Project Gen8 V2 - Part 2 - Magnet Body Mounts

Did you know your Gen8 inner fenders are designed to either use the stock velcro body mount or rare earth magnets?  It's true and it's a pretty cool feature that I decided to take advantage of on my son's Gen8 V2

Although the stock velcro was working great on his truck, the magnet body mounts are a little quicker and easier to use so I decided to add them

Here's how the project went...

The first step was to remove the stock velcro.  I've heard some folks say that the velcro on their truck was coming off but the glue holding the velcro on my son's V2 was seriously strong.  I struggled to get the velcro strips off but with a little effort, I had all of the velcro pulled off in a few minutes

After removing the velcro, I thoroughly cleaned the inner fenders on the chassis and underside of the body.  First, I used Simple Green to remove any dirt and then followed that with some motor spray to ensure all of the glue residue from the velcro and any mold release agents were removed from the plastic.  Cleaning these parts well should help ensure the magnets stay in place

After everything was clean and dry, I used Shoe Goo to attached the magnets to the chassis then let them sit for an hour while the glue dried.

Next, I dropped a second magnet on top of each of the chassis magnets.  I did this to make sure I had the magnetic poles of the body magnets in the correct direction.  Once the second magnet was stacked on top of the original chassis magnet, I marked an "x" on the top to indicate where to add the glue so that these magnets could be affixed to the body.

Last but not least, I followed the same process to clean and glue the magnets to the underside of the body.

Even though the inner fenders are designed to accept two magnets per corner, I decided to use only one magnet per corner.  These things are super strong and I think they'll be more than strong enough to hold the body on.  If I discover otherwise, I'll update this post in the future.  Also, the magnets do add a little weight up high and I wanted to keep the additional weight to a minimum

'till next time

Rob


And here are some amazon links to what you'll need to do this project yourself:

• Wotoy 18x3mm Rare Earth Magnets - These are the ones I used
• Club5 Gen8 Magnets - These cost more but are counter sunk and use screws to mount so you may like them better
• Simple Green
• Performance Plus4 Electronic Cleaner - Not usually available on Amazon but CRC is similar - This works great for cleaning bearings and gears as well
• Shoe Goo - A must have for every RC work bench

UPDATE:  Shoe Goo may not be the best choice for securing the magnets.  So far, two have come loose.  I'll clean and prep the magnets and try again but if this continues to be an issue, I'll try something else and update this post again