Time to start my 08 shell, going for my usual colour scheme and wound down windows, lots of vents and of course some nice wide arches!!. Im going all out on this bad boy Ive decided its time I had a shell to rival my chassis.

Part List
2x Yokomo 180SX Shells - 1 Cut & fitted , 1 Hacked up & Massacred
Yokomo Ver 2 LED light kit - BOOOO wont work with my radio gear.
3 Racing Active light kit - Double BOOOO now this one wont work with my radio gear. - but now Ive Mod'd its going in anyway!!
Yokomo LED Exhust tip Red/yellow - DONE
Yokomo Exhaust tip (for the turbo screamer pipe!) - DONE
Yokomo LED Mirrors (Colour coded with the body) - DONE - Just need clear coating
Yokomo wiper (Single wiper conversion, Euro style!) - DONE
D-Craft Light Buckets -
SWP bonnet pin base Red - DONE

SWP 6mm Slidemasters with Oamuari style "TA" lip
SWP 8.5mm Slidemasters with Oamuari style "TA" lip

Custom work
Widebody full front & rear wing extension - DONE
Internal bodylines - DONE
Wound down windows - DONE
All vents cut out & meshed - DONE
Extra vents in bonnetDONE, front wingsDONE& rear wings, rear quarter windowsDONE and rear bumper
Sunroof - To cut or not to cut???
Handmade IC
Handmade canards & splitter (Don't fret BigRed there will be a Faq!)
Handmade Oamuari style Vent tube
D-Craft style number plate light - Binned off as there's enough LED's already!
D-Craft CF - Went back to the trusty XXXMain stuff

Ahh the joys of cutting and sanding all over again.....
Ive made a good start on the base shell, ive finished cutting the body & extending the wing's, the windows and extra vents still are on going.

The 1st cut of the rear wheel arch cut to yokomo's wheel arch line, needed a touch more clearance for the ride height Im after!

2nd cut, now clear enough to allow to let the shell sit as low as I want it but it will still allows the wheel its full range of travel without twating the shell.

A Couple of shots of the front arch after the 2nd cut, a bit more involved than the rears, I had to cut the fronts deeper to give me the ride height and also increased the width of the wing to give enough clearance for the 6mm dish wheels turn with out fouling the shell.

HUGE WHEEL GAP, the wide arch will cover that (I hope!!)


That was a lot quicker than I expected boys! And I thought I taken sneaky enough pics

Seeing double!

Its going to be an evolution of my 2006 D1rc shell. Boring? maybe! but I love the 180SX, im getting a real one this summer!!

A early shot of base shell mounted with wheel arches cut to Yokomo's line, as you can see it was sat on the wheels!! The shell marked out & ready to be cut slightly lower than it should be, the lower cut should give it the low mean stance Im after. The wiper, mirrors & exhaust all temporary fitted and most of the vents marked out for cutting.

A short while later........




Vents are progressing nicely (& quicker than usual!! My 07 liner gave me enough practice!) The vents for the front bumper, bonnet & front wings are done they just need a final sand to straighten the edges out, it looks a bit tatty at the mo but its just the overspray protection lifting, it will be fine once its removed.

Extra bonnet vents above (roughly) where the manifold & turbo are on real 180's.

I hate cutting bonnet scoops, getting the dremel in without catching the body is a art form in itself!
Needs a sand though....


Wound downs are done im just finishing the drilled rear quarter windows and some sanding, more pics hopefully later on!

Wound down front windows and vented rears done, still needs sanding.
You'll have to excuse the making tape, bloody overspray lifting again it always does...


Side view of the progress so far.

Not much else I can do to the base shell yet, needs the wide arches mounting before the other vents get cut. Ive almost got the rear arches figured out but im still a bit stuck for ideas on the fronts.
It also needs a fair bit of fine sanding still but simply put I cant be arsed today, Ive breathed in enough lexan dust for one day.

I badly want to start cutting these but Ive done enough for one day, I don't want to rush and screw em up, even at Genki's prices they aint cheep shells!!

Thats it for today, Im off to fill my lungs with something other than lexan dust

Very small update, to tired to do much today.

Still its progress! Yoke Version 2 LED's are on the way along with the SWP bonnet pins.

yay a widebody 180sx is coming!!

It has to be a widebody 180sx

The wide arch will definately cover those up.... You have a choice 6mm / 8mm Cant wait to see this complete..

How to! How to! How to! How to!

Ya catch ma drift?

Very nice keep us posted!

Nice, I'm just getting a 180sx, best car ever

What do you use for the cutting?

