131 replies to this topic

[don.siegel]

Rick,

Yes, but... one is a sidewinder and one is an inline! I know you're good, and versatile and all that, but it just doesn't seem kosher somehow...

Anyway, that Morrissey article is the one that got me started scratchbuilding (but with a 26D so it must have been some time later...), so it's very near and dear to my heart!

One of the Model Car & Racing mags has a very nice article on a Ram-Boochi sidewinder chassis that looks a bit similar to what you've done so far - want me to post that one, or do you have it? It may have been in the first issue, November 1966, when 36Ds were still in the realm of possibility...

Keep on solderin'
Don

[Hworth08]

I've built a couple of home-racers from the Mike Morrissey article. To me, it seems like a good choice.

That time-frame was just about the end of the "innocent period" when most anything might be lined up for a race. Just before a mass of factory re-winds, better tires, and handling bodies... The end of the era of racing to see how your car compared with others to whatever it takes to win.

[dc-65x]

Hi Bob,

I've been scrubbing my Rick's jig in the kitchen sink with a brush and Clorex cleanser. Sometimes acid get down in those 1/16" holes and is hard to get out. I've just received a ultrasonic cleaner and I'm going to try tossing the jig in it with some baking soda and water.

Thanks for the offer Don but I have that Nov '66 issue. I didn't use the RamBoochie article because the builder didn't scratch build his motor brackets but used Kal Kar instead. As for applying some of Morrissey's design elements to a sidewinder, check out the pictures below. I think it cool as hell....wait....hot as hell....cool as can be....well I like it anyway . I was a big Mike Morrissey fan back in the day and I guess I still am.

... The end of the era of racing to see how your car compared with others to whatever it takes to win.

Sad but true Don .

Here is the chassis all set up in the jig and ready to solder. Check out all the pins aligning and holding everything together. I sure like this jig . I should build something again on my old Russkit Adjust-O-Jig and I bet I will appreciate it even more:







The main rails attaching to an inline bracket or a sidewinder bracket seems OK to me. I'll use a 3-rail drop arm and attach it to the main rails like Mike did. I hope to make the rear body mount look like his too.

All that will be left of that 3/32" tube will be to a short drop arm pivot tube on each set of main rails. K&S Metals loves me I'm sure .



Here's a shot of the front end and all the pins aligning everything:



I hope to get the soldering going tomorrow.........

Onward

[havlicek]

Man Rick, that motor box alone is some piece of work. Sidewinders were my favorites...just because , and this one will be ultra cool.

-john

[MSwiss]

The 19 is coming along great.
I concur with John, that motor cradled in there is mucho sano.

[Hworth08]

This one's gonna be a good one!

I can imagine some real battles between this car and the Tyco powered ( with DC-65X arm) sidewider with the Lola GT body, http://www.theindepe...Race2_Page4.JPG, you built a while back.

Where did 43 years go?

[dc-65x]

Thanks guys.

Here's the car Don's talking about. I built it before I had a digital camera so the pictures kind of suck...sorry. It's a fun car to drive. Modifying the motor for the Pittman arm was fun too.

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

don, time line, you might have done the 26d without a big delay. The car was probably built and shot in December or January, and you would have seen the mag in mid March. In my area the Pittcan and the 26d showed up in April. I haven't looked to see when the ads were.

In that period, I never used the tubing, only wire. I had some older 36ds in brass rod (a couple with 3/32 brass rod and one with 1/8) and being influenced by the midwest guys, lots of sheet! It was the era when I discovered that straight line speed doesn't win races.

Anyway, in the day, in my circles, we were arguing a lot over the sidewinder/inline thing. Again, the early tracks only had 4 inch or less lane centers, and while kids for fun might have tires sticking out, the tracks enforced the 3" limit. 3" limit means 1/2 inch tires. A lot of the guys wanted 5/8ths or 3/4 tires mounted on things like Mille Miglia hubs (threaded?!!!) which cannot be effected with a sidewinder. In my circles a lot of the kids had ONE car and both raced and drag raced.

So, a lot of the guys were inspired by the Morressey article but did them as sidewinders that I saw.

And innocence? ya, I think I was trying something new weekly.

