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[Marty N]

This Honda silver base coat, Valspar clear lacquered 1969 Chevy Nova has been a KMR shop pet project for quite some time taking over a year to build to completion. Okay nearly complete. Is a custom ever really done? Markers and other details were hand painted in nail polishes.

 

In a departure from my normal; this car was not built just to punish asphalt. It's a Saturday night take your best girl for an A&W Root Beer car. If someone rattles their pipes at ya...so be it.

 

I kept the stance nearly flat and quite high although likely still low enough to get the laws attention. Would they notice it's low slug stance first or those custom 15" wide X 28" tall 60 Shore A hoops wrapped around those Custom Duncan 15" X 15" rims. Maybe the small tire ultra short wheelie bar just making it past the bumper would draw first blood. It required zero material to be removed from the rear bumper.

 

An early (and out of production) ultra narrow motor box Kentucky Trash Inline tall tire kit allows all that rubber to reside inside the sheet metal for a glove like fit. Up front the stock Revel model front Firestone tires were shaped to fit the Fenton style WRP wheels mounted on a brass axle tube with button head pin retainers. Rolls straight and true. Looks clean.

 

The Trash front half was mildly modified for the cramped spaces behind the period front bumper and a custom wire hanger-mount pins the whole thing together. This allowed an arch centered wheel location that still lets you address any guide issue that might arise. It's a thoughtful process to pin the car. The front bumper and grill area needed some relief to accommodate all this horsing around and nearly broke out the head lamp buckets. The chassis is shot in two coats of ceramic header paint in a dark hammer tone gray and oven baked.

 

Power for the .830, 40 mph (96 mph scale) passes comes from a bone stock, but well broken in, Speed FX. A leggy 3.66:1 rollout, 125 grams dry weight and huge hoops keeps the short times in the .200+ area but still requires a haze of glue to hold the beast between the curbs when the bar plants.  

 

The Mid-America Bloomington, Illinois 1/8 mile was the site of her first passes 2/11/2016.

 

A new motor is in her future now that I know it's stable and able.

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[Marty N]

This Tamiya Hemi Orange and Dupli-Color Flat Black 66 Mustang was built as a Boss '490' platform after the previous build, a 64 Thunderbolt failed to succeed in it's assignment. It liked to fly.

 

Molding in a front spoiler from an early style Dodge Funny Car kit keeps the nose pointed toward terra-firma. Removing the material behind it provided the guide space required to keep the wheelbase centered and guide nut available. Shedding the front chrome bumper allowed space for a fairly straight forward pinning. The much lower reach of the spoiler keeps the body level and the front wheel arch looking realistic.

 

The kit was missing one of two possible rear pans and the one given didn't fit the bumper. This was a major pain requiring some solvent welding and allot of patience filling and sanding to a seamless fit up. Details were hand painted in Testors enamel. I hadn't found nail polish at the time of this built. Much of it has worn (rubbed) off during normal maintenance cleaning.

 

The JDS Genesis Inline chassis fit with the Tall Tire Kit hangs between a fairly standard front tube pin and blind internal rear mount. 12 X 28.5 on 15" Protrack rims out back with matching front rims that carry the hardware stores largest "O" rings ground to have a flat tread up front.  Much of the kits front plate was left in tact to help keep the nose planted. The interior is a Parma painted stock car item held in place with alloy HVAC tape as is the hood.

 

Wheelie bar fit with slotted WRP wheels is on the short side at 4" center to center. Carbon fiber filled doubled lower rails and a short steep down tube kept all that molding work from being molested. Mains are doubled as well having started as an attempt at Outlaw Street which is a different story. Rock hard  and very smooth chassis is the end result.

 

Having shipped my best FX setup to a needy racer and friend the lower timed Boss arm resides inside a Parma 502 can fit with FX bell, holding un-shimmed EXP magnets. This boost gauss about 100 points but adds some weight which it doesn't seem to mind hauling around. Tipping in at 130 grams it is a bit rotund but just what Proslot claims her target weigh to be.

