Front Rubber Bumper for Pan Cars - on the cheap...

[PimpFloyd]

I needed a front rubber bumper for my Bolink, while browsing around at a Dollar General I found these:



One buck neoprene flip-flops (size seven if you must know)

My Bolink was disassembled for repairs and cleaning so it was an easy task to stick the front end of the pan on our scanner/printer and scan the image into a photo application, the image was then printed out to help create the pattern below. I extended the perimeter of the image 1/2" around the front of the pan.



The pattern above was cut out and glued to a piece of card board. I applied some double-sided carpet tape to the card board to hold the pattern down on the flip-flop. I then cut the bumper out of the flip-flop with a razor knife.



Now for the "cool-tool" part, I bought these leather punches awhile back at Hobby Lobby. I used these for punching the holes in the neoprene and they worked GREAT! Really nice clean holes - just place the material on a piece of pine and rap the punch with a rubber mallet a few times. My hope was that I could use the bolts holding the front steering assembly on the bolink to hold my bumper in place - hence the need for accurately placed holes.

I appologize for the next pic, which looks a little like a bad acid trip...I had one little slight problem. The neoprene was about a half inch thick, I really need a quarter inch thick for the bumper to fit in between the pan and the front end. I would have to slice the bumper in half. To do this neatly, I placed the bumper in between two 1/43 scale slot car track pieces. I used the slot car track pieces as a cutting guide to guide a hobby razor saw. It worked great, the slot car track is approximately 1/4 in thickness. Anything else 1/4" thick would of worked but I had the track pieces on hand.



Basically, heres the end result:





I hope I don't really need the bumper...but I will probably thank myself for making it...more sooner than later

PF

[sidewinder]

I'm glad you posted that, it's a great idea. And the slot car track saw guide is brilliant.

Hey Cabo, you might want to toss this in with the tutorials, I think it could benefit people on a variety of builds.

[CaboWabo]

Who knew a flip-flop could be used as a bumper.
That's some ingenuity.

[PimpFloyd]

Thanks Pimps!

Sometimes it's fun to find cheap raw materials

PF

[PimpFloyd]

I had an "unplanned" opportunity to test my cheap-skate bumper tonight - it worked. Minor damage to the "thasher" stock car body - none to the front end.

I learned a good lesson tonight about going from the XMOD imediately to the pan car - the steering input on the pan car is a wee bit more...responsive. Confessions of a rookie

WOo WoO!

[sidewinder]

Yep. that's why I suggested a big parking lot Glad to hear the bumper worked, I thought it probably would.

[PimpFloyd]

Roger on the big parking lot I took it out in the street - which is safe because we live on a dead end street out in the middle of Egypt - and made a few high speed passes. WOW.

I realize it's an old brushed motor system with NiCads but it was fast to me anyway

PF