664 replies to this topic

[Alchemist]

Hi Rodney,

 

Thanks for sharing the pan car chassis!

 

What does the car weigh please?

 

My apologies for asking again, but do you have another view (perhaps a frontal view) of the coil spring suspension please?

 

I'm aware its soldered, but I'm not able to determine how the motor was mounted in detail.

 

Thank you Rodney.

 

Ernie

[Bill from NH]

That must be the Associated body I never had. When they originally came out with a Lola, a Ferrari coupe, & I think an F1, I bought a Lola & a Ferrari from Speed & Sport to see what they were. Later they introduced a 4th body style, yours must be it.   I airbrushed the Lola with Testor TLC paint in the mid-70's & it's still not thoroughly dry. That was my "go-to" paint back then.

[Slot Car Rod]

I remember TCL rubberized paint.  Yes, still drying and lead wires sticking to the body. 

 

The pan car weighs 5.9 ounces and as a comparison, the Champion group car weighs 5.7 ounces (no lead added).

 

With the pan car, the round tube with ball bearings is attached to the chassis.  The truss surrounding the tube and bearings is attached to the motor,  The motor pod pivot movement is controlled with the springs.

[Alchemist]

Thank you for providing that info Rodney!

 

I'm so use to weighing in grams, so 5.9 ounces converts to 167.2 grams.

 

Thanks again Rodney!

 

Ernie

[don.siegel]

I remember TCL rubberized paint.  Yes, still drying and lead wires sticking to the body. 

 

 

Oh, so that's why so many cars I find have the lead wire sticking to the body! 

 

I had never realized that, thanks for the info! 

 

Don 

[Bill from NH]

Thankfully, soon after, Parma started selling bottles of lacquer & you could still find a few bottles of Ulrich.  But not all TCL colors remained tacky. 

[Slot Car Rod]

I especially liked slot car racing in the '60s because it seemed like everybody was building their own cars with their own chassis designs.  A fairly fast car could be built on a budget to race with friends.  Most slot cars were soldered together with a Weller soldering gun, and were not pro built.  This mildly-restored Lotus from the Ben Jones collection represents this type of slot car.

 

A Mabuchi 26D motor could be purchased for $3.00 back then (a bargain).  The 26D motor in this car was home rewound and balanced.  The frame looks like it started out as a U-Go ($3.98).  The iso-fulcrum section was added to accommodate the mounting of the Lotus sports car body.  Front wheels are Buzco WHEELIES that sold for $.89, and the rear Riggen Super Sponge tires sold for $1.59

 

This car would have given your friends' Cox La Cucarachas a good run, and would have been easier to drive.

 

Rodney

 

 

[Bill from NH]

That's a simple, but neat looking frame. I recall paying $3 for stock 26Ds. And 53 years later, I still recall building my first chassis on a Russkit jig using a Weller gun, hobby knife, pliers & a 3-corner file. I didn't own a Dremel & I had no flux other than what was in the solder. That chassis looked ugly with your eyes closed. It did run okay on a race track &.the frame is still in one piece.

 

Is the Lotus 40 body shown the original body for this car? It's still in great shape. They also had fewer racing rules back then compared to today. but life was simpler then too..

[Slot Car Rod]

Bill, I remember using my dad's hand drill when I built my first chassis.  The soldering irons I had did not get hot enough for chassis building.  The Weller soldering gun did get the job done.  No Dremel tool here, either.  Hacksaw worked fine, though.  The chassis was ugly, but it was fun to run.

 

The Lotus body is original to the car.  It was reinforced with duct tape, which I removed.  This probably saved the body.  I agree, life was simpler then.

[Slot Car Rod]

Eric asked if I could find the Ben Jones third drop arm diamond-style chassis he used to race in 1973/74.  This chassis passed back and forth between Eric and Ben over the years.  I found the chassis and restored it.  The chassis has two main rails soldered together per side.  No floppy pan mounts on this one.  The rear axle tube is notched for each one of the uprights.  It took some time to get this right.

 

 

 

Eric said the car would have run in the NCC20 armature class.  I dug up some early C-can parts and Champion Blue Dot magnets from the Oakland Speedway junkyard.  There is no axle notch on early C-cans, so one was cut.  A Steube 20 armature from Pat McNulty will be used.  The hand-wound armature would not be legal for the class Ben ran in, but I wanted to put this armature into a car.

 

 

 

Next, on to assembly and body selection and painting.

 

Rodney

[Slot Car Rod]

I chose a MAC Ferrari 512M coupe body from Electric Dreams.  Tamiya paints were used for the period paint scheme.  The air control was copied from one of Ben's race cars.

