664 replies to this topic

[Isaac S.]

Great job, I have made similar repairs to bodies of my own. It is the best method I have found. You did a great job with it all. Very cool chassis, is that a Mini-Wheels drop arm? The text is hard to read.  

[Isaac S.]

I have been doing some research on Team Nutley drop arms and was wondering if you had any cars or examples tucked away that had them. I would appreciate any pictures or information you have. Ones made for Jet Flags would be especially helpful. 

[Martin]

Always love the save Rodney. Nice one.

Its only original once.

 

This was one of my most rewarding saves if anybody is interested? I am sure we share some of the same techniques to save an original body.

http://slotblog.net/...4-dynamic-save/

[Slot Car Rod]

Isaac, yes a Mini Wheels drop arm.  Sorry, not much in the way of Team Nutley out west here.  Nice save Martin.

Before and after.  More on previous page.

 

 

[Isaac S.]

Makes sense. Thanks. 

[Bill from NH]

You made quite an improvement on that body Rodney. It now looks like a short track NASCAR race car from the Charger era. Were single main rail stock car chassis, like this one, popular on the West coast? Back East, stock car chassis were built with more brass for added weight.

[Slot Car Rod]

Thanks, Bill.  We had a 4 1/2" wheelbase, 36D motor stock car class. 

Here are my Dodge, Robert's Ford, and three chassis from the Oakland Speedway junkyard.

 

This Chevy was originally an inline, and was later converted to an anglewinder.

[Martin]

Maybe I should try and fix my old stock car. It worked so good back in 68.  I just keep it in one piece with staples and tape. Never could find another Corvair body to replace it with.It was so much shorter than the other usual big stock cars.

It has a 26D Dyna Rewind angle winder made by a plumber friend, Roger Lumb. Wish I could find him too.

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[Slot Car Rod]

Martin, could we see the chassis?

[Martin]

Remember it was made by a plumber so Roger used copper he had on hand, it worked sooooo good.

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[Slot Car Rod]

Looks fast.  Thanks Martin.

[dc-65x]

This is what I built when Rodney described the Stock Car class to me:

 

 

 

I probably got a little carried away with the motor  

 

 

 

It's one of the my easiest and most fun cars to drive.

[Bill from NH]

That's a neat chassis Martin. It might not be fully adjustable, but if needed, the wheelbase could be changed relatively easy where the front & rear 3/4 main rails  come together. Looks to me like your plumber friend was good at working with things other than pipes. Do you have any idea if this Corvair body was pulled from a hard body model kit? Corvair kits still show up occasionally, but I don't know what scale., 

[Martin]

Hey Bill, I think the w.b. had been changed at some point to fit this body. Did you notice the whole motor mount is one sheet of copper?

It has Taylor Made steel gears too.

I have looked at the 1/24 Corvair model kits, but they are not close to the proportions of this one.

I should do my own post on my cars some time, so I do not detract from the R&R show sorry to barge in.

 

Beautiful car Rick.

[don.siegel]

Interesting class Rod... were any 36D inlines or sidewinders ever competitive with the anglewinders? or did everybody go AW eventually? 

 

Don 

[Slot Car Rod]

Don, anglewinders ruled.  The races were on an American orange track.

[Slot Car Rod]

This Mercury Cyclone has an interesting history.  While stationed in Japan, a G.I. built and raced this 26D-powered stock car with his buddies.  They ran them on a simple banked wood track.  The Lancer bodies were cloned in Japan to supply the G.I. racers.  The motor is home rewound, and has a Champion magnet shim with an unknown brand of magnets.

 

 

[TSR]

A little sloppy on the soldering, but hey, as long as it ran well... 

[Slot Car Rod]

"The Last Semi-Vintage Stock Car Race"

 

Remember when Mark Donohue raced the all-conquering Porsche 917/30 Can-Am car?  Many claim this dominant car killed the Can-Am series.  Well, I guess a similar thing happened with our local semi-vintage slot car class.  The last semi-vintage stock car race I ran in was in October 1997.  I was running the Mark Manion-built #29 Ford Galaxie in the series.

 

Rick wanted to race in this series.  He checked with the rules makers about the parts he contemplated on using, and they were were deemed legal for the class.  Rick carefully built up the #4 Ford, and ran it in the October 1997 race  Rick dominated the race, and I finished a distant second with the Galaxie.  Well, there was lots of grumbling from other racers, and there was never another semi-vintage stock race.  Rick was not thrilled about this controversy, and I purchased Rick's car to add to my collection.  Eric, who also ran in the race, wanted Rick's car to be kept in the slot car family.

 

Rick's car was perfectly legal.. He made a better mouse trap.  Don't mention this race to Rick...

 

Rodney

 

 

 

[Martin]

I remember trading a handling stock car body with this livery to Rick in this time frame. Is this the body I traded?

 

I do miss Mark, he was a great ambassador for the sport.

[Slot Car Rod]

Martin, I believe Rick purchased the body at the raceway the same day all of the other components for the car were purchased.  We all miss Mark.

[Martin]

Then it was a similar looking body. Maybe Rick still has it?

[Slot Car Rod]

Here is one I painted in the popular paint scheme.  Rick painted the #4 reproduction body, and it is the only one he has in this paint scheme.

[Bill from NH]

Rodney, good story about the Japanese repop of the Lancer Mercury Cyclone body above. After Lancer closed, REHCO in Cincinnati got  some of the molds & also cloned this body. I have a clear one that needs to be painted.

 

Not to prolong the stockcar wars, but who ever was in charge, was totally wrong if they allowed the Champion 4" Fairlane & Monte Carlo bodies to compete in a 4 !/2" class. Both bodies have severely chopped roofs & running the different wheelbase chassis is like racing a ball against a banana. 

 

Mark was a good all-around guy. He had a great vintage collection which he showed some of on Frank's web site. He was also a very good musician.

 

Your #21 Fairlane directly above is the Woods Brothers NASCAR team from Stuart, VA. The white body/red roof scheme  like yours, is still one of their current paint schemes. They do have an 8-lane slot car track in their VA shop.

[Slot Car Rod]

Fiberglass chassis for 1-to-1 scale cars date back to at least 1963 with the Chaparral 2.  Ernie decided to build a few fiberglass slot car chassis, and gave me one to experiment with.

 

I added the following to the fiberglass chassis plate:

Shaker body mount tubes.  Handmade brass guide mount.  "L arm" front suspension.  Motor mounted low against the fiberglass pan, and rear axle mount set low for small diameter rear tires.  Falcon 7 motor.  Long version of the Ti22 body.

 

The car weighs only 3 ounces complete.  The lightweight fiberglass chassis allows the builder to add weight where needed for handling and still allow for a light car.  Thanks, Ernie.  Great work.