Current stuff

[mattb]

I've been wanting to replace/add a car I built a few years ago. I originally resin cast this body, but this time around I am using 2 old vac formed Lancer bodies from the 60's. One belongs to a friend and was new, but factory painted a crappy green. The other was mine and was on a built up car I got a few years ago. I went to work with an SOS pad and cleaned and scratched them up pretty good. Gave them a few coats of Testors lacquer on the outside. I had a sheet of decals from Lance Sellers ( a very gifted resin caster and Indy model kit provider). I copied them on Testors paper and applied them yesterday. Started driver painting last nite, still need a shot of dull coat to flatten the driver paint. Need to finish exhaust, roll bars and sponsor decals and these will be ready.

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These two resin bodies have been projects for quite a while, a year or two! I will skip the Brawner Hawk now, but the Salih roadster will still get done. I did one as the Belond Exhaust Special a few years ago. It was a car I ran a lot and needs to be re-bodied, so I will get that one done. The body and decals do not really go together, but it looks close to the real Salih laydown car.

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My old beater Belond Special.
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[mattb]

I have a friend that takes resin casting to the extreme. When he does something new, he always sends me one. He sent two more bodies this week and I felt bad not getting his gifts built, so I had a Watson body he cast on the shelf that I fitted to a Dynamic chassis a couple years ago.
When I pulled out the Brawner Hawk decals, I also had the TravelOn Trailer decals on the same sheet. I created them from internet fonts a few years ago for another guy. The TO special was beautiful roadster driven by Hurtibise. I had always wanted to do that car, so today I started the paint. I painted about 5 times alternating between silver and the Duplicolor Metalcast Candy purple. I finally got about what I wanted and in a day or two I will TRY to mask it properly for the dark purple scallops and along the lower edge. This will push my limits, but I will be happy with however it turns out.

Beautiful Exoto copy of the Travel On
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After a lot of screwing around with the paint I got this for the main car color. Probably should have went to AutoZone and just got a close match, or just used silver alone for the main body. I can't really get a good color picture of how it looks.
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[mattb]

Another project for the last couple weeks was converting an old DS300 counter/timer to my wood track. This was a 6 lane setup with alight bridge or dead strips. I did some carpentry work for another slotter and this was my pay. I built my track without dead strips, I was in a hurry. I took the bridge apart and kind of figured out how it worked then cut it down to 4 lanes and adapted it to the wood. It all worked fine on the table, but lane 4 is not working now. I have checked all connections and am back to the bridge now. I'll get it all worked out. I really don't care about doing any more than being able to time one lane. Building the cars for all the guys I race with, accurate timing lets me dial in every car to within a .10 second. That makes the driver the determining factor. The guys like pushing the buttons, though. We usually run 3-5 lap races and this makes it easy to see when it's done. Then the top 2 guys run a 5 lap race off. We have a lot of fun with all the crazy ways we race, as always it is crash and burn.

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[waaytoomuchintothis]

Back in 1965-66, there was a 1/24th Formula 1 and Indy club who would race on Tuesday nights at the local hobby shop track, an 8 laner, original design. I used to ride the bus to see them run. Lots of good memories seeing your cars.

What did you use to make that perfect hood hinge?

[ourwayband]

Cars look great and the shot of the track looks pretty good too!

Rusty

[mattb]

The hood hinge on the the top TO Watson is not mine. It is a picture of the exoto 1/18 diecast that I am trying to copy. I can't do anything that looks that good
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The racing/playing like I did as a 14 year old kid back in 1995 is what me and the guys do now. At the commercial track it is serious weekly racing. The guys here just have fun. No jealousy, nobody better than anybody else. I help to get all the cars up to the same speed. I am glad to help the guys run as fast as I do. No secret car tricks. Everybody wins a few races every race night and has fun.

[bill from nh]

The cars look great Matt. Didn't you once say you had created sort of a "standard" brass chassis for your Indy cars? What's left of slot racing in this area, unfortunately, doesn't include any F1/Indy interest. I always found them loads of fun.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I just remembered a car that had that color on it from the factory. Remember that ugly squat Cadillac version of a Cavalier they called "Cimarron"? It came in that same shade of rose/lavender metallic. An old lady down the street had one, and she thought it was Tan!

