3139 replies to this topic

[MantaRay]

Great looking Build Bob..............Your pics are very high quality..........I see you are using the trick front uprights that Geary makes Chicagoland.................

[John Miller]

Is there a set screw that holds the square brass tubing in place?

How does the car perform with or without this feature?

Looks cool by the way.

Attached Images

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[MantaRay]

Hi John...great racing with you and Mike this past weekend.............how do you get the drawing on the pic?

[John Miller]

It's a snipping tool on my computer and then I just upload the file.

[Phil Smith]

I like the bite bar passing through the motor mount. This is something I had been thinking about.

[Ralph Thorne]

Those appear to be pan stops more than a bite bar, but I could be wrong.

Several people have placed their bite bar through the motor box, I think most people have found the best location is just before the motor.

[Gator Bob]

Here is the story of “Box, Spring and Mattress”

Once upon a time, a long time ago and forever … I looked up to the Chassis Gods.

In 1965 all that could be done with a Weller Gun that a buddy had was to burn myself, the table and endbells too. Throbbing fingers and toxic shock sinus and brass stuck together at all the wrong angles thinking .. "How do those teenager kids do that"? ... There was no trainer … I was 9 years old.

So today’s special is a highly tunable, two rail, torsion pan Retro Stock Car designed to be used as an “Any Track car” as a first (and only for now) 4.5” car.

Can’t fool me … you guys know what you’re looking at and how this stuff works. I’ll start at the front.

Shown with the car in photo #1 are the six tuning springs.

The Front:
4 wires for inserting into the pin tubes at the rear of the pan.
This sets the front ride height, adds cross weight when using the long spring inserted into the inner angled pin tube at the back of the pan.
The 2 short wires do not add cross weight but maintain spring pressure on the front axle keeping the load on the spring and just off the shimmed ride height setting screws. These act as the ‘Bump Stops’ keeping the pre-set ride height when the spring load is loaded.
These four straight wire springs and is designed for a “Soft Spring “Cross Jacking” set-up for flat and intermediate type tracks.
The 2 ‘Paperclip’ spring wires fit in the pin tubes that are also supporting the front axle uprights. These are for the “Stiff Spring” set-up on high speed banked tracks. The long springs can be used also to add some cross for hard hitting on steeper banks.
There are 2 springs not shown that mount like the paperclip fronts but these hold the axle up on the bump stops.

The middle:

It really is a fixed 2 rail car with 2 floating rails in a box that are tunable for “Forward and Side Bite”.
A rail in a box … in a box …. Or not … long or short … one side or both.

The back:

Some good stuff going on back here starting with a CR motor bracket. Drilled for torsion pan limiters and then braced heavy with box tubing for the floating rails and square “Bite Boxes”. Add .062 lower slight V and an.047 lightweight upper V braces. The upper is formed at the top and slotted into the tube holders. Vertical brass tubing provides a lot of support to the axle tube. These also are there for locking down the ‘Bite Boxes’ and provide a location for a body support upright if needed.


The concept has rattled around in my head for about a year and 6 months of it on (and off) the RetroPro jig. I am slow but everything was thought through before building. My building skills are unrefined and need much more practice like cutting two pieces of wire the same length. . . lol

Even with the recycled pan ... If it was sanded, filed, tumbled and polished it sure could be pretty too.

[Rick]

Very kewl build Bob...........

[Duffy]

....HUH.

[MSwiss]

Nice job, Bob. Very clean. Well thought out.

It's nice to see someone using the adjustable front wheel supports.
Sales on them have been less than stellar.

While a few guys like Jay Guard have constructed chassis with screws for various adjustments, I'm sort of surprised more
haven't utilized them.

I predict in the semi-near future, you'll see more of it.

Just like the Z-rail chassis, you just need a few in the winner's circle for other guys to follow suit.

[Tex]

While a few guys like Jay Guard have constructed chassis with screws for various adjustments, I'm sort of surprised more
haven't utilized them.

I predict in the semi-near future, you'll see more of it.

Check out the 9th & 10th pics down in post #26: http://slotblog.net/...uly-13-15-2012/

The future already happened.

[Tim Neja]

Oh yeah--Tex had a nice Can Am chassis with adjuster screws in the rear to change the long rail flex in his car! Look beside the motor and you'll see two sets of set screws that went into the outer rail to increase or reduce flex in that rail. The front set screw setup I think is also interesting--to be able to "tweak" the car and change ride height. Cool ideas!
T

[Tex]

OK, I haven't posted here much in a while. Here's what I was doing for the last year or so.

First, I needed another Can-Am chassis. Until I built this one, I only had 1 chassis that was raceable. Once I finished this chassis, I was very happy 'cause I then had TWO Can-Am chassis'! It may be obvious from the pics, but it wasn't to me when I built it.... this is a pretty stiff chassis and turns out it's only decent on a King track. It was pretty heavy too, so I drilled the crap out of it. I'm even going to lighten it just a bit more in the nose; that's .062" brass up there, ya know! At LEAST I now had a 2nd chassis to run if I damaged the other one.

[Tex]

Next, it was time to start building for the D3 Western States. By the time I got done with everything, the race was then called the Summer Western Classic. I'd never built a 1/32 car before. I opted to build a narrow inline car. MAN, it was TOUGH trying to build this smaller scale! Technically, it runs... just not very well. I need to redo the shaker pan.

[Tex]

Since I was building cars I'd never built before, I decided to try Retro Pro next. This was the first chassis of mine to sport the set screws for adjusting flex tension. This chassis worked best with NO screws... go figure.

[Tex]

Now it was time to try and build a lightweight Can-Am for the BP King track. It came out about 95g but I added a little lead; now it's 100g. This is the only chassis, of the 4 built with adjusting set screws, that worked better with a set of screws in(rear holes). These pics are just before I finished the chassis, sans front axle/wheels. I also added a brass piece that fit inside the motor bracket.

[Tex]

F-1 next. Now I was getting adventuresome by mixing the adjusting set screws in combination with Z-rails. Again, worked best with no screws.

[Tex]

Keeping with the adjustable set screws with Z-rails theme, here's my anglewinder coupe chassis.

[Tex]

And bringing up the rear, the last chassis I built for the SWC, a year after I'd built my FIRST 1/32 chassis, is my 1/32 anglewinder... a Z-rail job.

[Gator Bob]

Check out the 9th & 10th pics down in post #26: http://slotblog.net/...uly-13-15-2012/

The future already happened.

Looks good Tex, Are you locking down the bar with the screws? Like full float or no movement?

[Tex]

Yes. With no set screws, the 2nd set of main rails just float free, adding no additional tension to the chassis flex. But clamp the set screws down onto the those "floating" main rails brings them into play and effectively stiffens the chassis flex.

[Gator Bob]

Kind of reminds me of a Pablo-Flex chassis from a couple years ago

Nice clean build Pablo,
Rail in a box? Interesting hinge location ... how does it handle?

[Craig]

Since there are so many, doing so well, I thought I would jump on the band wagon and build another Japanese style Can Am chassis. This time I somewhat cloned the Kamo-Speed chassis.

Have a look....

[Pablo]

Nice, Craig

Bob, the Pablo-Flex chassis is in the hands of Greg Gilbert, and he does real well with it. It seems to like swoopy hi speed tracks.

[Gator Bob]

Bob, the Pablo-Flex chassis is in the hands of Greg Gilbert, and he does real well with it. It seems to like swoopy hi speed tracks.

Cool, I know you're good . . . you get to build for the legends!

BTW: who doesn't like swoopy hi speed tracks ?....