It felt like a crime to tape a transponder to the hood of the sleek sexy Mini-Z F-1. So after figuring out a stealthy solution we created this tutorial to share the process with you.

This does require some skill with a Dremel. Beyond that, it is a pretty simple procedure. You should go through the entire tutorial before cutting so you have a good grasp of what you are shooting for.

• Mini-Z F-1
• Giro-Z Transponder
• Trinity Servo Tape
• Side Cut Nippers
• Wire Strippers
• Straight Hemostats
• Hobby Knife Set
• Needle File Set
• Safety Glasses
• Flash Super Glue (Medium)
• Dremel Tool & #194 Bit
• Sharpie
• Soldering Iron
• Solder

Because you never know when you may have a runaway Dremel, you had better put those safely glasses on right now.

You will need the type of bit that cuts on the sides as well as the top. This one is a Dremel #194 (1/8'' High-Speed Cutter) and is your best choice.

We need to flatten the lovely lady hump.

Use the end of the bit as shown to trim away the material.

File it smooth with the flat file from the Needle File Set.

This is what you should have afterwards.

Grab your Trinity 6000 Narrow Servo Tape and your Hobby Knife and cut a 1/2" square as shown.

Affix this to your Giro-Z Transponder.

Now install the Giro-Z Transponder as shown.

Pull the wires down the edge of the board as shown. This area has enough body clearance to accommodate the bulk of the plug.

Pull the wires into position at the two outside battery terminals and trim them as shown.

Strip the wires using your handy Wire Strippers.

Twist and tin the wires.

Solder the positive wire to the positive battery terminal as shown.

A pair of Straight Hemostats come in very handy when soldering in close quarters like this.

Solder the negative wire as shown.

This is how the wiring should look. This wiring method will allow the wires and plug to lay under the body shell with room to spare.

Now we need to remove the driver, so we begin by cutting the driver mounting lugs down as shown.

Once you have trimmed them down, you can use your Hobby Knife to push them through.

Now you can easily remove the driver.

Now that he is out, you can see the black area we need to trim away. We will call this the "driver deck".

Now we start trimming the driver deck away starting at the end of the deck which we have marked with a black line in the photo. You will not need to do any trimming behind this line.

Once we have the driver deck cut out, we need to reduce the depth of the ridge that hangs down around the front half of the driver deck so we have more clearance for the transponder.

This is where the ability to cut with the top of the Dremel bit comes in handy.

Here we used the black area of the driver deck as a guide and trimmed it until there was only a thin black line remaining.

Note that we left the black wedges in the rear intact.

Continue to reduce the ridge depth around the front as well.

If your body has a windshield be careful that you don't trim the footing where it mounts completely away. I was able to reduce the ridge enough without cutting through the tabs that hold it in place.

Clean up the hole, using the half round file from the Needle File Set.

With the knife from the Hobby Knife Set you can scrape way the flashing by dragging the blade backwards across the edge.

You should have a nice clean hole with plenty of clearance above the transponder as shown.

Notice the red strip below the windshield. We will get rid of that in the next step.

Using your Sharpie permanent marker, black line the edges of the hole for a finished look.

Notice how clean it looks now after the black line is added.

If you want to leave the driver out, you can stop right here. Otherwise, continue.

With your Side Cut Nippers you need to clip the two lugs off the bottom of the driver.

Put the driver back in the car and flip it over.

The bottom edge of the drivers hands should line up with the top side of the driver deck.

Glue him in place with the Flash Super Glue (Medium).

Two drops in the rear sides is all it takes.

Stealthy and Clean!

Now we have installed our transponder in a way that does not compromise the graceful lines of the F-1 we have another problem. How do we get fellow racers to stop telling us that we forgot to "stick a transponder on the car".

We have done this on all of our Racing Teams F-1 bodies which represents just about all of the different body styles. We found that while some bodies have a bit more clearance the trimming required is about the same. The ones without the windshields are a bit easier as you can cut a bit more aggressively.

The trick to doing a good job with the Dremel is to take your time and make small smooth strokes and rely on the file to do your clean up. If you take your time you will be rewarded with a very trick solution.

Tutorial by Robert Byrd