[mattb]

Rusty, GM had a similar color on 65 Chevelles, impalas and GTO's, it was called Evening Orchid and was not a standard color, there was also one pretty close on 57 Chevy's. I'll live with this color and it will finish out OK.

Bill, I built a lot of the cars using the brass Sprintsplus frames that I cut apart and added a 1 inch wide pan underneath after I got the wheelbase right. Quick and easy and the extra lower weight makes a nice handling car. Some soldering and some added wire bracing to the axle uprights and you get a decent handling chassis. This is an example of the Sprintsplus.
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I still use a few old Dynamic frames with the belly pan added as shown in this pictures. They are still a good running combo, but the motor carriers require some mods for motor to mount tightly and a little hot glue helps.
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The LVJ frames are my choice now, wide or narrow options. Brass makes it easy to add length for 1/24 by soldering a pan underneath. Low COG, handles great, price $12-$13. i solder a piece of square tubing down each side which stiffens and supports the axle uprights and lets me bend up wire nerf bars and slide them int he tubing. this is the cheapest, easiest combo I have come up with if you want a solid 60's style brass chassis. More pix to come
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[mattb]

Here is the LVJ modified for Indy cars and sports cars
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[mattb]

New Manta Ray with the LVJ frame stretched and with added square tubing to make the width correct and give a screw mounting flange.
Easy and runs super.
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Plain steel LVJ narrow that fits the 3 3/4 wheelbase cars with no mods.
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I like these chassis for ease of assembly under many kinds of cars. I wish they made the front section about 1/2 inch longer then soldering would not be needed to do a 4 inch wheelbase 1/24 car. Maybe they will do that some day. I still buy 18,000-20,000 rpm FK 180 motors for $2 or less, so I can build a car for one of the racers for under $40-$50 depending on the body they choose. I work hard to be able to keep it cheap for all the guys and to give them competitive cars. It keeps everybody coming back and having fun.

[ourwayband]

Great looking builds!!

[bill from nh]

Matt, thanks for the fine looking chassis photos. You show a lot of ideas to anyone who want's to build brass chassis. I think those LVJ chassis are made right here in NH. The first chassis were created when it became difficult to get womps & Sprints Plus. I need to get a couple of them to play with.

[BIG E]

Just wondering... did that yellow 4 laner happen to come from Long Island, NY?
It looks very much like the one I had checked out for a friend to buy a few years ago.
Curious, maybe you could post a photo of the entire track?
Thanks -- Ernie :>)

[mattb]

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Ernie I built this track last year. It was the most sophisticated track I have built. In the past I built several 3 lane slot tracks with copper tape and modest banking or overpasses. I wanted to attempt a braided, routed track and Steve Ogilvie explained a lot of his techniques which gave me the idea to just rout a 180 turn and see if I could bend it to get a decent bank. I did that out in the carport and saw that I could do the banking and flex the MDF various ways to get the flow I wanted. I routed all the pieces at home in the carport. Hauled it all to a garage I share with my brother and did the assembly there.

I got plenty of advice from Harry and the guys on this forum, the great folks at Slot Car Corner and Steve Ogilvie, who has built many great commercial tracks the last 25 years, I got it done and it works pretty good. I'd really like to build another and use the knowledge i got building this one. There are ways to do some things better than the way I did them. The more of any the hobby stuff you do, the more you learn about better ways to do it.

Router bits to cut the gains using the slot for the guide, make that part so easy. Pre-taped braid from SCC makes laying the braid really easy.
We 6-8 guys that race weekly and we just have fun with it.

I have added remote controller hookups for 3 of the lanes. Green now has a hookup at the outside of the bank, yellow has a hookup at the other end where the flat curve is and orange has a hookup opposite the controller panel. This allows everybody to have a little more room, and there is somebody at each end to pick up de-slotted cars. Line of sight was OK before, but is perfect now.