107 replies to this topic

[dc-65x]

I agree Larry, Lancer bodies in the "Golden Age" of slot cars were beautiful.

[Jairus]

Oh, please go Gulf colors... PLEEEZE!

[Martin]

The nose looks pretty long too, for some healthy uncompromised guide lead. AKA guide leed. Why its not spelled this way I will never know?

Good choice, great looking body

I always though the Lancer 900 series were the wider versions, things that make you go hmmmm.

I am not disputing your findings BTW. Just my assumptions.

[dc-65x]

I think I'll save the Gulf livery for the scale version Jairus.
 
Martin, the sides of the body are slightly tapered inward and measure 2 7/8" but fit a 3" chassis when straightened out to vertical.

 

Wait a minute....     ....you mean I have a body that you don't have!!!!      

 
Here's what's in the kit for a drop arm hinge, a short piece of 3/32" tube and 2 little machined gizmos (on bottom in the photo). I'm going with a conventional piano wire hinge pin shown on top:
 

 
I added a short piece of 1/16" rod as a brace behind the hinge:
 

 

 

FERRET manufactured the chassis parts for Phaze III. They also sold some of the same chassis under the FERRET name.

 

This is for you Bill.       The FERRET stamped drop arm included in the kit:

 

 

I machined little reliefs to stop the solder from flowing into the hinge:

 

[dc-65x]

The Ferret drop arm is setup for the Cox guide which was just about to be replaced by the Simco Jet Flag in early 1969. The drop arm came bored out for a short section of 7/32" tube:

 

 

The drop arm hinge tube in place:

 

 

Phase III soldered their little stop thingie in the middle of the drop arm. That is harder to align and the entire 1/16" slab of brass needs to be heated to solder the thing on.

 

It's quick and easy to mount the stop on the side of the arm. The jig holds the arm in place and an axle spacer over the pin allows the stop to be held in place:

 

 

Neat and easy installation:

 

 

The arm is almost finished:

 

[Pablo]

Ultra SANO 

[Jairus]

Oh so pretty!

[Martin]

 
Martin, the sides of the body are slightly tapered inward and measure 2 7/8" but fit a 3" chassis when straightened out to vertical.

 

Wait a minute....     ....you mean I have a body that you don't have!!!!      

 

 

 

You are correct Rick, out of the 34 bodies in the 900 series I am missing 4.

909- Chevy Impala

972- 68 Indy Lola

975-Lotus 49B F1

and wait for it .............the 957-Ford Mirage GT. is not in my collection

 

I did measure some GT bodies from the 900 series and like you say they can be stretched to 3'' without too much effort. The Mirage in the 5000 series is narrower, I would say 2-3/4" at the body mounts would be comfortable.

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[Jairus]

I think I'll save the Gulf livery for the scale version Jairus.
 

 

 

 

Wait a gol-darned minute!  What "Scale Version"?
Cox?
Because after doing two of those, it takes a lot of body work.

[dc-65x]

Thanks, I haven't but the "buff" to anything yet. I'm just going over it with a Scotch Brite Pad for now.

 

Jairus, Martin is showing the Lancer lightweight "scale" Mirage. I pictured the Lancer low and wide Super Competition version earlier.

 

Rodney sent me a picture of his Lancer scale versions in the Gulf livery........very nice!

 

[Martin]

On the color scheme question, I had to search to find the M1 that was not the Gulf colors. But there is one and it was raced.

 

This is what I found for your consideration.    That's of course if you did want to do a "real" as raced paint scheme.

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[dc-65x]

No, that's of course if I could do a neat job of that "real" race car paint scheme (or the Gulf livery for that matter). Unfortunately I can't. I'm not a gifted modeler like you, Jairus and Rodney.   

 

I know what I can and can't accomplish with painting and detailing. I would rather do a neat job of a simple fantasy livery than a sloppy job of a complicated "real" race livery. Just my  personal preference.

[Jairus]

Pattos makes some nice decal sets.... just saying.

[dc-65x]

You artists can think things that are easy for you the rest of us should be able to do. I wish it worked that way.

