143 replies to this topic

[proptop]

When I want "clean" water...meaning water without Chlorine, or whatever else is in tap water, I use the water from my Dehumidifier.

That would basically be the same as "distilled" wouldn't it?
(seems to work O.K. in Lead-Acid batteries)

I suppose ya could run it through a coffee filter too, if ya wanted?

[dc-65x]

.......A little oil from your fingers might help protect the wire and brass.

Hi Mike,

I have, unfortunately, what our inspection shop foreman calls "PISS FINGERS" . Anything I touch rusts or otherwise corrodes! So I finish cleaning the chassis between building sessions with paste metal polish. It leaves behind a bit of protection.

Thanks for your insight and I WILL be careful with that ultra sonic cleaner from now on .

[MSwiss]

It sounds like your were using a mild solution(water and baking soda).
My horror stories were when guys used commercial ultra sonic cleaning solution which
I have no idea what's in it.
Along with eating at the brazes, if you left it in long enough, it would clean the old
dye off of the arm lamination's like it was supposed to and leave them coated with
a marbled copper pattern.

Regardless, unless you're going to perform an emergency appendectomy using the corner
of a pan on a Tony P Iso chassis, your slot car chassis doesn't need to be that clean.

[dc-65x]

I'd hoped the ultra sonic action would get the baking soda and water solution into the hinge tubes and neutralize the acid. I even went to the trouble of drilling small holes in the hinges. I hate it when a hinge rusted up solid .

[MSwiss]

I would lay the chassis on a paper towel shoot em' out real good with WD40.
If there is any rust in them, it should show up on the paper towel.
I would go back and oil them with a heavier oil.

[TSR]

Mike,
I would use a Justice Brothers similar product called JB80 other than WD40, because WD40 does not guarantee that corrosion will not re-appear. While the WD40 people deny it, WD40 contains water as one of its ingredients. We had a chemical analysis done years ago when I had my wheel business. While water generally evaporates in the WD40 mix, in some cases, it will not and remains a corrosive agent.

[MSwiss]

JB80? It must be twice as good.

I'm not a huge WD40 fan.
It's just easy to find and more importantly,you can "shoot it" like
motor cleaner. I'm guessing you can do the same with JB 80.

[Duffy]

Interesting about WD-40.

We used a lot of Tri-Flow spray when I was bicycling. Clean, lube, displace moisture. Anybody got a buzz on that stuff?

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

I think Tri-flow was originally developed for the gun industry.

Fate

[TSR]

JB80? It must be twice as good.

It is. I saw a demo a few years back that was eye opening: a rusty ball bearing was mounted to a drum so that it could turn. WD40 was sprayed all over to make it turn as it was seized. it would not move. Then JB80 was sprayed and the thing almost immediately spun like if it was... a ball bearing! The re-application of WD40 slowed it down.
I have used JB80 ever since, and I also use WD40. There is a HUGE difference in performance.
I became a friend of Ed Justice Jr. who now runs the company, a family owned business in Duarte, CA. They are also passionate with racing cars, sponsoring quite a few, and have their own museum in Duarte, see HERE.

[Rick]

B'Laster is da bomb! It's a way better pentrating oil than WD40 and does help a lot on stopping rust. Available in all auto parts stores and I think Wally World may have it now too. We used this stuff in the Mill for years before it became a common over the counter product. It's a spray can. You will not go back to anything else once you try it out..........Used to be pretty expensive over the counter but now see its down to about $8/can.

I have soaked and removed screws in sheet metal from my pool filter with it and they were stuck and corroded badly, they spun right out. Have broke loose motors that the pistons were siezed solid and after a couple of days they broke right loose and turned over.

[dc-65x]

Okie Dokie, B'Laster is supposed to be available at my local auto parts store. I will give it a try on a stuck pan soon.

Time to finish up the roller. I'm using real vintage junk-O-la for the guide setup......fun stuff!



Howie's car had Cobra wheels. These front wheels might be Cobra, I'm not sure as I have no packaged examples:



Here are matching rear wheels with fresh Riggen rubber mounted and trued. They are still a little oversized for final grinding:



The motor is soldered in place with an L-brace. Tinning the can and masking it before painting makes for a neat install:



The finished roller. I've repositioned the lead wire since these pics. They got pushed down in the wrong place when I was wiping up my "piss finger" prints off the chassis ):









The body for this car is going to be very special thanks to some very special and talented people. Thanks in advance to them all and to the generous donor of original body .

