WLToys 12428 SummitLink VW Body Mounts

thingiverse

Hi guys, If Thingiverse is as slow for you as it is for me, consider looking for your 3D parts at Cults 3D: https://cults3d.com/en/users/WrenchToDrive/creations Who knew the SummitLink VW Beetle body would fit the good old WLToys 12428? Not me. Bought it for something else, found out it fits dang near perfectly. Now it's like a flashback to my old 59 Baja Bug. The wheelbase is bang on and the body sits really nicely. Link to the car running: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzj6Fbhsz-s Update: I've been using Solutech Flexible filament for a while now and it is pretty awesome stuff. I'm going to print these parts again to see how much more durable they will be and I can guarantee you that the answer is "a lot". The trade off is that I consider it to be a little bit too flexible, so it is not ideal for everything. Bumpers and body mounts will work great. The other downside is that screws don't thread into flexible filament very well (it's too soft so the screws don't cut threads, they just kinda get gripped by the filament), but these parts will work fine. I made up a front and rear mount and they work great. I hot glued the rear and used two of the screws for the body panels on the 12428 to mount the front. The screws are a bit short so I'm going to switch over to longer ones or hot glue the mount to beef it up. Zip ties would work too. I'm not sure if these mounts will work with any other Traxxas Stampede/Rustler/Bigfoot bodies like SummitLink advertises or if the mounts need to be adapted, but there might be more options to be played with. You could probably make mounts with Popsicle sticks, nuts and bolts and hot glue in a pinch because the fit is really easy. The fit in the front is a bit tight partly because I set the height so the fenders clear the tires by a few millimeters. If you stretch the front mount up a little bit you'll get more tire clearance. Update: I added a medium and tall version that are ~3 and ~6mm taller than the original respectively. The original is what I would call a perfect fit but there is a bit of tire rubbing when cornering, so go with whichever you like for the minimum clearance from the body to the tire when level and compressed. Normal 0, Med ~3mm, Tall ~6mm. If you want to test fit in the rear you can use Popsicle sticks, med is approx 3 Popsicle sticks thick and tall is approx 5 (both are a little less). Lay the Popsicle sticks on the back of the roll cage where the mount would go and then the body on top. How much the height matters will be affected by how stiff your suspension is. Mine is soft so I get a fair bit of body roll and thus tire rubbing when cornering. Stiffer suspension and you probably won't experience much rubbing. I might make a set with posts that can be positioned, so stay tuned. Not sure how durable this will be, but we'll see. Update: So far the mounts are doing well, but the bumper has broken once in -10 Celsius running so I'll be taking another look at that. I went with PLA because it actually seems to be stronger than PETG for RC parts. Surprise! As always, use at your own risk. Wrench to drive or drive to wrench?