The aftermarket world

Hey Everyone!

Been making 1/24,1/25th for about ten years now, and to find a site as devoted as AF is excellent! As you can tell by the "subject" title i'm into the tuning market, specializing in japanese imports 1/24 of course :) but what i would like to find out is how do some of you make those wicked mufflers, see http://www.warachan.com/ in the honda civic gallery
, or even some guys that lower there cars, how do you do that?!?! in other words what methods do you use to "slam" or "drop" your cars? the best i could think of is cutting the suspention, but it's tricky, essp with the turning wheels up front!

thanks

i'll be posting some of my creations shortly!

I wouldn't mind having the Altezza he has.

I am using more and more aftermarket parts! Fujimi through HLJ supply some good stuff, I love their mufflers!
See the gallery and my R34 for lowering instructions for such a kit, see the thread on that model.
Look at my website, www.carmodelling.com for pictures of the mufflers on my R34 and the 300ZX. More muffler equiped models coming!!!

How to lower a car depends on each model, but generally, most of the modern car employs either strut or double wishbone suspension, so basic idea is the same.

For strut suspension, the shock absorber/spring assembly is held between the wheel housing and lower link. Just shorten the shock part and add a donut shape spacer on the lower link. If the clearance between the link and wheel is minimal, adding a spacer doesn't work, so, in that case, just bend or relocate the lower link.

For double wishbone suspension, bend or relocate the upper and lower A-arm, then, shorten the spring, which should be be attached to either lower or upper A-arm.

To relocate an arm, you have to cut and glue it back. You will need a small drill (between 0.5mm and 1.0mm), pin-vice, and metal rod of the same diameter to reinforce the glued part.

putty can also do a lot to creat the body kit you always wanted, hood scoops, scratch built the wheels you want and even spoilers.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Great work Guiddy i checked your site the set of mufflers on the 300zx are sweet! and kudos on the "backdrop" in your pics! Now i'm not too sure i want to post my cars now! :) Hey hirofkd thanks for the lowering tips, i'll try and improvise, you wouldn't happen to have any pictures of the modified suspensions you have done? as for the mufflers i checked out hlj, too expensive! :) and i think i'll be fabricating some of my own with what ever junk i can find around the house!

The best way tp make your own mufflers is to use the aluminium tubing u can find in most good model shops. They come in various sizes and they often slot inside each other which is great as u can use the smaller diameter tude to form the tip. They are also easy to work with, they are quite soft so can be cut easily and because its metal u can buff them up to a great shine.

here are some of my models from a few years back.pics @ URL's
1 '96accord
2 '96civic
3 '00 S2000

http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/749055Img002.jpg http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/924181Img002.jpg
http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/361163Img003.jpg

+ve -ve comments welcome!
:)

Nice work! what accord is that one? is it the hasegawa kit?

Thanks! Actually the Accord in the picture is painted "Type-R" white which is actually tamiya's TS-7 Racing White, in the picture it looks like a frost white or something... :p As for the kit itself it was supposed to be Tamiya's JACCS Accord...see URL
http://www.hlj.com/images/tam/tam24180box.gif
but got a little creative...:devil:

i see, so it still has the racing interior then? I assumed that it had the road car fittings.

Yups it's got the racing interior, but if you noticed i tinted the windows with 35% tint on both sides of the windows, so it's almost limo black;) ever since then, i'm not as keen to work on interiors anymore, i prefer to concentrate on exterior looks and tint most of my cars windows. Also it helps sometimes if i botched an interior job to cover the windows with a ligher film, you know hide imperfections....;)
Btw flyonthewall you were saying earlier that you used sheet aluminium to make mufflers!? sound legit, to you have any pics of muffler that you made? :)

It wasnt aluminium sheet, it was tube. I have no pics of anything ive done as yet bcoz i have no scanner or digital camera but watch this space.

Sweet cars! I like the S2000 wheels on the Civic, nice touch! :D

Sweet looking model. Nice to see some pics.
Like to see some more of the Accord

The muffer tube that FOTW is talking about i used on my R33. Comes in 1m lengths and you just cut what you want.
Here's a pic of what it looks like

http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/735065MVC-090F.JPG