25 replies to this topic

[Dave Crevie]

The dragster frame was in a box of stuff I got from Mike Swiss. I have no idea what the history is. And

I had no intention of doing anything with it. But this morning I was looking it over, and thought "someone

built this. It deserves to be back on the strip". It had a goshawuful big Mabichi 55 motor in it, mounted in

the drivers area. The bends are very nicely done, as if it were a ready built frame sold through tracks. 

There have been a lot of hap-hazard modifications done in a very sloppy manner. But I think I can return

it to presentable condition. 

 

 

 

[hiline2]

Interesting ! her are 2 frames Ive had for while, cant eve nrecall when I got them, they would been Ebay finds I know that much. Someone had taken time to craft them !

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[Dave Crevie]

Interesting. And nice work. I really like the fueler frame. 

[Dave Crevie]

OK. The odds and ends that had been added to this chassis have been removed. Some joints were

cleaned up as I was de-soldering those pieces. The loops of the drivers area do not line up, so the

next step will be to correct that, and clean up the other solder joints. I have discovered that the chassis

is constructed of 3/32nds brass rod, so it is a bit on the heavy side. I plan to get back to this this afternoon.

 

 

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[Bill from NH]

That cleaned up nicely Dave! Will it have a can motor?

[Dave Crevie]

I have straightened out the driver's cage area. There was also a twist built into the frame, so I straightened

that out.

 

 

Then I cleaned up some of the globby solder joints. I agonized about re-fitting the joints where the top loop

of the driver's cage fits to the top rail of the chassis by beveling the ends of the loop, but decided to leave it

as built. There were two "buckets" soldered to the upper frame rail for the rear axle bearings. These were

probably originally for 3/8ths inch O.D. bearings, but a washer had been soldered to the open face side of

each to hold 3/16ths O.D, bearings. I removed all that and will make new mounts from sheet brass. The

two thumb nuts soldered to the sides of the top rail were also removed. Can't say what those were for, but

I would guess they held a motor in at one time. 

 

 

And all shined up, ready for further work.

 

 

 

I was fortunate to acquire a KTM padlock motor from Mike Swiss. I believe that would be the period appropriate 

motor to use. Not trying to build a sub one second car here. Just bring it back to what it might have been back

in the day.   

[Dave Crevie]

Didn't have a lot of time to work on this yesterday, and none today. Got the rear axle bearing plates made

and soldered in. Plus got the motor mount fabbed and soldered in. I have shown the frame with the motor

in situ to show how it sits in the frame.

 

[hiline2]

WOW ! thats  a great possible setup !!

[Dave Crevie]

Thanks Paul. Trying to keep it period correct.

 

It's starting to look more like a dragster.

 

 

 

I even added steering linkage for effect.

 

 

Next I have to re-install the drop arm, which had been broken off when I got this frame. A formed

aluminum body and driver will finish it off.

 

 

 

 

[munter]

That steering linkage is very cool...love it.

[Dave Crevie]

Had to do it. That front axle just looked too plain without it.

[Bill from NH]

Dave, you're turning a sow's ear into a golden purse. Nice job!

[Phil Smith]

That steering linkage is very cool...love it.

 

I agree. Very, very cool!

[Dave Crevie]

Thanks. I just thought it deserved to live on.

[MSwiss]

The dragster frame was in a box of stuff I got from Mike Swiss. I have no idea what the history is.

Great job, so far Dave.

 

I agree on how the steering linkage is a neat touch.

 

As far as history, IIRC, it came in a box of stuff which included the super-cool Strombecker Brauner Hawk blueprints.

 

http://slotblog.net/...ker-blueprints/

 

So it most likely was originally made by long time, local slot car enthusiast, Bob Stover.

 

Or at the very least, he acquired it.

[Dave Crevie]

Thanks Mike for that info. Maybe he will see this and be amazed that it lives on. One of the neat

things about doing a project like this are the little discoveries you make like the I.D. stamped into

the drop arm showing what the material is. It says " S OXWELD 25 M BRONZE PATENTED".

The frame is made from brazing rod. 

[Dave Crevie]

I think I am going to call this one done, at least for now. Still no driver in it. I knew the driver's cage was

oversize, but didn't realize how much until I set a scale driver in. I have some 1/22nd scale engineers

for G-scale trains, and I guess I am going to have to do a little sculpting to make one into a dragster

driver.

 

I had made a sheet brass drop arm to fit under the dropped front axle, but once I had that installed I

decided the original bronze rod one would look better. Especially since it has the material stamped

on it. But it wouldn't fit under the dropped axle. So I either had to change the axle, or modify it to clear

the drop arm. Since I liked the look of the dropped axle, I just modified it with a loop of 1/16th by 1/8th

strip brass, which fits over the drop arm.

 

 

 

The body is of formed .016 K&S aluminum sheet, held on by 00-90 screws into tabs on the brass rod

frame members. I left it as a polished finish like many of the early rails were.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dave Buchholz]

Glue a Supercharger to the top of the motor, and some fuelie exhausts. 

[Dave Crevie]

Ran it last night on Swiss' flat track. Ran pretty good on the reduced hardbody power, except that I put it into the wall once and

the front axle got bent a bit. I'll have to straighten it and add a couple of wishbones for strength. Plus they will add to the scale

appearance of the car. No plans to dummy up the motor with model car parts. Not many people did that back in the day. 

 

Mark Mattei's eagle eye noticed a very faint arrow scribed into the brass endplate of the motor which we think might have

indicated the motor rotation. Of course it is backwards from how I geared it, so I will flop the crown over to correct that. I didn't

actually check the motor on a power supply. The timing is neutral so I assumed it would run the same either way. 

 

Otherwise, it was a fun resto and cool to see it run again. 

[MSwiss]

The Hardbody power is 13.1V.

I thought the car had plenty of zip.

[MSwiss]

One thing I'll add, is Dave almost broke 10 seconds around the flat track.(10.08)

For reference, in our vintage race, a real top time was a high 8.8, and many heats, racers were not breaking 9 seconds.

[Lone Wolf]

Dave, that really came out fantastic. Nice work

 

Here is a similar one I saved a while back. It was just two halves that someone cut to get the motor out. You can see where I joined it with some tubing. It was a real mess. Everything else from the parts pile. I built a Ram-Boochi for it. Not super fast. 1.3 seconds in the "quarter"

 

 

 

[don.siegel]

Nice dragsters guys! 

 

Beautiful restoration/rebuilding job Dave, really like what you did with it. 

 

Don 

[Bill from NH]

Nice looking car Joe. Who would build a drag car they couldn't remove the motor from?   It cleaned up nicely.

[Mr. HP]

Nice work, very cool Dave!