116 replies to this topic

[dc-65x]

I was very inspired by our friend Jairus Watson's posts on building a Ferrari 330 P4. I love the "look" they have, the way they sit just looks FAST . Here are the links to his beautiful creations:

1967 Ferrari 330 by Jairus Watson

Another Ferrari 330 P3 by Jairus Watson

Before I start on the Bob Cozine inspired car I thought I'd share the little bit I "think I know" about the body I'll be using. I have already built up both versions of Dynamic's Ferrari 330 P4 but they are Butyrate original bodied "Magazine Cars" and after a test run they were displayed in the Society for the Historical Preservation of Bay Area Pro Slot Car Racing (SHPBAPSCR) Museum.

Thanks to Victor Ferguson and his beautiful TrueScale bodies I can build a "Shop Car" to hammer at Eddie's Slot Car World:



OK, so we have a beautiful reproduction Dynamic body. But Dynamic actually had two versions of the P4 that were VERY different yet used the same part number . They did the same thing with their Lola T-70 coupe and roadster bodies . This is the "wide body" version (I think is the first generation) all lined up for the main event......



......and a close-up.............



........another picture from the race report..........



..............and another close-up:



I have yet to find a picture of what I think is the later "short nose" version that TrueScale is reproducing. Here is my first gen "wide body" P4............



.............and the later "short nose" P4............



................and a comparison of both side by side:







Alrighty then, whenever the heck it came out the TrueScale repop of the Dynamic Ferrari P4 is way cool so I'm putting one on a December 1967 Bob Cozine inspired recreation. Info on Bob's cars is coming up next.................

[Tex]

OMIGOD!! That one is actually a Ferrari Limo!! No offense, but it just doesn't "look right". It looks GREAT, but it doesn't look "right".

[Jairus]

Rick, I don't think that it is the "nose" that is longer... I think it is the tail! Note the size of the rear window area.

[TSR]

These are the two different Dynamic "Handling" bodies, both wider and lower than actual scale. The "long" one was the first issued and indeed its tail is longer while the nose is about the same. I think that the one used by Terry Schmid in that race was not a Dynamic 330P4 but the Lancer version that is incredibly accurate and one of the most beautiful slot car bodies ever made.
The "short" version of the Dynamic 330P4 as copied by TrueScale was modeled by Jack Garcia as the "long" one was not performing as well as they liked. It was discontinued shortly after the new version was produced and is rather hard to find today.

[dc-65x]

Hi Philippe,

I agree with everything you said except the bodies used in the race report with Terry Schmid's are indeed Dynamic bodies not the Lancer version. The caption on the MRJ photo states that the entire field is made up of all Dynamic bodies and the close-up photo of Terry's car is an exact match of my Dynamic body.

My inspiration for running gear for this project came for Bob Cozine's racers from late 1967:



MRJ's close-up article of his winning car:



I was going to build his car above but then I found his car from the ARCO NAT's:



This is the version I'm going to go for. Here is the rest of the ARCO NATS race report:







.........and a close-up of the car I'm using for "inspiration":



Next up, time to start building.......

[MSwiss]

Cool stuff.

I see current SERRA racer, Raymond Gonzalez's name ,real prominent.
Coincidently, I just sent him a 66 Fairlane body yesterday.

[TSR]

Another name from the past, Gene Thurber from Odessa, TX, became a collector of vintage Cox and other brands small gas engines.
Rick, you are right about the bodies, my single headlight is deceiving me.
Please note that there are TWO distinct Cozine chassis shown in these pages, one with a plate drop arm. Both look strongly inspired by a certain series of chassis built by a certain John Cukras a few months before...

[Howmet TX]

This is exactly where my ageing heart lies.... Beautiful, beautiful beautiful. P4s. Inline chassis. Rewound 16Ds. Can shims...
Can't wait to see your build progressing, Dc. Jairus' car was wonderful too. I will join the queue.

[Tex]

I wish there was a few more pictures of the NASCAR chassis that Emmot built for Von Ahrens. It looks like it has some wild protection built for the wheels.

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

Just so you know, there is a back channel discussion about having a race for this type of car, replicas and originals, at the spring convention.

Calling it "jaildoor" though I would not be opposed to calling it a "Morressey Class" for popularizing this in the day.

My suggestion is period 16ds or modern "workalikes" such as the inexpensive S16d by SpeedFX.

And perhaps the earlier versions using a standard 16d.

Fate

[dc-65x]

I wish there was a few more pictures of the NASCAR chassis that Emmot built for Von Ahrens. It looks like it has some wild protection built for the wheels.

Hi Richard,

We're in luck. Give me a few minutes and I'll scan the MRJ coverage of the Von Ahren's stocker.

Hi

Just so you know, there is a back channel discussion about having a race for this type of car, replicas and originals, at the spring convention.

Calling it "jaildoor" though I would not be opposed to calling it a "Morressey Class" for popularizing this in the day.

My suggestion is period 16ds or modern "workalikes" such as the inexpensive S16d by SpeedFX.

And perhaps the earlier versions using a standard 16d.

