dem wheels look nice and fat in dem wheelwells on that Vette. Love the other one too :).

Got a coupla speedsteer chassis in a goody box from Win a while back. Kinda pushed them around the bench for a while.

Finally came up with a plan. Killed off the extra frontal portion of the arm shaft. The drag link was thinned on the bottom side to allow pivot room for a trimmed and shaved AFX/AW guide flag.

Forward chassis pan was slotted to accept the modified flag. Regular old sewing pins were clipped short and CA'd into predrilled holes in the flag's upper button for steering spuds.

Works pretty good from what I can tell. Holds the track and corners exceptionally well considering it has zero brakes! Still got the goofus pinned diff that unspools off throttle. Eventually I'll round up a stock G-plus crown and axle and revisit this project.

Crammed it on a ratty old NASCAR for now and kinda warmin' up to the idea. I'll probably like it better when I drop the body down.

Bill , I have to admit you lost me this time??? I guess it's because I have not ever even held one of those in my hand. Do you have a few more pictures? Perhaps a stock one besides a modified one? I see these go on the bay for dirt, so if these is hope I may buy a few and play, break out the hot knife!!!!

Got bombed with umpteen cars for repair this week. Gonna be nose to the grindstone so there will be no fun plastic mutilations for a while...Just un-mutilating! Pretty well consists of all A pillar fixes and a few minor screw post repairs. Back row has grafts in place the the first skim or two completed. Front row contains the more gruesome specimens of the lot and needs a little more thought.

Note on previous post: Sorry T-jet dont have pics of the stock Speedsteers. They arrived incomplete. Just a diversionary build to figure some angles for a future "brass front assembly with steering project" and of course to clear my bench. ;)

Bill,

Boom.......Boom.......Boom.....That is a lot of plastic man!

Bob...Holy Sheit...zilla

Bill, Did you quit your regular job??? That's a lot of plastic body work. You been watching "Nip & Tuck" on TV??? Just checking on you...RM

Bill,
Thought you were taking a break from all the "gooping" and gonna let some fresh air filter into the brain for a while LOL. Interesting speedsteer build. Glad you could use the stuff. :)

Joe asked me if i'd had any fun this week and I had to reply..."Well no, now that ya mention it ...not really!"

Spent a little time on the Model A sedan project last night... to even the score.

In pic 1 the front drop axle has been soldered in and allowed to sweat solder into the hollow portion of the tube. These tubular builds always seem to need some extra weight up front...this one was no exception as earlier tests revealed. The axle was drilled for radius rod location. If you peak ahead to pic 2 you'll notice that the body has already been drilled to accomodate the rear radius rod mount. This also coressponds to the chassis as the application is a through and through the body. The rear of the rod actually pins into the chassis.

The rear mount is bent into the straight rod stock and installed so it lays across the front axle and shows me exactly where the down bend should go.

Pic 2 shows the the rod bent into it's final shape more or less. I clip the excess off. I over bend the bottom rod slightly so it will bind against the upper rod...this makes it somewhat self clamping when get to the soldering point. Pic 3 is just a top view for spacially challenged folks like myself.

Pic 4: By over bending the bottom rod all one has to do is clamp and solder it together...no muss no fuss...she lines right up.

Pic 5: One side is completed first and then the other side is built to match.
As you can see the "Hairpins" will swing around the front axle and are captive. They will NOT be soldered!

More to follow.:thumbsup:

Bill,

Now this is just INCREDIBLE! Woaaaaaah man this = Way Far Out!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Glad to see you having some "Billy Build" fun time. :)

Bob...Bill is an Alien...zilla

So now ya got this wiggling contraption that looks like a perverted fishing lure on the end of your chassis.

In pic 1 the rods are locked into the chassis. Just like the 1:1 version when the rods are locked in things stiffen right up and there is virtually no torsional flex.

