30 replies to this topic

[Jairus]

1968 was a tough year for me at 9 years old.  I learned I was getting a new sister.
The U.S.A. was embroiled in a war in Viet Nam, Beatles were changing their sound, protests and weather-underground started making the people feel uneasy.
Slot cars were still moving along... but like a wave on the beach... slowly receding.
We were nearing the mid period of the "scratch-building" era while designers like Pete Von Ahrens and the infamous Tony Przybylowiez continued to demonstrate to us in Car Model mag, the latest chassis designs.

The designs showed up in early 1969, but... were actually built and written about the previous year while snow was still on the ground. Such is the nature of print media.

 

Decided early on that my car would be my own design and not a direct replica.
But, will be taking ques from both chassis designs with a bit of Jairus innovations for style.

 

That that end, started cutting brass...

 

Motor is an NOS Mura rewind with Magnum 88 magnets and silver wire.



Body to be a Lancer Torino Cobra.
Wheels A.J's with fresh rubber on the rears.
Progress soon.

Respectfully submitted,

[Pablo]

   

[Jairus]

Day one was cutting brass.
Day two was soldering up the motor box.




Day three revealed a new center section. 

 

Day four is today and after 8 hours at the bench I am done for the day.



Notice that there are no pan or tongue stops.  Those come last to aid cleaning.

[Martin]

I dig it Jairus.  Bringing that old magazine to life.

[SMRaceCars]

Looking good man.....

[tonyp]

Nice.

[Jairus]

You Tony, are my inspiration. 

[Jairus]

Day 5 and the morning of 6 was about truing up some rear wheels.
One set of the original A.J.'s trued up to 7/8". 
Another set received new super soft grey Rubatex rubber, also trued up to 7/8".

 

 

Today... probably build up an interior.  NOS Cox guide arriving today in the mail.

[dc-65x]

Cool goodies and a nice chassis Jairus. 

[Jairus]

Thank you Rick.

Interior is made up from sheet and square stock styrene.  The sheet was .010, which was too thin, but I didn't want to go out to the Hobby shop, so strengthened it with square stock.
The plus is, it's lighter... right?

 

And the cut down and assembled roll bar.
Also cut out a dash top that fits the curve of the window.  But to be clear, I am working with a Lancer Mercury Cyclone body hoping that it's the same basic shape as the Lancer Torino.
Logic suggest it will, but progress stops here till that body arrives.

 

[Phil Smith]

Nice.

 

Hey Tony, if you hadn't noticed, they misspelled your name in that article.

 

Even after listening to this multiple times I still can't pronounce your name.

 

[Jairus]

And thus why we call him Tony P.

[Jairus]

Title: Fiddly bits.

Yeah, this stage always takes longer than one guesses.
Take for instance, the guide set up.
You have to check the tilt and angle, smooth swing and wires and brushes.... sheesh, it's amazing.

Looking through all the magazines I found nearly everyone used a screw and washers to hold the guide to tongue.  BUT, Dubro was making brass collars starting in 1959!
The collar was the norm in the beginning of the slot car industry and swapping to the screw was due in my opinion to the low nature of nose of the most popular racing car: Can Am sports racers.
Therefore, everyone used what they knew.
But for a stocker, a simple chrome plated brass Dubro collar provides better swing of the guide, great contact and.... added weight right where it's needed.
And the huge nose of a stock car has no such limitations.

 

Body arrived yesterday.  Greenhouse for the Mercury Cyclone and the Ford Torino are virtually the same so only a matter of gluing the rollbar to the base to confirm.
Driver is held in place with tape.... easier to paint separate out of the "cage".

Once I get the chassis assembled and body cut and mounted.... the rest is just gravy! (paint, my fav. part.)

 

Apologize for the crappy pics.... 

[Pablo]

   

[slotbaker]

Apologize for the crappy pics.... 

What crappy pics?? I don't see no crappy pics.

 

[Jairus]

Hokay.... got the body cut and mounted and an interior completed.
Oh... and a chassis assembled with no issues.
Good day.

Tomorrow mask and paint.

[dc-65x]

Your project looked great at the start and just keeps getting better!  Nice  

[Jairus]

Didn't quite get the body masked and painted.
But rather, the customer wanted some extra wheels glued and trued.  So got that nearly done... and also started painting the interior and added two rear fender supports.

 

 

Not exactly sure what this is for... because there are no options for aero devices.  But builders were doing it in '68 so...

[Martin]

Your fender supports would sure help stop the body getting sucked into the rear tires if hit.

 

Your body looks strong in that area,  when the wheel arches get cut to clear the tires it loses a lot of strength. 

[Bill from NH]

Some of the old stock cars had both front & rear fender supports. In the photos I've seen, they look to have been brass rod, but piano wire is stronger & lighter.

[SMRaceCars]

Your fender supports would sure help stop the body getting sucked into the rear tires if hit.
 
Your body looks strong in that area,  when the wheel arches get cut to clear the tires it loses a lot of strength. 

[SMRaceCars]

That was the theory behind it is to keep the body stable so it wouldnt move all around and hit the tires under high speeds.....

[Half Fast]

 

Hey Tony, if you hadn't noticed, they misspelled your name in that article.

 

Even after listening to this multiple times I still can't pronounce your name.

 

Sounds to me like Si-bee-wo-vich of course YMMV

 

Cheers

[tonyp]

The front and rear tire loops were indeed to keep the thin bodies off the tires. Back then the bodies were more scale and when slammed the tires were tucked up in the wheel wells. When the “ handling” bodies came out the wheel wells were made to fit the tires so the loops were no longer needed. That was also the end of big pro stock events on the east coast.

Love the build.


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[Jairus]

Sorry for the long gap on the paint.  But damn this thing is complicated!
Lots of colors, masking, decals, lettering and other stuff takes time.

First off, I masked off the numbers with die-cut vinyl and hand cut the windows.  Then masked the rest by hand....

 

 

After that... it gets complicated.  Not to mention gold leaf applied to the numbers.

Final pics:

 

 

And body mounted.

 

Thought about hand painting the front fender decals... but that would take till mid summer to finish.

 

 

Rear bumper and the whole front nose are painted with "Alclad" for lexan for that cool chrome look.
The front and rear window frames are painted with a "Molotow" liquid chrome pen.  Sweet new device every painted needs in their quiver of tools!

 

 

 

And... that's it!