45 replies to this topic

[dc-65x]

Back in the late 90's........Holy Smokes!........that's almost like saying, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."

 

Anyway, Rodney and I decided we needed some anglewinder 4.5" stock cars powered by 36D's. He and Eric used to race this type of car in the 1970's at, I believe, Oakland Speedway. That sounded like a fun project to me so I set about building one.

 

The car ran and handled great but when I looked at the chassis today it just seemed......rough. The chassis was flat, straight and all the articulation worked properly but those solder joints............strong but rough:

 

 

Then there was the left side half rail. It was crooked. Its rear leg was supposed to be parallel with the main rails. That always bugged me and it looked much worse in person than in the picture below:

 

 

All that lumpy, bumpy soldering.......and look at the outer rail on the right. The last 1/4" isn't even soldered to the half rail.

 

This is a good running car and it's time to fix it. I first cut the rear axle brace next to the crooked half rail.........

 

 

.........removed it and jigged the chassis up in my Rick's Jig:

 

 

A little tweaking of the half rail, a new brace and some resoldering:

 

 

I also found a nice "OOPS" where the half rail was accidentally cut by a slip of the Dremel tool:

 

 

That got filled with solder and smoothed:

 

 

Here's a look at the motor bracket made out of a Russkit job:

 

 

What's with the kink in the pan spring?

 

 

 

It isn't needed if the spring is soldered on "Korrectly":

 

 

Here's the reworked chassis:

 

 

 

Next up is rebuilding its "Torque Master" 36D motor...........

 

[Pablo]

   

[SlotStox#53]

Chassis looked a nice strong and finished product before, but with a bit more of the Rick magic looks real good now   Looks like it may of got a trip round & round in the tumbler too which really seems to finish any chassis off real nice

 

Can see a tumbler could be a later investment as it seems they're the perfect end that's  better than most other "cleaning" products especially for slot car chassis.

[dc-65x]

Tumblers can work great with the right water, media and polish. Before the chassis went a tumbling I spent several hours filing and sanding my 1990's lumpy soldering job . It's a good handling chassis. It just needed a little love.

 

Here's the heart of the beast:

 

 

This is my can drive version I'm using:

 

 

Lots of timing cranked into the comm. It's a super good running arm.

 

Here are the rest of the motor parts. A second generation 36D Mabuchi can and Champion ARCO magnet and shim....

 

 

.......and a modified Simco brush springs with Pittman DC-65 brushes:

 

 

It's time to paint the can of the beast. There can be only one color.......

[SlotStox#53]

Beautiful looking arms Rick , really pretty ones   *wonders* and waits to see what color the beast will be wearing Nice looking endbell you are going to be using

[Hworth08]

Is that a Testor's arm?

 

I've got several of those and was wondering what I could do with them.

[dc-65x]

Here's the body. It's a Champion 1973 or 1974 NASCAR Chevy Laguna:

 

 

It came with a great decal sheet and interior:

 

 

I have the Matador and Monte Carlo versions as well. Some of the packaging reads, "Bodies By Champion JUST - FOR - FUN". The AMC Matador is my favorite and it was on this car but it was destroyed in a "racing incident"

[dc-65x]

Is that a Testor's arm?

 

It came in the packaging shown so I guess it's made by Electronic Products Co.?????

 

Where's Philippe when you need him

[Lone Wolf]

Rick, if I had to guess I would say that is an MPC arm with the telltale "tar" type coating. Don't know who Electronic products is but they appear to be in Michigan just like MPC. Probably found them in MPC's dumpster, boxed them up and sold them

 

Those decals are probably from an AMT model kit probably from the 70's unless Champion copied them. I could ID it better with a shot of the back. They should be dated. If those are in fact AMT I would not proceed to use them before a shot of clear. Otherwise each decal will most likely become a 1000 piece puzzle when put into water

[SlotStox#53]

That original body is sweet Rick One cool set of decals that came with it too, gonna look good when it's done... *paging Philippe*

[Steve Okeefe]

Joe L and Rick,

 

Bingo...  That's the first thing that occurred to me too.  The stacks match, wire is the same, the comm is identical and the black "whatever-it-is" is all the same.  If that's not an MPC "Dyn-O-Charger" or "Dyn-O-Can" arm (with it's shaft shifted to make it a can drive), it's an extremely good rip-off.

 

The Dyn-O-Charger / Dyn-O-Can lives again!

[Champion 507]

That's why I never owned a Dyn-O-Charger back in the day...all that black stuff around the comm, I couldn't strip it to rewind it.

 

The above arm looks like a Dyn-O-Charger to me too.

 

Sweet chassis, Rick. Nice vintage body too.

[dc-65x]

You guys are right on target.........with one exception.

 

First I believe you are 100% "korrect" in that the arm in this picture is most likely an MPC:

 

 

You got my brain cells a stirring and here's what I believe happen over 15 years ago:

 

I ran across a real boxed XL Torquemaster motor kit.

I removed the arm and used one of my loose Ram end bell and bearing sets to build my motor.

Years later I acquired a new MPC armature.