 

In the last outing she managed a short track performance of .587 @ 47.5 (114 mph scale) on less than stellar .134's for shorts. A bit stiffer gear is in order. But as she's geared 10/62 now it is what it is.

 

This would be roughly a .930 ish @ 60 MPH quarter mile. So speed is there just getting off slow. Those heavy tall tires don't help that but I love the look and I'm not looking to set some bragging rights number anyway. So I need more torque. I can do that.  88

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[Marty N]

About one in a hundred kits are truly perfect fills. Not a mark on this molded in Red 1963 Split Window Corvette Coupe. The best painter on the planet could add nothing and I'm far from the best painter but I'm pretty fare with the micro polishing and getting a wet look. Done and Dun.

 

This is one of the oldest cars in the box and as such lacks a good deal of refinement. That said I show the bad and the good. Small "O" rings on Centerline 15's stuffed way to high into the wheel well and way to much rake gives it an odd but common stance and I've been attempting to improve on that with each build. Standard Protrak Stars out back measuring 12 X 25.5 puts it in the small tire camp.  Sporting a 4.5" bar with low but doubled struts kept the glass in tact.

 

The origins of this stainless inline chassis are unknown. Private maple leaf production? Small lot internet sale to a friend whom I bought it from unbuilt. What I would call a wide rail layout with a narrow rail wheelie assembly. Some of these kits of this type need help right in front of the motor plate so a pair of tube gussets were added to keep it from bending in half. It likely looked better on paper to the designer. Any way...it works and it works well enough to have won an eight week points bracket challenge and dozens of other single events. It's mounted behind the front wheels in the rocker panel and floated out back in a blind mount.

 

Power comes from a Parma 502 can and EXP magnet setup with FX bell. Copper hardware. Ball bearings. Shunts, Camen 5 coil lights and a pair of the old hard Goldust that have been around the block and back for years. The arm? An Alpha balanced  BOW 32* 560" with a zillon passes on it and still has lots miles left. It's a low 6 45 mph ride at Penrose. Er...was. Haven't had it down the 660 in awhile.

 

This photo is the construction photo take upon completion. She shows her scares these days but still cleans up well for an old girl. Missing the chrome rocker fills and a piece missing from the left rear bumper but the shine is in tact. Good old bracket beater that is a money car. 125 grams wet and ready to rock.

 

Interior is a flat black card stock that my wife drew a bear driving on is silver. 148

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[Marty N]

"Oh Black Betty"....goes the song. This Top Fuel Engineering scale rail I traded for. Don't remember exactly what it was I traded for it, but I'm pretty sure the other guy got the better end of the deal. She was totally knackered. Dropped in a bucket of acid and left to rot holding 20 grams of excess solder with more than a little crash damage and kids....that was just the chassis. I 86'ed the body in the ash can by my pit box as soon as the deal had a seal. Motor went right behind it. In fact I think the only thing I kept were the basic plates that make the kit up and the wire in between.

 

The solvent tank came first. Nothing looking like the bottom of the outhouse basement goes in my blast cabinet. Stripped of ick a torch removed the bits and pieces of scrap wire and excess solder to a point were the bead blaster could do some work but first..more heat and a hammer to get flat possible. Must have ran over it with a buss. Heat and temper then off to the surface grinder to make flat what was intended so. All said and done if I would have blued it...would have looked new. No need as it was headed to the paint booth. But not until the abrasive wheels got a shot at it. Burs and knife sharpe edges and a surface too smooth to solder needed some conditioning. Passing muster diamond files made each plate fit the next. A nip here and a tuck there. A hot iron, some acid and 6% silver solder were added in proportion to the four main rails that were laid in place. 2 of .062 tinned piano wire and two heavey wall .065 hypodermic needle tubing. The first nested in the slots assigned by the designer and two more inboard those tabs. Some bric-a-brac was removed that I had no intentions of using. The mounts were builders attach fake scale engines atop the electric motor benieth. I'm not that guy. The motor, mine anyway are pretty and it's MY slot car. Scale or not I don't want my work hidden buy someone elses idea of what it should be.

