144 replies to this topic

[SlotStox#53]

Bob you're a lifesaver!! Have got a mint condition VIP guide going on a new project and seeing the packet with info and showing the braids is perfect!!

Also got the MRRC steering unit that it fits onto .
At work right now but will take pictures and post em here asap

[SlotStox#53]

WIll get some better pictures if needed, but thought I'd post these one of the V.I.P guide , also the guide fitting onto the MRRC steering unit

 

 

 

 

[Old pink can guy]

The jet Flage's were white and were the it stuff in the LATE 60'S. p CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG.

[ravajack]

A little different 1960's guide here. Quick connecting plugs for both ends, as it could be used as either leading 
or trailing guide, your choice. It also has a "hollowed out" blade of unknows purpose. I've never seen one IRL.

(Ad from Model Car Science issue #27, august 1965, write-up from Model Car Science issue #29, october 1965.)

 

 

Right-click picture below to open it in a new tab/window, then click again to get a blow-up for better readability.

(There's a quirk in this forum's software that automatically reduces high/tall pics in overall size. Very annoying!)

 

[Steve Okeefe]

Bertil,

 

Thanks for the info!  This article includes information I didn't have before.

 

I have an actual example of this guide so will very soon be posting up a better photo and drawing in the chart.

[SlotStox#53]

After picking up a job lot of someones old slot junk off of epay I finally saw some of the Cox guides shown in this great thread listing all the guides made.

Nice to be able to match up part #'s and pictures with the real deal in the flesh so to speak.

 

So thanks to all the contributors with pictures and Steve for the great detail drawings , super resource to find out what stuff you've got !

 

 

 

[Pablo]

What year did they start using cut-down flags ?

[Steve Okeefe]

Pablo,

 

Whoa!  Waaaaay outside my range (1963-1973).

 

I don't know but if I were going to guess I'd say a date closer to today than to 1970, maybe much closer...

 

There was no need for cut-down guides until guide tongues (on some wing-car chassis) went away altogether and were replaced by a simple 3/16 hole cut into the nose (or nose-piece), i.e.: zero guide tongue rise.

 

If anyone knows when that practice began, it would follow that the the cut-down guide appeared soon afterwards.

[Bill from NH]

Someone with a complete set of "Slot Car Bulletin" or "SARN" should be able to provide dates. My collection isn't complete, but I'll look through what I got next week, as time permits.

[old & gray]

What year did they start using cut-down flags ?

Paul,

 

If I remember and that is a big IF –

 

When boxstock wing cars were allowed to use steel frames the rules required the guide tongue be part of the chassis and therefore in the same plane as the bottom of the chassis. If you used a standard guide the front was close to a 1/8” off the track.

Soon thereafter, Slick 7 introduces the cut down flag. The time frame be late 1990's.

[Gator Bob]

All I can say from memory is when I got out for the 3rd time in 1991 cut-downs were not around at the tracks in NJ.

[Bill from NH]

 

The time frame be late 1990's.

 

Bob, that's what I remember too. Now to see if I can find in what year.

[tjallen]

I wonder if you have discussed the origin and history of lead wire loops and similar lead wire concepts. How soon in slot car history did the arrangement of lead wires become a designed feature?  I remember running lead wires in ways intended to keep them from interfering, or dragging on the track, or angled to help reslotting. Did this begin in the classic period?

 

What about specially soldered lead wire guides, like the old earring backs trick?

 

I see a few comments on slotblog post, but there must be more info on this design feature.

Keith Tanaka posted a couple semi-vintage pictures here (scroll down):

http://slotblog.net/...lead-wire-loop/

[MSwiss]

I had never seen loops until I opened a raceway and became more involved in scale / stamped racing.

I brought it up in the last few years, and no one had stepped up to claim they did it first, or seems to know who might of.

As far as earing ring backs, it definitely became common place in 1989.

I remember the year because of the circumstances of going to a Nat's warm up race in Wichita, with a part time Koford employee and local racer, "Punk" Tony Brown(?).

He wore an earring when that wasn't very common.

While pitting his car, at that race I asked what was that soldered to the chassis.

I told Stu when I got back from the race and he quickly purchased a bunch from a jewelry supplier.

We included them in the piece work, we sent Craig Landry, to do, and he quickly added them to the chassis he built under his own Zap brand.

[Jairus]

As far back as 1964 I would have to say.
That was the year AMT purchased Dynamic and I built a Dynamic kit fresh out of the blister having one of the wire loops used as a guide keeper and wire loop.


 

 

 

Everything seen here with the exception of the motor, were in the sealed blister.

Respectfully submitted,

Jairus

[Jairus]

Oh... from the instructions in the kit:

[tonyp]

Mike never saw loops used they came some time after the worlds at Elmsford which was our last race.

[MSwiss]

I don't think they ever use loops in wing cars.

 

I would guess they came in about the turn of the century.

 

I have hundreds of old magazines, I got from customers, and that Stu gave me, when he moved to Ohio.

 

One day I'll look to see when they appear in the winning car results.

[TSR]

Some of the Rod & Custom racing series in 1966-1967 used 0.032" formed wires soldered to the chassis to guide the lead wires, the earlier forms of such devices. By 1969, Bob Emott used small pieces of 1/8" OD brass tubing to guide the wires to avoid fouling of the body by the wires. But no one used loops in the old days, or any kind of device to return the guide blade axial after de-slotting, except in production low-performance slot cars made by Cox and K&B, these using a rubber band affixed to a hook at the back of the guide...
I was impressed when I saw the first car fitted with loops in the early 1990s, as I thought it was a cool idea.

[tjallen]

Regarding the Russkit Slant Guide, there is this interesting patent:

 

https://patents.goog...atent/US3314375

 

Which includes an explanation from the inventor about how the slant guide stays in the slot.

 

Sample image:

[tjallen]

The pickup guide from 1963-1964 labeled "Dynamic" appears in this US Patent from Ranalli.

 

https://patents.goog...atent/US3195472

 

I understand there is some connection between Ranalli and Dynamic (?) - I don't know my history here.

 

Sample picture:

[Bill from NH]

I don't know the connection either, but probably Philippe does. Drop him a PM to see what he says.

[TSR]

There is no connection other that AMT, Dynamic, Rannalli, Classic and other companies were using the same pickup/guide flag before making their own. The source of that pickup is not known at this time, but it was likely manufactured in the Los Angeles area and sold in bulk quantities to these companies.
It is likely the the word "dynamic" may have been used as in its own meaning in the text, it is long and I have not read it.
 

[tjallen]

I was unclear; I was trying to point out that the pickup labeled 'Dynamic' in Steve's chart (at the top of this post, 5 pages ago)

 

seems to be the same pickup as in the Rannalli patent diagram:

 

 

 

My implied question was something like, "Does Steve need to re-label the pickup as 'Rannalli' instead?" 

 

But, as you noted, a third source could have supplied (did supply) all these companies, and it's still an open mystery who this was.

[TSR]

Steve has been doing a fantastic job of documenting lots of things from the old days and as others, has been an immense help to the hobby.
This pickup was commonly known as the "Dynamic" guide because it is likely that they were first to use it in mass production. So the moniker was retained.