Hardbody How-To With Brian Meharry (Part 3)

Part Three - Body Finish and Drive Train Assembly

Most of the time I cut my own designs out of masking tape, but I found some nice 1/24 Parma paint masks that I thought would suit this car well. I'm going to keep the black plastic on the front of the car. I use blue masking tape to cover the area the pre cut mask doesn't cover.

After the paint dries, peel off the mask and recover from the paint fumes for a while...

I like the clean look of water slide decals, but the Lazy 8 is high speed and I've found that vinyl decals cut with an exacto knife hold up much better over time. These are Slixx Decals that sadly have been out of production for some time. Some raceways still have some left so ask and you might get lucky.

I rattle can sprayed a light coat of Tamiya TS Gold on the interior and layed some one-shot poster paint on with my artists brushes. With interiors, practice makes perfect.

Scribble scrabble with a fine black sharpie marker to bring out the details. Taking the time to detail a realistic interior makes the whole car look better I think.

I know this is a drag interior, I like this driver figure because he looks like he has a beer gut. I'm easily amused.

While I allow the clear coat applied on the body to dry I assemble the rest of the parts that make this thing go. 

The important thing is to bend the motor bracket down about 10 degrees on the chassis. the back of the motor should be at the top of the bracket, and the front should be on the chassis. Use of the angle tooth pinion makes it possible to obtain a smooth gear mesh in this set up. I opted not to brace this car. Mostly because I plan not to hit anything...not hard anyway.

The windows can be secured with your adhesive of choice- watch crystal cement or shoe goo (clear) are two popular choices. 

I clear coated the body with 3 very wet coats of future floor wax; after it was dry (usually overnight is best), I mounted the interior with strapping tape, and secured the body to the chassis with thin strips of velcro. You can use Parma's FCR body mounts or cut your own. I can't wait to get it out on the track.

Thanks to Brian Meharry for this informative how-to. If you have questions for Brian, you're invited to post them on the Mid-America Hardbody Racing Series page on Facebook.

Hardbody How-To With Brian Meharry (Part 2)

Part Two - Body Assembly and Reinforcement

Strip styrene; it's inexpensive and comes in many different shapes and sizes. I feel that it's probably the most overlooked building component in hard body racing. I use .020 thick plastic because it is strong, flexible, and fairly light weight.

I use a medium thickness super glue to tack parts in place. It's good to use an acc- elerant such as "zip kicker" so that the glue dries instantly. For final assembly of the hood, bumper and grills, I use a generous amount of contact cement.

It can't be stressed enough to take your time assembling the body and adding re-enforcement. I use .020 strip and sheet styrene that I buy at my local hobby shop. The purpose of using this is to back up and strengthen the assembled body against impacts during racing. Accidents do happen in racing, but my cars usually last a very long time because I take the proper steps.

Additional reinforcing tabs help secure the front bumper or nosepiece depending on the type of car that you're building.

I was actually satisfied with how the rear bumper fits to the body straight from the kit, but I decided to add small tabs on each side to make sure it stays in place.

Here's the view from underneath once I assembled the body with contact cement.

Once I have assembled and glued the major body parts into place, I secure them tighty with tape and allow the glue to dry at least overnight. The purpose of the tape is to insure that the adhesive doesn't expand and separate the joints.

That's it for now, let's work on finishing the body and putting in the drive train next time.

Stay Tuned to Slot Car News for Part Three of Brian's Hardbody How-to.  

Racers be sure to check out the Mid-America Hardbody Racing Series page on Facebook for race dates and more information.

Hardbody How-To With Brian Meharry (Part 1)

Since the Car Model magazine building articles of the early 1970's, there have been few illustrated step by step guides that walk the reader through the process of building a slot car in plain and easy to understand English.

This series of building articles attempts to do just that, with photos and instructions by master builder and national driving champion Brian Meharry.

The "build" is a so called "hardbody" car, the type run on figure 8 and oval 1:1 and slot car racetracks around the country. As far as I know, there has never been a step by step tutorial published for building this type of slot car.

Let's check in with Brian as he starts the build...

