Woodster Body Tips
Thank you for choosing an original Woodster Lidz body for your HPI Baja 5T. We wanted to include a few simple tips to help you along in getting your new body painted and mounted up correctly.
1. Before painting your new body, take the time to get your body post holes marked out and lined up correctly. I suggest taking the clear body, setting it on top of your chassis with the wheels in place, and making sure our pre-marked holes line up correctly with your body posts. In some cases they maybe slightly off due to misalignment of the post from previous bashing sessions or so forth. Occasionally the front end of your chassis will get bent and that will cause the posts to move out of alignment.
2. With the standard body, your factory post settings should be just fine to mount the body to. If you're mounting up a "wide" body version, we suggest you move the front and rear posts up. There are a couple of reasons for this, but the main reason is in order to achieve the flat surface on the hood, we have to make up for the lost space where the mounting posts would normally be set at from the factory. We suggest moving the front and rear posts up two notches, which will raise the body up on the chassis. The side post mounts need to also move out two notches each. This is because of the wider body and allows the posts to hold the sides of the body correctly. Once you are satisfied that the body posts line up correctly, go ahead and pre drill your mounting holes. Use a 3/16ths bit to drill a pilot hole, and leave it at that for now. Later on down the road we will talk about drilling the holes out to the correct size.
2. With the standard body, your factory post settings should be just fine to mount the body to. If you're mounting up a "wide" body version, we suggest you move the front and rear posts up. There are a couple of reasons for this, but the main reason is in order to achieve the flat surface on the hood, we have to make up for the lost space where the mounting posts would normally be set at from the factory. We suggest moving the front and rear posts up two notches, which will raise the body up on the chassis. The side post mounts need to also move out two notches each. This is because of the wider body and allows the posts to hold the sides of the body correctly. Once you are satisfied that the body posts line up correctly, go ahead and pre-drill your mounting holes. Use a 3/16ths bit to drill a pilot hole, and leave it at that for now. Later on down the road we will talk about drilling the holes out to the correct size.
3. Now that your body is pre-drilled for the mounting holes, it's time to clean it up and get ready for painting. We use hot soapy water and a mild non-detergent soap to clean any residue that may be left over from the vacuum forming process. Some folks like to use a scotch bright pad to scuff up the lexan for paint, it's up to you which way to go.
4. After painting, use the correct size drill bit for your post holes. Some like to run the stock HPI grommets and pins, but using just pins is also acceptable. If you plan on using the stock HPI pins, ream the holes out to 12mm and they should slip right in. For using a standard body clip, a 3/8th's size drill bit seems to be the ticket. You want to make sure the drill hole has some play, and is not tight around the body post. Otherwise this can cause cracking if they are to tight. You can use drywall mesh tape and "shoegoo" on areas such as the side body mount posts and the rear bed area. This technique works great for helping strengthen the typical "weak" areas of the body and will help with a longer lifespan. Aluminum tape is another option that works great as well.
Thanks again for choosing a Woodster Lidz body! I hope you get many hours of enjoyment out of it and look forward to hearing your suggestions or comments. Feel free to email us at woodsterlidz@gmail.com Enjoy!