Watch this space for story on the body told by "The Man" himself........

[Duffy]

when I was wiping up my "piss finger" prints off the chassis

Remember the ad on kids' shows in the mid-60s? Got the mangled jingle running in my head now:

"PissFinger! PissFinger! Man alive!!
How will I get a shiny chassis to drive??..."

Duffy

[TSR]

Rick,
Bob Emott would be proud to call your chassis "his".
First-class job, even if performed as a demonstration of the art of jewelry...

[Old pink can guy]

Another work of art Rick. Be careful with the Blaster stuff. Pep boys has it. Works great in rusted up stuff. I used it on Honda front axel nuts. It stinks so do it out side and whear surgon gloves. And the stuff Mr fate is talking about I remember a product called Trifalon. I have not seen it in a long time. It had Teflon in it and worked great to lube the axel bearings and motor too.

[dc-65x]

Remember the ad on kids' shows in the mid-60s? Got the mangled jingle running in my head now:

"PissFinger! PissFinger! Man alive!!
How will I get a shiny chassis to drive??..."

Duffy

This will clear it out of your head Duffy

Guns-N-Roses Sweet Child O'Mine

Thanks Dokk. I just try to build them clean, run them for fun and like TonyP said, "Let them age gracefully".

Thanks Ken. Here's my simple photo setup you asked about. I thought I'd show it here in the hopes others would see how simple it can be. We need more people sharing pictures on this blog!



It's just two swing arm lamps with 100W Reveal bulbs. One has a 25W florescent bulb too that adds some needed white light. The "shadow box" is made from craft store white foam board. Its cut to shape and two of the folds are cut just part way through and then folded into shape. Velcro strips at the two top corners hold the thing together. It can be folded flat and taken to the raceway too. A cheap-O clamp on lamp is the portable light source.

My little Edo Special camera is a Nikon Coolpix S1. It's set to MACRO mode with the flash off. It takes pictures at 300 dpi and they end up about 2400 pixels wide. I resize them to 72 dpi and 800 pixels wide and do some auto-exposure and sharpening in Mr. Computer.

It takes longer to talk about it than to do it. I can take a picture, size it, get it into Photo Bucket and posted on SlotBlog in just a few minutes.

So.......come on guys, we need more of your project pictures

[Old pink can guy]

Thank you Rick. Build on!

[Howie Ursaner]

Beautiful recreation Rick.Makes me want to hang it around my neck with a chain.Just a note,that in 1969 until i quit in 1970 Bob had sheets of special blue rear rubber that we ran exclusively.No one else had this it was good. This car probably ran those blue tires.Love all your stuff Rick.

[Jairus]

Wow, that is BEAUTIFUL!

I agree Rick, we do need "more pictures of project cars".

[dc-65x]

Hi Howie,

.....in 1969 until i quit in 1970 Bob had sheets of special blue rear rubber that we ran exclusively.....

Now I remember Bob mentioning that in one of his posts. I just naturally used the fresh Riggen orange rubber I have in the hopes the car would drive the way it would have in '69. Alpha has some SBR blue rubber donuts available. I'm not sure how well they would work or if they are even the right color of blue .

Here are the new Alpha "blues" on top and some much lighter vintage "blues" on the bottom. I do have some old dry vintage light blue donuts I could make up for display only. What do you think Howie?

...we do need more pictures....

Yup Jairus, rather than endless babbling a picture really is "worth a thousand words"!

[Duffy]

Yup Jairus, rather than endless babbling a picture really is "worth a thousand words"!

...You're--MOCKING me, aren't you?...

[dc-65x]

Hi Duffy,

You post pictures and with lots of cool little characters looking on to boot . And besides no one has a more insightful babble than you! When I Google the things I don't know in your posts I always learn something .

Thanks!

[Duffy]

...But....did you--WANT--to learn some of those things?.......

[dc-65x]

Of course, how else would I know about such things as "Plated Nethers", "TEAM STARBING", "a state of detumescence" and such

[Bill from NH]

And here I thought "insightful blabber" was the talk of my 2-yr. old grandson.