20?? Slot/Model Car Build


8-10-08

My choice for the body is the REVELL snaptite Mustang. As you can see here I`ve already got started with a donor body for the hood. The hood will be removable on the project car. This will be as far as I go right now with the body, it is just needed for measurements.

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I had originally planned to use a AMT nascar snapfast kit chassis on this car. But I have now decided to scratch build the complete car. So I was off to the LHS for some brass bits & pieces. Now for a little cutting an soldering.

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8-12-08

A little progress on the chassis now. I chose not to use a chassis jig while building this project. So it will be a slow going process of cutting, grinding, fitting, & squaring up.The basic starting point here as it has been fitted with the body, length & width wise.

    

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So far everything has gone together well. I am thinking about removing the rear chassis struts which are made with 3 pieces on each side.With this being a scratch build, there surely will be many back-ups and changes along the way.

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8-14-08

Few mores things fitted today, saddle for the motor soldered in place. I t`s a little hard to see but this was installed with a bit of left-sided in mind, as this is how we did it in my 1.1 racing days.Also front upper A-arms were made and put in place. My plan is to build a complete front suspension with steering and springs.

Also the rear cross member has now been removed for the control arms to pass through. Rear trailing arms were fabbed up along with brackets (to be soldered to the cross member) for them to bolt into. The plan here is to have a limited suspension. With the drive shaft being stationary the rear end will hopefully have "some"  movement on both sides pivoting in the middle.

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I`ve also made the changes here from the first photos. The rear frame rails were first made of 3 different pieces soldered together with another to be attached to extend out the rear. They were removed and replaced with 1 piece on each side that completes the rear frame rails.

8-16-08

Trailing arms have been secured to the main chassis via brass brackets & jewelers bolts. As shown here I have also got the rear axle fitted with the rear end housing tubes. These tubes will have a 3 part purpose. One is serving as the axle bushings, 2nd will be a mounting point for the Trailing arms, and 3rd they will be the mounting point for a quick change type of center section I hope to fabricate.

   

8-21-08

I`ve made a little more progress in the past few days. Been focusing  on the rear end housing mostly so I`ll get to that. Went to the local Lowe's and picked up a few items in the plumbing area. Here you can see the brass parts as removed from the baggies. I only took the crown gear along with me so I could find a part to act as the center section for the Quick Change rear end. (the  crown needed to fit inside) Then I just went on a search to find other pieces that could be made to order.

 

Quick change picture reference

  

 

A couple pictures here of some work being done on the lathe. Needed a little reshaping and fitting to get a close resemblance of the center section and the 2 axle tube housings.

 

    

On the left are the finished parts in the foreground, along with the scrap behind. The right picture shows the parts as they will be assembled on the axle. Both halves will be soldered to their respective axle tubes. (cone shaped things) Then when final assembly takes place the left side(half) will be glued so it can be removed if necessary.

 

Here in these next 3 pictures you can get idea of the size and fit of the rear end. These things were monsters in size compared to stock housings anyway, so I`m not to worried about that. You can also get a gist of the drive shaft location.

 

  

Update

11/10/08

Finally getting back to some progress, 2 Reducing sleeves were cut,(foreground) so that the axle tubes could be soldered in place. Shown here with one side done, and the parts used.

As you can see here I have added a front snout that holds the drive shaft pinion bushing. Shown is the actual gears I`m using early Carerra. The axle tubes were cut on each side to center the crown gear perfectly so the mesh was smooth. This half will be super glued just in case it should need opened up. I have purchased a few R/C car half shafts that hopefully I can fabricate into drive shaft universal joints.

 

Now I`m getting to some real sizing and fitting areas. As you can see I`ve marked on the chassis my center point for the rear axle. Then 2 brackets were fabbed that fit over the axle tubes on each side. This is a place were my 2 alligator clip (helper/thingies) really bailed me out. After a little bending, shaping, & eyeballing, the control arms were soldered to the brackets. 2 plastic sleeves were cut and reamed to a press fit, and they act as a nut to secure the control arm brackets to the rear end.

 

Update

11/13/08

Getting a bit more detail to the rear assembly. Fins and rear gear cosmetics will be done later. I`ve added the spring pads to the bottom control arms. Along with the weight jack buckets and jack bolts. If these parts look large to you... Just a perspective, those weight jack bolts are actually eyeglass screws. ;-)

In the left picture the upper control arm bracket has been fabbed and soldered to the rear end center housing. Also the front mounting bar was soldered to the chassis. In the picture on the right the upper control arm has been made and put in place. I now have a working rear suspension, with a gear driven axle.

 

more coming !!

 

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