I have a new graphite chassis, its not the molded kind. and i dont want to scratch it all up. what can i do to protect it?

Put a plastic cover over it, maybe.

Keep it on the shelf

Don't drive on gravel or rocks. Drive on nice dirt tracks. That will help some. I wouldn't worry about it. Drive it like you stole it and have fun!

well, that was helpful. It's an onroad car by the way, so gravel and rocks is way out of the question.

Ok, Sorry, I'm a recovering "ah"
How about this
Buy about 10-12 titanium button head screws, put them all round the parimiter of the chassis, then when you over brake or over roll or bottom out the screws hit first before the CF

The Ti will shoot some great sparks too, really cool when running at dusk

It sounds like you are a prime candidate for a peel and stick film. Personally, I use a teflon cloth tape on the bottom of my on-road cars.

Here's a link to Team Associated's chassis protective film at Tower Hobbies:

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LX2553&P=7

Sorry I can't really help here, but what's the point of protecting the underside of the chassis? Even if it's for show, the car is usually right side up, not vice versa..

For me, there are 3 reasons to protect the chassis:

(1) teflon cloth or mylar tape has less resistance when scraping the ground. This results in faster lap times

(2) when you drag your chassis on pavement, you wear it down. Over time, this will make it substantially weaker and prone to flex, crack, and fail

(3) it looks better when your friends and fellow racers pick it up and check it out.

Wouldn't that Mylar or Teflon tape wear out very quickly itself??
Ti spark throwers I say

It lasts much longer than you might think. I ran my HPI RS4 pro for 2 seasons of carpet racing plus an HPI challenge (parkinglot where the chassis would bottom out several times per lap), and the teflon cloth tape still looked new when I sold the car a few years ago.

I've seen guys at my local dirt track run a full season with the mylar film (from associated) before replacing it (chassis still looked like new when they peeled it off).

where do you get it?

They used to sell this clear sticky backed vinyl stuff, its been a while since Ive seen it for sell, so I dotn know if its even made anymore. but you could look at the office supply stores and maybe an auto paint shop. I think some people use it to make custom masks (like flames and whatnot) when painting small things.

If you cant find that, Ive seen this other stuff sold as a scratch protector for guitars, [link=http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Pickguards/Pickguard_materials/Clear_Pickguard_Materials.html]check it out[/link] see what you think. It comes in 10"x13" only but I think it should be big enough to do a 1/10 scale chasis.

I say go w/ the Ti spark throwers. That is way cooler than the pansy teflon tape!!!

take a 2 liter bottle and cut the size you need for the chasi you may need 2 bottles. then with the screws for the tranny or steering or somthing attach it, works great

Tower Hobbies still sells the mylar film (see my above post with the link). The teflon cloth tape I use is very inexpensive per application, but the inital purchase cost of the roll can hurt some budgets ($250+ per roll). The good news is a roll should last a lifetime .

As for titanium screws or plastic, if you're racing, this raises you center of gravity and will adversely affect handling.

Why not just but a sheet of flat lexan for $2 and cut to fit the bottom of the chassis?

That would work fine, but then you'd either have to glue it on or screw it on, you probobly wouldnt want to glue it on becasuse then it would hard to get off, and if your putting it on to keep a chasis looking nice I dont think youd want to screw it on either.

You could try to use the existing screws in the chassis to keep it on?dunno just a thought

that should work

wow, didnt think this tread would be that helpful, thanks alot guys, especially i8tweety.

There is nothing you can do. The Chasis is going to get scratched one way or the other. Nobody cares about the bottom of your chasis anyway. As long as it does crack and holds all of your internal components its good.

PU$$Y

If you don't have anything constructive to say then don't say anything!

I like the idea of the protective film. The lexan might work aswell. Where could I get a thin sheet of lexan?

Just about any well stocked hobby store should carry small sheets for making windscreens for scale type airplanes