Traxxas Evo8 (1/8th buggy)

[EDS]

Project:Traxxas Evo8
Traxxas 1/8th Buggy
I know most of you guys are 1/10th buggy and truck guys but I thought I would post my newest project. I got this idea when I was in a brainstorm session of potential upcoming projects. After looking in it this seemed like a perfect project to get me back into the swing of making custom r/c cars. I know a few people have made 1/8th buggies in to CORR trucks and so why not a Slayer into a buggy? The wheelbase and width are perfect for being a 1/8th buggy and very close to other 1/8th's. After doing some more research I took the plunge and bought myself a Slayer roller for $140. This will be the starting point and the base for the project which will end up being the first Traxxas 1/8th Buggy.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/eds24/Traxxas%20evo8/0601091227c.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/eds24/Traxxas%20evo8/0601091227.jpg
This isn't going to be just a half-asked conversion by just putting some buggy tires,wing,and body on the stock Slayer. My project goal is to make it a competitor against other 1/8th buggies such as the 8ight, Rc8, 808. This means I will be tearing it apart and putting a 1/8th center diff in the middle and make a aluminum flat chassis to lower the Center of Gravity.Along with doing other modifications to help it be able to compete with the other buggies. I'm not much of a Nitro guy so I will be going the Lipo/Brushless route once the time comes to get it running. But, for now I'm going to be concentrating on getting this thing built. I know that I have a reputation for starting projects and taking along time to finish them. But I can promise I will all finish my projects..eventually.But first I have to finish this one and then I will work on my others.

Tear Down and Cleaning
I tore everything apart and got it all cleaned up and got rid of the stuff I don't need (Transmission, Chassis,Etc) Here is what is left.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/eds24/Traxxas%20evo8/0622091155.jpg
I apologize for the quality of the pictures once I start making more major progress I will have better quality pictures.
So far since I bought the roller for $140 and sold the parts that I didn't use for $40. I have only spent $100.Throughout the build I will be keeping tabs of how much I spend and my goal is to come out under $250 for a roller. I just bought a Rc8 Center Differential. Once I have this I can come up with a chassis design along with chassis stiffeners and battery tray designs.I will be buying a piece of aluminum sheet soon for the chassis. I'm going to start with 1/8" 6061-T6 Aluminum for the first prototype chassis. 6061 is much cheaper and and should be strong enough to do testing. Once I know the exact design and know it will work I will be making a new chassis out of 7075 material just like all the other 1/8th buggies out there and I will also be getting it anodized. Over all this project looks like it will be a pretty simple project especially compared to my other projects that I'm working on.
Here is a list of how much I'm spending on the project and I will keep updating it:

Slayer Roller= $140-40= $100
RC8 diff and stand offs=$33.74
1/8" 6061-T6 aluminum sheet=32.29

Ethan

[EDS]

Today I finally got the RC8 Center diff today. It came brand new in package and just like everything thing else 1/8th I was surprised by the size. After a few minutes of just messing around and building it I decided to try something that I had heard may work for the Center drive shafts. This is one of the only issues that I was worrying about with this project was finding some center drive shafts that would fit.I got the tip from brushlessboy16 (Who is now my new best friend:D)that I can cut down Revo axles to replace the input shafts on the center diff so that I could use sliders. I was curious and realized that I had some Revo axles on the buggy already since the Revo and Slayer use the same axles. I figured out it would actually work and started hacking away. They ended up fitting perfectly with some modification . I know that sliders don't show up in the racing dictionary but they are cheap, more "Traxxas" like, and they fix my problem of trying to find correct length Cva's that fit on the Revo diffs. Here is how I made the modifications to make the sliders work on the Rc8 Center diff.

1.First I had to shave about 1/8th inch off of the black plastic part where the axle hooks on to the sliders.

2.Then I spent about an hour and half using my hand saw to cut down the axles so that they where the same length as the Rc8 inputs.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/eds24/Traxxas%20evo8/0702091911.jpg

3. That's about all there is to it after that I just started putting it back together.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/eds24/Traxxas%20evo8/0702091911a.jpg
(Right is stock, Center is cut-down, Left is the completed one)

4. Once you have it put all together it should look like this.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/eds24/Traxxas%20evo8/0702091919.jpg

The diff mounts fit perfectly around the axle coupling so that the pin doesn't fall out.
And the diff in the mounts with the top plate..
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/eds24/Traxxas%20evo8/0702092009a.jpg

Over all I was very surprise how well everything to fit together.As far as shafts go I just used the Slayer Sliders off of the front of the buggy. I figured I can get a set to replace them off of ebay because the Slayer sliders fit perfectly.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/eds24/Traxxas%20evo8/0702092011.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/eds24/Traxxas%20evo8/0702092010a-1.jpg

Ethan
Team Kassanova