The first thing to do is gather the parts that are needed to build the race car:

The body I'm using here is a late '90's Monogram NASCAR Ford Thunderbird. Tires are by ProTrack; 27mm in the rear, and the ProTrack solid rubber .950" x .250" x 3/32" "Jail Door" retro fronts (stock number 528). This car will be powered by the new Fast Ones Demon Motor, but you could use any of the FK sized motors such as the Trinity Evil 9 or TSR Falcon 7.

I chose the BRP threaded retro axle in the front to achieve independent rotating fronts without soldering. The gearing will be for Mid-America's Chris Dadds' "Lazy 8", and for that track I recommend 30 tooth crown with an 8 tooth angled steel pinion for better gear mesh. Add to this your favorite guide flag- in this case I will be using the Parma guide that normally comes with the FCR ready to runs since these guides are harder to break than others on the market.

All these parts should readily available at your local raceway.

After making sure the chassis is flat (in this case we are using the Precision Racing FCR jig to make sure the car is built flat and true), use a Sharpie to mark the area that will be cut out to raise the bushings. This cutout is needed to set the correct ride height.

Cut away the marked opening with a Dremel cut off disk or a nibbler. File the edges and make sure that the bushing fits smoothly into the opening. Be careful not to cut away too much material.

I still sometimes build chassis on graph paper, and use .032 and .063 brass plate under the chassis to get the right clearance, but here I'm using a jig, jig wheels, and spacers under the guide tongue to get the correct bushing height.

Next the bushings are soldered in place. I used Parma 3/32" offset bushings in the front, and 1/8" centered bushings in the rear. 1/8" bushings are offered offset as well if you want build in more adjust-ability to the wheelbase.

For this car, I'm trying these Bud Bartos retro threaded front axles. the axles are sold with lock nuts to hold on the wheels. Usually I just solder brass collars on the end of the axle, but I thought these were neat because I can drill a hole through my wheel inserts, place the nut on the outside of my wheel inserts and can remove the tires easily if there is a problem under green flag conditions.

Here's the assembled roller. The hard part of this build is now complete. I trued and cut my rear tires down to 1" diameter, and rounded the inside and outside edges on the hard fronts.

Pre-cut metal and plastic axle spacers work fine, but I like to use set screw collars on the axle to maintain spacing and gear mesh when the racing gets rough. Du-Bro makes wheel collars in various sizes including the 3/32" and 1/8" collars shown here. If you can't find them, any well stocked hobby shop with R/C parts should have them or can order them.

Here's the front end set up, with a better view of the threaded axle. I chose to use the set screw collars again. It makes it easy to adjust side play for different track conditions.

Two hours into the build now- about half done. It's a good time to check the body for fit, turns out with this body I didn't even have to trim the wheel wells. If I do cut out the wheel wells, I use Parma lane stickers as a template before I get nuts with the Dremel grinding wheel.....

That's it for now, more to come.

Stay Tuned to Slot Car News for Part Two of Brian's hardbody How-to. 

Racers also check out the Mid-America Hardbody Racing Series page on Facebook for race dates and more information.

Allentown slot show-Nov 3rd

The Great Lehigh Valley Slot Car Show
Merchants Square Mall
1901 S 12th st
Allentown Pa 18103

http://www.valleygoto.com show and vendor info..


All Scales HO-1/32-1/24
November 3rd 2012

Saturday 10am to 3pm

New, Used and Vintage Slot Cars, Parts and more.

Aurora, Carrera,Revell, Autoworld, TJets,Slot.It,Ninco Customs and more.

Dealers from 4 states.Interest has been growing and we have new vendors already booked. Dont miss out..


ECHORR Race and Race on Schoolhouse rd track.

ECHORR to Host SS Race in Show on portable Track.
Indy Car Race to be held on Valley Rail Trains/Schoolhouse Road Track.
http://www.echorr.com Racing Info.

SPONSORS..
Valley Rail Train and Hobbies Trophies,Prizes
http://www.mostslotcars.com


TABLES AVAILABLE $25.00 AT DOOR.7AM FIRST COME BASIS **TABLES ONLY $20.00
PRE-PAID**

Admission $5.00

Early Buyers 8.30am $10.00

Racing free with paid admission.

Trophies ,Door Prizes,

Vendor Tables $20.00 in advance.

