9 replies to this topic

[mike1972chev]

Well... a BAD ,crappy weather day here in Indiana,so I decided to finish up a couple of production cars I had started here in my hobby chest.The cars assembled are 2 different Cheetahs.nothing fancy or too difficult here,just cars I like very much.

 

I am sure a few of you are asking: "I thought he was moving on to do a few scratch built chassis???" Well,I have two of those that are on going on as wellnow,but still waiting on a few key parts and also having some "idea blockage" on the drag car right now,but I will show those in full on here through the build stages when I get fully into those. OK, onto the current subject matter.

 

The first is a Classic brand Cheetah This I posted earlier last year I had a body that I purchased that had a great deal of warpage and a body crease in it. This car will be assembled from Classic NOS parts.

 

The second is a DuBro body that I will be placing on a Classic brand chassis. This is what I will be calling a "Resto Mod" car.. A blend of vintage parts blended with some modern slot car parts. This body is actually the VERY first Butyrate body I ever bought to build a slot car out of. Had it for years now,along with a growing Classic parts collection I just cannot seem to own enough of. lol

 

 

[mike1972chev]

Ok, I guess I will go about both of the chassis now.

 

The Classic Cheetah is comprised of all NOS ,vintage parts. The only used parts on this car will be the rear tires and wheels,everything else is new stuff. If you look,you can still see those BBs embedded in the front tire treads.Even the 26D motor is built out of NOS stuff. New can and all. Mr. Havlicek assembled both of the 26D s used in both of these cars. I got lucky and found some modern wire in red and green to use for the motor leads . Pretty nice and flexible wire. I have a good supply of it now. This one is just a stock everything checked and assembled.No trick stuff here. One thing I did add was a set of plates to go over the body mounting tabs to help keep the "flimsy" body from showing any wave down in the rocker panel area. This is something I seem to always do on these lighter weight bodies..I also used Stainless steel 2-56 slotted machine screws and tapped everything including the end bell instead of the standard Classic metal screws.

 

The Dubro bodied car got a bit more custom stuff. Along with just a standard Classic drop arm chassis,I added the Pro Track wheels with 3/32 hardened axles ,custom spacers,and shimmed the gear to 3/32.The tires are WAY big and just for looks. If I was to actually run it,These would need down sized. This one got a Havlicek HOTTER 26D with a custom wound arm. (It dynoed out at 950 HP/600 ft lbs of torq @ 120,000RPM .... naturally aspirated  ) I had a bit of a mishap pressing the pionion and busted the end bell :/  Got it replaced and all is well. I added the plates to the body mounting on this one as well.That Classic body mount is just not all that great as far as keeping the body side from distorting.Also helps to lower the outer body mounting screws to the lower rocker area.  Since I didnt have a drop arm hinge pin tube come with this when I bought it, I used a piece of brass rod and drilled it for a retainer clip.Just standard assembly checking and all brass polished up nice. 

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[mike1972chev]

Ok, Since I have already fitted and painted the Classic body awhile back,I will now do the wheel wells on the DuBro body and shoot it..I am NOT really all that proficient with body masking or painting.With coaching from Pros like Mr. Pablo and Mr. Noose,I seem to get by some what.I wanted a fairly cool color,so I mixed some flat and gloss black with some metallic silver.(about a 1/3 each) I came up with what I think is a pretty good looking gun metal metallic color.After drying it each time between about 5 coats. I decided to "tint" all of the windows. This is something I LOVED that Noose originally did to my Cyclone Avenger. and I decided to try it on  the Dubro body. 

 

What do you think?

 

 

Something else I have been doing quite often is adding body armor tape to the places the painted body contacts the body mounts. REALLY good about keeping paint from getting scraped off when mounting/unmounting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mike1972chev]

Well,That is about it for the Cheetahs. I am officially over them now.Probably sell the extra body I have cause I dont need anymore of these! lol  Lord knows they set in the drawer for years now !Takes a rainy day to get these things under construction.  Not all that difficult or or labor intensive by any means,but I enjoy doing these production,bolt together cars for some odd reason???   The Classic body is still a bit distorted and shows it a bit more now that I mounted it. I will get the heat gun out tomorrow and try and gently work it into shape. 

 

I wish I could afford a 1 to 1 scale Cheetah. Cool rides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Martin]

Nice clean assembly's Mike. I like the gun metal sliver too. looks great.

 

Seems to be an elephant in your garage. Well a baby elephant, with wheelie bars. You have some explaining to do.

[Pablo]

Nice job, Mike, and the paint looks great!

[mike1972chev]

Thanks,I have been after finishing thar Dubro body for several years now,but lacked th confidence to paint it until recently.

What do you think about any racing brand decals added to it? Yes or No???

 

And Martin,if you are referring to my Mini bike in the background,that is a straight up vintage 1968-70 Muskin "CAT" with a 5HP Briggs &Stratton and a few personal modifications added..... (used to ride it in the pits at the dragstrip... lol)

[dc-65x]

Nice Mike..........I LOVE Cheetahs!

 

[Pablo]

Love the car, also the bee-hive hairdo, and the torpedos bra 

[olescratch]

Nice work Mike. That paint is awesome, and the windows added an extra kick!