Time for them arches bud... Enjoy your chill and sit back looking at a hard days graft. its all good :-)

NICE!

can't wait to see the fi nished product.

woooo so much cutting ^^
what colours you going for?

cant wait for progress

wow. That is a WIP for REAL!!! I can't wait to see it done.

Nice progress! I like the functional cut outs. NJ job so far! Keep it up.

nise bud ilove the 180sx.....

Are you taking part in the D1RC Euro? I think this is going to be a nice body.. :D

Cheers for the support people! I best make sure I do a good job of it then!!!
Slow progress at the mo as Im not starting the arches/wings until weekend, that way I can hit em hard and hopefully get both rears knocked out in a day plus finishing the venting the rear bumper, boot & arches, none of which can be done until the arches are mounted.
Good thing is Im about half way to figuring/designing the front arches, which is a whole half closer than I was on Sunday!!

Niklas- Yeah I think Im at the Euros (If JT allows me!), but this should'nt (time allowing) be the shell Im running, Ive got another one in progress But this shell will be there for show.

Neb- Take a guess mate! I will give you a couple of clue's....
2006 D1rc Shell

2007 D1rc Shell

You don't need your countries representative's permission to enter... you'll just go onto the wildcard entry list which is already starting to get filled up. So send an entry in Paul.

P.S. Wildcard entries still represent their country of origin at the event.

Hi,
what are you using to cut out all the vents and stuff?

Cheers Jan

Progress time! Been having big problems with my internet and a small one with my DRC account(Cheers Eddie!) so Ive made quite a bit of progress, well I think so .

Most of the cutting on the main body is finished just need to adjust the rear wheel arches, front wings done already have a bit of paint(No candy red yet) and detailing done, the rears need a tweak to the wheel gaps, I need to finish cutting the and shaping them around the rear lights as well as adding some vents.
Oh yeah and Im toying with the idea of a sunroof.....

And as I found out yokomo's active light kit does not work with my radio gear,.

And how the Phil & Steve knock up new widebodys for each round of D1rc baffles me, so much cutting, sanding and shaping to do. Fair play to them.
Enough chat..

Ouch, nerves of steel and a steady(ish) hand later. Rough cut with my dremel tool.


Mock up time, almost looks like a lot of real drift cars apart from they use duct tape! I did say ALMOST.

.....nuff said.

Decided it best to mock up with both side on at once, that way I could get the body nice and central and not end up with different offset arches each side, OCD you've got to love it!! Lots of black lines, cutting, dremel work and sanding later....


Got the body too centre and decided on the final lines. I attached using the screws that came with the shell's, only because I could'nt find any pop rivet's small enough in the garage...



Almost done, still needs a good trim around the lights and a sand with 600's but its a step in the right direction.
Now for the fronts which I somehow knew would be a lot harder, especial as I still had only half a idea how there were going to look.

More pen marks, measure twice cut once!

Tape time again, the body was way off centre at the front so on went the other side to help square it up.

Squared up nicely so I thew the D-craft buckets and lids on for inspiration, the buckets are so so nice!, both the front and rears are top quality.


Shapes almost there in these shots until you spin it round.....

HUGE FKIN HOLE. .
Still not sure how I feel about those "cough" vents. Ive a few ideas Im playing with still, but I decided to get some colour on first.

One side done apart from the vents and some final sanding.

Thats your lot for today, theres more progress like both wings are on and the screamer pipe is sticking out of the front wing to name a couple of bits.
But its taken long enough typing this so more tomorrow.

Oh yeah, Lalalo Im not ignoring you pal! give me chance and I will get a pic up, theres way too much stuff to do a list.

the big hole on the front fender is no biggie..lots of widebodies do that and so does the tamiya ztune only smaller

looking amazing..keep up the good work looking forward to the finale, im working ona widebody 280z myself

This is looking brilliant. Best WiP on here, keep up the good work !

oh and you said ''OCD you've got to love it''

lmao dont worry fella its a way of life, and if you refer to staring at your shell contemplating whats next then maybe thats the green for ya !! lol

wow! there is some serious detail in this project. good luck m8 :D

wow mate looks fantastic!!! wide arches look hot! cant wait to see it finished . nice cutting too .

wat u goin for as far as rimmage?

Part two!
Still some cuts and adjustments to make but Im happy so far! I could'nt afford the £££ to go and balls it up
The saga continues..

Vents cut, 1 front arch done!

And the other one. Took twice as long to get it to match the other!





Ahhh the worst bit over, im not doing another one after this!!

All this sanding kills me, before I started this Id already spent over 40 hours sanding my old man's 1:1 kit car for paint, never again!


