Toby Denham's Motorized Cat Trac Part 3 - Chassis Assembly

The Chassis

Here is phase two of the Remote Control Cat Trac project. The individual styrene plastic components for the chassis have been assembled.

The attached photo (above) shows a completed chassis ready for mounting onto the Cat Trac body. Visible in the picture is the front motor mount bracket with a slot cut into it to receive the front tang of the motor / track unit.

The rear block that is offset from the center line of the chassis is for the rear mounting tang of the motor / track unit. The tang will be drilled with a 1/8" hole for a mounting screw. The mounting block on the chassis will have a small pilot hole drilled to accept the mounting screw which is self tapping.

The side rails serve two purposes. One is that they help center the chassis onto the motor / track unit. The other purpose is that they fill the space underneath so the assembled unit looks "factory made" when viewed from the side. The challenge with this project was to be able to construct this thing where the body could be installed and removed at will for service and etc. I also wanted to be able to interchange bodies and motors which helped make the vehicles look as if Mattel may have manufactured them.

In my next e-mail, I will show the chassis mounted to the motor / track unit just so everyone could see how things mounted together without the body. In the final phase, I will show the chassis attached to the Cat Trac body.

Attached Assembly

Here is the photo of the Cat Trac chassis attached to the motor / track unit. This view shows how the two assemblies fit together. The motor slips into the front mount and the back is fastened together with one self tapping screw.

Tomorrow I will submit a photo showing the final phase: gluing the chassis to the Cat Trac body.

I hope none of this is too long winded. I just want to be sure I cover all the essential details for those folks who desire the info.

Toby 

Continue to Part 4

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