16 replies to this topic

[Big_John]

I have a couple slot cars that were given to me by an old friend of mine years ago. I kinda forgot about them and discovered them in the back of a closet. 

 

One is a Cox Cheetah and I'll be restoring that. A BZ drop arm chassis was also in the mix, but I had pulled that out for some fun drag strip duty 20+ years ago. I think that was a Little Red Wagon, but I haven't quite figured that out yet. 

 

The other is this. He's a couple years older than me, so I assume this one would be mid to late 60's, maybe early 70's, but I think he had discovered girls and real cars by 1970, so I doubt if it's that new. 

 

I have no idea what it is. It has a 26D size motor. Front wheels are on a threaded axle. 

 

 

 

 

Rear axle "carrier" was soldered to chassis. 

 

 

I believe this body was used on the car. It's not really beat up, although the pin holes have been torn through and I'm sure it was pre-painted.

 

 

 

Any ideas what it is?    

 

I haven't decided quite what to do with it...   

[Ramcatlarry]

Clean it up and reinforce the body.

[Big_John]

Clean it up and reinforce the body.

I think that's what I'm going to do. The chassis really doesn't need much, a couple solder joints need to be redone along with a little rust removal. 

 

I'd still like to know more about this. The solder joints aren't the best, but the rest of the chassis looks pretty good. Cuts and bends are crisp and clean so it makes me wonder if it was a kit of some sort. I know  there was a lot of companies building slot  cars back then, and I'd love to know what company  built this one. 

[blue&orange]

The 26D was only popular with some racers '67-'68 -- melted too many endbells and gave way to the C-cans -- but there were probably oodles of them left over that got put into RTR's and early NCC Group 12 cars.  I have the same chassis somewhere in the hoard.  With 1/8 5-40 axles it had to be an early anglewinder, maybe '69-'70, and probably an RTR -- looks like a Dynamic guide, so maybe an early Dynamic RTR???  The body looks like a nice handling Dynamic or Lancer McLaren M8D.  Put small pieces of body armor on the inside and punch new holes for show -- don't know if I would want to wreck a nice body like that.

[dc-65x]

I seem to remember that chassis as being made by Cobra but we need to see one in the package.

[MSwiss]

Definitely a production chassis.

I've seen them before.

Like Rick said, Cobra or maybe more likely, Phase III.

Possibly Ferret.

And possibly marketed later on, by REH, as American Line.

[Big_John]

The 26D was only popular with some racers '67-'68 -- melted too many endbells and gave way to the C-cans -- but there were probably oodles of them left over that got put into RTR's and early NCC Group 12 cars.  I have the same chassis somewhere in the hoard.  With 1/8 5-40 axles it had to be an early anglewinder, maybe '69-'70, and probably an RTR -- looks like a Dynamic guide, so maybe an early Dynamic RTR???  The body looks like a nice handling Dynamic or Lancer McLaren M8D.  Put small pieces of body armor on the inside and punch new holes for show -- don't know if I would want to wreck a nice body like that.

 

That time frame makes sense to me. The side winder type chassis was a little after I got out of it but the 5-40 threaded axles and drop arm makes me think late 60's.  My thinking is that it's a RTR 

[dc-65x]

This should help:

 

What is it and why did I buy it?

[Big_John]

 

This should help:

 

What is it and why did I buy it?

 

Yep, I'd say that's it. 

 

This quote from Philippe de Lespinay in that thread is very telling.  The soldering is pretty poor. Just this side of cold joints. 

 

"It is a part of one of the most miserable chassis perpetrated on the innocent racer in 1970, the Cobra/Phaze III "Group 12" lump. It was made of the cheapest, rust-O-matic and bend-O-matic stamped steel and most of them fell apart inside their own packaging... due to poor soldering of the side pans.
Both Cobra and Phaze III issued G-12 RTR models using this chassis, a Mura G-12 motor and painted butyrate bodies supplied by Associated.
Not a winning combination, but they are now a bit difficult to find as many met their fate in the nearest bin..."

[Ramcatlarry]

It IS a good example of WHY the better chassis of this type were made from BRASS, which is much easier to tin and solder than any grade of steel compound.  Later ones came out that are plated so they would solder better.

 

Do it right.  Take it all apart and lightly sand or Scotchbrite all of the parts and solder it back together.  Give it a sealing clear coat to prevent future rusting.  The 'Retro' family of bodies can provide a variety of similar lexan shells to keep that (likely) butyrate body unbroken.  Should make a good fun car with a set of silicone tires on it for seasonal cruising. Usable and pretty beats vintage rust and patina.

[Big_John]

It IS a good example of WHY the better chassis of this type were made from BRASS, which is much easier to tin and solder than any grade of steel compound.  Later ones came out that are plated so they would solder better.

 

Do it right.  Take it all apart and lightly sand or Scotchbrite all of the parts and solder it back together.  Give it a sealing clear coat to prevent future rusting.  The 'Retro' family of bodies can provide a variety of similar lexan shells to keep that (likely) butyrate body unbroken.  Should make a good fun car with a set of silicone tires on it for seasonal cruising. Usable and pretty beats vintage rust and patina.

You just took me back to my youth...

 

The second scratch built slot car I ever built was made with steel that was actually some left over scraps from the Lipe truck clutch factory my Dad worked at. I was probably 12, maybe 13. I ended up using his giant soldering iron (still have it!) and I have to say, it didn't turn out half bad.  He had taught me how to solder and by the time I was done, I was pretty proficient at it. 

 

Good memories! 

 

I'll probably clean it up and fix it, then take it around the local track a couple times and then let it hit the shelf until I feel the need to run it around a few more times...  

[Ecurie Martini]

It IS a good example of WHY the better chassis of this type were made from BRASS, which is much easier to tin and solder than any grade of steel compound.  Later ones came out that are plated so they would solder better.

 
I would respectfully disagree. Steel is a much poorer conductor of heat than brass so will be less likely to pull too much heat away from a joint than will brass. Next to poor surface preparation, lack of sufficient heat is a leading cause of poor joints. With the proper (acid) flux, steel solders very easily. I use Tix solder and flux as well as StaBrite and routinely get good joints on stainless steel (harder to solder than CR).
 
EM

[Big_John]

The 'Retro' family of bodies can provide a variety of similar lexan shells to keep that (likely) butyrate body unbroken.  

 

I don't think this is a butyrate body. It's about .007" thick and as I understand it, the butyrate was usually thicker (.030"?) 

 

If this was built around 1970, weren't lexan bodies in common use by then?  

[Steve Deiters]

The chassis was offered by Cobra and definitely built by them.  I built many a RTR using that chassis when I worked at REH.  I typcally re-did all or most of the solder joints before I assembled the cars using acid flux and silver solder. If you dropped them and they landed on the floor they would fall apart in their original construction. They showed up that rusty from the manufacturer as shown in the picture.
 
We built them with 36-D motors  which we had a gazillion of them.  We did not build any with 26-D motors perhaps someone else did. It does have 5-40 axles & wheels  so if they are original that would place it like 1968ish.
 
To be honest it was an excellent idea for a RTR chassis, but it was just executed poorly-materials of construction, workmanship, etc. Done in brass or a higher grade steel and improved QC could have been a real winner for the era. A "flexi" before flexi's were invented.
 
The body I believe is a Lancer McLaren 8D and it would have been lexan.

[Jay Guard]

Alan:

 

I have to disagree with your assessment that steel solders more easily than brass. While you are correct that the conductivity of brass is much higher than steel, and therefore the need to be cognizant of that when soldering, the inherent solderability of a material is quite a different matter, as evidenced by the chart below.

 

[Big_John]

So... I dunked it in some oxalic acid to clean it up, pulled it apart, wire brushed it all and soldered it all back together. 

 

A couple of the joints could best be described as "cold" and the rest were mediocre at best. I think there was one joint that I could describe as "good". Nothing, except for the front axle tube, was straight or square. 

 

Got it all back together, cleaned it up... and just to be sure, I grabbed the first thing I found in my garage (PB Blaster) and oiled it up. 

 

Woke up this morning and was floored to find that the previously shiny metal had turned brown.

 

 

So...  A little work with my favorite metal polish (Collinite Metal Wax) and it looks better. 

 

 

Surprisingly, the front wheels are threaded 5-40 with jam nuts and the rears are set screws. I found some O-rings that match the size nicely for the crumbled fronts and I haven't figured out what the replacement rears will be... Since it uses set screws, I can just use some "off the shelf" stuff when the world opens back up and I can buy (support) from my local track again, but I think ultimately replacing the tires on the existing wheels is my goal. 

[Ramcatlarry]

The original rears may have also been threaded, but who cares.  Use tires that are available and enjoy driving it.