 

The Patto's Gulf livery stripes (which I have) need to go over and into this splendid Lancer detail of bumps and a valley:

 

 

 

I'm sure you will say this is no problem but I'm going to pass.....just saying.  

[Bill from NH]

If I was doing the Gulf livery on that body, I would use a liquid masking, such as Bob Dively's, but I'm not. 

[dc-65x]

Me neither Bill.  

[dc-65x]

Okie dokie. Moving right along with chassis fabrication. 
 

Bill, it's a fun fact that you chose to race the non plumber version. Rodney found some period magazine commentary on this chassis and its plumber that I'll be sharing here soon.

Here's the Tom Malone column from Car Model Magazine January 1970 where he talks about the Phase III chassis and how he says to improve it. I've put a red outline around those comments but included all 3 pages of his column for some fun reading  Thanks Rodney!:

 

(Click on the picture for easy reading)

 

 

 

 

OK, plumber on the drop arm and not on the frame as Phase III has it. Here's my jig setup for the plumber hinge tubes:

 

 

I set the hinge tube on top of the little extensions built into the drop arm on either side of the guide tongue:

 

 

The drop arm is finally finished:

 

[Brian Czeiner]

You artists can think things that are easy for you the rest of us should be able to do. I wish it worked that way.

 

The Patto's Gulf livery stripes (which I have) need to go over and into this splendid Lancer detail of bumps and a valley:

 

I'm sure you will say this is no problem but I'm going to pass.....just saying.  

 

I would be more concerned about the dips in the hood vs the roof. The stripe doesn't acutally cross through body curves on the roof. But I like a challenge.    Sometimes it's just walking an chewing gum......

[dc-65x]

Brian, my Super Comp version doesn't have the "dips in the hood" that the scale body has. They are very shallow so it would be even easier for an expert painter like you to handle:

 

 

What you would do with the deep NACA duct in the middle of the roof stripes I don't know. But it doesn't matter because I'm not painting or decaling roof stripes on this body.

 

In fact I might just delete all the posts about this body and choose another one. Maybe a nice all red Ferrari.   

 

 

 

 

 

[Brian Czeiner]

Brian, my Super Comp version doesn't have the "dips in the hood" that the scale body has. They are very shallow so it would be even easier for an expert painter like you to handle:

 

What you would do with the deep NACA duct in the middle of the roof stripes I don't know. But it doesn't matter because I'm not painting or decaling roof stripes on this body.

 

In fact I might just delete all the posts about this body and choose another one. Maybe a nice all red Ferrari.   

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes simpler is better.  A Ferrari would showcase the build talents even more. Let's face, you just can't go wrong on this build. Any body you put on it will only be the icing on the cake.

[dc-65x]

Here is the plumber on the drop arm vs the kit's frame mounted plumber:

 

 

The pan hinge tubes were soldered to the plumber rails first, then the rails were straightened out from the heat warpage. 

 

The pans were soldered to the pan hinges next. I chose not to put the body mounting pin tubes on top of the angled hinges. I don't like the way the pin heads stick out from flush with the body when angled. To each his own....

 

 

The front and rear U-braces to tie the plumber together were next:

 

 

The pan and plumber subassembly:

 

 

The front brace:

 

 

Phase III puts the rear U-brace WAY forward where it does the least good. I really wanted to change this but I thought the original placement make the chassis more "Phase III" looking:

 

[Martin]

Glad you went with the body pins at 90.   Looking good Rick.

I  never liked body pins at 45. Always thought that was bad design.

[Bill from NH]

The stock plumber hinges on the rails had no protection. In a front end crash they would get wiped out. On the top of the drop arm, they'll handle better & have some protection.

[Jairus]

Great engineering Rick.  A good solution but a daft one if you had a time machine it would have made better sense. 
Wink wink, nod nod say no more.....

[dc-65x]

The "daft" plumber installation was nothing more than paying attention to the Bob Emott cars in this MRJ race report photo I showed earlier in this thread:

 

 

The text talks about and the photo shows the plumber hinges on the drop arm. This photo was from a month before the first Phase III plumber chassis add appeared in MRJ:

 

 

An amature racer back in the day was wise to pay attention to what the fast guys were doing.