[Jairus]

Guys,
Here is a piece that might be of interest to even the scratch builders of 1/24th scale.
Yes, it is HO!



Production and soldering is by Dave Ferguson, a former HO racer from the old California HOUROC group. This represents the next evolution of the Riggen if it had survived the onslaught of the ISO AFX. Body is a MADD Ford MkIV. Rear aluminum rims are TCP .250.
Tyco 19t crown gear, modified Mabuchi HT-50 can and endbell.



Arm is a custom wound BSRT by Gary Beedle, 9’ 37.5, balanced, etc.


Riggen chassis trued and strengthened with .032 music wire.

Updates as they occur.

Stay tuned to this same bat time, same bat channel…

[One_Track_Mind]

:up: Wow :!: Very neat HO car...I :!:

:mrgreen:

[picard34]

I am very interested in this thread. Enough so it brought me out from being a lurker to actually register and post!

My name is Richard, and I have been reading this board since the Vitter HO thread. I make resin castings for HO cars and grew up with HO - I did not have the opportunity to live the golden years of slot racing or partake in the larger scale racing that many of you do. Plus I am not aware of any commercial tracks in my area and my home is only so big, so the small scale suits me fine.

Over the last several years in the hobby I have become more and more interested in the historical aspect of slot racing, and am interested in brass scratch building for HO scale. I guess the engineer in me can't help but want to tinker. I have a reproduction Riggen and I hope to improve it and even make my own chassis for some special cars I have wanted to make, but do not lend themselves to standard mass produced chassis. These being vintage narrow bodied F1 cars in particular. Not only do I resin cast, but vac form as well, so I hope to enter into making bodies in that manner as well, but hope to attain better detail than current offerings.

So bring on the rest of this thread! Not only is the subject right up my alley, but it also features Dave Ferguson. His concors cars have always blown me away. I have not seen or heard much about him as of late so this re-emergence is exciting to see!

[Foamy]

JW, tell Fregie I said Hello. I'm also from that same club at that time.

I was doing scratchbuilts after the TycoPigs...I mean TycoPros came out, mostly anglewinders. When the AFX car came out, I was the first in the group to get one. I won the first race one was entered in. After that, it was all downhill from there.

[Jairus]

Foamy,
Dave asked me to say hi to you for him at the Can Am race but we never got the chance to talk...
Anyway, he has spoken of you from time to time, even remembers a race with Dave Larsen! Dave F, Gregg and I shared a BBQ last night while we talked about the HO car, the new magazine and... well, the rest is a little fuzzy...
:whistle:

[Jairus]

Update on the HO Iso Riggen.
.075 acrylic pickup holder mounted to brass pan with countersunk .080 flat head screws and nuts.



HT-50 Endbell is strengthened with JB Weld, cut down, and dyed black.
Brass brush barrels are drilled and tapped for 2-56 screws. Endbell is secured to can by four 090 flathead screws.



Underside demonstrates the two posts for securing the can to frame. Eventually these will be soldered in place and sanded flush.



Next: We paint the can a sweet period wrinkle black and hang the iso frame and hinges! So stay tuned . . .

[TSR]

Do I smell a dreaded pin guide here? 8)

[Hworth08]

Hi, Richard, and welcome!

You might be onto something real good with your technology. I just quickly scanned your site and it looked interesting.

Aurora sure could have used your help! Terrible reproductions that sold millions?

Wondering if the process could be used to make molds for any scale?

Again, welcome and keep us updated on your progress.

[picard34]

Quote

Wondering if the process could be used to make molds for any scale?

Again, welcome and keep us updated on your progress.

Don,

Thanks for the welcome, and I am glad you like the website. There is much on my workbench that has yet to even get on the web as of yet. To answer your question, yes, the process can be readily used on any scale - the prototypes will cost a bit more. Making a rapid prototype for making vacuform molds is even easier than for full resin hardbodies since you would not need to have the side to worry about. In fact, the most economical rapid prototyping is ideal for making masters for vacu-forming. With my interest in the reproduction Riggen, I hope to possibly make some bodies for it, as well as adapt some of my other original designs to PETG as well.

Jarius,

Nice progress so far. I assume the motor is mounted in this fashion to lower the overall CG? I have seen some Riggen owners that just ground open the motor mounts to allow the can to sit lower, but never in this manner. Was the modification to the endbell to allow the body to clear the motor?

