Hop-Up Series Part #4 – Thunder Tiger MT-4 G3, Installing Body & Wing
When you start hopping up your Thunder Tiger MT-4 G3 the single biggest change you can make to its looks is changing the body. This week we’ll be going over what it takes to put a new body on your big TT.
Hit the “Read More” button to see what it takes to mount up a body and wing to the Thunder Tiger MT-4 G3.
Body Selection
The stock body on the Thunder Tiger MT-4 G3 doesn’t look half bad, but it does have its downsides. The stocker is made from thin polycarbonate, making it prone to crash damage. Also, the stock body is made to have a scale look to it, it does not offer a lot of performance.
When choosing an aftermarket body you will want to-
1. Make sure it fits, most monster truck bodies will bolt right up.
2. Make sure it is made out of thick Lexan to take a good beating.
We ended up going with a Pro-Line Slipstream body. The Slipstream is made from heavy .060 shatterproof Lexan to make it extra tough. It was also designed for high speed use, something we intend on doing quite often with our Thunder Tiger. Lastly, the Slipstream has an air intake in the front, and an exit in the rear. This can help keep the electronics in your truck cooler.
In addition to the new body, we installed a rear wing. We wanted to really enhance the handling on our Thunder Tiger, a rear wing helps keep the rear of the truck more planted.
Putting Something Cool on that Clear Body
Once you’ve selected a new body you’ve got a few options on how to put a cool looking finish on it. You can paint it or you can have it hydro-dipped. If you chose to paint your body and you’ve never done it before, check out THIS LINK to find out how. There are also quite a few people that will paint your body for you. Prices and quality vary, but this can be a good option for some people. We got with the guys over at RC Custom Lab Workz where they applied a United States flag hydro-print to the inside of our body. This was quick, easy, affordable, and gave our truck a unique basher look.
Bolting Up Your New Body
If you are simply bolting on a new body, once you’ve got the body trimmed-out, place it on top of your MT-4 G3. Take your time and look at it from several different angles. You’ll want to make sure it is properly centered and looks the way you want it to. Once in the right position, from the under side of they body, use a Sharpie to mark the holes for the body posts. Once you’ve got your hole positions marked, use a body reamer to make the holes. Once the holes are done, pop the body on, put in your body clips and you are ready to jam.
Going the Long Way
For our install we went a longer route. Because we added a wing, we had to mount up an additional set of body mounts. Also, we aren’t fans of body clips, so we installed a Pro-Line Thumbwasher set.
To do our install we first had to get the body posts ready. This involved installing the Pro-Line Thumbwasher screws to the front and rear posts, you can find out how to do that HERE.
We then lowered the front body posts. We had to lower the posts to achieve the look we were going for, plus it allows more air to hit the new rear wing. Because we lowered the front body posts, we had to cut off the excess at the bottom. If you don’t cut off the excess they will interfere with the front suspension.
In the rear, we used the stock rear mounts for the wing. We used a Pro-Line high downforce rear wing not only because of its aerodynamic properties, but also because they can take a good beating without breaking. Installing the Pro-Line wing was very simple. Put the wing on top of the Thunder Tiger’s rear body mounts, mark the spots on the grid on the underside of the wing, then drill two holes. Once you have drilled the holes the wing slides right down on the posts, put on a pair of body clips and the wing is ready for action.
The toughest part of our install was the addition of new body posts for the rear of the body. We ordered in some of the stock front Thunder Tiger body mounts (part #PD2339), then mounted them to the rear shock tower. Because of the design of the Pro-Line body we used, we had to flip the body mounts more inwards. To do this we had to drill one new hole on each side of the shock tower. We used stock holes for the upper body mount screws, then marked the locations for the lowers with a pencil and drilled them out with a cordless drill. This was easy, taking less than 5 minutes. Of note, we needed 4 new screws and lock nuts to use with the new body mount. Once the rear body mounts were secured to the rear tower, we set the height of the body posts low to allow plenty of air to hit the rear wing.
We then popped on our freshly hydro-dipped body to mark where we would need to cut it off. The Slipstream was way too long when used with a rear wing so we ended up cutting off the last 3″ or so of it for a proper fit. Once the body was cut to length, we then marked our body post holes, drilled them out, popped the body on, then tighted up the thumbwashers.
With a new high performance body and wing, our test Thunder Tiger MT-4 G3 not only has an entirely new look, but it is more durable and drives better too.
Stayed tuned for next week when we show you how to install an upper chassis brace on the MT-4 G3.
To view previous hop-up articles on the Thunder Tiger MT-4 G3 simply click This Link.
