Panther Chariot makeover
- crazydave
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Panther Chariot makeover
Back when that Panther Chariot fiasco went down, Asimov was kind enough to hook me up. I've reserved doing a review because by this point Asimov's review was out there, and pretty fair and unbiased.
So in a nutshell here's what I think. Stretched chassis dual cell clone, with a 3 step throttle. Since the lowest step is so slow as to be unusable, I consider this right on par with a dual celled zip Zap with a Tomy/Perfection booster board. Which aint bad, my favorite fast car set up, so I'll compare it to that. The advantages, a nice comfortable pistol grip controller. Way more comfortable than a bit controller, but it is much bigger. The disadvantages? Where do I begin. Well they all seem to relate back to crappy clone quality, so we'll leave it at that. It is a car with alot of potential, marred by crappy clone quality.
So I'm sick of cars with potential, and I didn't play with these much. Until now. I was supposed to be trying to edit together my Iwaver vid, but some how I got sidetracked by this. Never know what I'll end up doing.
So the biggest issue to be dealt with were the wheels and crappy looking body, and mostly the wheels.
The hard ribbed tires are crap for traction, and standard tires don't work at all on the wheels with the odd off set. So a wheel mod is order, and I hate doing wheel mods. Nothing will mess with your handling like messing with your wheels. So I went with Zip zap wheels, to keep it simple, and that gives me options, like putting Import Racer wheel fronts on them later.
The body is the easy part. The tabs are configured just like a stretched clone car, so you have to shorted the front, and lengthen the back. Figure since I'm messing with tabs, might as well lower it. I went with the Skyline body, because like the Panther I've been meaning to mod it forever now, and I'm pretty sure that the ugly ass body that came on it was supposed to be a Skyline.
I wish I took a before pic, and I thought I had, but that was months ago, and I guess I didn't. So, oh well, here it is now.


I just extended the front end a little, and filled the rear deck before adding this wing. I did a torn paper graphic, which I love, because it's just so damn easy to rip up tape.
Here's the original body next to it for comparison

And the Chariot chassis, in case you were curious.

So in a nutshell here's what I think. Stretched chassis dual cell clone, with a 3 step throttle. Since the lowest step is so slow as to be unusable, I consider this right on par with a dual celled zip Zap with a Tomy/Perfection booster board. Which aint bad, my favorite fast car set up, so I'll compare it to that. The advantages, a nice comfortable pistol grip controller. Way more comfortable than a bit controller, but it is much bigger. The disadvantages? Where do I begin. Well they all seem to relate back to crappy clone quality, so we'll leave it at that. It is a car with alot of potential, marred by crappy clone quality.
So I'm sick of cars with potential, and I didn't play with these much. Until now. I was supposed to be trying to edit together my Iwaver vid, but some how I got sidetracked by this. Never know what I'll end up doing.

So the biggest issue to be dealt with were the wheels and crappy looking body, and mostly the wheels.
The hard ribbed tires are crap for traction, and standard tires don't work at all on the wheels with the odd off set. So a wheel mod is order, and I hate doing wheel mods. Nothing will mess with your handling like messing with your wheels. So I went with Zip zap wheels, to keep it simple, and that gives me options, like putting Import Racer wheel fronts on them later.
The body is the easy part. The tabs are configured just like a stretched clone car, so you have to shorted the front, and lengthen the back. Figure since I'm messing with tabs, might as well lower it. I went with the Skyline body, because like the Panther I've been meaning to mod it forever now, and I'm pretty sure that the ugly ass body that came on it was supposed to be a Skyline.
I wish I took a before pic, and I thought I had, but that was months ago, and I guess I didn't. So, oh well, here it is now.


I just extended the front end a little, and filled the rear deck before adding this wing. I did a torn paper graphic, which I love, because it's just so damn easy to rip up tape.
Here's the original body next to it for comparison

And the Chariot chassis, in case you were curious.

- hue35
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Re: Panther Chariot makeover
You crack me up... "yeah, it's no big deal, or whatever... just tear some tape and it looks awesome & stuff."crazydave wrote:I did a torn paper graphic, which I love, because it's just so damn easy to rip up tape.
That's a sweet paintjob, crazydave... I don't think I've seen a torn paper graphic before, even though you make it sound like, "oh, that old trick". It looks killer, man... shit always turns to Shinola in your shop.
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That's 1:10th 80's style (the torn tape thing).
We've seen it on a micro or 2 before, but not done this well.
Looks friggin great crazydave, totally dig the colors you used too. I could totally see this paint job on the streets now days.
She's sexy.
We've seen it on a micro or 2 before, but not done this well.
Looks friggin great crazydave, totally dig the colors you used too. I could totally see this paint job on the streets now days.
She's sexy.
Dear Life Cereal, Where do you get off? Part of a balanced breakfast and delicious? Who do you think you are? By now you may have guessed I'm speaking ironically and have nothing but good things to say about what you do. Life cereal do not change a thing.
- crazydave
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Re: Panther Chariot makeover
hue35 wrote:You crack me up... "yeah, it's no big deal, or whatever... just tear some tape and it looks awesome & stuff."crazydave wrote:I did a torn paper graphic, which I love, because it's just so damn easy to rip up tape.

You crack me up. But really, it was just that simple. let me tell you how I did, and tell me this aint the easiest way to make graphics.
I painted it silver. I ripped a piece of 2" tape down the center. I stuck it on the back, the stretched it slightly on the edges, to pull in down the sides. Layed 2 coats Aqua. Pulled the tape off, and let it dry a little (an hour). Then a I took the other half of the tape I ripped, placed it the opposite way, cover the silver a bit, and lined it up so the tear would match, somewhat, and pulled it a little farther down the side. Then layed the black.
I hope it don't sound cocky to say it was effortless, but really, it was. You should try it.
The greatest thing is slight bleeds don't matter, it's a random pattern, you can't go wrong.
Cabo nailed it, old school 1:10 scale trick. I tried it once before.

Good, I was afraid people would get sick of seeing this same color scheme one more time.CaboWabo wrote:Looks friggin great crazydave, totally dig the colors you used too. I could totally see this paint job on the streets now days.

And I came real close to slapping a bunch of Super Street decals on it. That is sorta the look I was going for.

Thanks for the compliments guys, they're appreciated as usual.

- Finks
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- crazydave
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Thanks Finks. Yeah, I guess there aren't a lot of modded ZZ Skylines out there. Don't know why, I like it better than the bit Skyline. Must be part of the whole Skyline backlash thing.
The ride height is alright. I prefer to have the front a tad lower than the back, but you gotta leave room for the suspension to move, so I compromised.
The ride height is alright. I prefer to have the front a tad lower than the back, but you gotta leave room for the suspension to move, so I compromised.
- crazydave
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