49 replies to this topic

[Pablo]

 

WB: 3 7/8"

GL: 1 1/16"

Width: 3.125"

Motor: Havlicek 16D, 40T/27

Bracket: Russkit 26D

Front wheels: Vintage set screw with O-ring rubber, 13/16" OD

Rear wheels: Vintage set screw with Alpha Wonder Rubber, 13/16" OD

Clearance: front .032", rear .062"

Flag: Jet Flag secured with Classic weight

Chassis: ISO, tapered center section with .050" thick (drop arm) tongue, outer section/front axle: rails and tilting bat pans.

Body is an original, not a re-pop, and has a protective covering. I'm guessing it's a Betta but not sure:

 

[Pablo]

I'm feeling very "German" today

 

 

Endbell mounting holes tapped 2-56 for brass round head machine screws.

26D Russkit bracket sanded, flattened, squared and trued as usual.

Now it needs bracing to lock it in, but first I needed to trim the screws to see what will fit where. 

Turned down the heads to about .125".

 

I never noticed how irregular the machining under screw heads is until I looked at them with my geezer goggles.

We don't want to tweak the face of the bracket when the screws are tightened.

So I tried a new trick; they fit loose into the 3/32 Magnehone facing tool but by pressing straight down with a screwdriver and rotating them,

it removes any flash and trues up the face (between head and bracket face) nicely.

 

[Pablo]

Internal bracket bracing done for now; more to follow once I get the axle tube jigged up. Typical overbuilt Pablo rear end

Side wires are .047", back face .032", bottom edge .039".

 

 

With 13/16" OD rear wheels and a 40T/27 armature, I need about a 4.8 to 1 gear ratio. ARP 6T straight steel pinion and a 29 or 30T crown should work.

All four wheels are courtesy of dc-65X ( ) and the rears will be shod with Alpha Wonder Rubber:

 

[Pablo]

"Bushings 101" - I used a fat axle and my flag sander block to set up the bushings. Tacked 'em in, then checked for perfect alignment.

 

 

Bracket is done. The addition of rails will make it even stronger

 

[Mark Johnson]

looks good 

[Bobby Page]

Looks like you may have your hands full with this one.  Can't wait to see the body painted.

[Pablo]

The paint will be same as the SLR-300 - Tamiya Acrylic Aluminum backed with white.

 

Q/A inspector says "these nasty old front wheels are too wobbly for a streamliner - save them for a big heavy slow car"

 

 

 

So they got labeled as such and thrown back in the vintage wheel "box of horrors"

 

 

Front wheels, "Plan B": set screw fronts that actually match the rears and fit the spoke inserts 

I'll put big O-rings on them and grind to 13/16" OD.

(pre-trimmed donuts on rear wheels are rough-cut only, and curing for a couple days)

 

 

 

I cannibalized two brass sleeves from Parma pink retro crown gears and sized the widths to fit. New plan for fronts is a 3/32" axle rotating in a 1/8" tube.

 

 

After a marathon late-night tinning party yesterday with the Weller 140 Watt Gun, I think it's about time to build a Streamliner chassis.

 

[Pablo]

Before I cut this drop arm, I set some tongue tilt into it as compensation for the .035"/.062" chassis clearance slope

 

 

Much as I hate to mess with Havlicek's handywork, the bottom of the endbell and one post protector needed a little shaving to allow it to lay low as possible.

As long as I had it apart anyway, I soldered the hoods to the holders, tinned the wire connectors, and added one thin spacer above the comm.

A little shaving off the bottom of the bracket also, and we have nirvana - everything sits right where I want it.

 

[Pablo]

Drop arm needed a lot of TLC to make it true and square.

No doubt the best parts got cherry-picked back in the day. No problemo, this one is going to get cut up anyway

I made pencil marks where I want the inner rails to end up.

 

 

Looks like my tapered rail plan will work - .062" wires with 90 degree uprights at the rear, butted up against the bracket sides and tubes.

They clear the motor OK, so all I have to do is hit my pencil marks. The indents on Rick's Jig make nice visual reference points.

 

 

Now the motor can come out and hide in it's clean baggie again 

[Pablo]

After a 10 minute re-seat of the brushes, the motor is "good to go"

Havlicek has a rare talent of making small brushes work well on arms with big wire.

This motor will push the streamliner nicely

 

[Pablo]

Changed my mind on the taper and just went straight with the drop arm.

