GL Racing GLR
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- Today we are going to install a lexan body on a GLR. This involves a front bumper, a side damper mount with lexan post mount points, body posts, some body clips, lexan body, and paint. There are a few front bumper options available. I got the GLR-GT one since it looks pretty nice, but there are others which are wider and protect the front wheels better.
In the GL-GT-OP-028 bag, we have the bumper sandwich pieces, front mount, two long posts, some hardware, and body clips. I didn't need to buy the extra clips. Putting together the bumper sandwich is pretty straightforward. Don't forget to use some loctite for screws going into metal. Gotta say a bumper always looks awesome on a chassis. The carbon fiber texture matches the rest of the GLR.
Please note the GL bumper is not wide enough to fully hide the +2.5 front wheels. Because lexan is softer than hard plastic, a bumper is always used to stop killing servos.
Now let's replace the side damper mount. Okay, we got 4 body posts up and running. The 17.5mm ones in the back seen here turned out to be too short for the lexan body. I put in 21.5mm ones later. Similar lexan body post installation is available for MR-03 and other chassis too.
So I have had this unused lexan body sitting in a drawer for 3 years. It had come with the Mini-Q Q7. It's got a 98mm wheelbase and seems to allow +3 offsets front and back. It looks kind of generic, but it will be perfect for me as a guinea pig. I've never prepared a lexan body before! The body already got some mounting holes unfortunately. I will see if I can cover up the front ones with stickers later. At this moment before the body is painted, I should've marked the locations of the body posts! It becomes much much more challenging to ream the holes later!
The very first step of preparing a lexan body is washing it with soap to remove any residual molding separation agent. This body came with window masks. But still applying masks is pretty tedious. These masks don't fully cover the lexan contours so I expect some paint bleeding. The rear wing needs to be trimmed. This part also takes some time.
It's time to paint. I've been waiting for warmer weather to arrive and today is the day. Under the wood is my heater. With a good rigorous shake, it's time to lay down the first dusting of paint. This is Tamiya's PS-1 for lexan. It's important not to use TS paint as it's not designed for lexan's flex. I ended up doing 3 more layers of paint, with around 8 minutes of waiting time per round. Spray painting is not the easiest thing to do in New York City.
The end result isn't too terrible. The white paint itself is pretty okay. There's paint bleeding around the edges of the window masks. Not great but it's a learning lesson here. Also, reaming body post holes after the body has painted is not recommended. It's a big pain. Ream before paint next time.
Don't forget to peel off the protective sheet on the outside of the lexan body before putting on stickers! I almost made this mistake before catching myself.
(Yeah trying to do this one handed...)
The body came with some stickers too. These work quite nicely. I threw on more stickers, and it's good enough for my standard now. I tried to use the red "Kyosho" sticker to cover the front holes but it didn't like to stay put on the curved surface.
After making some newbie mistakes, I got it all mounted and working. In terms of looks, this body is no better than Jomurema. But with this experience I'm more comfortable preparing the next lexan body.
So why go through all this trouble when hard bodies generally look good and are so easy to use with Mini-Z and GL cars? I've never preped a lexan body so it's fun to try something new. A lexan body is also much lighter than a hard body, so although it offers less protection, it lowers the center of gravity. I'm not good enough as a driver, but pros run lexan bodies in the pan car and mod classes, the fastest cars out there. I have a few track cars so turning the GLR into a lexan car adds something different to the mix.
Let's test the body quickly. I'm not seeing any rubbing due to suspension travels or steering. If you've been thinking about trying a lexan body, I hope my experience here has helped answer some questions. I feel this is one of those things that requires practices. My next one is going to turn out better than this one. The newly released Protoform P63 body looks pretty sweet. Now I think I can get it since I know what to expect.
This is Sammy and thanks for watching!
Music: "Instructions for Living a Life", Savfk ( • Instructions for Livin... )
Thanks for this video ! I will paint my first body lexan soon, a SubRc Hibiki ! It will be a first experience.
Good luck! Preparing a body is both fun and stressful. I have a second body to work hopefully soon.
Interesting video. Does the GT Bumper kit come with all that parts including metal parts? Btw. Recently I got a used GLR with alot of stuff and there was exactly the same body in the package with the exact pre-drilled holes. My plan is, to give it a nice Mazda race paintjob. My experience with different bodies is that the pan car bodies perform very well but they need special bumpers and your built has to be very tight. The original GL-Racing lexan bodies perform almostvas good and allow normal bumpers and provide mire space inside.
Thanks. Yes, the GL front bumper shown in this video has everything to mount to the chassis, including the blue metal parts, and it also includes 2 long body posts. Good luck with the GTR build! I had some time to run this GLR with this lexan body last year and it ran really well. Handling was good and neutral. Acceleration was noticeably faster than running with a hard body.
Thanks!!
the wheel arch has been cut incorrect ?
Yup. I didn't put the body post holes correctly so it was offset towards one end. The body ran awesome but the build wasn't the best for sure. Recently I built up the protoform p63 body and that came out nicely.
@@sammybaka i just decided to go with that body shell ,everything came out really nice but then i also made the mistake of putting holes in the wrong place lol! i should have done holes before painting! love all your content by the way bro!
Thanks! Yup my lesson learned here is also to trim and ream while the body is still clear. I'm going to have a build video for the second lexan body that will lead to better results!