20 replies to this topic

[mike1972chev]

Well, here we go again.....  This is my personal mini series of assembling a few cars from vintage parts I have collected over the years. I have assembled and built  a few now,very amateur stuff at best.As you may know,CLASSIC Ind brand cars will always be my FAVE. I have put many of those together now.My first cars will be of these older kits and parts ,with a dash of modern parts added. On the REAL car restorations,we call these a "next day restoration" where we restore them to factory original,but with added features like Cragars,headers,Hurst shifters,ECT..... These are NOT pro built cars by any means like the likes of DC-65X , Mr. Pablo's Builds or like many others on here can create from scratch(I will be diving into those a little later. Got three on my mind to build of those also..   )  

 

The first ones I have put here on on Slot Blog are linked below. My off scale 55 Chevrolet drag car, The Classic Viper ,and now,the Premier Cyclone Avenger. 

 

 

http://slotblog.net/...ole-dimensions/

 

http://slotblog.net/...r-scratchbuild/

 

http://slotblog.net/...on-a-rainy-day/

 

 

We start with a chassis and body I bought a few of awhile back. These are the chassis with out the guide shoes in them. Also these didn't come drilled for body mounting screws either like the RTR car frames had in them. 

 

[mike1972chev]

Well,I didn't much care for that GREEN paint on that 36D  Maubuchi,(Thinking that was a RENWAL idea making those green??? Correct me here if you want?) so I opted for the chrome can of a COX . I also selected some I believe are Kal Kar 5 hole fronts and rears ?  Bought some German rubber 1 3/8 diameter  9/16 wide for the rears and .250 width O rings for the fronts .HCE 55 on EBAY helped me out with the wheels. He has ALL the hard to find stuff it seems.  

 

Thanks to Martin,I got the dimensions on where the body mounting holes get placed on the frame rails.I DO NOT much care for #2 sheet metal screw threads,so I got out the #50 drill and then tapped everything for 2-56 machine screws. Stainless steel button heads look and work nicely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mike1972chev]

It is all assembled once to get how the finished look will be. The rear wheel wells are NOT EVEN concentric from the factory. I used the over sized ,unfinished rear tires with sand paper  to finish  them to a more round radius. At this point,it looks like it has farm tractor tires on the rear of it !!!     On the other hand,the fronts came out EXACTLY what I was hoping for. I wanted a "slammed to the ground" look with the front tires. They were just shy of 1.125 diameter. It was a bit of a trick getting those to fit. had to notch the frame rails a bit to get them to clear.Also CLOSE to the body as well. (The front axle gets replaced with one that doesn't have threads riding in the frame holes later on....    )

 

 

 

[mike1972chev]

Since I do not own a tire truer,I sent them off to a MOST RELIABLE person to take care of the task. Mr. Pablo did the most awesome job of turning these tires down to a more correct looking diameter. (1.31 on the nose !!) He also narrowed the inside walls down a bit. A MASTER of the HUDY !!!!  Then he added a bit of "bling" to them to top it off !!!  Just look at those yellow GOODYEAR decals !!!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mike1972chev]

Now we get down to assembling the chassis part of this build. COX pinion gear now pressed onto the COX motor. 48T COX spur gear. Stainless steel axles of correct size now. (ZERO 5:40 threads riding in any of the axle bushings or frame holes.    ) 

 

And as I always do,upgraded to 14 ga high flex wire wire for the motor. (CANNOT BELIEVE they ever installed the tiny crap on those old Maubs????  :/ )  I also located a modern guide shoe with a 1/8" IN post on it. Nice to be able to use the more modern push in brushes and also brass tabs on the motor wires. The 1/8 in post means I did not have to drill out the swing arm for a newer 3/16" in guide shoe.I know they are STRONGER,but I didn't want to drill it.I also got to use the vintage 1/8" weight on it.  Thanks TSRF slot cars.     I also use a bit of anti corrosion preventative on all contacts. They can and do turn green sitting on the shelf.  ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mike1972chev]

Chassis is together and we are getting close !     I wanted a paint job that was looking CLOSE to the Premier factory look. I have been practicing painting with my new air brush for awhile now ,getting tips from Mr. PABLO and having good success . But I wanted to try out a PROFESSIONAL  paint job one time. I sent photos of a stock Premier Cyclone to one Joe Neumeister  AKA "Noose"  He was like totally reading my mind the whole time.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mike1972chev]

