83 replies to this topic

[Pablo]

[dc-65x]

Hi Pablo........I made some more progress on the chassis. The motor bracket and a little bit of wire was added. I don't know what the wire piece is for. Maybe it adds symmetry?:

 

 

I notched the half rails so I could get top and bottom screws into the motor:

 

 

Plumber rails are next..........

[Alchemist]

Hi Rick,

 

Viewing your "builds" is like watching a "Lapidarist" work with gemstones - phenomenal precision!

 

Ernie 

[Jaeger Team]

Hi Pablo........I made some more progress on the chassis. The motor bracket and a little bit of wire was added. I don't know what the wire piece is for. Maybe it adds symmetry?:

 

 

I notched the half rails so I could get top and bottom screws into the motor:

 

 

 

 

I guess for more resistance, since the notches in the half rails make them more fragile (actually in the magazine picture that added rail seems a bit longer)

my two cents 

[Bill from NH]

Perhaps Monty originally used that flat to wire-tie the motor brackets to the half rails, rather than for lower screw clearances. On these iSOs, he didn't wire-tie anything. Rick, I see on FB that Jim Golsalves has two of these Monty ISOs still in boxes.

[Martin]

Does any one know if these, in the box chassis, were all signed?

 

I wonder how many were made?

 

Only one as nice as Ricks that's for sure.

[dc-65x]

I don't know Martin. I was hoping to find out more about these chassis and Monty in particular with input to this thread.

 

As far as my chassis goes, in my personal reality,  the motor bracket acts as a gusset to counteract any vertical weakness caused by the motor screw notches. Actually, as it was pointed out to me, the chassis would likely break apart at the small junction between the half rails and the drop arm before any weakness from the notches caused a failure.

 

The good news is this particular car is a fun reproduction of what I call a "Magazine Car" that will not see battle on the Blue King. I think there are more robust designs for that.

 

Here is the butt end of Monty's chassis:

 

 

And my version....so far. I thought Monty's little mystery piece of wire outside of the motor mount bracket looked a bit short too. Mine is .030" longer than the original:

 

[Steve Okeefe]

Rick,

 

Presumably, the width across the rear tires will be 3-1/8" (per 1972-73 rules).  Given the 4-5/8" overall guide lead you mentioned in an earlier post, this chassis is proportioned (by dimension) more like a wing car than a "gravity" car (no "wings").

 

Beautiful workmanship... as usual.

[MSwiss]

I don't know Martin. I was hoping to find out more about these chassis and Monty in particular with input to this thread.

In the earlier days as the GM at Koford (mid to late 80's), I fielded a phone call from Monty, who had taken a hiatus from slot racing, to (IIRC) run a deli with wife, Bonnie.
 
He asked for Stu, explaining he knew Stu from his California days, and that his name was Monty Ohren, and was planning to start up a new company, to build Boxstock chassis, called M & M.
 
I replied "I know your name. You were a big shot from the late 60's, early 70's. Big "O" chassis."
 
His polite reply, paraphrasing, was; "That Big "O" thing is something that I want to forget, and I'd rather you don't use that term anymore".
 
I quickly dropped the subject, so I'm not sure if it was just the nickname, or Big "O" chassis, specifically, that left a sour taste in his mouth.
 
Anyway, Monty was a heck of a craftsman, who was really proud of what he sold, and always put quality, over making a buck.

[Highnoon]

My Big “O” story. I raced pro in the 60’s in the Midwest. My family moved to California in 1970 so I could go go to state college for free, just books on me. We lived in a mobile home surrounded by a corn field across the street from the Chino Institie for men and women, it’s were the Manson girls were and Timothy “lsd” Leary. So went to college worked in an ice cream parlor 6 days a week. Went to my first race at speed and sport on the king and my box was stolen. So took me a year to save up some money to race again.

Stopped in Chino raceway, some weird track that I fell in love with. was looking in the case at cars and there was a used Monty Ohren chassis, for group 20 motors, had 55/47 rails and was pretty well made. I usually built my own but I had no tools, bought it, got a motor and started weekly races and winning.

