105 replies to this topic

[dc-65x]

Thanks guys and thank you James.

 

Time to do final assembly. Here's the pieces-parts used:

 

 

 

I've found the Russkit braid to be a bit stiff which is not a good thing with a super light car. Here are some other choices:

 

 

Below we have, left to right, vintage Cox Superflex, REH repop Cox Superflex and some Phaze III that's been popping up on eBay lately:

 

 

The vintage Cox has been hard for me to get. The REH stuff un-braids itself and burns up quickly. The Phaze III may be a bit later than 1966 but it looks a lot like Cox and I'm going to give it a try. Below the "eyelet" part has been trimmed off and the brass part tinned with solder:

 

 

After you snug up the screw that clamps the braid in place, give "the wheeze a squeeze" as shown below:

 

 

Here's the finished guide and Cox Superflex lead wire. The guide post is tapered and has a larger diameter at the top. It snapped into place and won't fall out:

 

 

The finished roller:

 

 

Heat shrink tubing was originally developed by Raychem Corporation in the late 1950s. I used it to help organize the lead wires

 

 

Time to hit the track!

 

 

Can you tell that "clear" body is vintage. Talk about yellowing. It looks worse in the pictures and it's going to be painted red so it will work out OK.

 

 

Okie Dokie, the motor is a bullet. It spins the VC's all the way down the main straight. The track has only had one light application of spray glue (in the turns only) by Gary when we set it up. I just gave it another shot including the first half of the main straight.

 

Waiting for the Naphtha to evaporate............

[Pablo]

Sweet. I have 2 comments.

1) Greg G's track was very slippery at first. I don't know what Greg did to it, but it got to the point of perfection in a matter of a couple weeks. For what it's worth.

2) A reliable source on Slotblog recently said yellowed old bodies can be improved by direct sunlight for a period of time. I haven't tried it but the guy said it works.

 

Super SANO, Rick , I'm floored

[SlotStox#53]

The finished roller looks amazing Rick! Especially on your new track

That new Russkit decal really shows up with the gold paint & those wheel inserts!!!!!

At least I'm hoping with spinning the tires all down the straight you didn't have the horrible tipping as you've found with other R&C builds?

[dc-65x]

Hmmmmmm.....................

 

I think I need to dig out one of my still packed away from moving R&C cars that tilted at Eddie's and try it on my track.

[dc-65x]

I think I got a little carried away with my setup for adding exhaust-a-ma-pipes to my GP Ferrari

 

 

I'm adding those 2 pieces of 1/16" brass rod to attach the pipes to. I needed the chassis to be upside down and parallel to the jig. The rods needed to be clamped at the korrect height, parallel to the jig and to each other too:

 

 

An hour to set it up and a minute to solder them on

 

TonyP once told me he could just "eyeball" parts into place on his chassis and BAM! The parts were within a few thousandths of perfect location and squareness. That's what a gifted craftsman can do. It's called talent.

 

Then there's me...........I've got to use everything I can think of to get things into position

The good news is it worked and the little brass exhaust hangers are in place:

 

 

In true 1960's fashion, I cut up paint brushes to use as exhaust "trumpets":

 

 

Here they are epoxied in place:

 

 

I think they look pretty cool.

 

 

Probably not a good idea for a Pro Main contender but........I sure don't have to worry about that!

[SlotStox#53]

Nothing like a good bit of setting up and preparation!!! If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing "RIGHT"

 

The end result is well worth it Rick, with those paint brushes looking like real exhaust trumpets.. Outstanding!

[Tex]

It's those details that really make the car so swell!

[Pablo]

[dc-65x]

That's the kind of details I enjoy doing.....a razor saw, a file and a soldering iron. I'm almost done with that kind of fun and I have to break out the dreaded shaky paint bursh

[SlotStox#53]

Not the shaky paint brush! You'll do fine Rick

[havlicek]

Hi Rick,

 

     Super slick build as always!  In answer to Pablo's question:
 

 

 

How do you remove the epoxy from the comm and shaft areas ?

 

     You've got a system that works for you for sure, but generally speaking, it's the kiss of death to get epoxy in the com slots and should be avoided.  The com gets the brunt of the heat thing and even with a mild wind, the epoxy can soften and quickly foul (and re-foul after cleaning again).  On the Mabuchi type coms, you're more or less dealing with a flush surface all the way around, so cutting the com can remove most or all of the epoxy.  On the old Kirkwood and Mura coms with actual cut com slots, it's "pretty much" impossible to get the stuff out of there.  Sometimes a ridiculous amount of patience and the back edge of an X-acto blade can work, but you're just as likely to ruin the arm.  Build on!

 

-john

[Pablo]

Thanks John

[dc-65x]

Another method for cleaning the not yet hardened epoxy out of com slots is using wooden cotton swabs, not the cardboard Q-Tip brand:

 

 

After you've cleaned off the epoxy with the cotton tip you can carefully break the stick in half. Most of the time it will break unevenly and you'll be left with nice sharp edges that will fit nicely in the comm slots without damaging them.

