[Larry LS]

The chain of stores in the US called Dollar Tree in which everything sells for one US dollar. Has been selling some close/near to 1/32nd scale cars that look close to the old Ford hot rods from the 1930's. Some guys have been making the them into the old modifed jalopy racers they had 35-40 years ago at small dirt bull ring tracks around the country. By just using the body and making a chassis to fit. Heck the battery in the car for the engine noise maker is more expensive than the car is

So I picked up a couple for a buck apiece and built up a custom street rod chassis from brass rectangular tubing for it. Here are some early shots of it before painting, custom nerf bars and side pipes of brass tube. Runs good so far with maybe a tad more weight needed up front.

 

[McLaren]

Nice one!

McLaren

 

[John Cahill]

that's a nice, straightforward chassis...clever driveshaft bearing too. Cute and classy!

John

 

[abie321]

Larry - nice one!!!!!

Why do you prefer an (almost) pin type guide as opposed to the flag type?
The TSRF uses this type but seems to be in the minority at the moment? Just wondered if there were racing benefits to a pin type of guide.

 

[GRAH1]

personaly I dont like pin guides but they do have some advantages

1. no broken lead wires

2. guide is easilyhiden from view

3. can sit lower than a blade

4. faster to marshall

disadvantages

1. posibility of shorting braids

2. 360 degree rotation or chance of jammin in slot when pushed to limit

3. works better when used with magnetraction

4. popular opinion biased against use

 

[a Bill]

Excellent work Larry

I'm doing quite well with my basket weaving. The fronds are almost dry now.

 

[compound_goose]

NICE!!!!! now all u need to do is paint it black with flames

 

[Larry LS]

Question about the choice of guide type is basically as Graham states for answers. In this case in particular it was to keep the dang guide shoe out of site. With this type car it is disturbing to me to have to look at a big guide shoe sitting out in front of a nice looking car. The paint scheme has not been decided on yet but I have thought about a flame job of some type.

The type guide was easy to make from a regular 1/24th guide shoe so as to use the large braids and keep it insulated from the chassis to prevent shorts with a metal chassis. The blade style works well on our commercial track we run on here and it will work also on my new routed 1/32nd track when finished.

It a fun car with no competition yet but it may get some after I showed it around here Monday night. Especially at the price of the bodies, a couple guys want to play with popsicle sticks or sheet styrene.

I like the front motor style for certain non full racing competition type cars. As the real car would have had a front motor with drive shaft. So I am weird I guess.

 

[Fergy]

Cool project, Larry! And nice chassis!

 

[Larry LS]

I got a bit more work done this week on the old dollar street rod. Just have to do the interior, Driver, some sort of nerf bars, headlights, tailights etc. I like it but I'am Weird !! Added silicone coated sponges on the rear and have plenty of traction on wood.

 

[abie321]

Thanks for the feed back on the guide - there is a debate going on here in RSA regarding the pro's and cons of pin guide, and I tend to believe it is nothing more than 'popular' belief that a pin guide is not as good as a blade. And Larry you are right - the front end of the car does look better with the guide hidden.

Larry - very nice highlighting of the door and hood lines - did you do that with the ink/knife method?

 

[MR MAX]

That looks great. It is 1/32 scale or near enough, isn't it? I would buy one off of you made them in mass!

 

[Larry LS]

A couple answers to a question or two. Yes the door lines are done with a very fine tipped felt permenent marker pen. (sshhh! don't let Wankel hear that) The colored stripes on the sides are done with thin vinyl material cut to shape and stuck on, then the whole thing is coated with the clear coat done with by Future brand floor wax.

The body I am told is not quite 1/32nd scale as it looks to be a bit too wide. But for this type of car, it looks close enough without the fenders on, to make it more evident.

At a dollar US a piece I have saved a buck or two on it but I am afraid I have gone a bit too far with the chassis, what with all the brass tube, rod and solder. I will update soon with some new nerf bar bumpers and and interior, driver and head and tailights.

The bumpers have now been Tin Zinc plated and polished with a plating kit from Eastwood Co. I am afraid I am not going to go in mass production on these as the time involved is considerable and could make them a bit expensive. A just for my fun, type car.

 

[Larry LS]

Updated post !!

Got my Tin Zinc plating kit from Eastwood the other day so I have plated the nerf bars front and rear, the brass/wire headlights and the exhaust pipes. Probably should have waited a bit longer and I could have plated the whole chassis instead of painting it. I will on the next one coming up.

Then I found some neat looking wheels at Radio Shack for some of their 20th? scale RC cars and these four looked good out of the four sets in the pack, so I turned these 4 wheels down to make inserts to fit the big 19 inch ProTrack wheels and painted them to match the body.

Still need a interior/driver but some little guy crawled in there, as I caught him looking out the side window. Hmmmm, I wonder who he is?