I flipped my Torquemaster powered car over and compared the arms.

Not having any other MPC motors or arms at the time I thought to myself, "Oh neat, another Torquemaster armature" and promptly put the MPC arm in the Torquemaster box to complete the kit.

 

Now to the "one exception".

 

Will the real Torquemaster armature please step forward.........and here it is:

 

 

This baby differs from the stock MPC in several ways:

 

1. The epoxy is clear not black

2. Look at the WAY agressive CW timing cranked into it

3. It is can drive not endbell drive

4. It reads only .2 to .3 ohms

5. It really hauls buns . It's way faster than my MPC Lancia Ferrari.

 

Maybe the Electronics Products Co. reworked MPC arms or bought their blanks from the same place as MPC...I don't know.

 

Here's my rebuilt Torquemaster 36D motor.

 

First the can and magnets were ground so I could snuggle the motor close enough to run 7/8" tires. Where the can gets soldered to the frame was tinned and masked off. Then the mean black wrinkle paint applied:

 

 

 

 

The finished Torquemaster Beast:

 

 

 

 

Beastly indeed
 

[SlotStox#53]

Black wrinkle paint....     + one seriously powerful armature with all the right ingredients  =

 

That is gonna look sweet in the refreshed chassis plus haul the proverbial "rear end" once running! Should prove rather interesting round your forthcoming home track!!

[John Secchi]

Have a couple of new, never used MPC arms which look very much like the one in the first picture. Won them at a vintage meet a few years ago, they are in plastic tube containers and described as # 413 High Performance 400 series armatures, not tried them yet but are they any good when fitted in a 36d?

The paper work tells you how to install them into an open frame motor, you also get a strong coil spring which i assume is to replace the standard one fitted to that motor.

[oneofwos]

[Hworth08]

The Laguna was a pretty 1:1 car. Darrell Waltrip's first cup car was one painted with orange sides, white top and blue numbers. That paint scheme came from Friday Hassler and was adopted by P.B, Crowell who put Waltrip in a Bobby Allison built '64 Chevelle that carried that paint. P.B. passed away three or four years ago but his grandson, Clint still uses the locally famous paint with the original number 47.

 

Waltrip's #47 Chevelle was the first car I was ever in a wreck with at Highland Rim in practice, just a gentle welcome tap after I spun.

 

Waltrip's Laguna was # 95 in 1974, then #17 as soon as Darrell could get the number used by David Pearson, a favorite of Waltrip.

 

Boy, gettin' hard to realize that was 40 something years ago!

[dc-65x]

Have a couple of new, never used MPC arms which look very much like the one in the first picture. Won them at a vintage meet a few years ago, they are in plastic tube containers and described as # 413 High Performance 400 series armatures, not tried them yet but are they any good when fitted in a 36d?
The paper work tells you how to install them into an open frame motor, you also get a strong coil spring which i assume is to replace the standard one fitted to that motor.
[oneofwos]

John, the MPC arms I have checked out at a low ohm reading of .5 to .6 and have some mild timing cranked in. You'd have to change to 3/32" bearings and probably an endbell with Pittman style brushes. I think it's worth a try

Here's the finished rebuilt roller:

 

 

I'm running a Fass 64P 45 tooth spur gear and ball bearings in the rear end. I love the look when the motor has a specific area tinned and masked of for soldering it into the chassis. I think that's a Philippe trick:

 

 

Rear wheels and tires are from Associated for display. I use modern Alpha wheels with Piranha rubber when I run it:

 

 

The fronts are 3/4" Associated "unobtainium" wheels:

 

 

Those decals are probably from an AMT model kit probably from the 70's unless Champion copied them. I could ID it better with a shot of the back. They should be dated. If those are in fact AMT I would not proceed to use them before a shot of clear. Otherwise each decal will most likely become a 1000 piece puzzle when put into water

Yup, the decals are indeed AMT. I didn't know any better when I built this car so I didn't clear coat the decals. I lucked out and they didn't explode.

 

Here's the cleaned up body from years ago:

 

 

 

 

Your driver, "Hernando O'Tool"

 

 

Here he is ready for battle:

 

 

I'm glad I saved this one. It just might take the first lap on my new track

 

Onward!

[Pablo]

Bad to the Bone X5

[SlotStox#53]

Now that's just pretty ! I love it

Those Associated wheels are just the icing on the cake Rick, really pop against the blue paint

[Tim Tyler]

Yet more jewellery. You are a slot car God, Rick!

[dc-65x]

I'm a vintage slot car nut for sure

[Gator Bob]

Outstanding car !!!

 

So you didn't us the NOS body and that is one from the past?

 

I Love That Body  

 

The squared off tail lamps make it a 74

[dc-65x]

So you didn't us the NOS body and that is one from the past?

Yup, I thought it would be fun to show the NOS body kit from the 70's. My old painted body cleaned up nicely so I used it in the rebuild.

[Gator Bob]

You're killing me now

 

  Back pour  

[Michael Rigsby]

Rick, this is a really beautiful build. The chassis is a work of art, and the motor looks like a stump puller.