The Cox Gurney Stocker has always been one of my favorite slot cars. It really has "The Look". Apparently lots of others agree because the price of an original piece in good shape was and still is quite high.
Almost 20 years ago I was a struggling apprentice machinist. I had access to machine tools and materials but very little extra money. But I was jonesing for Gurney Stocker. What to do? Why, make one from scratch of course! I borrowed an original from a friend for reference under the condition that I would make an extra chassis for him.
The first fixtures are simple aluminum blocks that I sandwiched six stacked-up pieces of 1/32" thick brass sheets between 1/8" thick brass backing plates. These were then drilled and end-milled into a flat pattern of the front and rear motor mounts. Here are the "consumed" fixtures and backing plates:
I machined another aluminum block the correct width to shape the flat patterns into motor mounts. Here is a left over set:
A steel tool was machined to form the "hump" in the drop arm gusset by placing a sheet of 1/32" brass in the tool and compressing the tool in a press:
The body mounts were also 1/32†sheets sandwiched between thick backing plates and drilled and milled. Here are the "consumed" backing plates:
The rest of the chassis is various sizes of brass tube that all needs to be soldered up to the brackets in the correct position and alignment. Another hunk of aluminum and a zillion dowel pins later and I had a soldering fixture:
Here's what my finished repop chassis looks like in the fixture. It's got some light corrosion here and there so I'll need to toss it in the tumbler for a few hours:
This is one of my more elaborate jigs I used to bend the main rails . . . hey, whatever works!
The end of the main rails had to be flattened out and bent around the axle tube with some round jaw needle nose pliers:
The drop arm tube was split down the middle with a cut-off wheel, flattened, and bent around the pivot tube with pliers:
A close up:
The drop arm gusset was cut with a Dremel cut off wheel and a hook bent with pliers for the guide's self-centering rubber band:
I added a screw hole in the front motor bracket to help secure the motor:
The finished chassis:
The front wheels are unique to the Gurney (I think!). I lathe-turned a pair of repops from aluminum bar stock:
The rest of the parts were picked up at EJ's Hobbies and REH (remember this was a long time ago!). My friend that loaned me the chassis kicked down the front axle and knock-offs. For a body I started with an old AMT 3 in 1 model kit. To get the little slots that the body mount tabs fit into cut in the right place I made another fixture. Hey, I was an apprentice machinist . . . I machined everything! Here's the body clamped into the fixture with the rear wheel wells located against a stop:
This is the resulting slot and the 1/32" diameter end mill I used to cut it. The cutter radius in the corners was removed with a jewelers file:
While the body was in the fixture I machined this cut-out for the quick-fill gas cap to go in:
I scraped all the molded in trim off the street car body until I came upon the windshield wipers the Cox car doesn't have. I could remove the wipers but the little grill vents wouldn't be "Korrect". What remains of the wipers would be blocking the vents. Maybe that's just how it has to be?
ARG! That's when I threw the project into a "Captain Rick Official Slot Car Storage Box" and moved on to something else. All the mechanical stuff was done and the modeling and painting remained. For me that meant the thrill was gone and I bailed.
Fast forward to today. I saw the beautiful Gurney Stockers on Slotblog done by Jarius Watson and Chris Clark. Then I happen upon a resin repop interior kit on eBay. I contacted Jarius and he's agreed to apply his magic to the modeling part of the project. Thank you, Jairus.
I love it when a plan comes together! More to come . . .