*** New - H.O. Pro Series Super Tires™ ***

Super Tires™ is proud to announce an exciting new line of high-performance H.O. racing tires.  The new H.O. Pro Series Super Tires™ are the result of 6 months of extensive development and testing on a wide range of tracks and cars.  H.O. Pro Series Super Tires™ are great for:

• Fray Style racing series
• T-Jets
• Auto World Cars
• Johnny Lightning Cars
• Tuff-1 Series

Available in three (3) different compounds and eight (8) different sizes (refer to table below), H.O. Pro Series Super Tires™ provide H.O. racers with a wide range of options and flexibility when setting up and tuning cars.

H.O. Pro Series Super Tires™ are available immediately from Slot Car Corner and other select authorized Super Tires™ distributors.  Dealer inquiries are welcome.

Special Thanks
Super Tires™ would like to extend a special "thank you" to Joel & Warren Lux (Springville, NY), Richard ("Dr. D") Dumas (E. Haven, CT) and Paul Kniffen (Cortland, NY) for their contributions and support to make these tires possible!

ISRA World Championship 2012 - Malmö Sweden

October 6-13 2012, the International Scale Racing Association "World Championship" races were run in Malmö, which is located in southernmost Sweden.

The ISRA Worlds races were run on the beautiful and challenging Malmö Slotracing Club flat track nicknamed "The Roller Coaster" as shown below:

ISRA's crown jewel and premiere racing class, "Eurosport /24", which is the international slot racing equivalent of the Can-Am, was run last as the climax of a hard fought week of racing. The ES /24 technical regulations encourage chassis design creativity and motors are for all intents and purposes, unlimited.

87 drivers representing most of Europe, Asia and the Americas contested the ES /24 races at the 2012 "Worlds". The ES /24 event was held over a two day period with tech inspection, qualifying and quarter final races being held on Friday the 12th.

In qualifying, 6th world ranked Ravis Jansons of Latvia was the ES /24 TQ with a scorching time of 3.980 seconds upsetting 1st ranked Vladimir Horky of the Czech Republic who qualified second with a 3.999. Jansons and Horky were the only qualifiers in the 3's.

When the Saturday final event was run and all of the laps were counted, 11th ranked Matti Fyhr of Finland was the winner, Second was 9th ranked Paul Garwronski of the USA, third was 260th ranked Jaroslav Recek of the Czech Republic. Top seeded Jansons suffered motor problems very early in the final and was never able to recover, finishing 8th (over 300 laps down from the winner).

 

Full ES /24 competitor rankings and statistics can be viewed at: isra2012.com/es24slut.html.

More information about ISRA and the 2013 World Championships which will be held in Kiev, Ukraine can be found at www.isra-slot.com.

Thank you to Harri Kangasmaki of Team Finland for the use of the photos in this report.

"Da Sano VI" Day Three Coverage

IRRA Can-Am A Main results:

37 Entries

TQ - Matt Bruce: 4.486 Seconds

1) Matt Bruce - 296 laps, best lap of 4.584 secs
2) Ron Hershman - 292, 4.692
3) "Sano" Dave Fiedler - 290, 4.736 (move up from B)
4) Ralph Thorne - 290, 4.772 (move up from B)
5) Howie Ursaner - 283, 4.780
6) Tom Harrington - 282, 4.782
7) Dave Geehring - 278, 4.812
8) Jay Kisling - 163, 4.662

L to R -2nd Hershman, 1st Bruce, 3rd Fiedler
Dave Fiedler also won Concours

Inside Matt Bruce's Winning Car

The top 3 IRRA Can-Am Cars

The Sano VI was hosted by:
Chicagoland Raceway
2255 Maple Ave
Downers Grove, IL 60515
Information: (708) 203-8003
www.chicagolandraceway.us/

For more information on the IRRA please visit: www.irraslotracing.com/

Sincere thanks to Greg Wells of Slotblog! for his invaluable help with race timing and scoring. Thanks to Joe "Noose" Neumeister of the IRRA for his help with technical inspection. 

Thank you to the lunch sponsors: Lake Barrington Speedway, Pro Slot, Ltd. and Tom Thumb Hobbies. Thank you to Speed Zone (NJ) for treating the racers to Pizza on Saturday Night. And last but certainly not least thank you to Jackie Swiss for tending to the gastronomic needs of the attendees with her home baked treats.