I shortened and narrowed it, then beveled the rail edges a la dc-65x to give the solder a place to pool

 

[Pablo]

Twin .0625" center section wire rails with a pair of .047" stiffeners on the bracket's sides to reduce the motor's tendency to pitch.

That's just my theory. I know Jay Guard doesn't like lots of up and down flex right at the bracket face on retro F1's.

I took his hint and started adding stiffness there. It worked well on the Mercedes Benz SLR 300 and I expect it to work here also.

40T of 27 isn't exactly a Mini-Brute motor so it's something I considered.

 

 

Just for fun, one of my favorite works of art, by Bob Suzuki:

 

 

[Pablo]

McMaster-Carr tubing cutter gizmo that dc-65x recommended takes all the guesswork out of cutting the insides of the axle tubes true

Bill from NH suggested a light pass or two on them at the desired cut point using a tubing cutter before soldering them in -

a great idea, but by that time I had already ordered the gizmo

 

[dc-65x]

Looking good Pablo...... and I'm glad you like the gizmo!

[Pablo]

Thanks, Rick

 

I took extra precaution to ensure the Iso hinge tube never fails with a pair of .032 brass rod wraparound gizmos.

.063" Iso rails have keepers for brass-to-brass hinge pivot points

 

[Pablo]

Wheels are done, all about .817" OD. Rear rubbers are Alpha Wonder, fronts are "Buna N" O-rings.

70A on the durometer scale

 

[Pablo]

.047" wire Iso rail cross-connector. Starting to look like a plumber's nightmare back here

 

 

The .063" crosspiece will do double-duty as Iso rail connector and bite bar for the pans

 

 

[Pablo]

I started out with a (10 thou) piece of bulletproofing to set lift for the outer section

 

 

Too much. Then I tried a folded piece of blue masking tape (about 4 thou).

Bingo, that's what I want - just a hair of movement

 

 

 

 

[Pablo]

.055" rail spacers....then a brass rail....you probably know where this is going

Changed my mind on bite bar placement; it will be a little further back. I cut the original and left it in place as a cross connector.

Time for a preliminary tumbling to get 'er cleaned up

 

[Pablo]

Nice n clean, my new IRRA® F1 chassis - is it legal ?

If it is, it won't be a few hours from now.....

 

[Pablo]

Chassis is done. .032" pans with a little tilt.

 

 

Flag rotation surfaces on the vintage tongue were faced with a Magnehone, of course

 

 

Brass gizmos on the .063" bite bar to keep from gouging the pans. Pan hinge tubes are doubled

 

 

Iso hinge tube is NOT going anywhere

 

 

 

Iso hinge and outer section rails are designed to allow the rear end to wiggle waggle a little -

note the space between center and outer rail sections is visible on the stbd. side -

also, a corresponding space between the stbd. brass Iso hinge gizmo and the hinge tube.

This is simply because the outer section is shifted to that side in the photo.

The guys at Chicagoland Raceway call this "rear steer"; whatever you call it, I like a little more in the rear than the front

 

 

Now, where did I put that doggone big wire vintage H Power motor with the Hong Kong endbell ?

[Pablo]

Ready for track test this Saturday. Double Marklin Train wires, 6/30 gears, Prime braid.

Of course it passes the drivetrain test with flying colors, and there isn't much doubt in my mind it will handle well.

This isn't the first chassis of this type I've built, so I can afford to be cocky

 

 

But there are always a few minor bugs to work out. The left front wheel is a little wobbly; probably a sleeve issue I can fix later.

One of the nice things about an Iso is, front wheels don't bother the car near as much as other designs.

[Pablo]

For the track test, I used a suitably sized and shaped body for the test (used Choti re-pop with the rear end shortened) since the W25 body isn't ready yet.

 

-H Power motor is a complete home run. Perfect power, plenty potent, a nice whistling sound as it winds out. Gearing at 6/30 is good, no change needed.

-Handles real sweet, as I expected, very forgiving. It will drive hard and deep into a turn, plant it's feet and dig in without deslotting.

-No problems noted. It's fun to drive, especially watching heads turn as they hear the motor come onto it's sweet spot.

 

The old German font decals are coming from Patto's soon:

 

http://www.pattospla.../numbers424.JPG

[Pablo]

Wire spokes w/ knockoffs wheel inserts

 

[bluecars]

Super cool!!!