Pic 2 is a shot right down the piehole. The chassis is settled into the rear body cleat (as seen in the very early portion of this build) and the radius rods pin the front portion of the body at the rocker and lock into the chassis. While it looks close there's actually enough clearance for the shoe hanger window. Merely the camera perspective or lack of it by the operarter. The frame rail spacing is actually a retrofit from the Black Max. It was narrowed to 11mm to allow the stock shoe hanger setup to be retained. Much of the frame rail build is dictated by what dummy motor and pipe configuration will be used. The Black Max had Zoomiez so it required precise fitment of the rails between the dummy engine block and the backside of the pipes. This pushed the frame rails lateraly into the hanger windows so the drop pick ups were required. With the Dash pipes going over the radius rods the hanger window is un-encumbered unlike the Zoomiez which ride in between the frame rail and radius rod...AKA shoe hanger alley! I'll black out the hanger windows at detail time so they're not so obvious. While not as tight in appearance as the Max it does alleviate a major set of problems.

Pic 3 is a pull back shot of the whole affair. In this case the rad will be mounted behind the axle. The Max had the rad ahead of the axle which blocked most of the nifty effect of drop axle...cuz some knuckle head didnt think far enough ahead and there wasnt room to cram it in behind. Wheel base is 2" in this build so it's a bit longer to allow enough room and also stretches the radius rods out where ya can see them with out squinting.

Not sure whats gonna happen in the detail area. The dumbass HW bug catcher will be snifed off reguardless. Recent conversations with Bobzilla and Hilltop on the matter of period strombergs comes to mind, but in lieu of a juicy rack of two barrells I'll probably go with a more stylish scoop.

Guts are stock and are likely to stay that way. The Black Max proved to be somewhat over powered and unruly on my short track and required wheelie bars ( I'll get to some pics of that soon). Project X is more docile and driveable and slides around the track in well mannered fashion. Although it retains the stock rear axle location , NO drop, it has a very nice CG as the bulk of the body sits very low. The frontal area was completed by bending tying the frame rails together, but some dummy cant seem to find the picture.:freak:

This one got a little windy, but I wanted to share some of the hows and whys along the way.

Thanx fer lookin! :wave:

:thumbsup::thumbsup: Great looking car Bill. You never cease to amaze me.

You could order a short stack or opt for a tastfully played fluegel horn. Either works fer me. Lookin like a winner. nd

Wow Bill, great stuff.

Here's a couple more shots of project X.

Front frame rails are tied together. Body snaps on and off no problemo and everything's where it's 'sposed to be. Finished up with the final track tuning.

Still collecting a few more special nick nacks...I'm thinkin' dark blue on this one.;)

Looks GREAT Bill!...but I was so SURE you would shoot it Vibe green! LOL! Blue will be sweet! any flames?

Thanks Joe!

Had t-jet bright olive on the brain for a while...but I'm in the mood fer blue.

Has a good rake on it too! Any luck scrounging up a new meatloaf pan? nd

That's just way toooo, toooo much Bill, ya killin' me!!! I overheard the boys talking the other day, something about "going to work for you"...They want to learn all that cutting, grinding, bending, extending, lowering, good looking stuff, you know, the Super Builds!!! ...RM

Jerry's olive Toronado is getting ever closer. I'll run the buffer over it one more time and see what shakes out. Considering what we started with she looks decent. I was out of medium compound so I subbed with Mother's mag polish...LOL...works GREAT for a pre-cut!

Win also sent some semi bods in need of rear guide hanger repair. One hammered and broken, the other just loose. The broken chunks were rebonded, allowed to cure, then reset in its original location. The loose one was knifed out and reset. For a good bond the plating had to be removed at the bond site in both cases. For added support the drop hanger was tied to the rear of the mudflap on a vertical line with a near invisible bead of goop.
They're rock solid now and the guides will snap in and out with no fear of tearing the hangers out.