 

Betty has seen every power level from 7 flat in an eight mile to 6.80's in a quarter. Whatever I drop in it, it gets the best out of it. Weights run 110 to 115 grams and yes, those front tires roll with the flow sitting on the track if the braid of the track is flush. I have smaller rings for the quicker work.

 

This one car has won more individual races than anything in my box including multi-week points races. There are but a hand full of scratch built inline rails that can claim sub 7 times. This is the only Scale Rail kit type car I know of that has done so. Come to think of it. I sold an Xtreme Carbon rail at two thirds this cars weight that never cut the mustard after Betty strutting her stuff.

 

She is almost always in my box. I still don't know what her limit is. 195

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[Marty N]

The next few cars are 'unpinned' projects under construction. I'm in a transition period from building primarily Lexan cars to Scale constructions. The long term lack of a race place, now rectified, forced my efforts into other fields of endeavor. So I've a few that in all likelihood will never be actively raced although their goal is to become functional and will make some token passes from time to time or I can't really call them slot cars.

 

For example this 41 Willys Coupe. KMR is more than just exacting performance from combinations. I love a good look and truthfully have a hard time getting one. I'm not a painter with tons of experience or an accomplished body and fender man. A car such as this took me months to paint and rub out and detail to something I felt really good about publishing. As results far exceeded expectations I find it hard to pin her. There is always "that guy" in the house for whom such effort is lost upon whose hands are quicker than your eye. BOOM...months of work up in smoke.

 

There are those for whom paint & detail is second nature. Very accomplished and very expensive to commission. I've seen high $$$$$ paint work worth every penny its ask and ten times that for whom their work is...well...not so much. Over the internet it's hard to tell and once in hand...too late. I produce one or two a YEAR like this. Given the price of custom work worth it's ask hard to obtain I find I can build one equal to for about the same cost with tons more satisfaction. I can botch allot of kits and waste allot of paint for $400+.  The ones I get right are second to none.

 

I have yet to perfect the Unca Frank art of utility perfection. One that grabs the eye and yet a scar or two is a beauty mark. I mean...who puts door handles on a slot car.  220

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[Marty N]

I know a $100+ dollar kit when I see one which made the trade of a nice mint green 69 Nova turn key bracket car for this little beauty an easy decision.

 

A 1970 Jo-Han 429 Comet Pro Stock. 

 

Of course it looked nothing like this. In fact it looked left for dead. This one was molded in red and we know what happens when you paint a red car improperly. Bleeder. Covered in decals and dipped or brushed in some dime store clear it was a mess. The B pillars are broken out and the front lower pan was missing along with sections of both lower front fenders. I assumed it had been wrecked and the parts never retrieved. In it's place was one of those famous Penrose polystyrene Billboard spoilers epoxied to the bumper and filling the voids in the lower front fenders. Riddled in pinning holes it must have seen dozens of chassis over it's life time. Glass was epoxied and CA repaired and the chrome thank goodness was RTV mounted...mostly. You can see a chip in the windshield in the lower corner of the drivers side. The glass was quite scared. Add a bottle of glue filled with rubber and oil and it was harder to hold on to than a screwdriver in a Andy Granatelli STP commercial. (Ya got to be old to remember that one)

 

​Disassembly first to see if I just gave away a nice car for a dead horse. Into a pot of Purple Power she when after knocking out the shinny stuff and liberating the billboard from the nose and carefully cutting the glass out of her. Sat there for months. Fine the glass would take that long to compound both sheets back to crystal clear and get the ick off the chrome pieces without lifting the chrome. Thankfully the model is old enough that it had real chrome and the base adhesive. Whew!