Fate

Hi Rocky,

Please keep up posted

[dc-65x]

Here you go Richard:





Enjoy

[endbelldrive]

OK guys...got enuff inspiration? Let's do some building!

[dc-65x]

OK guys...got enuff inspiration? Let's do some building!

"By your command!"

Okie Dokie it's time to build. Since this is not a clone but a period "korrect" (more or less ) build I decided to use the Mike Morrissey technique for installing 1/4" ball bearings with a Russkit bracket. The 5/32" aluminum tube keeps everything lined up and the 1/8" guide collars keep the whole mess together. I used the neato stepped reamer I learned about in Mike Steube's chassis building video to open up the brackets bearing hole for a Champion end bell:



Mr. Vise acts as my third hand and bingo........we have an axle bracket ready to go:



Here the jig motor and jig wheels are in place and set up in my Rick's chassis jig:



I again used the super accurate dowel pin locations in the Rick's jig along with some machinist adjustable parallels to set up the first main rails:



Then with the first rails installed it was simple to space the next rails with a 1/16" spacer rod and finish up all eight rails:



Well.......it was simple until I got to the outside rails with the little kink in them to clear the rear tires as you can see by all my boo boo's in the background



All's well that ends well. If you goof up just bend another one. K&S Metals will love you . After a good cleaning and a little metal polish we're ready for some bracket bracing and body mounts:

[dc-65x]

I installed the rear bracket bracing but I think I made a boo boo. I'm thinking the outer brace should be installed on the bottom of the bearing tube not on the top as I had to do it. The brace needs to be installed before the outer frame rail. With the outer frame rails in place there isn't really enough room to solder it. I think it would look cool to have that brace attached on the bottom of the bearing tube and inside the frame rails but I decided not to take frame apart. When you build yours you can learn from my mistake .

It still looks OK. Just not as trick as it could have :





Time to eat some turkey.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE

[Tex]

MMMmmmm........ shiny brass, steel and solder!

She's a beaut, Rick.

[tonyp]

Tex, Pete built his own winning chassis. Bob let Howie run his car as Howie did not come with a NASCAR chassis.

[JerseyJohn]

I installed the rear bracket bracing but I think I made a boo boo. I'm thinking the outer brace should be installed on the bottom of the bearing tube not on the top as I had to do it. The brace needs to be installed before the outer frame rail. With the outer frame rails in place there isn't really enough room to solder it. I think it would look cool to have that brace attached on the bottom of the bearing tube and inside the frame rails but I decided not to take frame apart. When you build yours you can learn from my mistake .

It still looks OK. Just not as trick as it could have :





Time to eat some turkey.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE

Beauty Rick.What tumbling media do you use.....

[Tex]

Tex, Pete built his own winning chassis. Bob let Howie run his car as Howie did not come with a NASCAR chassis.

Thanks, Tony... didn't pay close enough attention. At any rate, that's some wild wire-bending around those wheels!

[tonyp]

They were a pain in the butt to make, especially when they were piano wire later on. I'd just make mine go straight up and one 90 degree bend over the top.

[Hworth08]

Nice start!

The center section looks similiar to the early Champion 285 frame that used the brass rod drop arm. I do wonder why a Champion team member used a Russkit axle bracket instead of a Champion?

[Bill from NH]

I do wonder why a Champion team member used a Russkit axle bracket instead of a Champion?

Don, lighter weight & the fact they're easier to work with might be a couple. Ever try to put bearings in a plated Champion bracket?

[tonyp]

Don, No one ever used them. They were not a "Pro" item at the time...

[dc-65x]

Beauty Rick.What tumbling media do you use.....

Thanks John

I use Cabelas ceramic media and a dash of Tide Low Suds detergent for front loading machines. I didn't tumble this particular chassis. I used a Dremel wire wheel and paste metal polish with an old tee shirt and Q-tip cotton applicators.

Rick

[dc-65x]

I'm glad the Russkit bracket was so widely used by the Pros because that's what I have most of . OK, on to the body mounts and drop arm pivot.

HOLES, HOLES, AND MORE HOLES! Your jig can't have too many holes and my Rick's jig doesn't disappoint :



Just leave the tubes long and let the dowel pins line things up.....neato . I only touched the iron to the sides of the body mount pin tubes but with all the heat and acid flux the solder tins the top of the tubes. I like to sand that stuff off, not the joint, just the junk on top of the pin tubes.

Here the jigs dowel pin holes along with a brass strip spacer align the outer rails



All the "jail door" chassis I have built had "hanging chads" (lumps of solder on the bottom of the joints) caused by inconsistant and excessive solder on the joints. This time I finally got it right. I didn't keep adding solder to get a good joint. I just used acid flux and moved the iron around to flow the solder and shape the joint.

Ironically, this is exactly what you shouldn't do to make an inline perform . Rodney (SHPBAPSCR's Master Restorer and Tuner) advised me at the beginning of this build to pile on the solder especially at the rear of the chassis to add weight down low...............to make an inline GO! I also heard various Pros from the period talk about this. Many pictures of vintage Pro chassis have the solder piled on too.

Oh well, I can't help myself. I like the way this looks :



She's all cleaned up and waiting for a drop arm: