20 replies to this topic

[Jairus]

A customer wanted me to replicate this chassis once ran by John Gorski in '69.  Right away I realized the difficulty being not having a Team Nuttley drop arm, .050 brass nore any square steel wire.  .062 Steel wire rod wouid have to suffice in a pinch.  The chassis is this one.

 

 

 

 

And parts collected include vintage wheels and tires, 1/8" axles, bearings, Jet flag and other bits.

 

The motor is a Champion 517 I believe with a rewound arm and very strong white dot magnets.

 

And the body which is a beautiful very thin boxed Dynamic Lola.

 

And the cut brass...

 

Time to set up the jig.

[Bill from NH]

Looks like a nice project Jairus. I don't know when John started chassis building. In the early '70s Gorski was selling Tony P's.

[Martin]

I'm In

 

Are you going to use flat wire like the pic ? Can you still buy that stuff?

[Bill from NH]

REHCO was still selling a drawn flat wire as of a few years ago. Not as consistent as ground flat wire, like Champion once sold.

[Jairus]

The way John describes the build is .62 wire was flattened to .045. 
Pretty sure he didn't use a hammer but a roller, which I do not have.  Besides the steel wire is realllllly hard stuff.

[Bill from NH]

Have any machine shop friends who could grind it flat? You could roll or hammer on piano wire all day long & not change its diameter. Annealing may help, but that's too much work to build one slot car chassis. Stick to your original plan to use round wire.

[Martin]

Sorry Jairus, I should of read your build statement closer. When you clearly said ''.........nore any square steel wire''.

 

I am sure it was laid out side by side and magnetly stuck to a surface grinder and then ground to size. As Bill suggests any one with a surface grinder and the time, could do it.

[Jairus]

Well, Slot Car Saturday was a great success.  I built a center section.
Architecture is same as Gorski except not using the square rod.  Turned out pretty well with .62 outside rails and .55 inside rails.
Wheel base is 3 and 3/4" which is maximum for that Dynamic Lola.
I also received a color photo of a Gorski car so now I know how to paint it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jairus]

Got a tongue constructed and installed in the frame.  Next up is the plumber then pans and stops.

 

 

[Jairus]

Well, yesterday I finished the plumber and pan hinges.  Next step is to install all the limiters and stops.

 

[Martin]

Great progress Jairus. Looking forward to the body paint too.

[Jairus]

Pan stops, plumber stops and some  springs installed now.  Next we start hanging on all the parts and lead wires.
Can paint be very far behind?

 

 

 

 

[Jairus]

Finally got the chassis together and the body mounted.
Also painted up the interior, but did that about a week ago.

 

 

Gear mesh is smooth with ball bearing races.  Didn't have any Marklin wire so just went with some cool colored silicon wire for the time being.

 

 

  Time for more paint....

[Jairus]

Painted finally.  Hopefully I captured the original.

 

 

 

[Larry Horner]

Gorgeous as usual Jairus! I have a question I should have asked before: How did you cut the brass and specifically the opening in the drop arm? I know of various ways it could be done but the pieces you show above have very clean lines. I know if I was to attempt it, I would probably just skip doing it myself and have it laser cut.

[Jairus]

Drill the corners, then cut the straight lines with a dremel disc.  File and sandpaper last.
It takes time, but the results are worth it.

[Jairus]

Well, finally finished this Lola this morning.  One change by the customer was to replace my sig with that of Dave Bloom's. 
And there we have it.....

 

 

Oops, forgot the spoiler.  (sigh)

 

 

 

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

[Dominator]

Another masterpiece!

[Jens Scale Racing]

Wonderful!

[Regis4446]

    Superb

[Don Weaver]

Well, it's been a year since your last build here on SlotBlog.  Always enjoyed looking over your shoulder and sure would like to see more...

 

Don