Over the last 23 or so years I have been vacuforming slot car bodies mostly for my local guys. I've sent some off to England, Switzerland, Italy and even Japan to be raced. Some designs have been good, some not so good. In 2006 I sold out my vacuformer and all of my bucks because I needed money to finish my HR degree. Well, I got my degree in May of 2007 and have been thinking of getting back into vacuforming since. I had plans to make another vacuformer and start early next year but my accident put an end to those plans.

Then the guy who bought me out, Greg, aka Alfa1 here on these boards, offered to return to me, at NO COST mind you, all of my original molds and my airbox I built in 1985, so that I could start vacuforming again. I accepted, man did I accept, I cannot express to you guys the feeling it gave me to accept. Some of those molds are 20 years old, I could never reproduce them. Something this week or next all of my old AMG Racing bucks will be back in business. Thanks to Greg.

But along with the old stuff will be some new stuff. One of the things I've been working on over the last few days was a long wheelbase (Tyco 440X2 pan chassis) dirt modified buck. Recently Mike King hooked me up with a few of the HotLapRacin' dirt mods made in ABS that fit the Tyco chassis (which you can get for JUST $3 each!!!). The cars are very interesting and brutish in design. These cars will make up the "loaner" part of my racing programs.

But for me, and anyone else interested, I worked up this buck.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/MVC-020S.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/MVC-019S.jpg

Now, Dirt Modifieds are a body with a lot of area, so this buck may look oversized but it's not. It is build to allow just the edges of the rear wheels to stick out of the wheel wells, and to sit low with a raked stance on the Tyco car. it can be trimmed for a short wheelbase too but my rules will stipulate that this class run the longer front end.

I should have first pop's out in about 2-3 weeks. I have an apprentice who I will be teaching vacuforming and will be working with me in making my cars. And I can yell at her all I want and it won't matter. Believe me, I've done it all her life.

Pete, I'm glad to hear you're back in biz! Greg is an awesome guy - your story is just further proof. :thumbsup:

Over the past few weeks, some of us have gotten to know your "apprentice" through the forum - you got a great daughter there. Keep on slotting, Pete! :hat:

Thanks. She's already told me that I should offer ready-painted and decaled cars only, and I will be offering race ready cars too. Too soon to say when but I'd say mid January for sure.

This definitely GREAT news Pete!! I've seen just a few of the old cars you had and all of them were in the usual Pete-detail - lots of great detail and auto scale realism! That's what I loved about the cars you build and repaint. Can't wait to see the Dirt Modified completed on the chassis - I can only imagine what you will have put together!

And yes, you have a wonderful "apprentice" so be extra nice to her! She's obviously Daddy's Girl! ;)

PD2:thumbsup:

Well I've been home roughly 10 hours and have really over exerted myself I think. But I feel good, I got a hot home cooked meal, took a shower and sat on my couch and had Smokey lay on my chest and purr himself to sleep.

Here is an early shot of the dirt modified. I had ordered .015 PETG, I should have ordered .010. So the first 10 cars (the first batch of approx. 30) will be thicker than I had wanted. But when heated and drawn .015 pulls down to roughly .010 so they're just heavy duty, not heavy. When I draw from .010 they pull down to .007, so the next batch will be much thinner. Sarah and I pulled 12 cars tonight, 2 were ruined trying to get heat and time right, 1 more is sub-standard but 9 were perfect. I have two more packs of plastic that I can get 24 more cars out of if they all come out.

Anyway, here's the Juan Pablo Montoya Juicy Fruit car cut, painted and mounted, but without decals until probably next week.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/MVC-026S-1.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/MVC-027S-1.jpg

The car is very low slung but can be trimmed at any height. This example is low. You'll notice the ample sides that will welcome Patto's peal and stick decals easily, as a matter of fact that is one of the reasons I went with a longer wheelbase car. Painting wasn't as hard as I had anticipated but the front roof supports needed to be painted on the outside of the body because it was too narrow for my current paint brushes to throw a line in. