If it's metalwork then you are definitely in the right place. Mind you, we also work with various plastics, wood and resins etc, not to mention electics and electronics.

Ask your questions and someone will be sure to come up with the answer.

Brian

I build tether cars the forerunners to RC cars they are pretty fast I hold a few British records at speeds from 163mph to over 200mph actual speed.

If I can help I will, I live near Leicester.

The specific car is not such an issue as most will be the same mechanicals with just a Lexan bodyshell over the top. You can get them in both 1/8th and 1/10th scale for the nissan and as that is a part that would be hard to make best bought in.

Body suggests a track or drift car and with modern motors electric will suit both scales and possibly the simpler to build but more electronical engineering than mechanical, IC would be more have been more usual on 1/8th but the smaller engines are now readily available for 1/10th scale too.usual.

Hi Chris152, It's great that you are supporting your son in this car project. Whatever you guys build, he will learn invaluable skills for his future work, as well as the satisfaction of making something.

Just an idea for body shell construction- as Jason mentioned many RC cars use a vacuum formed Lexan shell, and that is a great way to do it. But another way, considering you mentioned your woodworking skills, would be to make a wooden body form or "buck" and lay up a couple of layers of fibreglass on it with polyester resin. Boatbuilders and model aircraft builders still use this method, and very fine weave fibreglass cloth is available. You could make the form a "negative" cavity, boat style, and use a gel coat for a fine finish, or make a "positive" core or buck, lay up the glass, and finish with body filler. It might be easier to carve a "positive" core or buck than a "negative" cavity.

The vacuum formed bodies are made on a "positive" buck usually but require use of a vacuum forming machine. The benefit of the fibreglass method is that you don't need any machine to do it, just gloves and a paintbrush , and a nice sunny day outdoors (the fumes of the resin are smelly and lots of ventilation is a must). Costs of resin and fibreglass cloth are relatively low. The method is scalable, too – lots of full size kit cars and 100 foot yachts are made of fibreglass the same way. Have a google for Burt Rutan / Scaled Composites to see how far you can go with fibreglass technology.

Good luck with the project.

Further two what Jeff said about the bodyshell you are probably now more likely to find a vac former in the DT department of a British school than a lathe so that may be a possibility.

There are also plenty of 3D cad files of suitable Nissans that can be downloaded, these could be used to 3D print the buck or former or some slicing software used to make a series of profiles along the length of the car to guide you while using more traditional methods.

The school my well also have a small CNC router that could be put to good use making components from fibreglass or carbon fibre sheet.

It's been a few years since as a teen I built a complete rear end for a 1/8th scale IC buggy with adjustable camber, wheelbase, anti roll bar etc. All done in the loft with a Unimat lathe

As far as the electronics are concerned, perhaps look at DT (Deltang) receivers and transmitter modules for a DIY build. I have found Micron R/C very helpful.

Brian

I remember when i was in high school and absolutely hooked on RC cars, i would peruse the few R/C magazines in the school library and marvel at some of the cars people had built -one was a 4wd chain driven twin motor jobby that I literally drooled the print off the pages ! Anyhow some 40yrs later i have restored , built ,made and raced a lot of cars – mostly on road but id play around with offroad stuff occasionally.

I would advise you to sit down with your son and figure out exactly what he wants to build as there are a few options that will require different skill sets .

So a list similar to this might get you both pointed in the right direction :

On road or offroad – remembering that an offroad car can drive on a road but an on road car will struggle if it has low ground clearance.

Electric or internal combustion engine – mostly governs your drive system and battery requirements and is governed by the size of the car – big cars need big motors and the line trimmer engine is perfect for big cars.

Suspension or a basic pan car – setting up and making suspension components adds to complexity and will require machinery, a pan car has no suspension and is a lot easier to make ( just for clarity i call a pan car a car that is made from a flat plate chassis , no suspension and no differential) some have different descriptions.

Physical size – 1/12 ,1/10,1/8 or 1/5 – bigger is easier to make but will cost a bit more for materials but you can use engines from old line trimmers to power it but you will need beefier servos to control it.

Radios – this is an area you don’t want to skimp on so don’t use those cheapie radios as they have a small transmission range and usually no failsafe features .

You used to be able to download a car set up guide from Hudy which explained in great detail how suspension geometry , shock settings and spring rates worked – the basic fundamentals are the same for a model car or a full sized vehicle – physics is physics – it doesn’t change .

Not sure about the Maruder being possible with basic tools but their stock cars are a lot more basic in construction being solid rear axle and rudamentry front springs.

Still got my Maruder in a cupboard, twin wishbone front and single wishbone independent rear suspension would tale a bit more tooling.

I used to be into nitro RC cars when I was younger so may be able to help.

If you have never had an RC car and you are just starting out with machining it might be easier to buy a cheap second hand car and simply copy all the parts in metal, or adapt to your own design IMO.

Neil, I had a Tamiya as a kid too – the pick up truck, it was very fast but the suspension and steering always needed fixing. You can get them now but they are very expensive. I not sure what happened to mine, probably got sold when I left home.

Chris – good luck.

Another quick point, Nitro is fun and all, but a good electric brushless setup with a lipo is simple, clean, rapid charging (but you need the right charger) and astonishing power. Way more reliable than nitro and more cost effective too.

A lot will depend on what your son wants out of the car and how much he can put into it. A very simple flat or pan chassis with solid rear axle and primative front suspension will be relatively easy to make with minimal tools, there are budget race classes for cars like this such as the Mardave cars.

At the other end of the scale you can have fully adjustable suspension, diffs, gearboxes 4WD etc which will require more work and equipment and possibly buying in more parts. Some people do get a bit carried away and also make the engines too such as this V10 powered car which is right at the opposite end of the scale compared to a Mardave