More to come:wave:
Hey Bill - I still need to get you the info on the wheelie bars I inquired about on HOWL, but now that I've seen your work on the Toronado(what was the problem with it?) and olive drab Charger, I need to know if you can fix my orange TJet Charger. She was cut according to the old TJet Hop-up Kit booklet - big square cut-outs in the rear! That and some glue damage to the hood. I'd like to know what you can do with it, if anything. Thanks,
thunderjetgene

Has a good rake on it too! Any luck scrounging up a new meatloaf pan? nd

Nuther...Not in Hand yet...Got the cross hairs on a scrap-lot with the right doodads.

Randy: Thanx! Very kind thoughts. Tell your crew I cant afford 'em and they'd have to take a savage cut in pay. Besides they are used to that spiffy state of the art shop and would need to have a tetanus booster to work in my dungeon.

Gene: Jerry's Toro had smashed A pillars, a grenaded rear post, split front post, hole in the roof, and lightly ragged rear wells.

you are the restore KING Bill!

Been a busy coupla weeks in the real world. My head bolts were over torqued and there was little doubt I was gonna toss a gasket if I didnt kill something. With this in mind I hid away my NOS t-jet stuff.

Being the proud new owner of Wins cop car I settled in for some mayhem. First things first I set aside the beautifully prepared body cuz the chips were gonna fly.

A-dubs tall final ratio has always been a problem on my short track and was even more so with the snazzy, taller vincent rims that Jerry had installed. For a warm up I knocked the weeble cluster assembly out and converted it to a nine tooth set up. Straight forward nut and bolt stuff, ya just gotta ream the cluster journal in the chassis pan to loosen things up. Lapped things up, tweaked the shoes, and she laps reliably and with tires afire she slides the turns predictably at 22 volts!

First order of business was chasing down that darn hotrod Lincoln.:thumbsup:

I headed for the bushes.

No secret that any tolerances on the A-dub chassis were lost on the boat ride. Wins cop car chassis was fairly decent, but when I went scrounging through what few dubs I had things looked pretty gruesome.

I was still in a Jack the Ripper frenzy and needed to quench my thirst fer blood and guts. As I watched the hypno wheel action of the gear rack it sent me a sublimminal message, "Cut me!" :freak:

Blew the gearboard apart. After reaming out the holes a bit pressed in some bush. Same for the lower arm hole. Unfortunately there's not enough meat in chassis for the cluster journal to be bushed... 'til I finger some thing else out.
While the dremel was still hot I bushed the rear axle holes to complete the kill. Kept the leggy final ratio cuz it has smaller profile stock tires.

Wings up good and runs out great! The standard buzzing clatter is gone fer good along with the intermittent harmonic buzzes when a gear would go askew. Gear spacing and mesh still is far from optimum, but it's adequate.

Ya might ask why wasted two hours of time polishing carp...?

I'm still not sure. :p

Ya might ask why wasted two hours of time polishing carp...?

I'm still not sure. :p

Bill,

I use Turtle Wax on mine....har


http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g282/bobhch/aacarp1.jpg

Bob...Wax on...wax off...zilla

This weeks pile is a wacky mess.

First off the Turdebaker was still pretty rough on it's factory skins-n-rims. Those tires cut from WWll sirplus army boots just dont cut it. The ride height leaves a lot to be desired as well. There's quite a bit of post to play with on both ends. Rather than dropping axles and going ultra slam I chose to dremelize my way down to a mediocre dump.

Pruned back some baby Ansens and stretched some PVT t-jet sillies over them for a good snug fit. Lil by lil I nibbled the posts down to a look I could stomach. Typically the gigantor AW glass got in the way pretty quick. A pretty big slab was removed from both ends to get it all tucked in.

She slides the turns more predictably and not near as tippy at the limit.

Pic 2 May seem odd but it makes perfect sense to me. Two slate splitty Vettes and a donor for bones. A white Charger originally with a hole in the roof and hood now finished in 600. A blue Willys whose rear wells were gnawed by a sabre toothed beaver now two skims into renovation. Flipped on it's top is an XKE in standard blue from Splitposter. Two thirds perfect....one third extra crispy LOL....more later. Started another AFX A model street rod, this time in bright yellow.

