Homemade 'Shock Socks'

[REDisFASTER]

Hey guys, I wanted to show you this mod I did with my GT2 about a month ago... I believe its been done many times before, but here it goes!

Enjoy:







Don't mind the shock on the other side... I ran out of the darker shade of orange and ended up having only loose ones. The 'long' balloons are perfect for this. I used the regular oval shaped ones.


EDIT: Here's an action shot I just made:


Here's the step-by-step how-to:

Originally Posted by Grafix Ink. from DurhamRC

Make your own shock covers
This is an old, tried and true modification, but for those of you out there who have not tried it, its well worth the time.
Ripping it up in the dirt with an RC monster is a hoot, no doubt about it. Downside is, well, the DIRT. Crud-covered shocks can be a big problem, as the dirt will start wearing out seals and scratching shafts. Before you know it, you got yourselfs some leaks going on there.
There are some excellent shock covers available from RC shops and sites, but if you want to save a penny or two, you might want to try and make your own covers. Its EASY.
First off, buy a bag of balloons. As in party-balloons. The ones you want are those long thin ones. Got em? OK then, lets get to work.


> Step 1:

Remove the spring & spring retainers from the shocks.

> Step 2:

Inflate the balloon

> Step 3:

Cut the "nozzle section" off the balloon (don't cut too much at this point)

> Step 4:

While widening the balloon opening with your fingers, drop the shock spring into the balloon (REDisFASTER: A neat trick is you stick the spring inside a 2L soda bottle, place the balloon on the opening, then squeeze the bottle! The air in the bottle helps to inflate the balloon, and while its being inflated, the spring slides in nice and smoothly!)

.

> Step 5:

Allow the spring to fully extend inside the balloon.

> Step 6:

With the spring fully extended inside the balloon, trim end of balloon, leaving about 2-3 cm beyond the end of the spring.

> Step 7:

Roll remainder of ballon "lip" inside the sping, then install the upper spring retainer.

> Step 8:

Cut small hole in end of balloon, big enough to poke the shock shaft though.

> Step 9:

Slide covered spring on to shock, install lower shock retainer.

> Step 10:

Git out there and get em dirty!

And a couple of small tips I'd like to add:
For those who can't afford (?) or can't seem to locate Du-Bro's body clip retainers, a good tip would be to just slide it onto a hole on your car's body!
In this case, I slid my body clips onto the tank fill-up/opening hole!


Another tip, especially for nitro vehicles with bodies that slide over top of your exhaust stinger, is to take a piece of fuel tubing, cut it in half (lengthwise) and roll it into the hole on your body for the exhaust. This way, your body doesn't slowly cut up your stinger from all the vibration (its true, there have been cases where stingers have been damaged by vibration from bodies!).