 

​Ancillaries aside time to focus on the body. Needs repairs. Needs a pan. First part was fill and wait and while I wait fabricate the front pan from sheet stock. Nothing to go by I find some photo's on the internet and make a visit to a shop that has a Maverick I can look at. Then I eyeball it and use the bumpers lower edge as a guide. Instead of forming the pan I built it up of layers then profile sanded after chemically welding it into place. Pin files to finish the detail. This method mean I didn't have to make fender patches. It was allot of fill and sand, rinse and repeat to get it to the sealer primer stage. The a coat of filler primer to hide all the heavy work. Yes it lost a great deal of detail. Once nothing showed through the red filler a few light coats of Tamiya fine gray followed by the Duplicolor Yellow Lacquer and matching clear and a good rub out. This was about six months off and on to color and ya know what. I should have waited longer. I have no idea how long it takes for fillers to stop shrinking but six months isn't enough.

 

​Assembly was all that was left to do. When the side glass is fitted the B pillars will be drawn it. It's not a show stopper but it is dirt free, flat and shinny. 250

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[Slot Car Mods Magazine]

Some very kOoL builds you have here...!!!

 

[Marty N]

This Ebony Black 1966 Nova sits on the shelf unfinished. I take it down now and again and wash it. Every model I've ever built has a Persian Flaw. Except this one.

 

She's dead flat. Perfect tone. Not a spec of dust. Not too heavy. Perfect refection. Not a run, sag or thick area, orange peel or fish eye on it. Perfection. All rattle can lacquers. The hood is flat black and bare. I built it to replace my very first 66 Altered build back in the very early 80's. Mr. Crowley. Long since passed. A tribute perhaps. I'm not sure that chassis is even around anymore. That friends is a trailer Queen.

 

I posted these on my site several times over the years but here they will have an enduring home. 328

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[Marty N]

The third car down is not mine but shown for a reason in explaining the evolution of this SVO Mustang that was my entry into Street Outlaw 815.

 

1.) The original build "to rule" or at least what I believed the rule to be. I was one of the three on the rules committy. Note the white "splitter" UNDER the valence like NASCAR? We  collectively decided we could run these OR A factory front spoiler if so fitted. In fact as long as the front bumper remained we could fill  "openings" within reason. Thus the build you see. This car failed to qualify even with 8 weeks advanced build, test and tune time in which it ran very competitive times. I'm not even going into the reasons that saw qualifying nights conditions a universe apart from the previous two months we ALL were testing it. Fact is it failed to make the cut. Last place I believe. This photo was take July 2013

 

3.) On June 2014 this photo of a car belonging to Mike Dennis was taken. One of the rules makers and board leader shows up with this nose treatment. Not under the valence and not factory. I call them the 'Billboard" spoiler. Why is it not under the valence? Mounted directly below the crest of the bumper it spoils the air OVER the bumper and nose. Note the filled/painted headlights? Illegal by rule. And of course the filled and sanded grill openings and hood line are actually fine. I did not complain or protest. This builder was building the cars of half the board including the other rules member and track owner. In essence, I am out voted with out a vote. I can work with that. A precedent is set. I have latitude.

 

2.) Added an air dam "over the bumper" and a few minutes after this photo is taken a splitter just like the original. Take special note of the MID PINNING of this car? June 2014. Five months before mid point pinning is a "deal" at Penrose. I don't know why I didn't note this before. I was five months ahead of an idea I was accused of stealing. My bad for not presenting this dated photo then. Note change of rear mount from internal blind to exterior pinning. This car crashes and breaks out the nose and bumper area about the second week of time trials kissing the wall but good. But, it breaks if off cleanly at the glue joint. I can't cut the body but I am not bound to use every part in the kit either. I must retain the presence of a factory bumper. The body is not damaged. That's important.  I am not on the list. I am not trying to get on the list. I'm not bound by the list rules BUT I am doing what I do. Developing a car.

 

4.) This is the result of interpreting the rules IN THE SAME fashion as was done in the example of a "legal" car by precedent in photo #3. I chose to cover the "bumper area" like a blanket and added a splitter. The real bumper actually being there or not is irrelevant. As irrelevant as photo 3's lead example. The issue raise was "cutting the body" not the use of a bumper cover. Body wasn't cut. Then it was the fact I used the existing body line uninterrupted. (We're just making stuff up now).  I guess it was illegal to fill and form better than the fella whose lead I was following. It was mentioned that "I shouldn't have to police the police". All I could do was laugh. The police invited me and my car knowing what it was. The car was what the car was five MONTHS before it was INVITED to take an open spot on the list without earning it. Fox is in the hen house. My bad. I let it bite me.