[Jairus]

Real life has managed to intrude a bit on Dave's build, but some recent progress has been made, so here’s another update.

In this top view, you can see the leading edges of the front acrylic piece have now been reshaped and contoured for the pickup holders. The "V" shape will allow the bronze wipers to be placed at a nice angle for optimum contact in the corners. The 'dreaded pin guide',� as zee Phillipe put it, is mounted at the junction of the "V". The guide is a very hard high carbon steel machine screw, modified and trimmed to length. It is adjustable for height (!) to accommodate different slot depths. It mounts through an 0-80 nut soldered into the original guide hole on the Riggen chassis. The remainder of the screw locks into threads tapped in the acrylic.

The brass plates on either side of the guide, clamp the wipers in place, and are secured with 0-80 bolts. The single bolt in the center toward the rear will locate and secure the up stop for the ISO arm. The 0-90 bolts used for the motor mounts alluded to last time are now soldered in place, sanded flush and cut to length. The can has been painted wrinkle black and mounts VERY securely in the frame. Shown along with one of the pans in the background is an original Lancer Lola T-163. Unfortunately, this one was already cut too low when I got it and it's basically unusable. Looks nice, though!



Bottom view, with the can mounted flush with the frame. Don, mounting the motor this way not only lowers the CG, it also stiffens the frame considerably and allows for easy replacement of the motor if needed. It wasn't done so the motor could clear the body (the body will be a Ford Mk IV coupe, so that's not an issue.)



Another update coming soon!

[toybaron]

Beautiful Build...If you need any NOS vintage Riggen Industries parts, please contact me.....would be glad to help.

Ron

[TSR]

I knew it! PIN GUIDE ALERT!!! :mrgreen:

[toybaron]

The Riggen flag I have is a TycoPro style with a blade and stranded copper wire or copper (berrylium??) wipers....I also have some with steel? wire braids...the only pin guides I know are on the AJ's repro part we made up.

Brass On

[Jairus]

TSRF24 said:

I knew it! PIN GUIDE ALERT!!! :mrgreen:

Yeah, SO? :?

[TSR]

So, you are joining the Bad Boyz Club of which I am the president. I LOVE pin guides, and so does my friend Al in Kold Kanada...
Pin guides are highly criticized by people who do not know any better. :mrgreen:

[sportblazer350]

Ok Dokk, as much as i do respect your knowledge and slot car judgements, i am not much of a guide pin fan.......when my TSRF cars slide in the turns, they stop dead due to no electrical connection...... :? ......what am i missing here??? i trust you to enligten me in this discussion. It may be that i have an earelier version of the steel guide pin that was in the forard position. I have been thinking of adding a standard guide flag to the TSRF chassis........Glenn O.

[Jairus]

So what was/is the alternative to the guide pin on little HO slot cars anyway? Seems like track marshaling would be a whole lot easier and quicker with the guide pin that it might with a blade.
:?

[TSR]

Quote

when my TSRF cars slide in the turns, they stop dead due to no electrical connection...... ......what am i missing here???

This:
Will stop in tight turns:



Will go around the tightest turns known to man:



Regards,

[sportblazer350]

"let the pictures do the talking" thanks Dokk, i see and looks like and easy enough modification. Are the current rtr 1/32 and 1/24 TSRf chassis like the second pix??

Jarius- you are killing me with this modified h.o. scale Riggen! I raced them back in the days until Magna-traction came out, and that ended my h.o. racing career until a few years ago. And i actually placed in the 2nd annual Riggen brass Wars race here in NJ last year, with an out of the box Riggen re-issue car. And they (the new re-issues) still rattle away like i remembered the original ones did!

I would so love to own a modified h.o. Riggen car, but the going rate for them these days is too much$$ for me, yet i do respect the workmanship involved. Would love to see this car completed and track tested vs an original riggen and a new re-issue car.

And who knows....maybe an h.o. scale TSRF car someday!! :shock:

[Jairus]

Glenn,
Thank you! But Dave Fergeson is doing the fantastic work not me. He's not a member yet but reads the postings from time to time.

If you are reading this Dave.... Git 'erDone!

8)