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The great Bob Emott's 1968 California Arco race car


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#26 Martin

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Posted 07 March 2020 - 11:18 PM

:heart: :heart: :clapping:


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#27 dc-65x

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 04:48 PM

Thanks Martin   :)

 

Lots of cutting, bending and fitting but the motor bracket is installed and braced front and back:

 

Emott Arco (26).JPG

 

The can side of the motor box is braced and the 1/4" brass strip reinforcement is fitted between the bracing:

 

Emott Arco (27).JPG

 

 


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#28 Martin

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 10:21 PM

Really nice clean work Rick. as expected. :shok:

When you are in this recreation mind set, you are so close to channeling Bobs brain.   Do you think about how Bob made his design choices?

 

Were these chassis a work of build as you go, something that came to him as he was building.  An evolution of the last chassis and an idea he just had to try,

etc.???

 

Just watching your build just makes me think of these questions.  :wacko2: Just thinking out loud. Don't let me distract you. :)  


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#29 tonyp

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Posted 10 March 2020 - 06:48 AM

Bob was the best and most innovative builder of the era and the one who truly understood the chassis dynamics. Most cars were an evolution of the previous model. They well thought out and not simply built on a whim. Bob new exactly what the chassis would look like before he started. Smartest guy I ever knew.
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#30 Howie Ursaner

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Posted 10 March 2020 - 10:31 AM

I started racing in 1964 at Polks Hobbies in NYC. I started with a Kemtron , then it was all Pittman motors until 1966 when the rewound Mabuchi can took over. .During the Pittman era i ran Bob's cars and won everything. We both worked at Polks Hobbies, i was part time. We became as close as brothers and when he went to Vietnam I went to his house and packed up all of his slot car stuff and shipped it to him there, where he set up a track. He was in the supply depot.  While he was gone i built all my cars and motors.and won a lot of races . When he came back , anglewinders were happening and he dove right in . It was a new ballgame and his cars were always the best. We always had the fastest cars and we ran a lot of Bob Kean motors. Everyone was having a lot of motor problems in all the races but if  my motor lasted ,it would win. No one had cars like the ones Bob built. I miss him and i sure miss those days with him. 

Another Fantastic job Rick , recreating with jewel like precision.


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#31 Martin

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Posted 10 March 2020 - 12:04 PM

So glad that Ricks build is keeping memories of Bob and his talent alive. :heart:

 

Thanks Howie and Tony so much for adding an insight into the man himself.


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#32 dc-65x

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Posted 10 March 2020 - 12:59 PM

You know Martin, what I'm thinking about when I'm working on a Bob Emott design is, "Man, how did he do this..........how can I do this?!?"  :shok:  .

 

Bob's designs and workmanship were amazing Tony.  :sun_bespectacled:   

 

Thanks Howie. :)

 

I try to better show off that design by polishing things up to try and reveal the shape of all the pieces of the chassis and how they fit together. I know this isn't "realistic and vintage looking". It at least doubles the effort to make a chassis. But I enjoy the process and I somehow feel I owe it to the Pros of the period to show off their designs. 

 

This approach isn't meant to take anything away from those making more "as raced" versions.  It's just..........A  personal problem!   :crazy:  :D 


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#33 Bill from NH

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Posted 10 March 2020 - 01:28 PM

Your approach works just fine Rick. I don't see anybody else building like-quality work, then burying it in some sort of chassis compost pile to age & built up patina. :)


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#34 dc-65x

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Posted 10 March 2020 - 01:41 PM

Hi Bill,

 

It's not the age and patina I was thinking about. It's more the "as soldered" joints of a race chassis. With Bob he often had what TonyP called "square solder joints" (I think). You could see where Bob moved the tip of the iron where he was soldering leaving a thin film of solder the width of the irons tip. Making a chassis like that would be another way to honor Bob's work. But I'm having enough trouble building the way I do as it is!   :D

'


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#35 Bill from NH

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Posted 10 March 2020 - 02:21 PM

Some day, I expect someone will be cloning your chassis, the way Bob's, Tony's, & others are today. I don't expect I'll be around to see it, but some of the younger guys here will be. :)


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#36 Howie Ursaner

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Posted 10 March 2020 - 11:53 PM

Just thought i would mention that the last race i ran in my professional slot car career with Team Cobra was with a car very similar to this one. It was the Cobra Invitational at Buzz a Rama  in Brooklyn. My car , which was this one essentially was such a missile. Everyone was there from the West coast , south, everywhere. Bob ran in the B main and had the brush springs go soft and kill the motor. I had an identical Kean Can in my car . At the start of the A  I took off and the car ran like nothing else. It was a little like a  wing car and i just shot away. It would have been an easy really big win if not for my brush springs failing also. This is the last official race i ran in and i have great memories of it and that amazing car Bob had for me on that day !!


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#37 tonyp

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Posted 11 March 2020 - 06:44 AM

That was my first race as a pro and I managed to make the main. You had that thing won easily if the motor did not fail.

