must have posted the first time even though it never looked like it on my screen.

ordered a couple sets of chassis bulkheads last night from A-Main. As soon as they come in I can attach the front end and finally get an idea of what she'll look like standing on her own legs. I'm too cheap to buy the Mini Slider wheels and tires (besides I'm not big on chrome) so I'll just have my set of black RPM Bullies with Dirt Hawgs. Not really a true scale look but I think it'll look tough.

I was actually thinking of cutting the front wheels/tires down to make them narrow. Any ideas/opinions on that? I think narrow Dirt Hawgs would look pretty sweet on this.

Tire.. check!

 

[Rolex]

Wow, double post within the same post. Haven't seen that before.

He's experienced.

How did you slice the tire so clean? Also, if this is oval racing, shouldn't you be running smaller tires up front?

 

[Lessen]

How did you slice the tire so clean? Also, if this is oval racing, shouldn't you be running smaller tires up front?

small scissors and patience. I just spun the tire and tough the right area with an extra fine sharpie. followed the line with little scissors.

Yeah, I know real sprint cars have a bigger difference between the front and rear tires but I'm just doing a simple conversion. I havn't heard of anybody else here getting a Mini-Slider so I figured I'd post pics of mine. Losi just uses a narrow front wheel like the RC18B so I'm just going with it. If I REALLY wanted to get the tire relationship right I could cut the dog crap out of the fronts to make the sidewalls shorter but I'm not quite that comfortable with my glueing abilities. Maybe if the tires weren't already glued I'd try it.

Ohh! you just gave me another idea! since I did cut the strip of tire out clean. If I can manage to cut the strip of wheel out w/o losing too much material I could cut open the rear wheels/tires and add what I took out of the fronts to the rears. That would be PHAT!

 

[Lessen]

I decided not to attempt to add width the the rear tires. I think it would have looked great but it would involve more accurate cutting of the wheel than I am capable of with just a dremel. Besides, I would have had to move the shock mounts a little more inboard on the suspension arms to make room for the wider wheel. At at rate, here's a couple shots of the new front wheels

 

[Rolex]

Very nicely done. Silicone?

 

[Lessen]

Very nicely done. Silicone?

Thanks! CA actually

 

[savagefan04]

impressive. u definitely have me hooked on following this little adventure.

 

[Rolex]

I'm just wondering if CA will hold up to the flexing. It's pretty brittle. Silicone would need to cure overnight, but it would flex as much as the tire. Keep us posted on progress and results. I think it's gonna' look really slick.
What about the rims? did you cut a section out of them too?

 

[Lessen]

I'm pretty confident the CA will hold up. I was pretty stingy with it so it would look relatively neat, besides it really only needs a light coating in order to bond anyways. I've been messing around with them, tugging and pulling on both sides and everything seems really strong. I figure it they can hold up to me pulling on them then they should be ok. yes, the wheels were cut down as well. Basically I took 5-6 mm of width away from both the tires and wheels. However, I don't have circles of rims left over like I do tires (and foams). The cutting wheel is probably 1 mm itself so really there wouldn't be a whole lot left anyways. I'm pretty happy with the results. I was attempting to get the same width as an RC18B front tire and they turned out VERY close. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of both inside and outside pieces before I reattached them.

Here's a few more after some clean up. The vapor from the CA always tends to leave a white residue around the area but some "dry brush" of acetone can take off most of it

You'd never know these were cut from the side view.

 

[Lessen]

Finally got the bulkhead parts today. Now that the front end and roll cage is all attached and secure I can get a better idea of what she looks like standing still. Now that the body is on I can better design a paint scheme.

 

[Rolex]

Lessen, that's REALLY looking good! Excellent job on the tires.

 

[Lessen]

Thanks! Unfortunately, the right front has a very slight wobble. The Left is perfect though. I like it I got it al wired up so now it's all about the paint really, and if you've caught on to my trend for these type of things it should be rather obvious... :26-Jamie_McMurray:

 

[Azngtboi88]

wow that looks awesome, great job. how much did this conversion end up costing you?