Well I always thought the T-Jet was 1/87 but now I am lost. I bought a few malibu diecast cars, 1/87 scale and they are way small. I wanted to hackem up and put motors under them but jeeezzz! they are tiny. I know the M/t and x-trac are 1/64, I need help I want to buy some die cast cars to run but now I am confused???

anyone?

I've done dozens of Die cast coinversions and almost all of them needed to have the wheel base adjusted. Jada cars are pretty easy to convert and also look great. Some hot wheels cars are easy too. Some Hot wheels cars even have plastic bodies now.

Dub City, Johnny Lightning, Matchbox, Hot Wheels, Racing Champions, Darda.... there are many brands that will work... but not all bodies from all brads will. Some will be too short, some not wide enough. You have to eyeball them before you buy them. Some chassis might fit into one body while another chassis won't. Each one has it's own weirdnesses and challenges. I like to buy 2 of whatever I'm attemping to convert. One to learn on and the second, more refined version is the one I keep.

Whenever I see a die cast car, the first thing I do is flip it over and look and the underside. Is it wide enough for a t-jet chassis? Maybe a tyco or Marchon chassis?
Then I look at the side view... is it tall enough? Can I save the interior?

If it's a go, I take off the front rims and axel and mount the new rear rims onto the chassis. With Jada car, I just use the rims that come with the die cat. Just peel off the plasto-rubber-crap they call tires and slip on some AFX specialty silocones.

Then I screw posts into the chassis and cut the down to length, slap some super glue, line up the rear wheels and set the chassis. After the super glue dries, I like to cover it with expoxy to give it more strength. I to try to save the front wheel set up, but If I can't, I'll just mold something out of expoxy putty. The inside if bic pens make for great axel holders, place putty down, set axel holder. let dry, cover with expoxy glue.

I know this is more than wanted to know, but I got carried away.

Sorry.

ok so 1/87 scale is not always convertable got it. thanks for the tips

I never knew what ho really was until I seen ho scenery cars at a train store, they were way to small for t-jet chassis. My thinking has always been t-jets are 1/72, afx 1/64 like hot wheels, J

TJETS are somewhere between 1/76th and 1/72nd Scale

Roger Corrie

TJETS are somewhere between 1/76th and 1/72nd Scale

Roger Corrie
yep, I was just going to say what Roger just said.

Problem (still) is that cars had to be built to chassis scale - yes there were a couple different front axle positions to choose from, but clearly those big ol early t jet and vibe Fords are much closer to HO than the vibe Mercedes or t jet Cobra, for example.

The other thing I have noted is that some true HO scale just isn't - have seen some too-tiny cars - my favorite on local massive train layout is Lamborghini Countach that an HO man couldn't fit in. It's more MG Midget sized.

The original vibe chassis was smaller in all dimensions, especially height, even the mounting screws were stuck further out from chassis, short wheelbase was shorter than tjet. It's a shame these chassis are old and don't reliably work anywhere near as well as anything else ever available. That and parts are long out of production, and they take higher A/C voltage. The size would be much more compatible with an attempt at true HO modeling.

My opinion - ho slot car modelling would really benefit from a compact chassis (ie short, narrow track) with easily altered wheelbase - lots of crossover opportunity. Lots of copying of successful concepts over the years, wonder if anyone has explored this niche recently?