Now thats a whole lot of bodywork to be sanding!, I should of washed the dust off before I took the pic's though...
I will post some better Pic's of that as soon as we get it back from paint! And no that aint me in the second pic, but I may end up looking that way!!!!




LED exhaust mounted, and screamer pipe in place(if only it worked!)

Got paint! The black stuff in the tube is what I use for my shut/panel lines, its the same colour on both sides so you can use on the inside of the shell. You can see it on my other shells at the top of page 2, all the bodylines are internal on both, the silver pin stripe's around the CF tears on my Z-tune is done the same way.

Masked, scuffed up & ready for some color!

And thats about it so far, only the front wing have seen paint yet and thats only the heat shield for the screamer pipe and the black lower lip. I want to adjust the rear wheel arches a bit more yet and make some small tweak to some bits on the base shell like cutting the inner arch even further back, got to shed a few grams now she's got that fat as5!

did I mention a sunroof....... hmmmm

I hope to do a bit this weekend but I mad busy racing karts (3 man teams, 2hour endurance race ), fixing my mates Celica AGAIN (it gets more rebuilds than Sumo Power's R33 drag car!) and hopefully sorting out some possible D1rc business.
Fingers crossed!

Skinny- Thats the rims im using that its sat on, +6mm SWP 5 spoke's (I want some 8.5's as well) , I just need to add the red "Time Attack" style lip to them.

Adios!

way cool!!! where's the screamer pipe?? I could only spot the zorst.....?

hey dude any update yet? cnt wait 2 see this looks wicked mate

yOUR Dad's car looks similar to the Mach5.

Small update. Been busy.
Ive re-shaped the rear arches a bit & finished the cut outs for the lights. On the both F&R arches ive done the black lower lips, the fuel cap is masked off for CF and the front indicators are masked, the heat shield for the front wing is painted to.
Only just started masking the main body, lower lips are masked just the side window masks to go on then I can start masking the surround's up.
Ive made a few trail bits of vent hose & started some of the detail parts.
A few pics.

Cut the inner arches further back re-shaped the outer wheel arch as well

The heat shield for screamer pipe, the black detail lines are internal.

Front wings masked and lower lip painted waiting scuffing before paint.




Mmmmmmm, candy red.......
Just a couple of light coats to seal the masking an the detail lines & I needed some inspiration to finish masking the main body, I wont finish painting the red until I can do the arches and body together.
I don't want a patch work paint job!

You know what you got to do for that inspiration don't you :-zzZZ Thats a big job you have undertaken there.

Looks cool mate.........What engine you putting under the bonnet?

God thats a lot of rebuilds!

Looks awesome though Paul, can't wait to see it finished!

Wow.

Abosulutely incredible.

During the past few minutes i've had all these ideas of doing a widebodied R34. But maybe I'll give it a miss due to the immese levels of skill you've got to do this, and the lack of skills and bravery that I have.

Nice work.

I can't wait to see the finished article!

Bradders

Its been a while since I had time to do anything but Ive managed a few hours this last couple of weeks!
I should get a bit done in the next few weeks as well!....I killed my Yoke again .....but it does mean more expensive bits are on the way!



Decided to paint the wings anyway since I need to sort a few bits out on the body. One is the wonky black lip ive painted on the front bumper , its lower than the one on the wings thankfully so I can re mask it with the wings fitted to get it lined up sweet. I just hope I can get the candy red on the body to match the wings, its going to take more red paint than Ive got left after finishing the wings and mirrors thats for sure!


Preping the mirrors I used Tamiys 6mm masking tape in short strips pressed it down with a bit of cloth to get it to stick to the pattern of the "glass" and trimmed it round the edge of the lamp & mirror with a sharp knife.

A smooth layer of silver and lots of coats of candy red! The colour matches the wings fine, I counted the layers of paint on the wings which helped, but they need a couple of coats of clear to give them the same shine that the lexan gives the wings.

After seeing some on my mates fresh JDM import I decide to have a go at some wind deflectors for the wound down front windows, ones a bit further on than this now and looking good so far. The donor body's seen better days though!

I thought id have a go at doing a metal cage, its easier than I expected! Its made from 7.2mm alloy tube I picked up at my LHS, the front parts took no time to do and were just carefully bent by hand. Ive run out of tube at the moment but theres more to it yet. At the collage where Im studying for my NVQ's they've got two BTCC touring cars in for body repair (I know a BTCC car needing body repairs, never ) and Redline's AE86 4AGZE powered Levin Drift project in for rust removal and paint, so Ive got plenty of nice ideas for details on the cage!