 

Or you could use a toothpick

 

What I've done in the past is to just wipe the Crap-O-La off with my finger before it sets up. Any film left can be sanded off with very fine sand paper while spinning the arm in a drill.

 

In this post I show the process:

 

http://slotblog.net/...tors-made-easy/

 

 

[dc-65x]

It's been slow going for me. I struggle with the body, driver and detailing process. I've got the bodies main color painted and I've been giving the slow drying enamel a few days to cure. This is the first time I've used the Testors spray cans instead of an air brush:

 

 

The spray can worked just fine. The paint comes out pretty heavy so I had to be careful and let each coat of flat red flash over before going with the next coat. 4 coats did the trick and no backer seems necessary on this non-metallic color.

 

All the "sub-assemblies" are finished and ready to install on the body. I hope to finish this puppy up soon............

[SlotStox#53]

Looking good Rick here's to seeing it all together, its gonna look sweet

Can you use water based paints like creatix on the older bodies? Or does it have to be enamel ?

[Bill from NH]

Createx ought to work good on the older plastics as well as most everything else, but you'll need an airbrush because I don't think any water-based acrylic comes in a rattle can. Not all acrylics adhere to lexan the same. I brush a sample on a scrap of lexan, let it dry 24hrs., then see how easily it scrapes off with a wooden toothpick. Delta Creamcoat paints need 48-72 hrs. before they totally dry. Most others need only 24 hrs..

[dc-65x]

 

Can you use water based paints like creatix on the older bodies? Or does it have to be enamel ?

 

Paul, on butyrate bodies, I've had no reason to use anything but Testors enamel with it's ease of use and vast array of color choices. So I defer to others about the water base paints. Just be sure NOT to use lacquer!

[SlotStox#53]

Gotcha Rick & thanks Bill...

[dc-65x]

I'm building this car for race #3 in the R&C series as it was one of my favorites. What I really love about it was the concourse cars were real state of the art "racers", not "motorized models".

 

Check out the concourse winning car by Doug Henline. He also finished 3rd in the main!

 

I went to work making up some lightweight detail goodies for my Ferrari. I cut up a Cox plastic front suspension unit and glued it to a piece of sheet styrene to widen it. Here it is painted and glued to the axle tube:

 

 

For the rear, I bent up some .030" piano wire and soldered it to the chassis:

 

 

 

To fancy up the interior a bit I made a dashboard from a card stock template. It's just a piece of sheet plastic......

 

 

.......with some punched out Patto's Place "peal and stick" gauges:

 

 

The back of the gauges were made up from scrap and glued on:

 

 

The driver is made up from a Russkit body and a Cox head:

 

 

Maybe it will be old news to most but I just discovered this neato "snot" that's like really sticky clay. It's great to hold parts on a stick to paint them:

 

 

OK, mirrors...........here's a fiddly way to make the somewhat common Revell mirrors work. I cut and filed the huge mounting flange down to a small pin that could be glued into a matching hole. The chrome mirror is the before and the painted mirrors are after the mod:

 

 

Next time I think I'll try cutting the stock flange completely off and see if I can drill a hole in it so a post of some kind can be glued in.

 

My crafty wife had some of these round chrome stickers..................

 

 

.................so I stuck them on as the "mirror":

 

 

Lastly I needed some velocity stacks. Most pictures I've found of the Ferrari 158 GP show it with the stacks covered with a screen cover.

 

Well........"Homey don't play dat".

 

I found a set of 8 stacks in my "box-O-scrap" parts, cut it in half and glued it to some sheet plastic. The plastic piece in the middle is a "stop" that sits on the inside of the body and sets the height:

 

 

All this junk is light and shouldn't affect performance.

 

Next it all comes together.........

 

Oh, in case anyone else is watching the Alamo Bowl on ESPN..........

 

GO DUCKS!

[SlotStox#53]

Very "Concours" Rick Love the help with the mirrors by Mrs Rick One cool Ferrari Sir

[dc-65x]

All the fiddly bits are finally together. This car was inspired by the great John Surtees 1964 Monte Carlo car:
 

 
 

 

 

I filed and sanded the goggle strap off the Cox drivers helmet. My paint brushes are too shaky to paint it much less Surtees wonderful helmet stripes. Soooooooooo..........the goggle strap is flat black painted masking tape and the blue stripes are RC striping tape:

 

 

 

I like the gauges in the dash and the front suspension arms. It adds some nice detail:

 

 

The big honk'n pipes maybe could cause trouble in a crash but I just couldn't help myself:

 

 

The rear suspension bits add something too me thinks:

 

 

One more thing to do, paint the body mounting heads red......then she's done

 

 

 

[SlotStox#53]

Must get butt in gear and tools/parts fast to finish off Pittman 906 & get my R&C '66 BRM GP started... The level of detail in this Ferrari has raised the concours level Got some nice details for the 906 just been aquiring some parts to git 'er done ... Should be worth the wait

 

Awesome R&C  revisited car Rick.... Fab build certainly given some neat concours ideas and inspiration....

[Pablo]

Looks like Rick wins concours    

[NY Nick]

Really nice

[Bill from NH]

Beautiful car Rick! Have you had the opportunity to put a couple laps on it at your track?