[dgersh]

When I restore cars, there are two things that I really enjoy: one is being able to totally rebuild a bit of a junker, and make it into a new car, and second, when I realize that the car was built a lot better than what it seemed to be on the photo.

This is the latter case! A pair of cars I picked up on ebay not long ago, for the princely sum of $15... not too impressive at first glance, but when I took a closer look I saw that there was a lot of thought that went into them, and they were both sort of "state of the art" for that time - end of 1965 I'd say. Lotus 30/40 of course, probably the most popular body of the time. And one with a Pittman DC65 (X?) in unusual inline fashion - all ball bearings of course, spring loaded drop arm with no play, Mila Miglia sponge tires, and a well done scratchbuilt chassis. This one was pretty rusty, but a quick bath in WD40 helped a lot!

Then the same thing, but with a 36D, perhaps rewound, but not balanced. Both are very carefully fitted into the bodies, shoehorned in in fact! The rollbar is part of the chassis, which makes it kind of hard to fit in, and front and rear body mounts fit perfectly. Notice that on this one, which didn't have a driver as I found it, the top of the chrome motor can was painted white to go with the body... ! The tires on this one are some kind of slip-on silicones, over much narrower wheels, and already much smaller in diameter than the other tires. The tires were quite a bit further out, but since I wanted to run it this weekend, I moved them in...

Now, I know these aren't the pintube/16D cars already used by the pros, but they seem a pretty good example of what a serious racer would have been using at the time.

Notice anything strange about those gears?

Don

 

[howmet tx]

State of the art or Art of the States- discuss.

I'm with Edo on these- round 'em up and put 'em in the Tate as an art installation. Wonderful.
Lovely stuff and cheap at the price. I won't go on about those gears 'cos I cheated and read your posting elsewhere....

 

[300SLR]

When you say the 36D was perhaps rewound, does that mean you can see epoxy holding the windings in place?
Some builders balanced the arms by adding extra epoxy rather than drilling the pole pieces, this can be spotted by a thicker layer of epoxy on one side of the arm.

 

[dgersh]

I can see traces of what looks like epoxy, but not enough to be sure, and certainly not enough to balance the arm (theoretically, it had to be weighted epoxy to make any difference). Also, the wire seems a bit larger than stock, but again, not enough to really be sure - I'll let you know after I test it this weekend!

Don

 

[superhornets]

Hi Don
Great find and what a bargain, 2 pieces of history for ten quid
How do you do it
WheneverI bid for something like this the prices go barmy

cheers Tony

 

[zagato]

They obviously know you're loaded Tony.

Graham.

 

[superhornets]

Ah Graham
If only that were true and if it was I.ll tell you what ,I wouldn,t waste my time and money bidding for someone elses cast offs I would buy the complete GPModels catalogue and spend my retirement making those

Cheers tony

 

[zagato]

You've just made my day!

Graham.

 

[300SLR]

QUOTE (dgersh @ 8 Dec 2011, 14:08) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I can see traces of what looks like epoxy, but not enough to be sure, and certainly not enough to balance the arm (theoretically, it had to be weighted epoxy to make any difference). Also, the wire seems a bit larger than stock, but again, not enough to really be sure - I'll let you know after I test it this weekend!

Don
The static balancing technique they used back then wasn't particularly high tech and didn't need weighing as such. Might sound a bit crude, but the guys who knew what they were doing made motors go quite a bit better that way.
Essentially put the arm on a pair of razor blades, and add epoxy to the light side till it's in balance. The amount of epoxy needed depends on how far out of balance the arm was in the first place. That could be very little or quite an obvious amount.
The alternative was put the arm on a pair of razor blades, find the heavy side, drill off some metal and try again till it's in balance.

Dynamic balancing needs higher tech equipment, produces better results and these days is readily available to slot racers for a few pounds. That'll be why those forms of do it yourself balancing have pretty much died out.

 

[TSRF]

Don,
The fact that one of these two cars is fitted with a Revell Lotus 30 body means that the earliest these could have been built would have been late 1966 to early 1967... and by that time, their chassis and motor technologies were well behind that of the SoCal teenagers that were part of the teams competing in early pro races such as the Rod & Custom series. Regardless, great old cars, that would have handled fairly well due to their heft rather than anything else!

 

[GT40MKII]

A great find Don I like the old cars best.
Regards Allan