I met Gil Gunderson who raced at Chino and the rest of team Boola, Don Aspenson, Herb Wade and started racing semi-pro with Gunderson Boola motors. I won a big semi-pro race at speed and sport. I remember Monty coming over and asking If I was running his chassis and I pulled out my Monty Ohren group 20 and said it’s unbeatable but for open it needs to be stiffer. I showed him my semi-pro chassis with double 063 and the plumber hinge all the back by the motor. He said nice work, and asked why I moved it so far back and I said works better inheavy glue. We chatted a little more. He was a very nice man. He was also very big so maybe that’s why he didn’t like the Big ‘O’ name. So I left California a few months later and never ran into him again.

[MSwiss]

Gary,

I sort of had the same theory as you, except as thread shows, Big "O" is on both the header card, and engraved by him, on the chassis.

 

If it bothered him back then, you would think he wouldn't of adopted it.

 

I bet there is more to it.

 

If anyone, on Slotblog, has insight on Monty, it would be Phil Hackett.

[Jesse Gonzales]

Lets see what Phil recalls of the early Monty Ohren, my recollection was he was stamping "Big O" on his drop arms when he was just a stocky teenager. Monty used the Big O moniker even after he joined up with Jeff Gilbert to form J&M Racing Products, Jeff did armatures and Monty did chassis. In say 1970 Monty was stocky but nothing like he became in later years. The want to put "Big O" behind him may have had a lot to do with others made more off his work than he did.

 

Jesse Gonzales

Old AZ Racer

[Jaeger Team]

 

As far as my chassis goes, in my personal reality,  the motor bracket acts as a gusset to counteract any vertical weakness caused by the motor screw notches. Actually, as it was pointed out to me, the chassis would likely break apart at the small junction between the half rails and the drop arm before any weakness from the notches caused a failure.

 

 

This makes sense from a structural point of view. Thanks for sharing such a beautiful work as always.

[Phil Hackett]

Between Mike Brannian, Mike Boemker and myself we could fill books about Monty. There are many funny, infuriating, happy, disgusting, joyful, disturbing and outrageous stories that involve "The Big O" (Monty's Ohren's Jekyll to Monty Ohren's Hyde), his raceways, his automobiles, his apartment and the chassis/cars he built.

 

Monty worked for Sonic for a short period of time and between 1981, when he sold Crash & Burn, to the mid-90s he never changed. After he sold Crash & Burn he worked for Lockheed on the F-117 program and seemed to do well there until The Big O came out of hiding and S-A-B-O-T-A-G-E-D (inside joke) a good job. I won't go into the specifics (too long but people who knew Monty would verify the story just by what happened. A Prototypical Monty/Big O situation.) but let's say there's a natural order to things within blue collar jobs and when you don't adhere to the order the Force will bounce you. He was a fine craftsman... let's leave it at that...

 

So, I could see Monty not wanting to use Big O name after all that. He was definitly rebuilding into the slot car world and I think he wanted a fresh start.

 

I do vaguely recall Jeff Gilbert and Monty working building stuff together but it didn't last long and Jeff Gilbert teamed up with Neal McCurdy at RevTech. At some point Jeff stopped slot car activities when he was hired by Rocketdyne. Jeff Gilbert R.I.P.

 

The M&M business was Monty and Mark Soukup. It didn't last very long.

 

Monty was an extremely personable guy. He *could have* sold refrigerators to Eskimos! He missed his true calling of being a salesman. He would have been a star.

[Bill from NH]

Back when Monty had his own forum on OWH, we would often share PMs on various topics. I still have a couple of those PMs saved to my laptop. Before that, Monty used to answer technical questions on Slotside as The Racer's Edge.

[MSwiss]

Between Mike Brannian, Mike Boemker and myself we could fill books about Monty. There are many funny, infuriating, happy, disgusting, joyful, disturbing and outrageous stories that involve "The Big O" (Monty's Ohren's Jekyll to Monty Ohren's Hyde), his raceways, his automobiles, his apartment and the chassis/cars he built.
 
Monty worked for Sonic for a short period of time and between 1981, when he sold Crash & Burn, to the mid-90s he never changed. After he sold Crash & Burn he worked for Lockheed on the F-117 program and seemed to do well there until The Big O came out of hiding and S-A-B-O-T-A-G-E-D (inside joke) a good job. I won't go into the specifics (too long but people who knew Monty would verify the story just by what happened. A Prototypical Monty/Big O situation.) but let's say there's a natural order to things within blue collar jobs and when you don't adhere to the order the Force will bounce you. He was a fine craftsman... let's leave it at that...
 