Pic 3 Is a row of screw post repairs. Split, short, and grenaded. EVERY darn one of them! First pass is completed on about nine of them

Pic 4 Something for the bulldog. Finally got around to buffing up an old blue gonad I had set aside cuz she wuz a keeper. Anyone got a good rear bumper?

This mess actually looks like it will have a happy ending. Enter two Slate splitty vettes. One with a gruesome roof repair via CA and a chunk of the front right fender missing. The other with shaved screw posts and trimmed rear wells.

Enter the donor car with chainsawed sides that's been hanging around for a year or so. While it's roof was marred it was usable for a graft and the screw posts were perfect. The trickey part is that the vette front fenders can be cross cornered from front to rear to execute the repair of the trimmed rear wells. :woohoo:

Note: This can also be done with T-jet camaros and firebirds, as well as many others.;) All donor parts were snipped out and the rest was cooked up into blueberry goop.:p

The roof graft from hell was zooked out with the dremel cutoff and a skin graft was shaped from the donor roof and bonded in. Also lengthened the posts on the other car while I was farting around. The wells will be fit after the posts are set and finished so that a chassis can be mounted. No point in hanging quarters until you know where the wheels will be ...LOL!

As a rule I never precook rare cars and this is a case and point of why. Had I cooked the donor vette down to sauce last year when it crossed my mind, I would not have all the nifty skin grafts in hand to execute the required repairs.

Still a ways to go but the icky graft is done and enough chunks were saved to restore two from three. That's a win around here!

awesome job bill!! :thumbsup:

Wes

Soon as I figure out what sort of front end will work here I'm goin' lookin' for John Boy...I will not make the same mistake as Falfa....the spindles will not be torched.

This yellow bucket showed up in a turd lot... actually the reason I bought it.
The dummy motor is a loaner from another project, but it's kinda growing on me. Were it to be used the rad would have to be altered to get the ride height raked out properly.

This version of the coupe will be similar to the black Max however it will use the rear cleat system from Project X for a rear chassis hanger rather than a conventional screwpost like the Max. This will allow for a lower overall body height like Project X.

I generally like to get the annoying stuff out of the way, so seen here with a slice out of the roof and the forward cowl mods roughed out.

Split sent this strange XKE on my fix it or cook it plan....I chose the former for now, hahahahahaha!

From the wipers back she's near perfect save for some minor post damage in the rear. The front is another matter. Two bullet holes in the hood...these were usually put in as oiling holes back in the day...they missed on the first shot! Bumper bracket and front valence were AWOL. Screw post blown open and the front wells were trimmed...while the rear wells are perfect. :freak:

First things first I always clean out the screw posts and drive a screw in, then get a rough skim on them right away. Same with the bullet holes on the hood. Without exception all through and through damage gets the first skim on the bottom and rather heavy. This seems to help with sag and shrinking later.

Todays sacraficial victim was a toasty old blue Dino which gave up it's rear fenders to create the valence grafts and one door to make the front bumper bracket. Sorta stalling on this til the underneath stuff sets up a little more and can be profiled and finished off in 600. At that point we'll chunk some more of Dino up and fill the front wells.

Wish I had thought to take a before pic....sometimes I fergit.:(

I love logging on a seeing Bills name in the Model murdering thread. I just know its gonna be something amazing and as always Bill did not let me down cool work Billiam...


Dave

That's some nice slot car fixin' Bill. nuther

Super Saver Bill is doing it again....turning scrap into rolling beauties. Way to go Bill.

Bill is a rock star!

Bill is a rock star!



I just had the most horrid vision of a pile of old chubby slot guys tossing theier boxers at Bill while he melted plastic.. My eyes my eyes...