When the 26d and pittcan were brand new, a lot of people sneered. My first was a "prize" for winning a race. And my winning with it the next week led to a lot of scales for the track (one of 6 in the area at the time, Competition Raceway).

Fate

[Tex]

Rick,

Thanks for re-posting that Lola; brings a tear to the eye. Beauty, dood.

[don.siegel]

Yep, it's always a pleasure to see Rick's take on that very historic car - why historic? Because it was the last non-can car to compete in a major race, at least one that was covered in the magazines! I think there were two of these Tyco-65X (hi Rick!) sidewinders in the first two Rod & Custom races, and then it was all can, all the way to now.... They were originally with "wet wick" setups to constantly lube the commutator, but that was outlawed for these races, otherwise they would have been more competitive (I don't think they made it to the main).

Rocky, I know we've had this discussion before, but we had very different timelines: I'm pretty sure I built the car in early 67 because I had already seen the Car Model article announcing the 26D, which came out in the January 67 issue (so probably mid-December on the newsstands). I've looked through all the magazines, and can't find ANY reference to the 26D before late fall of 66, so I'm very surprised that you say this came out in March of that year - and I know I had never seen it in my local shop earlier, although I may not have been looking that carefully, and we were just a little hole in the wall on the south side of Chicago... Once again, it's hard to date these things exactly, but for me it doesn't compute... (unless you were getting stuff way earlier than we were....). Sorry for the parenthesis, we'll continue this in another thread if there's any interest...

Don

[Horsepower]

But how did Rick get that Pittcan so polished and CLEAN?

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

One of the things I have somewhere is the package spec sheet for the 6001...copyright april 66.

For me, the timeline was that August 66 I had money left over from the book budget, and bought the Pactra with a hemi, and within a week had replaced the chassis. The point being I never used a 26d sized motor after the Hemi. but I have surviving 26d chassis.

Fate

[dc-65x]

Dates, dates, dates....no worries mates. If I may summarize the approximate time frame of my build. I based this build on absolutely no memory as I am a true product of the 1960's . I've based it on magazine articles I've posted. Of course these are not the actual dates in time as there was, what, a 3 month lag time. But, that doesn't matter here as these are all "magazine dates" and can be related to each other.

CM 4/66 Morrissey Team Russkit Builds to win

R&C 5/66 and 7/66 race reports showing the same "pre-jaildoor" designs as the Team Russkit Builds to Win article and some sidewinders in the races to boot

Here is a CM 8/66 article on the Pittman 6001BB:



Maybe I'm just easily amused (I hope so ) but a 7/66 race report and an 8/66 motor report is close enough for me to have some fun and build this particular car.

Anyhow, I'm going to be tearing down my 6001BB and reworking it when the chassis is done. Right now it's an old race motor with quite a few vintage races under its endbell.

Time to start soldering on that frame ................

[Horsepower]

That's an OLD motor? Hrumph, looks better than my new ones. Just what, if I may be so bold, are going to do to this classic piece of history? Let me know and maybe I can steal some more ideas!

[dc-65x]

Hi Gary,

The motor buzzes or vibrates more than one of those coin operated vibrating beds in a cheap motel . I'm going to start with static balancing the armature. I also need to replace these:



This is called an "OOPS" and is also known as an "OH $HIT!"

[mdiv]

Hi Guys,

Last night I masked off the windsheild and driver area as well as the headlights. I did some detailing with parma fascolors as well.

Today I took the masked body over to The Race Place in Farmingdale, NJ, and owner Jerry Herbert was kind enough to trim the body for me. I'm not only very bad at doing this but I also get the shakes so his help was greatly appreciated!

I then painted the body with two coats of Pactra Bright Red and one coat of Pactra Sprint White - rattle cans! Thanks to Mike Swiss for providing us with Lexan bodies! Yay, Laquers!

Anyway, attached are pretty fuzzy pictures of my painted body as well as the chassis it is going on - ends up I'm going to put it on a dynamic. Rear tires will be replaced with silicone coated Tom Anderson jobs and fronts will be Daytona Stockers 13/16ths.

