Velcro

I added velcro to the bottom of everything now that I know it works. This apparently holds up to 10 pounds, which is much more than what we have here.

For the top Greeblies

For the PCBs

For more of the side Greeblies

They will all have to wait for the shell to be painted before I stick the other sticky side on.

Attaching the Traxxas, plus some sanding

The weather wasn't good for painting today (heat and wind), and I was recovering from covid19 dose 2 Friday-Saturday, so I decided to drill holes for attaching the Traxxas Bandit to the shell. It was really the only thing I could do. I saw other methods, but builders like Eric (showed me his droid at a build just before covid19 hit) recommended the bolt method. 

This is the area is where a few screws can go, the ideal is about 4, no more than 6. 

I also sanded off some more material with my dremel to allow the wheels more room in the middle and wheel wells.

I took a break to gently sand my shells with 300 and 320 grit sandpaper. This helps the paint adhere better, and I will give it a cleaning later to get off any dust, burs, and dirt. I followed a guide like this one https://www.hunker.com/13413297/how-to-prep-paint-abs-plastic, as I did recall builders advising sanding. 

You can see here it is not super shiny anymore and has some sanding dust, but is NOT scratched. Be gentle and use fine grit sandpaper. You can use a tack cloth on this later. 

I got 250 assorted screws, nuts, and washers from Harbor Freight because we ALWAYS seem to run low on them. I'm thinking of another Mouse or Gonk droid later, upgrades for this Mouse Droid,  Mo from Wall-E, and/or general household repairs for these. 

I'm using the 1 inch long machine bolts here, smallest I could find. I have read countersunk machine screws are also recommended, so these bolts aren't the be-all end-all here.

I didn't want my Traxxas slipping around while measuring and drilling, so I tested some of the heavy duty velcro I bought. It held things steady, but will need to go later as there's too much space between the shell and RC car now. This should definitely work for the Greeblies. 

I only had to test two drill bits to find the right one for the bolts. I have no idea how long my dad has had these, but they work.

Bolts, nuts, and washers assembled here. I'm likely using 4-6 of these setups in the final product. 

I wasn't sure what to expect drilling through this plastic, but it was quite easy. The bit went through the shell easily as well, but I expected that. 

I will be doing some more research on how to assemble everything here, because the washers will help spread out some force and weight. 

It looks like the weather will be better for painting next weekend, which is the good news. 

The bad news....There's also a new issues where the wheels push against the frame, meaning it won't drive very well (if at all). I will likely redo the shocks/suspension (stronger material), get better wheels, and/or sand down a tiny bit of the frame if needed (would hate to do this to such a nice frame). I'm going to do research on this before anything, though. 

Side Greeblies Design

I decided to use some spare time to arrange the side panels, made up of PCBs and rhinestones and ICs, in a design. I settled with this. I need to paint the shell before attaching anything. 

 

Finished PCBs

I finished fitting the ICs and gluing rhinestones to the PCBs. You can see a few are still drying, but they are dry as of now. 

 

Side Greeblies Update

More progress has been made on the side Greeblies PCBs. I have about 7 left to go now.

The longer ICs came today, which you can see easily on the shorter stack to the left (compared to the smaller square ones).

Preview for later, I started doing research on how to attach the RC car to the bottom shell. It looks like a few hex bolts can go through some empty plastic space of the car and into the bottom shell. Then I can secure it with washers and hex nuts. This one method some other builders have told me about, and it seems I have the right tools for the job, so it looks like the one I will stick with.

Quick Side Greeblies Update

I've been hand placing ICs into the PCB boards on and off over the past few days, and have about 14 more to go. I have no idea why they can be so tricky to fit into the boards sometimes, but I always get it eventually. More rectangular ICs should be coming soon. I'm doing random patterns of rhinestones in there as well. 

Bottom Shell Work

The end of the cutting and sanding journey (probably the most time consuming part) with the new dremel is here. I cut out and sanded down the wheel wells to fit the Traxxas wheels.

Here is a rough cut for one of the front wheels

We had a small tragedy where one of the blades that came with my dremel broke. I wasn't able to find all the pieces. Luckily, a reinforced blade came with the dremel kit. Apparently, the normal cut off blades can be fragile and break often, so I will need to buy more (probably of a different type).

I'm still new to the dremel, and there were some tight spots, so maybe I was doing something a bit wrong. More practice never hurts.

I spent some time putting the wheels back on the car for measuring purposes.

At the end of a couple hours, I had cut outs made and smoothed out for the front and back wheels. 

I may go over the wheel well areas again to smooth everything out more, and maybe take out more material from the middle for some buffer space, but I'm not sure yet. I will be attaching the car to the bottom shell later, and that should keep things pretty steady.