 

This all really all OLD news. I'm posting in amusement with myself for not catching the timing of the body pinning thing. For not noticing the dates on photo's that prove what these photos' prove.

 

Evidently your not a cheater if you have the power to change the rules to include or cover over a cheat but you are if you follow the precedent the cheater used to justify his cheat legally.  

 

A case of Might makes Right. Anyway. No matter. the car was pretty and it was innovative and it worked. Worked well enough to get it bounced and me banned.

 

They are still whining about this car. It hasn't raced in what, over a year and a half in which time they have lowered the track record .03 seconds (on twice the power) and continue to condemn the SVO which is ban for not keeping up. Ever glad you got away from something ugly and stupid?  

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[Marty N]

Between the original SVO build (photo #1 above) and it's first rebuild (Photo #3 above) the LX in the background was built to compete with the then current crop of mid-sixties Camaro's that were the flavor of the day and had a huge weight advantage over the SVO. Before it could be tested other "on the list" members were choosing the LX and having problems with nose lift even with a huge amount of body rake.

 

The second car in the fore ground was built in response to that issue. A simple sheet cover backed with some plumber epoxy and a splitter to be added below that. But the idea needs some testing so it is duplicated on the SVO before it's laid in stone in the new car.  Then the car in Photo #3 above showed up with this illegal spoiler making this legal nose treatment obsolete. (Neither Stock nor splitter as described per rule) As it is given the blind eye by both other (read that the majority) of the rules makers and campaigned by them without a vote; the lower car in the last post is built. AND the deal is sealed. I've gone to far (so say they)

 

Neither of these legal Street Outlaw cars even made a pass. Never got pinned. A third car, A 70 Boss 429 Fastback was started but never finished when a phone call informed me I was no longer welcome at that track. Didn't really like the 70's anyway.

 

Funny thing is. Today, everyone of these cars would be legal.  What ya going to do? Right? 371

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[M.Dennis]

You are a fiddle, and I do like to play.

[Marty N]

You are a fiddle, and I do like to play.

 

True enough Mike...a fiddle I may be, I admit it,  I'm, an easy target, and I hope you are so very proud of your work and enjoyed every note of the tune you so artfully crafted. 

 

"But sit down in that chair right there and let me show you how it's done">  

 

Why on earth would you go  "ON THE RECORD"   in admission to the lying,  the cheating and the manipulation of facts, people and circumstance !!!!!!!.  

 

That is absolutely PRICELESS!!! 

 

Worth the entire ticket price to the concert. I've never seen anyone torpedo themselves so effectively. What win will you ever have now that will be honored by anyone?

 

What ever I am, I am not a coward. I don't have to ban anyone or lie about them or screw with them, their lane or their equipment to avoid a potential loss.  I don't avoid anything or anyone and I NEVER flinch.

 

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[Marty N]

I have a few that never made it off the drawing board that might be worth a look like this 51 Chevy DeLuxe.

 

This car was an exercise in multi tone painting and I nearly pulled it off. Almost. Shooting the lightest color first over your primer the next area is masked. That same color is once again shot which seals the tapes edge to prevent bleed under of the second darker color. Wash, rinse and repeat until all your layers are down. That's what the model car rag said to do. It's the advice I got. It was good advice. Here's some additional information. I paint in rattle cans for the most part. For lacquers and acrylics, water or solvent this works pretty good. Not so much for enamels. It works better with an air brush than a rattle can. It works better with steady hands and sharp eyes and a sharp razor or allot of magnification.

 

Two things kept this car from completion. I didn't paint the hood at the same time thus the shade of red was impossible to match. Rookie mistake. Second was some thickness blister issues on the right rear fender. You have less control over the pattern and none over the dilution rate so build up is easy to botch in the three tone.

