74 replies to this topic

[dc-65x]

Thanks, Terry.

Getting people to scratchbuild is why we post . We think it's a lot of fun and encourage others to try it.

As far as the type of material I make frames from, it depends on what era I'm trying to recreate. This car is brass tube as that's what we used at our SoCal raceway in '64-5. I believe other parts of the country used piano wire. Then the Pros went to solid brass rod in 1966. Piano wire started getting added more and more to the brass rod frames into the anglewinder era until it replaced brass altogether except for pans and drop arms. This is a generalization as nothing in vintage slot cars is really that clear-cut. For example, San Francisco Thingie racers were using piano wire lightweights with aero bodies when Team Russkit was racing heavy brass rod sports cars.

Anyway, break out the soldering iron and frame material of your choice and have some fun .

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

In the day, people around the country did three things, brass rod (and copper and brazing), brass tube (and tube with wire inside), and steel wire.

In the day, most people had small pencil type irons, and they didn't have the heat to do some things well. The"pros" all had better equipment. But part of the conventional wisdom was that a 40 watt iron or a 80 watt gun was more practical when at the track, or staying at a motel.

Mostly I did piano wire. I did play at least once with the wire in tube, and several times with rod, mostly to see what they felt like. Each style has its own "feel" when you drive, and each responds differently to hitting things. Almost all my chassis that survived more or less intact are piano wire.

Fate

[Tim Neja]

Very nice historic build. Looks great!! Are you going to bring it to the Convention in April at Buena Park? Love to see it run!

T

[dc-65x]

Thanks, Tim .

I remember reading in the old slot car magazines about making exhaust pipes out of paint brush ferrules . I thought I'd give it a try:





That worked out OK but when I went to drill two small holes in the back of the body I slipped and tore it . I decided to cut out the back of the body:



I installed the pipes on a piece of .015" thick Styrene sheet. I used the same stuff for the interior and to mount the velocity stacks:



I've run out of things to make for this car and I have to paint it ... not my favorite thing to do. I'm still not sure how I'm going to neatly do the white stripe on the back and avoid the clear "screen" over the velocity stacks. Oh well. I polished out the 40 years of scratches from the outside of the body with Novus #2 plastic polish and scuffed up the inside with a ScotchBrite pad:



I'm no artist and for the longest time I could not figure out how to mix a "British Racing Green" out of Testors bright green. Then I ran across this while my wife was shopping at a craft store:



The color wheel told me to "just add some black, stupid!"



This is some I mixed up for an earlier project:



I think I'm going to go for a little darker shade than this for the Cooper:





STOP THE PRESSES! I'm out of bottles for the air brush. HAPPY DAYS! I have an excuse to start a new project until I get some more bottles.

Hmmmmmm... what's next? So many slot cars to build, so little time .

Onward!

[sportblazer350]

Rick, you continue to amaze me with all of these additions to this project! I am in awe of you talent! Thanks for all of the detailed pix, so many ideas to copy!!

[dc-65x]

Thanks, Glenn. Sharing ideas and techniques so we can have fun scratchbuilding is what it's all about .

[Tex]

Rick,

Those pictures of the business-end of that Cooper are great for showing most of the rear suspension minus a couple details. Do you have any more pictures of that car? Front suspension?

[bosmeck]

Amazing work, Rick - Brilliant!! Can't wait to see this car finished.

[dc-65x]

Thank you, Chris. I enjoy all the beautiful cars you show us

Those pictures of the business-end of that Cooper are great for showing most of the rear suspension minus a couple details. Do you have any more pictures of that car? Front suspension?

Richard,

I haven't found much in the way of pictures on the 1964 Cooper GP car and I've Googled the heck out of it . I finally decided to just more or less "free style" the suspension especially since it's the first time I've tried making it .

[Tex]

Comparing notes then, it seems that there is only one rear "trailing arm"(?), the upper one. And looking at the lower, rear A-arms, they are reversed from what I normally think of, with the single attachment at the motor/chassis end of the A-arm and the double attachment being out on the rear hub carrier.

EDIT: LOL! I guess if I'd bothered to actually READ the text under the pictures, I wouldn't have had to guess at some of the suspension details!

[dc-65x]

Hey Tex,

If it will help, I can email you the full size (30 MB) .jpg file of my scanned Cooper R&T magazine page I posted. If you'd like it, PM me your email address .

