180 replies to this topic

[Martin]

Hope every one had a good Thanksgiving. 

 

With the time off I set to make some more drop arms for the Bat chassis. I much prefer to do this kind of a job in small batches as once you get in a rhythm, the process become much easier.

 

 

I also painted and glued the Cox drivers legs on. I will take some better pics in daylight, with him sitting in the new 3D printed interiors. 

 

 

The first prototype car I built whent to a new home, so with all these new parts I thought it was time to put together another. 

 

[Martin]

One of the problems with early side-winders (pre angle-winders) is the width of the motor and narrowness of the 3'' body. The Russkit Carrera  side winder chassis used a clever spur gear and wheel combination. So we needed to do something similar so the the wheel and the gear width can be minimized.

 

When it came to the Bat chassis Larry and I put our heads together and came up with two possible ways to keep the rear wheel track under the body. The goal was to have a standard 1/8" blank axle with a set screw wheel. This meant the gear had to occupy the same space as the set screw part of the hub.

 

Larry had sent me an H&R wheel that he had bolted a spur gear to. The H&R hub has 5 oval holes that are use to drive the wheel. The tiny bolts and washers clamped the gear and wheel together, they were fiddly at best but is was a proof of concept that we could build on.

 

The next move was to print a spur gear that had the 5 prongs but this time they protruded through the wheel and had female threads, so that a single hub cap with male treads can securely hold the gear tightly in place.

 

With the 3D printing process many more ideas can be made into a reality. So the next idea was to print a wheel and gear that threaded together. The wheel has a female threat and the gear having a matching male thread. The center hub is made of 2024 high strength aluminum and is pressed into the 3D printed wheel which is made to fit H&R tires. Torq thrust American mags and a version I call Hallibrand wheels where made with fronts to match.

 

Both designs have their place. The gear that fits the H&R wheels has a hub cap that can have many different designs, seen here are what we made for the MDC Bat car. They fit the H&R 12 X 27mm hubs and tires. 

 

The 3D printed wheel has many pluses, one negative is I have to make the center hubs manually. Once I am in the rythm its not such a big deal. It needs to be noted the printed PA12 material is super accurate and with the aluminum hub pressed in and is secured to the axle with 2 set screws. Once the wheel is in on the axle the gear is then threaded into the back side of the wheel. It is best if the pinion drives on the left so the gear is always being tightened. It is possible to run on the opposite side we just have not proved that yet. 

 

 

Seen here in the pic above. 

On the right the H&R threaded 5 prong design and to the left the matching wheel and gear which threads together. 

Both designs use the same H&R tire. 

 

 

[Martin]

While building a couple of Bat cars I found that the distance between the guide up-stop and the guide post is pretty small.

So I wanted a clean way to mount the 1/8" guide to the drop arm.

I do have a JK guide post threading tool, but its for the 3/16" 10-32 post.

Plan A was to make something similar only for 1/8" posts.

I had a 5-40 die so onto plan B, I set it up in my small baby mill ( drill press would work also) and used the chuck to keep the die square to the post while holding the guide in a drill vice.

I then finished it off with one of those nice Cox aluminum flanged axle nuts.

Once the post was threaded I put an small amount of CA glue on the treads then wiped it off and let it dry. This has the effect of making it a semi locked system, it will not back off with out a wrench, and you can adjust until the guide moves freely but with no slop.

 

 

[Mark Onofri]

DC65-× is grinning ear to ear seeing this

[Martin]

Just had to try it. How low can you go?

This is about as low as you can go with chassis untouched, other that cutting off the body mounting nubs and the drop-arm pivots.

Now the guide will go directly into the up-stop. No drop arm. Front wheel are 1/2" now but I could make a bend in the stub axles so they would have camber and be larger diameter. There is plenty of room in the wheel arch to do that.

Rear track is 3 and 1/8" wide.

You can now see the motor can almost touching the vent slots. Might be fun to cut that gill and add a clear air scoop? not sure?

Not finished, but just roughed in for now. I think I just thingyfied a thingy. What do you guys think?

 

 

[Jaeger Team]

Just had to try it. How low can you go?
This is about as low as you can go with chassis untouched, other that cutting off the
body mounting nubs and the drop-arm pivots.
Now the guide will go directly into the up-
stop. No drop arm. Front wheel are 1/2" now but I could make a bend in the stub axles so
they would have camber and be larger diameter. There is plenty of room in the wheel arch to do that.
Rear track is 3 and 1/8" wide.
You can now see the motor can almost touching the vent slots. Might be fun to cut that gill and add a clear air scoop? not sure?
Not finished, but just roughed in for now. I think I just thingyfied a thingy. What do you guys think?
 
102close.JPG
 
102_9959.JPG

👍

[don.siegel]

Martin, 

 

Must admit I'm not too fond of the super-low Bat... For me, it destroys the original lines. 

 

It is indeed a thingified Thingie. 