"Da Sano VI" Day Two Coverage

The Sano VI Saturday 10/6/2012 Race Results are:

GTC-FK King A Main results:

1) Dave Geehring - 275 laps, best lap of 4.818 secs
2) Chris Barnes - 270, 5.033
3) Greg Van Peenen - 270, 4.900
4) Brian Cox - 270, 4.992
5) Greg Gorski - 262, 5.136
6) Rick Stagen - 258, 4.964
7) Erick Balicki - 253, 5.056
8) Dennis Clark - 252, 5.067

GTC-FK Concours Winner was Jack Beers.

GTC-PD King A Main results: 

Cars before the start

The race begins!

1) Ron Hershman - 295 laps, best lap of 4.620 secs
2) Howie Ursaner - 288, 4.720
3) Matt Bruce - 286, 4.698
4) Mike Swiss - 283, 4.813
5) Dave Fiedler - 283, 4.751
6) Ralph Thorne - 282, 4.764
7) Mike Iles - 280, 4.759
8) Wes Pikunis - 271, 4.828

GTC- PD Concours winner was Joe "Noose" Neumeister

IRRA F1 A Main results: 

IRRA F1 Race Winner- Howie Ursaner

1) Howard "Howie" Ursaner - 289 laps, best lap of 4.738 secs
2) Ron Hershman - 287, 4.794
3) Matt Bruce - 285, 4.723
4) Mike Swiss - 285, 4.780
5) Ralph Thorne - 283, 4.794
6) Mike Iles - 282, 4.755
7) Terry Watson - 279, 4.801
8) Wes Pikunis - 120, 4.801

Howie Ursaner ran a "perfect" race. His car did not come out of the slot once during any of the 8 heats of this race. We are not sure if this has ever been done before at this level of slot car racing.

F1 Concours winner was Jack Beers

"Da Sano VI" Day One Coverage

The Sixth Annual meeting of 1/24 Retro Slot Car racers is being held this weekend at Chicagoland Raceway in Downers Grove, IL.

The Friday 10/5/2012 Race Results are:

JK Spec class A Main results:

Above: Brian Cox' winning JK Spec chassis.

1) Brian Cox - 269 laps, best time of 4.883 secs.
2) Rick Stagen - 268, 4.849
3) Dave Geehring - 267, 4.916
4) Eric Balicki - 267, 5.025
5) Chris Barnes - 265, 4.926
6) John Austin - 265, 4.951
7) Greg VanPeenen - 252, 4.867
8) Larry Kelley - 225, 5.055

JK Super Spec class A Main results:

1) Wes Pikunis - 293 laps, best lap of 4.701 secs
2) Mike Iles - 284, 4.680
3) Matt Bruce - 283, 4.863
4) Ron Hershman - 281, 4.712
5) John Miller - 279, 4.849
6) Kevin VanPelt - 273, 4.811
7) Dave Fiedler - 269, 4.804
8) Howie Ursaner - 82, 4.901

F1 class Flat Track A-Main results:

1) Dave Fielder - 251 laps, best lap of 5.320 secs in yellow
2) Howie Ursaner - 246, 5.429 in blue
3) Ray Price - 245, 5.429 in blue
4) Chuck Gambo - 244, 5.430 in blue
5) Jay Guard - 243, 5.374 in orange
6) Matt Bruce - 241, 5.390 in orange
7) Bernie Schatz - 234, 5.500 in green
8) Graham Climpson - 228, 5.492 in purple

Can-Am class Flat Track A Main results:

1) Kevin VanPelt - 256 laps best lap of 5.270 sec in yellow
(Kevin won by 21 inches over second place!)
2) Dave Fiedler - 256 laps 5.220 in yellow
3) Matt Bruce - 254, 5.329 in blue
4) Mike Swiss - 253, 5.160 in orange
5) Chuck Gambo - 253, 5.210 in yellow
6) Jay Guard - 247, 5.270 in yellow
7) Howie Ursaner - 244, 5.270 in blue
8) Bernie Schatz - 236, 5.440 in blue

Can-Am Flat Track podium: (L to R)
Dave Fiedler, Kevin Van Pelt, Matt Bruce

The Sano VI is Presented by:
Chicagoland Raceway
2255 Maple Ave
Downers Grove, IL 60515
Information: (708) 203-8003
www.chicagolandraceway.us/

Sano VI action continues through Sunday with live webcast at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sano-6-from-chicagoland-raceway