I tested my Aristo-Craft-powered Cooper at Eddie's last weekend and it's really pretty fast. My '68 Mabuchi-powered Lotus 25 "Fly Weight" will smoke it but I think the Aristo may have the legs on a Pittman 196B even with a DC-65X arm. I'll find out when I get my Lola GP with a Pittman 196-65X pictured below finished:



I ran the Aristo first without a rezap on the magnet and it ran well. I had Eddie check the gauss reading with his analog gauge and it barely moved the needle. Then he zapped it with his Trik Trax zapper and checked it again. It went from almost 0 before to almost 9 after! On the track it picked up lots of brakes and ran a little cooler. The brakes are really quite good and I don't see a need to do anything else to this motor.

I guess it’s time to paint...

[Horsepower]

First of all, beautiful job! Really captures the mid-'60s spirit.

Question - when you had the motor zapped, what was the position of the motor (if you know). Was it simply put vertically (pinion pointed up, brushes toward the person zapping) between the iron bars of the Trik Trax and the bars tightened against it?

[dc-65x]

Thanks Gary,

I know it was zapped as would zap a 16D. The north and south poles are on the sides of the motor not the top and bottom like on a Bonner. So the brushes were not pointing at the person doing the zapping but rather pointing to the side. Is that clear as... mud

[mcseitz]

"Please sir, I want some more."

This time with a touch of paint on the body, if you please.

[dc-65x]

Hi Marcus,

I got the dark British Racing Green and white stripes painted on the Cooper yesterday. What a struggle . I was worried about masking off the top of the engine cover which is supposed to be white. I followed Dave Larson's advice from his Thingy build on SlotForum. I burnished the heck out of the edges of the tape and didn't stretch it when I applied it.

I sprayed the green and peeled away the tape it looked great with a nice clean cut line ... wait... there's a little green overspray in there. How did that happen ? No problem, a little paint thinner on a Q-tip swab and... YIKES! I touched the cut line between the green and soon to be white and smeared it . Maybe it's not too bad. I'll spray the white now and... ARG! IT IS BAD! Now what?

In the past I would have given up on the project and put the thing in a box. I was really disgusted as that masking job really looked good before I slipped with that Q-tip. I came up with a fix I'm OK with. I was hoping to post pictures of the painted body Sunday but instead I spend hours recovering from my mistake.

I sure wish I hadn't slipped... oh well...

[mcseitz]

Rick:

Believe me, I feel your pain. On this same site I recently shared the experience of adding one final clearcoating over a perfectly striped and finished (by my standards) Strombecker Brabham body only to pick up the wrong rattle can and deliver a full blast of gold lacquer right on target. Argh! On some projects it seem like half my time is spent re-redoing.

I have had good results using a short-cut with those Pactra R/C stripes on several cars. After clearcoating it's hard to tell it's not paint and the edges are very clean.

My K&B Cooper



And if it makes you feel better, I've got a striping job I've been debating sending Jairus for months.

Eager to see your completed project.

[dc-65x]

WOW! There are some really nice cars in the 1/24 Scale Vintage Cars forum by Jean-Michel, Chris, Marcus, Dennis, Todd, Jairus (in the modern 1/24 forum) and on and on... Lots of eye candy! I love it! Thank you, guys.

I really have been working on my Cooper . Here's where I am at now before I stop working on it and go get depressed by the evening news. :



Maybe I can finish it tomorrow...

Keep up the great work, everyone.

[Tex]

Looks good so far, Rick!

[dc-65x]

Here's the "little man in the blue suit," as my wife call my driver figures. I had to cut the material out between his arms and chest and sand the little dude down a bit to get him to fit:



Here he is in the cockpit ready to do battle with unsuspecting Pittman's:





I decided to leave the clear plastic "screen" over the engine and put some detail under it:





I made some boo-boos and would for sure do some things differently next time but I enjoyed this project. It was fun to build and it's a fun car to drive.

Thanks, Jairus, for the inspiration to build it that came from your BRM project and thanks to everyone who shared this project with me . Three more pictures and it's off to the next project...







Onward...

[Noose]

Another gorgeous project! Now... paint those pin heads!!!

[dc-65x]

Who you calling a pin head man !

Oh, those pin heads . OK... Just when I thought I was finished.

[Tex]

Bellissima!

Bravo, Rick!

[Edo]

To die for!

May I h...

[Dave Wilson]

Beautifulllllllllll

Awesome

want one noowww!!!! how much did you say ?

[dc-65x]

Thanks guys . The Aristocraft motors like the one I used have been up for sale on Ebay lately for cheap with no takers . The parts are out there..........

Time to start a build'n