 

Faas spur gear with Sonic pinion gear.

Vintage grooved jet flag.

Fresh orange tires with 13/16" diameter.

 

Eric said this chassis was slightly faster than a traditional diamond chassis, but was harder to drive.  A diamond chassis has more drop arm mass and floppy pans.

Ben raced this chassis in late '73.

 

Rodney

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bill from NH]

Nice looking body & chassis combination, Rodney. I recall when that body came out & I still have one packed away in the attic. I notice this car uses Aguirre fronts. What size are the plumber rails on this chassis? I used .047" with unhinged pans & .055" with hinged pans, I liked the bit of chassis movement both provided. Are the pans on this chassis .032 or .040 thick brass. This is the first of Ben's chassis I've seen. Thanks for showing it. Do you have any cars or chassis of Jim Aguirre that you could show?

[Slot Car Rod]

Bill, the chassis has .062" main rails and plumber rails.  The pans and "drop arm" are .040"

 

The Aguirre fronts are 5/8"

 

Here are three Aguirre chassis.  The third one is from the wing car era that I purchased new in the Aguirre package.

 

 

I will show more cars from the Oakland Speedway collection in the future.  Rick shared a few of them before.  Many of the cars have chassis that are Aguirre.

 

[Isaac S.]

   

[dc-65x]

...............Do you have any cars or chassis of Jim Aguirre that you could show?

 

I had to laugh when you asked that Bill and I only know about some of Rodney's Aguirre stuff. Hang on to your seat. 

[Alchemist]

Hi Rick,

 

I concur - because I've only seen "some" of his slot car items at his "other warehouse!"  LOL

 

"Hang on to your seat" . .  .

 

and be sure to buckle up!  LOL

 

Ernie

[Bill from NH]

In the day, I bought Aguirre 5/8" fronts (both 3/32" & 1/16" axles) rear hubs, & blue & orange donuts from Ron Granlee. Magazine columns sometimes mentioned Aguirre had chassis, but they never published photos of any, Thanks for posting your above photos.

[Pablo]

Rodney, in post # 411 you said "grooved jet flag". Can you elaborate please?

[Slot Car Rod]

Pablo, the jet flags were originally molded with grooves and a nice blade shape.

 

Rick and Ernie, there are six Hoffman boxes of Oakland Speedway completed cars and a few crates of parts left.  There are still a few gems left in the Oakland Speedway chassis crate.  Early C can parts are running low.  Plenty of early '60s stuff left.

 

Thanks to Ron for digging out all of the Oakland Speedway slot car stuff from the owner's storage area (in the back porch) and sharing the treasures with me.  Ron knew I was one of the few that could restore and piece the cars back together.  Ron and I discussed saving this slot car treasure trove for many years.

[Pablo]

Thank you, Sir  

[Isaac S.]

It's hard to find the grooved ones, I think only the original Simco and Associated ones had them. 

[Bill from NH]

I don't know who molded the Jet guides, but I think it was Associated who made/sold the grooved "Steube" guides. They weren't around for long nationally. I recall people saying they didn't work any better than the ordinary Jet guides. but they cost 2 or 3 times as much. I thought they looked cool, but I don't remember using them myself.

[tonyp]

Bingo!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dc-65x]

I thought I'd share one of my favorite Agurrie chassis I cloned from Rodney's collection:
 

Time for an early 70's GP car recreated from an original in the Oakland Speedway Collection. My buddies Eric and Rodney both have cars like this and I can't wait to get all three of them on the track at the same time .
 
I thought I'd start with the finished car and then show what's under this cool Jairus Watson painted Dynamic Tyrrell Handling Body:
 

 

 

 

 

 
The chassis is a copy of an original Aguirre. Note the dual pin tubes sticking up to support the front and rear of the body:
 

 

 
The rear wheels and tires are Riggen Ontario 500's:
 

 

 

 
An interesting feature of the chassis is this little wire "hinge":
 

 
Finally here are some shots of the bare chassis:
 

 

 

 
So there you have it folks. I was really taken with the original when I first saw it. On my to do list is to build another one with the Electric dreams MAC Matra GP body. So many slot cars to build, so little time .
 
Onward...............

[Slot Car Rod]

Very nice, Rick.  Mission Speedway was in Hayward, California.

 

Here are two variations of the Aguirre wing car chassis.  The Ferrari with the Aguirre chassis runs great on a Blue King track.  This car is one of my favorites, and has been run on many Blue King tracks.