30 replies to this topic

[dc-65x]

I really like this Phil Rubin "wild, wild pan thing" inline pro car chassis:

 

 

 

I built this 1/24 scale "inspired by" version:

 

 

 

Here's a link the Model Car Journal race report with Phil's car and my build:

 

Phil Rubin's 1968 'wild, wild pan thing'

 

I like his design so much I decided to see if I can shrink it down to a 1/32 scale style Pro car.   

 

As long as I'm shrinking things I thought I'd shorten the motor up a bit too. Of course it's not necessary in an inline but what the heck. It sounded like a fun thing to do so I cut about 1/8" off of a 1968 Mabuchi can:

 

 

After much cutting, banging and grinding the stock ball bearing came out:

 

 

I used a grinder to remove as much of the bearing housing as possible without it falling off and used JB Weld to hold an endbell bearing in place:

 

 

 

My idea is to use the space in the can's empty bearing housing to move the armature back further into the can. 

[Pablo]

This is gonna be crazy bitchin'       

[dc-65x]

Here's the shortened can compared to a stock one:

 

 

This can is even a tad bit shorter than the Mura Short Magnum can on the right:

 

[dc-65x]

Here's the armature I'll be using:

 

 

It's an early NOS arm with thick laminations, fiber endplates and soldered comm wires. The "S" in the 26S designation might stand for single wind but my other single wound Thorp arms don't have the S. It could mean "short stack" as the lamination stack is a bit shorter than my other arms:

 

 

Mura was making short stack silver wire arms for the '68 Mabuchi during this time frame. The overall length of this Thorp is 1.130" so it's a touch shorter than the average of 1.160" for most of my vintage arms:

 

 

Time to cut down some ARCO magnets and shim............

[Tex]

a 26S in a 1/32 car will be monstrously overpowered for all but the best drivers...... which is to say, "it's a race car, SANO!".......

[dc-65x]

Hi Tex, I was inspired for this build by the NAMRA guys. Specifically Roy Wong's "West Coast" style 1/32 cars and those guys were for sure racers. But I want to do something a bit different......so I'm shrinking Rubin's bat pan.  

[Pablo]

26S wind in a 1/32? It stands for "sick" - in a positive way     

Or maybe "shunts" 

 

Neighbors will be dialing 911 when you test it 

[eshorer]

Following with interest. Curious what gear ratio and tires you'll be using. 

Eddie

[old & gray]

I'm curious what type of track the race was on.
The word king is not mentioned in the article.

[dc-65x]

I should have mentioned my interest for this build came from the "east coast chassis with West Coast influence" of Sandy Gross as well as the Roy Wong car. Roy's car is in the July 1968 issue of Model Car and Science and Sandy's car is in the May 1968 issue of Model Car & Track.

 

What article are you looking at Bob? 

 

Eddie I'll be using some vintage blue foam tires for display and modern foam tires for the track. For gears I'm starting out with a 7T pinion and as big a crown gear as possible, probably a 28T. 

[don.siegel]

Rick, 

 

The May 68 issue is also Model Car & Science (incorporating MCT) - that is an interesting photo, to see Sandy's West Coast chassis with the three other finalists, all pretty conventional midwest pan chassis types... 

 

Another great project... 

 

Don 

[old & gray]

 

What article are you looking at Bob? 

 

 

 

My apologies.

 

I was skimming the Model Car Journal article and failed to notice the mention of the All-Tech 220 in paragraph five.

This also could explain the success of Mike Magnano since Model Car Raceways in Berlin, CT also had an All-Tech 220.

[dc-65x]

I cut down the length of some Champion ARCO magnets to 9/16" long. I came up with a crazy setup that ended up working as slick as a fancy slide mounted diamond saw.

 

It's just the magnet in a small vise that's sitting in the blue lid of a plastic storage box.

The rotary tool head is locked in another small vise.

A hunk of brass as a spacer between the two for the rotary tool head to slide along as it cuts.

 

This worked so accurately that I could cut half way through from each side of the magnet avoiding chipping out at the end of one long cut.

 

I know that's a lot of babbling but I'm just so amazed at how simple tools and setups can cut magnets down beautifully:

 

 

Here's the result:

 

 

I also shortened the one piece shim (on the left) and added a little notch for a screwdriver blade to aid in removal from the can:

 

 

Onward to the endbell............