And...... OMG!!!!!   He totally kicked the crap out of it !!!    I was floored !!!!    BRAVO !!!! He suggested the metallic blue that was used. He also  painted in the chrome stripe and added the tail lights as I requested.  I cannot even believe the tinted windows he did as well !!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added 3M body armor to the contact points of the body where they touch the frame work. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mike1972chev]

And here it is. The finished product. It is THE BEST looking Premier Cyclone Avenger ever assembled,EVER!!!  So do not even try to argue the point !!!    It is tooooooo sexy !!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mike1972chev]

NEXT.... We will build THE MOST neglected factory car in slot car history....  

[Pablo]

[olescratch]

NICE!  You are definately doing a good job on these cars.  That silver stripe/metalic blue paint job is awesome.

[Dominator]

Simply beautiful

[Gator Bob]

It's the  ...um...hand grenade  

[Martin]

Hey Mike, thanks for the heads up, no arguments here it is the THE BEST looking Premier Cyclone Avenger ever assembled,EVER!!!

 

 

Next, We will build THE MOST neglected factory car in slot car history.. You have my attention.???????

[Noose]

Glad to have helped!


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[don.siegel]

Nice one Mike. Simple and clean! 

 

Don 

[mike1972chev]

Yes, this was a fairly simple,straight forward car to assemble for sure......But I love these cars. The Cyclone Avenger is an AWESOME looking thingie body for damned sure !!!!  (One of my faves.)

 

 I just finished up on one of my favorite "orphaned cars" of the 1960's.  It seems to have been SOOOOO unwanted back in it's day ????  

 

Just a few more factory kits to go before we get to the hand built chassis again....   I keep leaning towards the "thingie" builds .  The ONLY problem I keep running into is the fact that MOST hand built chassis are so purpose built. They are made against a SPECIFIC set of rules for a specific race to run them in.     It is SO hard to decide where to even start with those. (I wasn't even around yet when most of these cars were designed and raced!!!!   )   I will be taking any ideas/suggestions on the last three builds.  

[Pablo]

I almost always start with the body.

-Body selection

-Parts gathering

-Planning

-Building

-Painting

-Testing/Tuning

 

Specific rule sets make it even easier because you know exactly what parts and dimensions to use.

Why is that hard? Or you could simply do a build that has already been done and posted and clone it.

I do it all the time.

[Gator Bob]

 The ONLY problem I keep running into is the fact that MOST hand built chassis are so purpose built. They are made against a SPECIFIC set of rules for a specific race to run them in.     It is SO hard to decide where to even start with those. (I wasn't even around yet when most of these cars were designed and raced!!!!   )   I will be taking any ideas/suggestions on the last three builds.  

 

 

I don't know of the rules nor was that type of car/class popular in the north east ... NJ anyway. Detroit was the heart and I think some west coast tracks might have run them in anger also. 

 

I always look at the true scratch thingies as total outlaw, run what you brung , as low as you could go, or make own body mold like the greats did.

The missing link on to near extinction and the doorstops to wings emerged as a cross species.

 

"WingThingies"

[don.siegel]

Bob, 

 

Thingies were also very popular in Northern California, home of the Choti bodies... in the Cali columns at the time, some of the guys talk about how the NorCal cars were a lot faster, but didn't run to same rules as the SoCal guys, so they usually couldn't enter the big SoCal races, and when the SoCal guys went up North with their usual cars they weren't competitive! 

 

If anybody here was actually there, would love to hear some stories about the North-South divide! 

 

Even in Chicago, not far from Detroit, we didn't get many Thingies that I saw... if there were any Shinodas around I didn't notice them! However, the influence was there, and I remember cars that were Thingies in all but the actual body, with tiny steam roller tires, simple piano wire chassis, etc. 

 

Mike, I don't think there were actually a lot of rules on these cars: it was basically 1/16" ground clearance and then an overall width, classically 3", but some may have expanded to either 3-1/8 or 3-1/4. Try to find the article Things About Thingies in here, and that will give you an idea of the Detroit area Thingies, many Dynamic based. I think there are some references on the NorCal Thingies too, will try to find some for you.... 

 

So what's your mystery car? 

 

Don 

[Dennis M]

Amazing build'' I love it.