Dave

I just had the most horrid vision of a pile of old chubby slot guys tossing theier boxers at Bill while he melted plastic.. My eyes my eyes...Dave

After all the holey underwear stories we've had recounted for us during Wed nite Chat??... Payback's a bitch eh? nd

I just had the most horrid vision of a pile of old chubby slot guys tossing theier boxers at Bill while he melted plastic.. My eyes my eyes...


Dave

haha Coach and ND, I see it, the fans strain against the cordoned off stage, Bill strolls onto the stage in long robes and shades-spotlight on. He throws back the robe with accompanying guitar riffs and thunderous applause, tosses the shades and raises a bottle of Testors 3052 to the adoring throng.... Grown men swoon.

Well, maybe not, but I am in awe.

I hazard a guess that Bill would prefer boxers NIP, not "minty" LOL!

The speed with which this current posting derailed is breathtaking. Too bad our lil cars dont go that fast!

I will have to agree with Nuther that VJ blinding Coach seems a fitting punishment for one who has often left me clawing my corneas and dragging barb wire between my ears to try and erase some nighmare-ishly indelible mental image.

Jeff the ever sensible Split Poster is correct... I prefer freshies over minties.
While minties make great shop rags I'm fairly certain that Coach has already blasted the last vestiges of any absorbent cotton from his skivvies leaving only the non absorbent polyester... thus rendering them useless.

Sorry to disappoint but I'm more of a Pinball Wizard (blind, deaf , and dumb) than a rock star. Truthfully I do my best work in my Snoopy pajamas, Bayhogg t-shirt and some Muddy Waters or the like on the squawker.

None the less I thank you all for your kind sentiments; misguided and twisted as they may be. After all ....it takes one to know one....and you guys are all aces! ;)

Bill is a rock star!

Just a fun nudge by Jimmy and look what happens to this thread...LOL

Nice work Mr. Snoopy pants Pinball Wizard guy.

Bob...Coach has gas Phtttttttttttttttttttttttth...zilla

Nice work Mr. Snoopy Pants

:lol: Too Funny!! nd

Ya might ask why wasted two hours of time polishing carp...?

I'm still not sure. :p

Because you can!
(Why would you need a real reason?)
Besides, I have always wondered how a JL/AW chassis would work if you took ALL of the slop out of it...
(And one day I may even try to find out...) ;)
Scott

The speed with which this current posting derailed is breathtaking. Too bad our lil cars dont go that fast! ....and you guys are all aces! ;)

Bill didn't you spell aces wrong? :freak::wave::lol::jest::jest::lol:

Honestly Scott they run like a sloppy old t-jet.....hahahahahaha! I'm fairly certain I stole some of this from your posting of last year and expanded on the idea.

The center axis of the gear plate bores seem to be a touch wider so the mesh isnt optimum, but it is far superior to the toothless nag gears supplied by AW. Replacing the gears DOES eliminate that wierd harmonic that occurs at a certain point when the gear rack "defibrillates" and makes all those noises of fluttering agony.

As my technology is one step above Fred Flintstone so there was no real measurement/blueprinting going on. I just whacked up some bushings, pressed them in, and reamed/dressed them. I got lucky and maintained some semblance of verticality for the armature shaft. The pinion bore was another story. Many seem to be askew from the git go with the bottom not lining up with the top. Nor is there enough meat to bush or re-align the pinion journal in the chassis. Aw fudge!....so thats what I did...just fudged it over carefully to relieve the bind.

I had some minor consternation over the idea but when I though about some of the ellipsoid holes in some of my "old jets" that run like a singer sewing machine...I just blew it off and went for it

While the bores were opened up to accept the bushings, I did leave them rather snug. This caused some visual distortion of the immediate chassis material surrounding the bores. Very apparent in the rear frame rails and the comm pit. Not so much on the gear plate. Hold an AW chassis up to a light bulb some time....there will be places where you can see yer finger on the other side LOL.

I chose not to do the front axle holes. I run on ancient slop and doink ya" track at home so a little give/roll up front is actually a good thing...travel is an underated concept especially when yer running lasagna noodles.