 

To get the sliver stripe and "Deluxe" I burn (rub) through the red to the underlying silver base. Door handles and brica-braca ditto. This was the most aggressive paint project I've ever tried. If you look back on the previous two tones you see steady improvement in the sharpness of the paint line. That first 66 NOVA is crude compared to this. That fender panel was too large an area to rub threw and I brushed that with allot of thinner to hold back the brush marks but eh, not everything works.

 

I have a 50 Olds and an 61 Cad to do in this method as statics for my wife and I need to perfect it. May need to break a few more eggs. 464

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[Marty N]

A tri tone 55 Shoe Box. This one came before the Deluxe I believe. The hood has a cutout for a scoop I tired in vain to fill. Ghost line in the paint but not the primer kept me from knowing when it was "right". I'll find another hood someday and finish this one. 497

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[Marty N]

Hemi Dart. One of my more interesting unfinished projects if only in the amount of money it's taken to get tot his point. Third? Maybe the forth kit. Bought the wrong version for the "rules". Then the next few were out of the box junk injecitons. This one took some time to hot water straighten and then it fought me at every turn to take  paint. Never seen so much parting compound or had such a hard time removing it. After soakings and scrubbings it was finely sanded silly loosing most of it's fine detail. Presently it's finish is almost as nice as the black 66 Nova but way to much work to get it there. 525

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[Marty N]

_{67 Ford Fairlane. This is a kit I've build a few times. Done in Gun Metal Gray. I like this kit for it's upright inner fender panels and low degree of body wrap. Makes getting decent sized scale tire under her for a nice scale look. I bonded a period resin scoop that the paint laid out odd on the bonding seem. Need to be reworked but otherwise a solid paint job.}

 

_{I have a few more unfinished cars and a couple of 1/32 drag cars but I think this is enough. I need to get back to working the cars we ran on the last outing. Prep for the next round of test sessions. The hard body cars in this group currently are  the first two on this list. The Mustang and the 69 Nova. So next post are on those upgrades. 558}

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[Marty N]

Ops. This Mint Green 69 Nova was build by a fella named Bob Bopes. Lives in Wyoming I think. Use to be a Penrose regular. Very nice guy.  $10 WRP Stainless Inline and 1/3 of the front bumper gone. Only turn key car I ever bought and that due to it's paint. Rattle canned by a guy who can rattle a can. Pinned were it isn't suppose to work. This car was a Rock Solid bracket beater. Don't kid yourself it wasn't a sloth. With a single mag 20 loaded it had no trouble hitting 5 flat in the 1/8th at a stunning 55 MPH. Smooth as silk. Centerlines up front and Black Star's out back it was well balanced and a straight shooter. This is the one I traded for the Mercury Comet. Parma interior. Not the motor it was sold with. Hey....have to hedge your bets. I had no idea how the Merc would turn out.

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[Marty N]

This 64 Ford Thunderbolt has some history. Built for a single purpose. To test the Proslot 490 Boss motor I was developing along with Joe Cheichi III, then unreleased. It didn't stay pretty long. On the first outing it literally flew  two feet above the surface. Took flight about the 1,000 foot mark.  Entirely clearing the shutdown of the then new Bradley Raceway exiting the west door at over 60 MPH and landing on a door mat saving the body but chucking the glass and bumpers. Sporting a JDS Revolution chassis and some SRP Dave Donnelly drilled rims and his version of Yellow Dot the first outing was short and sweet. Rodger Cheichi was parallel testing a Camaro, 72 I think, Inline with much better success popping some low 8's an low 60 mph passes. On the next outing the Bolt was fitted with an air damn below the bumper as we determined that the car was trapping air and parachuting. Done and Dun she cranked off some mid 8 passed around 60 MPH. I the third outing it laid out what was then the Boss 490 ET record and was retired. Rodger took it right back on his next pass same day but the Bolt was done. the DD tires had given all they could. She made some "show up" runs at Penrose and Mid-America and was finally parted out. Rode hard and put away wet I have bought additional kits to recreate this car sometime in the future. Yes those are DRS fronts with Protrack Large "O" rings up front. Tipped in at 125 grams the spec minimum for the Boss 490 for advertising purposes.

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