14 replies to this topic

[Paul Jurczyszyn]

IS THERE A SUCH THING AS EVERGREEN OR STYRIEN SCRATCH BUILT CHASSIES? I SEE P/C BOARD BRASS AND EVEN WOODEN STICK ONES.
JUST WANT TO SEE ALL FORMS OF THIS NEET HOBBY THAT PEOPLE HAVE RACED.
PAUL.....

[TSR]

Hi Paul,
Welcome.
There are plenty of such chassis. Various plastics, wood, even cardboard were used over time to build effective slot car chassis. I am sure that our subscribers will fill you in with details, especially Al Penrose from Canada, well versed into such delicacies.
Where are you writing from?

[Ramcatlarry]

Working from sheet stock is as old as the first slotcar...bin there-done that. Most modern scratch built homeset cars start with a good basic chassis. Our club has a class that prefers to use the inline Ninco classic TYPE frame and allows the universal adjustable type frames of MRRC and others. As long as Fly, Slot-it and others make replacement frames available, totaly sheet stock frames are somewhat impractical to build - unless you really have a lot of time and ambition...and some do.

A bigger trick is the available 1/32 hard body shells in the USA. We have some injection molded kits from Revell/Monogram; Airfix; and ?....Resilient Resins brand may have died with the owner( I hope for the resurection)...Betta/Classic shells are available from England and ?? who else.

[Paul Jurczyszyn]

PHIL,
I AM IN MICHIGAN. I AM JUST GETTING IN TO RETRO AND SCRATCH BUILDING MY BACK GROUND IS IN HO SLOTS AND BUILDING PLASTICS. I JUST GOT A CARRERA 1/24 TRACK BUT WISH TO BUILD THIS SPRING A RETRO TRACK IN MY GARAGE THAT WILL PULL UP IN TO THE RAFTERS. HOPE TO FIND LOCAL PEOPLE TO START A CLUB LIKE NECKCHEESE DID WITH HIS RETRO F1 BUILDS. OPEN TO ANY THING LIKE TO LEARN AND BUILD. SOME TIMES I GET IN OVER MY HEAD AND MIGHT ASK THINGS WRONG ON THE FORM SO PLEASE FORGIVE . ALSO ONCE MORE WOULD LIKE TO THANK EVERY ONE FOR ALL THERE HELP........
PAUL

[TSR]

Paul, that sounds great! I wish you all the success in your venture. In the meantime the Carrera track allows you to run vintage and retro cars if you simply use urethane tires instead of sponge. This way no glue is needed and you will not have a sticky mess.

[munter]

Hi Paul
As TSR says chassis have been made from anything and everything.
It really depends on you.
Scratchbuilding is great because you can build what you like,how you like, when you like.
Lately I've been trying to use a premade chassis under other brands of bodies.
Here are two.
This one is a Ninco Lotus exige chassis under a revell 300sl body


And this is a slotit Sauber chassis under a Fly Panoz.


This can save time and effort although both chassis required the front axle position moving forward slightly.
I used a brass axle tube and some JB weld


regards

[havlicek]

In the broader sense, thin phenolic is plastic and would be an excellent masterial for making chassis. It has the strength and lightweight...as well as the machinability to do some cool things with. As well, you can easily bond to it with epoxy. The cloth stuff would undoubtedly be better than the paper.

HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF SOME THIN PHENOLIC

-john

[Lenny Broke]

Paul Jurczyszyn, on Jan 23 2010, 07:10 AM, said:

IS THERE A SUCH THING AS EVERGREEN OR STYRIEN SCRATCH BUILT CHASSIES? I SEE P/C BOARD BRASS AND EVEN WOODEN STICK ONES.
JUST WANT TO SEE ALL FORMS OF THIS NEET HOBBY THAT PEOPLE HAVE RACED.
PAUL.....

G'Day Mate
Here's a link to a guy's website who made chassis' from sheet styrene some years back. I've made a couple up and they work quite well.

Weird Jack HRS chassis
Cheers Alan

[Paul Jurczyszyn]

Thanks guys for all the replys very cool stuff.
Paul

[Ecurie Martini]

havlicek, on Jan 22 2010, 06:57 PM, said:

In the broader sense, thin phenolic is plastic and would be an excellent masterial for making chassis. It has the strength and lightweight...as well as the machinability to do some cool things with. As well, you can easily bond to it with epoxy. The cloth stuff would undoubtedly be better than the paper.

HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF SOME THIN PHENOLIC

-john

I use a lot of double sided PC board - same properties as phenolic (typically glass-based) plus the convenience of fastening it together with solder.

EM

[yomama]

I really like Styrene a it's easy to work with, strong, and affordable. Here's one I built awhile ago:

[tossedman]

Why stop at the chassis. Years ago Alberto built this and posted it over on slot forum

Cheers,

Todd

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

I am surprised that P hasn't weighed in with some of the "Prototyping" he has done with styrene.

Fate

[schackel]

Paul Jurczyszyn, on Jan 22 2010, 05:10 PM, said:

IS THERE A SUCH THING AS EVERGREEN OR STYRIEN SCRATCH BUILT CHASSIES? I SEE P/C BOARD BRASS AND EVEN WOODEN STICK ONES.
JUST WANT TO SEE ALL FORMS OF THIS NEET HOBBY THAT PEOPLE HAVE RACED.
PAUL.....

Well, my first attempt was a conversion only. The rules allowed self built chassis (unusual in the German 32nd scale hardbody scene...) and after having built a few PCB chassis I wanted to try sth. new.The first Nissan 390, from Team Slot, had a flat interior and I asked why they dind´t use an aglewinder or sidewinder. So i tried it myself. It worked really well, won a few races, but as time went on the chassis warped and so I put the model in the hall of fame...











After I had found black styrene sheets in various thicknesses on EPAY I did my second attempt - a complete chassis for a NINCO Mercedes CLK. It did its first test runs and I noticed that the center section needed stiffening. Meanwhile it is ready and runs quite well, but not in any races yet.















The latest was another conversion, this time a Saleen (FLY). I liked the body but not the inline principle.

We were allowed to work on the chassis as long as plastics were being used and so I converted it to an anglewinder. To get it all under the body I had to remove the extensive engine dummy. I took an aerial view photo of the dummy, printed it and cut it to shape. When you look at the model you hardly see this. The drive is a white BETTA inlet. Drivers are also allowed as flat printed bodies with a threedimensional plastic head , but that´s too much to my taste.

This car won a few races as well and was only put to the "hall" because the front wheel suspension, which I had raised a bit, broke off repeatedly - during the races, of course ..

To summarize - a lot of fun to build plastic chassis, but it is very important to use a "welding" glue such as Tenax 7R or similar, and to stiffen the chassis esp. around the drive area ( motor and rear axle) - styrene is softer and more flexible than one assumes.

Actually nevertheless another PCB chassis is being prepared for this Saleen. I think PCB is more useful for races. It is more stable when finished because of the possibility to glue AND solder it.



Roland

[idare2bdul]

Slot racers seem to be an endlessly creative bunch.