I have a good buddy in Queens putting new rubber on old Russkit 6-hole black anodized rims and I have a pair of fronts that will match, those I hope will be going on this car.

Anyway, sorry to impose, Rick, but I thought I would show how my build is going.

Thanks!

Mikey

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[Pete L.]

Mikey,



Nice work, the car looks FAST sitting still !

[dc-65x]

Thanks for posting Mikey . It's looking good. What model Wilson motor are you running?

Rick

[mdiv]

Thanks Pete!

Rick,

It is a cougar, #901 Mark III. Still available from ED.

I was very antsy with this motor. The screws to attach it to the rear motor mount went so far in that I thought it was puncturing the armature. Additionally I thought I bent the arm when I pressed the pinion on. Luckily nothing bad happened, and geared 10/33 it has great pick up, great straight-line speed and EXCELLENT brakes.

I really like that you are using a 6001BB. I have one in a dynamic frame and I can't get it dialed in.

Anyway, thanks

As for a body mount I think I can use the brass one that came with the REH VW Bug kit, it seems to fit. I'll let ya'll know things go, I'm thinking of working on this more tonight if I can't fall asleep.

[havlicek]

Rick/Mike...Pitmanns...Globes...scratchbuilts and Dynamics, THIS is some cool stuff going on here. My god, it's like I've been transported back 40 or so years and I'm a kid all over again when I see this stuff (until I look in the mirror that is). You guys are "the keepers of the flame", so carry on!

-john

[dc-65x]

Hi Mikey,

Let's see, I've got a Wilson numbers 876-13, 877-1, 890-13 "Screamer" and a 900 MkII "Wildcat" but no #901 Mark III. Darn........

John, as a "Motor Guy" you best of all know the fun of messing with different kinds of motors. It's great fun

Anywho, the jig holding everything in place made soldering the frame up easy. I just tacked one rail at a time in place and then went back over the solder joints to make them "purdy":



I added a little brass washer to reinforce the drop arm pivot tubes:



The solder has flowed nicely but to places it's not needed. It's not necessary but I like to sand all the solder off the tubes except in the actual joint. See how the solder flowed on top of the upper frame rail? I'll be getting rid of that.



After trimming the excess tubing off the frame the jig was set up to get the body mounts aligned:



She's got all the excess trimmed off, sanded smooth but unpolished ready for the drop arm:





Onward to drop arm land................

[Tex]

That looks SO nice.

[Prof. Fate]

Hi Mikey

Not getting the dynamic "dialed in" might be the tongue. During the mid and late 60s, a 40 car field in local races would commonly be dynamics for the entriess from the B main down to the last 10 or so which might be cox cars or something. Anyway, the Dnynamics in a crash might snap the tongue, and with the flex hinge, the hinge failed.

A lot of the local tracks short on tongues would just slice open the package and steal a new tongue. In the 80s, someone manufactured a lot of fake tongues in poor metal rather than the original aluminum. These came in what looked like the original Dynamic packages.

A lot of collectors bought them and inserted them into the full "unopened" chassis they had for display purposes.

I have never found out WHO did the knock offs.

Anyway, REH got burned on this. His RTRs and kits in the early 90s came with loose parts and often had the fake tongue in them. The thing bends when running such that you cannot dial it in. As finding a good tongue hasn't gotten better, the only real fix is to cut a sheet of 1/16th brass to screw to the tongue or use a couple sticks of pianowire soldered to the screws.

Fate

[mdiv]

Rick, Lookin' good brother! ED still has some #901s in their catalogue. Fun little motor, dual ball bearings!

John, thanks for the interest!

Rocky, thanks for the tips. The latest incarnation of my 6001BB car has a brass tongue so I'm not sure what's up with it. Also my local track runs at two possible voltages - high power (13.875V) and low power (12.5V). The motor is a bit tame on low power but on high power it's insane!

I think I may spend the day at the track to build and test. Ah, a perfect Sunday afternoon!

Mikey

[dc-65x]

Thanks Mikey

Those Dynamic brass tongues are cool but a little wimpy. I used to beef mine up with piano wire for vintage racing. You can even solder on piano wire front axles for whatever diameter front wheels and tires you'd like to use.