So, I could see Monty not wanting to use Big O name after all that. He was definitly rebuilding into the slot car world and I think he wanted a fresh start.
 
I do vaguely recall Jeff Gilbert and Monty working building stuff together but it didn't last long and Jeff Gilbert teamed up with Neal McCurdy at RevTech. At some point Jeff ended stopped slot car activities when he was hired by Rocketdyne. Jeff Gilbert R.I.P.
 
The M&M business was Monty and Mark Soukup. It didn't last very long.
 
Monty was an extremely personable guy. He *could have* sold refrigerators to Eskimos! He missed his true calling of being a salesman. He would have been a star.

And there you have it.

Thanks for chiming in, Phil. Great post.

My favorite, quick Monty story, was when the 3 of us were staying on the same floor, at the Zeppelin Nat's.

Early in the week, after the Gp7 Warm-up, I was just getting off the elevator, to go to my room, as Monty was down the hall, unlocking his door.

You walked out of your room;

Phil:Hey Monty, how did the warm-up go?

Monty: I beat Swiss in my Semi.(he had, when I had traffic problems, one heat)

Phil: So who won? (I had)

Monty's door shuts, without an answer. Lol

[Phil Hackett]

And there you have it.

Thanks for chiming in, Phil. Great post.

My favorite, quick Monty story, was when the 3 of us were staying on the same floor, at the Zeppelin Nat's.

Early in the week, after the Gp7 Warm-up, I was just getting off the elevator, to go to my room, as Monty was down the hall, unlocking his door.

You walked out of your room;

Phil:Hey Monty, how did the warm-up go?

Monty: I beat Swiss in my Semi.(he had, when I had traffic problems, one heat)

Phil: So who won? (I had)

Monty's door shuts, without an answer. Lol

 

...and when I asked that question I already knew the answer. Monty needed "grounding" now and then.

 

Mike, thanks for reminding me of that incident.

[dc-65x]

These personal experiences are really great. Thank you all. If you recall anything else please share them with us.

 

In the mean time I've made some more progress. Here the pans are jigged up to install the front body mounts:

 

 

With those pin tube installed it's back in the jig to solder up the plumber rails (.055"):

 

 

The pans with plumber rails ready to install on the chassis:

 

 

 

[Pablo]

it just never gets old      

[dc-65x]

The final step is adding the front and rear cross pieces to tie the plumber/pans together.

 

Monty's chassis had a bit of "slopski" from the movement of the .055" plumber rails fit in the .062" hinge tubes. There is also side to side movement. I used 4 small pieces of 600 grit wet or dry sandpaper for plumber rails spacers.

 

I left the rear cross piece and rear pin tube body mount long to help hold things together while soldering to the pans:

 

 

Here are the front and rear attachments all cleaned up:

 

 

 

The finished chassis all buffed up with a hand polish job:

 

 

 

 

 

The motor is next.........

[Bill from NH]

ABC(Another beautiful chassis) Rick! Monty would be proud. Do you plan on painting its body, or sending it out? Now I'll watch the rest of your build. Just for reference, here in the East most used .047 plumber rails with soldered pans & .055 rails with hinged pans. I'm not sure if this added movement is any better than what the West used.

[dc-65x]

Thanks Bill. I'm amazed not only at Monty's workmanship on the chassis I worked hard to just copy, but knowing he "banged them out" in quantity is quite humbling.

 

I'm going to build my version of the Associated Porsche SS shown in the article:

 

 

The body is already painted. It was done years ago by a very talented racer and friend of my buddy Adam out of the Buena Park California raceway. A closer look at the original:

 

 

I have an original unpainted SS Porsche body with all the goodies. I'll go take some pictures.................

[SpeedyNH]

awesome.

as usual

[Martin]

Did anybody else see that photo for sale on e-bay?

It struck me as strange because it shows three 1/24 aero cars on a 6 lane 1/32 club track.

 

At some point Rick, I would love to see your polishing tools and techniques. I think you have that down.

[Phil Hackett]

That $16.95 chassis would cost $100 in today's money.