Perhaps the biggest benefit to the entire conversion is the increase in the flywheel effect from the heavier gears. Equally helpful was closing up the bores in the gear plate which are humongously oversized. The end result was a much smoother running AW car. The nine tooth is far more useable from my perspective. While I like the old twelve tooth it is really only useable on my short track with stock height tires.

Superior coast and track manners are always a cool result. All in all a more mechanical feel.

Superior coast and track manners are always a cool result. All in all a more mechanical feel.

I think you've pretty much ruined it's value as an "adult collectible" now. ;) nd

I think you've pretty much ruined it's value as an "adult collectible" now. ;) nd

Surley you :jest:...

Scott

By straightening up the gear plate vibration it has no value as an "Adult" collectable. :p

Bill I looked at your project X pictures and was wondering if you sold the metal fronts or do they have to be custom made? I've been attempting make a dragster out of a TYCO Ford. My chassis of choice was going to be an afx specialty chassis. I was going to put either two or three motors in the front and attempt to add an interior. I also noticed that you have cut down the back rims. Do you have any suggestions on how to successfully complete my project?

SJR, each brass prothesis is built to suit the individual car/body. Project X is probably the most use friendly because it retains the lower frontal chassis pan...IE: the shoe hangers! Never had the occassion to sell one or really given it any thought. I just start with the front axle and the rest is on a wing and a prayer. It all gets sorted out as I move along with the build.

As for wheels, I often cut or bore them as required. The wheel is mounted to an axle and chucked into a cordless drill. A hobby knife is used as a gouge and the rims are lathed as required. They are dressed with sandpaper. The rear wheels on project X are AFX specialty fronts....aka baby ansens. The rear flange is lathed off and the center is bored to fit a t-jet axle. Very simple to do once you get going and only takes a few minutes.

Chassis selection is always dominated by the t-jet for me for two reasons. They are rather meaty in the area ahead of the front magnet housing which allows me free reign to drill index and locater holes for frame rails and radius rods. Equally important is the vertical front index pins of the gear plate. This allows one to buck off the chassis and still retain the frontal gearplate locators. The AFX platform is too wide with the basket handles and always requires some form of reinforcement should you remove them to slim it down. The beveled tooth front gearplate indexing is very limiting in that one can only cut things back so far before things start wiggling around. Ya might think thats no big deal but from a styling perspective it pushes things out way ahead of any usable cowl seam and makes things near impossible to cover/hide with body work. Same for the four gear. That extra gear pushes the front magnet housing (the wide part) well out into the see 'um zone further complicating the body work dilemma. One look at a factory Model A specialty will tell the story, "Cowl too narrow and chassis too wide".

Which Tyco Ford are you referring too for your project? Early Tyco model A....or maybe the later 1/64 version....perhaps a Vicky?

Naturally the bigger version A or the Vicky will provide you more wiggle room.
Designed to fit a Tyco pan after all. Much depends on what dummy motor(s) you will use and how you will configure them. Dummy motor questions are usually right up there on my list of early decisions.

Dunno if you ever saw the "Altered St-eights" but it is a little more indicative of what the limits are of the small bodied A. It was a bit longer but I pared it back so it could navigate 9" radius turns. Might even get around to painting it this summer...LOL.

COOL Bill!

Stop it Bill !!! Ya killing me!!! I go on vacation and you post all these unbelievable builds and repairs. I finally get over the Black Max, and now you start a Milner, give me a break, let me soak it in!!! Fantastic work as always. Thanks for posting, show me moooooore!!! RM

Thanx guys!

Yer positive karma is always a shot in the arm.

Been looking at that yellow bucket with some malice...Those quarter windows might be on deathrow. I may yet fill them in if I come up with a few more chunks of bright yellow.

The yaller bucket's splices and filler goop were made from 2/3 of an AFX fiddy fie that "Micyou" kindly sent me over a year ago! Actually the leftovers from his nifty Bronco with a 55 chebbie nose and grill project.

Nuthin' goes to waste around here except braincells.