 

[SpeedyNH]

that's way cool.

Captain, i take it that you don't own a chinese lathe or a small milling machine (like e.g. a Sherline)? i don't know what i'd do without them. 

but you sure do turn out some first-class vintage cars! without compare. 

Speed

[dc-65x]

Thanks Steve. Yes I have both a small Sherline lathe and a nice old Clausing mill. I have carbide tools for both but I've never tried them on magnets.

[dc-65x]

The endbell I'm using is a meltable "unmeltable" (as Mura called it) first generation dark grey piece. The screw holes are tapped 2-56 and the brush hoods are soldered to the hex brush holders. Mura spring post protectors, brush springs and shunted brushes complete the parts list:

 

 

 

Here's the motor (set up with a junk arm to use as a jig motor) compared to a stock 68 Mabuchi. It's definitely been "shrunk" in size:

 

 

[dc-65x]

I chose this body for my project. Jose Rodriguez Jr. used one a 1968 NAMRA race. It's a Honker Can Am from the Bill Sipple (founder of Auto Hobbies/Select) estate so I'm guessing it's a Select body. The Select Honker is listed in the Auto World catalog:

 

 

It's one wild body. The wheelbase is around 3". I say around because it's almost 1/8" different from one side to the other.       The track width is not the widest at 2.3" but the guide lead is HUGE. Look at this comparison with a Select McLaren Mk6 and Mk8:

 

 

Next up are the rear wheels and tires so I can set up the motor bracket bearing spacing. I chose to use a pair of my "super corrodo mystery" wheels and "crispy critter" 50 year old blue sponge tires:

 

 

I'm amazed at how well they turned out. A little.......well..........a lot of elbow grease can work miracles:

 

 

With that much tire and a 2.3" track width there was little room for the bearings. I had to really cut down these vintage bearing "duffies" to fit between the wide tires (shown in the inside):

 

 

Now I can fire up my Ungar and get started on a chassis.............

[don.siegel]

You always come up with the darnedest bodies Rick. 

 

An excellent choice, but you didn't make it easy for yourself. 

 

I also admire your elbow grease... as long as I don't have to do it! 

 

Don 

[dc-65x]

An excellent choice, but you didn't make it easy for yourself. 

 

Trying to get the different wheelbases on each side of the body evened out without getting the wheel openings overly large was painful. 

[SpeedyNH]

nice lathe work!

[dc-65x]

Thanks Steve. I had to recut so many surfaces I might as well have made them from scratch.   

[dc-65x]

With the "duffies" soldered into the squared up Russkit bracket I bent up the .055" piano wire inner rails, rear axle brace and the 1/16" brass rod outer rails:

 

 

Everything soldered up along with the drop arm hinge tube and up-stop. The wheelbase is 2 15/16":

 

 

I pulled it out of the jig and cleaned things up.........

 

 

............and figure out the pan hinge tubes and pans:

 

[dc-65x]

The pans are made from .032" K&S brass strip. Pan hinge tubes go on next. Here's the setup:

 

 

The setup for the pan up-stops:

 

 

And everything trimmed and cleaned up:

 

 

Time to make a drop arm for that bodies monster guide lead..........

[dc-65x]

I struggled some with the pans. The sides of the Honker body aren't quite long enough to reach the bottom of the pans. So I built up the height of the pans with 1/16" square tube. That meant I had to raise the body mount pin tubes with short lengths of 1/16" tube as well. All this was a finger burning fiasco and I didn't take pictures during the resulting drama.

 

Thankfully it all worked out and looks OK:

 

 

 

Now it's ready for that drop arm........

[dc-65x]

The parts for the drop arm, 3/4" X 1/16" brass strip, a 1/32" thick brass strip spacer and a Dynamic pillow block to hold a Dynamic low profile guide flag: 

 

 

The drop arm hinge tube is only .055" off the bottom of the chassis so the drop arm plate needs a clearance cut and relief cuts on each end of the hinge tube to stop solder flow:

 

 

The jig holds everything in place. The guide lead is 3/4":

 

 

No burned fingers soldering on the down stop:

 

 

All buffed up and ready to install: