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Kinesthesia
2001.12.01, 10:55 AM
I've been trying to think of ways to protect my car's body. I'm on my second body now and it's already pretty tore up. While I realize it gives it a certain character, I thought the subject was worth exploring. If I put an extra coat of clear "something" around the bottom half of the car, do you think that would protect the paint from scratches, etc ? Any recommendations for what to coat it with ? I saw some "teflon" clear nail polish that I considered but thought it might be likely to crack since it probably wasn't designed to flex.

Maybe give the whole car an extra coat of some sort of sprayed on clear ?

mini-z
2001.12.01, 06:19 PM
Get a bumper! I have one and my body looks as good as the day I got it, it's absolutely brilliant.

Draconious
2001.12.01, 08:00 PM
When I first got my Mini-Z I put 4 of those 6mm or 1/4 inch wide rubberbands all the way around the car, 4 layers thick was enough to protect the mirrors too... its just a pain keeping it away from dragging on the front tire while turning etc, with out lettig it pop off.

Kinesthesia
2001.12.01, 08:01 PM
Ok, school me on the bumper situation... Large or small ? what do they look like ? where do they mount ? do they stick out past the body and if so, how much ?

I'm not sure a bumper will solve my problem since most of my hits are almost midway up on the body from the barrier around the local track. I mean... ya know even the best drivers... and the glitches... ok, so I suck...

mini-z
2001.12.01, 08:16 PM
I've got the Team Homies Large one on right now, take a look at this pic to get an idea:

http://mini-zracer.com/parts/partsdb/eagle-1644-i7-320x240.jpg

Here it is in the packaging, but the above picture probably gave a better indication of size:

http://mini-zracer.com/parts/partsdb/th-smz-005-240x180.jpg

I'll get some pics of the new Small ones we just got in ASAP. Oh, and there's also the GPM ones - take a look at the Shop for pics.

http://mini-zracer.com/shop

Cory-Z
2001.12.02, 11:34 PM
hey man, looked at the pics of your car (with the bumper on)

-What brand of turbo do u have?, mine is identical to that and i have no idea who made it..lol, plain packaging :)

thanks man

herman
2001.12.02, 11:50 PM
mini-z... was that your car? pretty neat set up. same question as Cory-z...what kind of turbo do you have on it? and what type of body goes on it?

mini-z
2001.12.03, 12:03 AM
Yep, that's my car! Here's a pic with the MR-S body on, but different rims (attached).

The Turbo is Eagle Racing. It should come in a box like this:

http://mini-zracer.com/parts/partsdb/eagle-1644-240x180.jpg

The MR-S actually has the wing removed now so it looks more like my real 1:1 black MR-S!

mini-z
2001.12.03, 12:06 AM
Actually I have a bunch of stuff on there now that's not shown in the turbo pictures too!

herman
2001.12.03, 12:11 AM
i've painted about 3 mini-z bodies, bought them separately - the kind that you really have to paint. two subaru's (one yellow, one gun metal) and one mitubishi evo (white). paint i used was tamiya color for plastics, and i did the final coating using TS-13 Clear tamiya color for plastics (note, make sure that the paint dries thoroughly up to 3-5 days before applying next coat - my yellow subaru has 3 coats of yellow, and two coats of clear)... although it did help prevent some scratches and dinks to some extent, my car was pretty beat up after some time at the tracks, just goes to show that my driving sucks too...

haven't clear coated any auto scale collection bodies thus far...

hope this helps:D

herman
2001.12.03, 12:29 AM
mini-z... that's a mean looking car!!! what kind of rims are they? and you have a real mr-s?!?!?! kewl:cool:

mini-z
2001.12.03, 09:27 AM
The rims shown in the body-off picture are GPMs; the ones in the body-on pic are RCRM. Yes, I have the same car irl. Thanks!

Kinesthesia
2001.12.03, 10:13 AM
For a bumper to protect a body, wouldn't it have to stick out further than the body and take from the scale appearance ?

It looks pretty good on your car, but the bumper and the body are the same color...

mini-z
2001.12.03, 11:04 PM
It does stick out, sorry for the confusion, the body-on pic is actually with the bumper off. It's for racing only, as like you said when displaying you don't want to disrupt the body lines.

Kinesthesia
2001.12.05, 06:58 PM
What bumper do you recommend for the MR-S ?

I've seen different bumpers for different bodies in your shop, is there a big difference between them ?

Any other ideas for coating a body for protection ?

mini-z
2001.12.05, 07:51 PM
I have the Team Homies bumper on my MR-S. It's pretty big, and it actually looks kind of cool like a ground effects kit with the body on. Plus you can always take it off for when your Z is riding the shelf. People are always shocked by how "new" my body looks, but the secret is the bumper. We have the Team Homies, the Eagle Small (smaller, so less obtrusive, but also less protection) and then the GPMs which are silver and cut to match specific bodies rather than the general purpose but generic shaped others.

Kinesthesia
2001.12.06, 01:00 AM
Not sure if you got my email but I want a silver MR-S body, and while I'd love to see a picture of your car with the body and the bumper on for scale, I'll take whichever bumper you recommend... if you think the small bumper is enough protection, I'll take it... if you feel strongly that the Team Homies is the way to go, I'll take one of those instead...

mini-z
2001.12.06, 10:15 AM
Yep, got it; I'll try to get a pic of the car w/ the bumper on for you as soon as possible. I like the big Team Homies bumper because it really protects you from just about anything. Then again, the small bumper is so cheap you could just get both and use one or the other depending on the surrounding conditions.

Kinesthesia
2001.12.06, 10:30 AM
I agree... I'll take one of each.

OzSpeedFreak
2001.12.16, 05:26 PM
Mini-z,
Dude that is one sweet looking car!

Matt.

jagr
2001.12.16, 07:57 PM
I heard that the MR-S and 206 bodies are actually weaker and easier to crack compared to kyosho's original bodies. Is it true?

Kinesthesia
2001.12.16, 08:35 PM
They body seems just as strong, and to my eyes even more detailed. However, I can say that I broke one body clip very easily. Should be easy enough to fix, and could be a fluke... but the body has endured as much damage as my other two Kyosho bodies.

mini-z
2001.12.16, 11:35 PM
jagr: that hasn't been my experience; the only body I've ever done any damage to was my Skyline R34, which was insanely fragile. The MR-S that I use most of the time has held up great.

Draconious
2002.02.15, 09:51 PM
New Idea for the paint... well old idea that I finaly remembered to post ;) LIQUID MASKING TAPE! it paints on transparent (the brands I have seen are transparent), and it peels off.