Even though it wont work with my radio gear (turns out my 2.4ghz is too good for it ) ive started fitting the 3 racing LED light set to the D-craft buckets. After I hooked it up to my old radio gear and wired up a yoke LED tail pipe to do something quite cool I decided it was a shame to waste it! I think I need to speak to 3 racing to see if I can plumb the mirrors in as well though, Ive been through enough electric parts for this year.
I had to drill the D-craft buckets out to fit all the LED's in, which was not a fun job seeing how hard they are to get!

Im aiming to get the sunroof & wind deflectors cut & masked and hopefully the internal vinal bodylines finshed so I can get the window surrounds (& front lip!) painted this weekend. 3 day weekend its UK bank holiday!

holy sh*t !!! that looks f***ing amazing ..... absolutely love the candy red !! top notch stuff mate!!! u lucky yoke

Lovin it

Get up the good work on it

This looks like a slick project!!! Can't wait for updates (thumbs up!!).

Thats looking bloody mint, fella - Cant wait to see it up close at whichever event both me and it are at !!

...Do you (or does anyone) know if Genki can still get hold of the D-Craft lightbuckets for the 180SX's ? (or is that an old set you've got there?) - Last I heard, they were always made to order, thats why they never appear in the shop, but... any help appreciated anyway!

Stu

Cheers for the encouragement people!

Stu, Genki gets the buckets in every couple of months or so but to get them you need to watch his store like a hawk! He posts up when their due in normally and then its just a matter of who gets there 1st, there in demand big time!!


oh well I did almost nothing I set out to do!! I got distracted by the arrival of my new charger and working out how to use it, I did spend some time on other bits, just not all the bits what I set out to do!
Wind deflectors..

A severely hacked up 180! Rough cut with my dremel tool.


First I rough cut, rough sanded & then offered it up to the body and put on some more of those black lines on that ive come to love! They then got cut to shape, sanded with 600gt and the slots cut at either end using the Dremel fitted with a cutting disc.



JDM style! Im quite happy with them, Im going to have to tint them though!


Ive started the cutting the mesh for the vents but want to find a flexible way of fitting them and the other detail parts. In the past I used hot glue to attach detail bits like mesh & IC's but it either wont stick for long or sticks so well it takes the paint with it when you crash. The tape that you get with Yokomo light buckets does the job nice, its plenty sticky and will give a little bit should I stack it !
Best bit is it should mean I wont be walking the track after every run picking bit up!! My D1rc party piece is to have someone hand me my mirrors back at the end of the day!

Finshed cutting the tubes for the cage & started shaping the end to fit.


I going to hide whats left of the donor body, I see a new bit to cut off and use every time I look at it!!

I did a bit of wiring too..

It wont work with my new radio gear but what the h3ll it looks real impressive, Im waiting to hear back from 3Racing before I plumb the Yoke LED mirrors in to the indicators as well
Now I could have me driving off one controler and someone else working the lights from the old 40mhz system, hmmm...as you hit the gas they hit the brakes and sh1t up whoever is chasing you .

Good job! This is going to be ultramega cool body!!

nice 1 paul shame them lights dnt work! and im loving the wind defeltors! but wat u gonna do with the bonnet cut out?

...this is looking bloody great mate !

Stu

loooks like the best ever rc drift body to date , maybe ??....... I cannot wait to see it finished , might have to try this myself some time

loooks like the best ever rc drift body to date , maybe ??....... I cannot wait to see it finished , might have to try this myself some time .... if I ever get the Drift Works s15 done ... lol

Looking good

I can wait to see it finished

Any updates?

Yeah, stop getting caned and get this sh-eet finished

Turns out Cavey might be right, I managed to stop getting caned for 5 min and actually did a bit!!

Still not to sure about this....

After doing the wind deflectors for the side windows and after having a look a one my mates "Disco" I thought Id have a pop at one for the sunroof as well. Im still undecided if its going on, Im waiting to see how it fits when the sun roof is cut out.

The rear heat shield being backed which is the final bit of painted detail left to do before the window surround & the CF. Turns out the bags the shells come in are quite handy for masking up with!

One butchered set of Yoke Levin buckets later and Ive got buckets for the fog lights, all done with my dremel fitted with a cutting wheel and finished with a small sanding wheel.



All the internal body lines finished and the masking in progress.

Finally starting to look like Ive done something! A few more coats of black and I might even get some red on it this weekend.



With a bit of luck Ill do another update later (or tomorrow!).

That looks ruddy bloody sh*t hot Paul !!

...When's it due for getting some competition use ? I'll make sure I'm paid up for that round - gotta see this up close

Stu

Around Euros time, 2010 at this rate.......