Hi. Great minds think alike and all that.........was going to use the aluminium strip both top and bottom thinking that just bolting through is likely to cause a weak spot. Its flat on the bottom so I can just flip it over for the underside, and doubled up yes it feels very strong.

Front section is cut just needs a final sanding to finish, and the joining strip looks pretty good sat in it. I'll use the pieces between the pre cut holes, hopefully will look a pretty decent chassis by the time i've finished it.

Did you guys who've already done this glue the two chassis halves together, or just bolt them. Thanks again for all the advice.

I bolted and jb welded ( just at the joint not on the aluminum ) but as far as smoothing out the edges where it joins I left it super nasty with all those fibers hanging out and roughed up where I had planed for the jb to grab onto. But the jb is over kill. The aluminum should hold just fine.

I dont think you would need to glue it if your tolerances were good

Yep, think bolting it should be fine having now seen the two halves together.

Did my cuts a good few mm back from where my finish line was. And found the easiest way to get a good straight finish was (you may want to do this when wives, girlfriends and mothers are out of the way) lay half a sheet of 100 grit paper onto the wooden kitchen cutting board. This helped keep the paper nice and firmly in place and moved the chassis piece across the paper (rather than trying to use a sanding block etc). This way it was easy to see that the chassis piece was both square to, and upright to the paper.

Now onto the aluminium joiners......

Main chassis is together. Fairly happy with it so far. Feels nice and strong now the plates top and bottom are bolted up tight.

Battery sits in place real nice too. Can still be moved front to rear by the same amount as the standard slash. Just making up my clamps for the battery strap and should be good to go with start transferring everything across.

nice man, very clean cuts, it's turning out quite well

what is the large aluminum plate above your battery for?

You mean the plastic light switch backplate....ha ha. And thanks for the compliment.......

Going to seat the ESC there as before and there's room for the receiver too (bad idea that close to ESC though?) It also sits just right to hold the rear of the battery in place. Is really light weight but ribbed on the back and has lipped edges so quite strong too.

What do you guys think about the receiver placement?

Thanks

Battery strap clamps worked out fine. Think im happy enough with it to start the build on it now.

Still not certain about the ESC / receiver, may make up a custom mount (tee shape) to have them either side at the rear. Any other suggestions...?

Looks super clean. I found that a rustler rx box fits nicely under the front body mount on the top plate. Love the light switch cover. I don't think that putting the rx close to the esc would be/cause any problems though. Keep the pics coming. Did you notch the aluminum to go around the switch holder?