I need to replace a side clip on one of my ASC bodies. After some searching here and on the wider web, it appears that Kyosho doesn't sell them as replacement parts. Correct?
I found a few for sale on Shapeways (Byebye Racing, Fovea3d, and Useful Idiot), or it seems that others have cannibalized a white body for the clips.
Any suggestions for the best source for a replacement side clip?
Thank you!
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TyrellMadeMe
Washington, DC and Driggs, ID
New to Mini-Z...be gentle!
That is correct. Kyosho does not offer them separately. In part, they are not modular, especially for older Autoscales as the clips were lightly different vs. more modern ones that are more uniform. 3d print them and will need to trim to suit the car.
Was it a newer side clip? The older ones were pretty much tanks.
I believe the only other way to get genuine ones outside cannibalizing some ascs you may have are in whitebody sets. Not sure how much the printed ones cost or how good they are so I do not know if it would be a better option to just buy a whitebody set.
The clips are less rounded now and the plastic seems more brittle compared to what we had years ago. Autoscale quality in general has also gone down too though. My new r32 and r34 bodies sat crookedly out of the box lol. I don't ever recall having to mess with the older side clips on ascs just for them to sit correctly.
This quality issue along with the lack of a real glosscoat and how expensive these ascs have gotten is pretty crappy for an already niche scale.
I don't disagree with those sentiments in general however is worth noting we begged, pleaded for less weight and in part, bearing the fruits of this labor. Much thinner plastics, more brittle, etc. The cost issue is baffling to me because HRC can make a more detailed white body for comparable price. GL did the same and included the dummy chassis. I'm not sure where the money pit is in their process but smaller runs from boutique brands are beating them at their own game. I saw the YouTube video Kyosho released showing the hand painting process for the Autoscale so they are not entirely mass produced by robot assembly lines. Each is hand painted and assembled, so your going to get some variation in the process simply by the nature of the process. that and with much smaller runs, perhaps the tolerance levels are much higher. just speculation on my part on the last bit.
Given the 3d printed parts need trimming to work regardless, far more cost effective to use those than spend money on anything else. If you have a friend with a printer, it's less than $1 in plastic. Shapeways, thats high way robbery in terms of cost as well.
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