 

Don 

[Martin]

Thanks Guys, your opinions are well received.

 

I may give it another go, when I laid it out first time I was planning to cut it at an angle. The nose was still as low but the rear still left the rear wheels under the body.

It did not seem radical enough for the times. When you compare it to what kids were doing with Cuc's.

 

Warning..... these next images maybe disturbing to some? But here goes. 

[Jaeger Team]

Martin, I wonder if so many memories could disturb!
🙂

[Martin]

One of the MDC Bat features I thought could be improved was the extreme kicked up wing at the rear of the car.

 

I wanted to see if making the main curve on the hood, roof to rear deck one continuous curve would give a more pleasing look?

 

I wanted to play up the Bat theme too by adding Bat wing features to that effect, I added rear fins and the front valance. 

 

I also added Bat hubcaps to top it off.

 

These pics are with the new wing just mocked up to see where to go from here. 

 

 

 

 

[Larry Horner]

Ok, I LOVE the back end of the car carrying on the same lines as the hood and roof ... very sleek looking! I also like the wing but you know how I tend for more subtle styling queues so I'd prefer less bat wing sculpting but that's just me and others might love it. Also I never really notice before how much the top of the doors lower at the back. It reminds me of my dad's Triumph TR3.

[Martin]

Good thoughts Larry, next round I could see de-tuning the Bat scallops and lowering the rear fins. 

 

The "jail cell" motor cooling grill have got to go. It may turn into a way to see reward(see pic below)

 

Not forgetting the T top and the larger side scoops either.

 

The whole body could probably stand to get lowered a little, maybe 1/8" ?

 

 

[olescratch]

  As a thingie,  the wing is a nice touch.  The T-top and the bat emblems are awesome!  

[Martin]

Thanks for following along John. Its fun to play around with the " what ifs" Glad you like the mods.

 

Bats  have wings so that calls out to play that feature up, race cars do to. Some of my influences are the McLaren M8D and the Chaparral 2D (Daytona car) and the 2C seen here.

 

These pics are a good case more a more subtle wing treatment. I have always like these race cars. 

 

 

 

 

 

I like the way the scoop ties the fender and the wing as one design seen on the red car. 

I think we have a plan boys.

[Mark Onofri]

Is this a hint of what's next?

[Martin]

Well Mark, its coming into focus.

 

[Mark Onofri]

Lmfao, I'm starting to see the appeal of this car
. It's Lamborghini esk.

[Stefano Sbravati]

I have made 3 different designs of drop arms. The one in the pic on post 24 above. Is made with a Dynamic brass guide holder. 
 
These next two (below) are what I call the "Original" on the right of the pic and the fancyer one on the left I call "Reverse loop", unless anyone can think of a better name?
 
Both these two designs have the wire soldered into a groove in a turned brass guide pivot.
Love to hear which you prefer or which one you think I should go with?
 
droparm 60 per.png

Definitely the one on the left

[Martin]

Such good timing Stefano, as you know the printer got the colors flipped on the Bat decals, then it  took 19 days in transit to get to me. 

Well today they finally showed up.   

 

I will add that design drop arm that you like to your package. You can choose, because you will have both along with the extra decals.

Sorry it took so long.

All good to go now   

[Martin]

Bat WOW, I followed this auction that ended yesterday.

It is an MDC cast Bat chassis, most likely a test shot that then got saved from the scrap bin after the project was abandoned. 

The vac body was screwed to this chassis once MDC realized the injection body did not fit correctly.

I did speak to the seller before the auction, I suggested to him it would sell for good money, I was thinking $500 but I was way off. It sold for well over $1600 with tax etc. 

I saved the pics from the auction.

 

[don.siegel]

Yep, I think we all noticed that one! Holy Moly! 

 

There was a new Bat vac body being sold on ebay at about the same time; it finished at $107. 

 

Don 

[Martin]

I snagged that mint original body Don, I thought that was a fair price and was happy to get it.

 

I was literally opening the box when you were posting your reply.

 

It looks like a great pull, minty fresh with a nice label too   

[Mark Onofri]

It never ceases to amaze me what other people's stuff is worth compared to mine. Or,how much certain slot cars have risen in price lately.

[don.siegel]

Good for you Martin; yep, that seems a pretty reasonable price for what it is. I put in a bid earlier when I saw it hadn't gone up, but without any real hope of winning the auction. 

 

Don 

[macwest]

Mark

 

its the right piece to the right audiance. but in reality they have dropped compared to years ago. The MDC bat  I was surprised for as low as it did. I can see the high end audiance is starting to fall off and are more focused. Last MDC prototypes to hit ebay years ago put that price to shame.  I picked up the international Piranah MKII he had for around 500 and thought it was a steal since it was in green and silver. years ago as this hobby went crazy I rememeber when the blue  BZ 2e with box was on ebay it landed just under 10K. It is the one that is currently in electric dreams museum.  

 

Scott