Fine Tuning Your

MONOGRAM VINTAGE STOCKER


Follow this step by step how to, and I`ll show how to make a loose, rough, loud & jumpy slot car into a silky smooth runner.

I am pretty sure there are those who have already figured these animals out. My only focus is to get these running in a manner where they are fun & reliable and are able to run in a new series to be started at my local slot shop. Also the main thing is to do this without as many aftermarket parts as possible.

Here is the subject 1963 Ford

We will start with pointing out what needs to be addressed first, then I`ll get to the repair. Before the first screw is removed, I took a look around the car an here is what I found.

Exhaust pipe is pressed hard into the body on both sides which prevents any body/chassis movement.

On a side note, although I only have 1 of the 1965 Ford cars. I noticed that they decided not to even add the relief to the body where the exhaust is attached. Which really put my particular cars body in a bind.

Rear tire rubbing the body on the gear side.

 

Notice here that the body/chassis has clearance between them on the gear side, but on the opposite side there is binding

 

Now while removing the body screws from the chassis, I noticed the chassis was actually bound up more than  I thought. As shown here after I removed the interior and placed it onto the chassis, it is clearly not sitting flat.

You can see here that  the electronics coming from the motor along with the wires are clearly obstructing the interior tray from sitting flat on the chassis. Along with the melding points of the exhaust, although it dosen`t look like it here. After the wires were removed they were holding the interior up also.

 

Gap in rear axle shown here adding to a already bad gear mesh. Rear chassis mounting posts need to be shaved off even with the screw stopping flange to enable body float.

 

Front body posts need to be trimmed to enable body float. I went ahead a little here and did this using my Dremel because I needed to get the body into the stripper for the re-paint.

 

Here are all the pieces that we`ll be re using, as you can see all the electronics have been discarded, along with the braids and body screws.

Now We`ll get to the fun part of reassembly starting off with the guide. Although not necessary I do recommend this if your doing any wood track (no-mag) racing. The stock configuration as in most all Monogram units has allot of movement in all the wrong places, side to side & up and down. This fix is simple but will require parts not included with the car. Here you can see I`ve marked the area in silver that will be removed. After this a 1/16" bit is drilled into the center at a depth that stops at the flat area.

  

Here a self threading screw/washer has been installed into the drilled hole. And the completed guide with Carerra replacement braids. Now the reasoning behind all of this is as the screw goes into the guide it swells the post enough to eliminate the side to side play, and as the screw is tightened it also eliminates the up/down play. The Carerra braids were used simply to get rid of the brass tab that comes attached to the Monogram braid which also adds to front end height.

  

Onto the front axle bulkhead, personal preference here I like a little float in my front end. So to ensure I can get some movement a 3/32" bit was run through all 4 screw holes just enough to be sure the screw threads don`t bind on the plastic when they are backed off a little.

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