.7E81B9D8-8475-4985-BE82-B591B6D41AD2.jpeg

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#38 Alan Draht

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Posted 11 March 2020 - 03:29 PM

Buzz-a-Rama is still there.



#39 Martin

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Posted 12 March 2020 - 12:43 AM

Guys, is this the same chassis as you show in post #37 ?

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#40 tonyp

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Posted 12 March 2020 - 05:18 AM

Yes


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#41 tonyp

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Posted 12 March 2020 - 05:20 AM

Now back to our regularly scheduled scheduled program.


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#42 dc-65x

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Posted 13 March 2020 - 05:05 PM

The 1" X 1/16" drop arm and its accoutrements.

 

Emott Arco (30).JPG

 

I machined up a little bushing for the guide post. On Bob's chassis it looks like he soldered a washer to the bottom of the guide tongue. I thought this would give me the opportunity to make a little doodad that will eliminate any guide wobbling from the non-flat and non-parallel sheet metal tongue. Down the road I'll machine it down and with the guide installed it will look like a simple washer

 

The machined in reliefs to stop the solder from flowing to far on the hinge tube:

 

Emott Arco (29).JPG

 

While the arm was in the mill I cut a little V-groove for the down stop. It eliminates having to line the thing up. Just drop it in the groove and solder away:

 

Emott Arco (28).JPG

 

All finished (except for that guide flag bushing):

 

Emott Arco (40).JPG

 

 


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#43 dc-65x

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Posted 15 March 2020 - 12:11 PM

The drop arm hinge tube and plumber up-stop installed:

 

Emott Arco (39).JPG

 

I also had to add a little clearance cut in the brass strip cross brace for the motor end bell screw. The motor box is really tight around the big Mura A-can:

 

Emott Arco (35).JPG

 

With the drop arm installed the center section is done:

 

Emott Arco (37).JPG

 

It's not an exact clone of Bob's center section (which was never my intention)...............
 

post-11-0-38430100-1362192243 - Copy.jpg

 

................but anything I changed was really just to make it more possible for me to build:

 

Emott Arco (31).JPG

 

The plumber rails are next.....


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#44 Jairus

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Posted 16 March 2020 - 12:30 AM

Glad you didn't attempt to solder as badly as Bob did on that one.
Nice work so far Rick! :good:


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#45 slotcarone

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Posted 16 March 2020 - 06:00 AM

Glad you didn't attempt to solder as badly as Bob did on that one.
Nice work so far Rick! :good:

Bob's solder joints look fine to me! It's obvious from the pin tube body mounts that he soldered each joint from both sides and you see the tip trace on the pans but there is no excess solder and for sure they are all hot. We know they stayed together! :)


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#46 dc-65x

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Posted 16 March 2020 - 06:50 PM

I made up the plumber rails with a bend at each end to match the motor box:

 

Emott Arco (41).JPG

 

The pans are cut down .025" Parma Wide Finger Bat Pans. It took lots of cutting to get them the right size and shaped to fit the plumber rails but I think they will work out great:

 

Emott Arco (42).JPG


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#47 dc-65x

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 06:20 PM

Soldering the extra long ends of the pan hing and pin tube mount together allowed them to be attached to the pan at the same time.

 

A before and after cleanup of the plumber rail-pan sub assembly:

 

Emott Arco (43).JPG

 

 


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#48 dc-65x

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Posted 21 March 2020 - 05:49 PM

Since Bob Emott had 4 different cars in the main I decided to finish the chassis using cues from the Chris Vitucci chassis:

 

MRJ V1N4 p7 - Copy (2).jpg

 

As I finished my chassis I found things that I unintentionally did a bit differently than Bob did. I didn't fully realize the way he had built certain features. Then I thought, "man I wish I'd have done it that way." It's just a few little things but it further reinforced in me what a great builder he was. Hindsight is indeed 20/20! 

 

Anyway, Here's the finished chassis. I had lots of trouble taking photos of high polished brass:

 

Emott Arco (52).JPG

 

Emott Arco (50).JPG

 

Emott Arco (51).JPG

 

Emott Arco (47).JPG

 

Now it's time to build the rest of the car. I know what I'm doing with the motor but I still have the body, wheels and tires to finalize..............


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#49 slotbaker

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Posted 21 March 2020 - 06:28 PM

Awesome...

:clapping: :heart:


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#50 TSR

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Posted 21 March 2020 - 06:37 PM

I did not see that post until now, but if this can be of any help to Rick, the actual car was restored and incredibly enough, even its old original body was found, a mere 10 years after the Emott chassis collection, thanks to Tony P's help, was donated to the LASCM museum.

I restored several of these cars with the help of period pictures, so here is Bob's 2nd place car, that was revived using only the correct parts: motor, gears, wheels, guide, lead wire and of course that fabulous Dave Bloom painted body:

742 copyright.jpg

You will note that I have not added the lead weight yet, because I need to find a piece large enough and of the proper thickness.

I hope that this will help.

:)


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