95 replies to this topic

[robbovius]

Hey paul to clarify, the drop arm doesn't pivot on the cotter, the cotter pin only secures the Pivot "pin", which is a piece of .125 x .014 tube that passes thru the drop arm pivots soldered to the chassis adn guide tongue. the pivots on the chassis and guide tonque are made of - 5/32 with a .014 wall tube (1/8 axle size tubing), and the .125 pivot pin-tube passes thru both the chassisand drop arm pivot tubes. then the cotter goes thru the .125 "pin" tube just to hold it in place within the 5/32 pivots. side clearance between the drop arm tube and chassis tubes is between .005-.010. it moves less than the drop arm on the Classic chassis ;-)  

 

in this pic you can see the tube-within-a-tube setup of the drop arm pivot.

 

 

[Pablo]

Understood, the cotter pin only keeps the tube from working it's way out.

I stand corrected

[robbovius]

NP I wasn't clear on it in the previous post. BTW, very high probablilty of track testing tonight. will report.

[Bill from NH]

Another way to retain that hinge tube would have been to notch the droparm tube in its middle with a Dremel cut-off disc. Then, with your hinge tube in place, fill the notch with a bit of 60/40 solder. The hinge tube isn't going to go anywhere, yet will rotate inside those two end pieces attached to your chassis rails.

[robbovius]

Bill that's clever. this is great, I want to thank everybody who's chimed in with help and encouragement! makes the learning process fun.

[robbovius]

got in some track time on both the Black roadcourse and the Blue Fig 8 at Modelville, and the verdict is, Pam's Pink Corvette runs good, and handles pretty well. Predictable, smooth, with just enough motor to be entertaining. M<uch easier to to put together sequences of clean laps than with the Hot Rod Catalina (which is much improved, but still a crazy handful - waaaay too much motor) I've got some video of it that I'll edit down and post later, but yeah, apparently I done good ;-)

 

despite Pam's admonishments to not crash, I did deslot and bump the walls a couple times, as well as flipping it and skidding it down the track upside down, but the body stayed together without incident, and its only been glued with the usual toluene-based cement for styrene plastic. Very different results than the Catalina, which exploded all over the track on its first wall contact.

 

I attribute the Corvette's robustness to it actually being styrene, as the kit is an AMT (not AMT/ERTL) that I bought sometime before my kids were born - so before 1988, and maybe even ten years older than that. the catalina body plastic feels much different than the corvette, and the toluene glue does disolve the corvette plastic as it should.

 

at any rate, I'm still going to reinforce the Corvette with some JBweld and nylon fabric. and I'll post some videos later. I'm really pleased with the way the chassis handles, and I can see myself creating several more like it for other hardbodies - including the Catalina.

 

I also got some track time with the Catalina and the classic Manta Ray, the latter of which is surprisingly fast for its age and componentry.

[Bill from NH]

Robb, a nice handling car is always a sign of success. Congratulations!

[robbovius]

Thanks Bill! yeah I was a bit anxious at first, but I put it on the track and it just kinda trucked on around. good times ;-)

 

I have to say that the Black Roadcourse is kinda supplanting the purple mile as my favorite at Modelville. I still really like the Sov, but only with cars that can take the speed. Pam's Corvette might actually do okay, given the mello motor and stable chassis. Having had cars fly out of the banking, it makes me a bit nervous trying a new car.

 

I was discussing that with oneof the regulars who knew the Sovereign's history and he showed me how the orange and blue lanes (in the middle of the track, which I prefer) have a warp about 2/3s down the length of the striaght from when the track was in storage and leaned up against a wall. if a car is prone to de-slotting - like the Catalina - that's like sending it off a ski jump just as it hits the hi-bank.

[Bill from NH]

There's a whole lot less walking when you deslot on the Black than on the Soverign too.   

[Pablo]

That's good to hear, Robb, I thought all that heaviness would play into your favor in the end

Another factor that helped is, you didn't "over-motor" it.

 

Now I'm ready to see some pink paint !

[Bill from NH]

As Pablo says, hard body cars like heavy chassis to keep the CG of the heavy bodies down lower.

 

Robb, what diameter Protrack tires are you using on the Corvette?

[robbovius]

Paul, I might still ad a bit of weight on the ballast pads I added to the frame near the rear wheels, I figure that'll help with the tipping I saw.

 

BIll tru dat, the sov commits you to a hike. the rears are .98 OD and the fronts are actually drag rears, 1.0 OD

 

Pink Paint FWD!

[robbovius]

Hi All.

 

I know its been a while, but with the warmer weather more activities are taking place out of doors.

 

But stuff has been happening, not the least of which is that Pam got her first track time with the Corvette, and seems a natural on the trigger. on one particul;arly rainy Sunday, we spent an enjoyable couple hours at Modelville bombing around first the Black roadcourse, and then - of course - the Purple Mile.

 

On the Black.

 

 

Yes, the Catalina did absolutley bounce, flip and tumble off the bridge, landing right there, as Pam motors on by. Good times.

 

 

Sweet - lucky - action shot on the Sovereign. I'd rolled the Catalina into the wall, where it landed on its side, Pam came thru the curve heading onto that long front straight, a little too eager on the throttle...

 

 

A fun afternoon, and the Corvette handled great. Runs flat and smooth, just enough motor to be fun. when we got home, she mentioend that it was time to squirt some paint on it. Didn't happen that afternoon, but over this past weekend, it got a few coats of Tamiya Pearl Red.

 

 

still plenty to do to detail it out, but we're in the final stages.

 

this Body comes from an old AMT '53 Corvette I'd bought, back in the 1980s I figure, and the usual toluene solvent model glue melts the plastic together correctly, as it should (unlike the Catalina body) and the few times the corvette has deslotted and smacked the wall, the body has stayed together without any problem, (also unlike the Catalina body) I think there are two different types of plastics involved here, and one - the modern formulation, from China - is not actually styrene, or at least not the same formulation as the older pastic, as the toluene glue doesn't melt that new plastic at all.  

[Pablo]

[Bill from NH]

Robb, try some Devcon Plastic Welder. It's strong but smelly! See if it'll glue the Chinese plastic.The Vette in pink looks good.  Do you have the parts to build your next scratchbuilt?

[robbovius]

Bill I think you've mentioned that adhesive before, looks like its time to buy a tube. Pam provided a used up pair of nylons for model-scale fiber-reinforced-plastic.

 

And yeah I do have the parts on hand for a couple more scratch builds, though I think I need more axles. last spring I kinda went nuts and bought about 4 motors, a truckload of brass stock, 3 or 4 inline motor brackets, multiple guide flags, and I have a dozen unbuilt model kists from which to select bodies, I've also got several unfinished models that date fromthe mid 80s that could easily donate their bodies.

 

around april I bought a lindbergh 1935 Auburn Boatail Speedster that's going to become a slotcar one day.

 

most likely though, the one that will get built next is an AMT Dodge Viper GTS coupe that I bought when my kids were little (so, 20 years ago...yikes), that I think would be fun to turn into something actually FAST.

 

what with the Harry's Toolbox find though, we'll see when that gets done ;-)

[robbovius]

Well the summer is over, and slot car season is upon us. Well, me, anyway. Thus did I find motivation to finally finish the body on Pam's Pink Corvette. Pam's pretty happy with it, too. :-)

[Pablo]

Very nice!! Love the way it turned out, Robb.

 

The Champagne Pink is perfect!

[robbovius]

Thanks Paul!

[Bill from NH]

Robb, what are you building for this winter?  That vette chassis design ought to fit a number of hard bodies with minimal modifications.

[robbovius]

Hi Bill.

 

Upthread I mentioned a AMT Viper GTS coupe that I want to do another "Robb Inline Tube" chassis for, but yesterday on Ebay I found a Hawk 1965 Cobra body and pulled the trigger on that. I'll likely build the chassis for the Cobra first. Your correct, that chassis design will be very easy to adapt to different bodies. 

 

I'd had the thought of building one for the Hot Rod Catalina actually, but I've got that thing working okay these days, and in all honesty its such a handful that its really a lot of fun, challenging to put together a string of complete laps before it flys out of the slot somewhere ;-)

 

I also have to refurbish at least one car from Harry's Toolbox, most likely the REH chassis car with the C-can motor. I sort of want to do that first before I build another car, but I'm pretty sure I can get two cars out this season, a refurb and a build.