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Comment by matte_black | Hacker News Reader

Problem with modding plastic stuff like this is that as soon as you make one thing stronger, something else becomes the weakest link, so then you have to replace that with something stronger, and so on, until you've replaced nearly everything.

At some point you'll probably need rubber tires or you'll get a lot of wheel spin.

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He already talks about this at the end of his current post - it sounds like he's basically going the route that full-size drag racers do, and building a tube-frame (or in this case, angle-aluminum) chassis which he is just going to put the plastic body over the top of for some resemblance to the original car.

First off: Thanks for showing interest in the post. To counter the weak plastic i vested in a MIG weld and the aluminum profiles seen at the last photo of the post. My intention for the next part will be constructing this support. Finding wheels have proven expensive (but not impossible), and as late as yesterday i was given 2 go kart tires that will become the rear tire set. I was also hoping people interested in this post could suggest other wheels that both are functional and look good. Even though i searched for a few weeks, i am sure i have not turned ever stone possible.

If only the rear wheels are powered then you can make plenty of compromises on the front wheels. On that note, make sure to have plenty of weight at the front to prevent your kid from being thrown off when the thing does a wheely on acceleration.

Out of curiosity, why aluminum? Isn't steel much easier to work with?

I want to keep the weight down, and i have other applications of this once this build is completed. Also people told me aluminum was hard to weld, challenge accepted. :)

Be aware of the safety issues with aluminum too; aluminum has a nasty habit of looking 100% healthy until the moment it completely breaks.

Possibly too big for your project (though the project does seem to get bigger), but wheelchair motors are great - they are cheap, have the gears built in and often come with nice wheels.

Thought the same thing as well. Ship of Theseus.

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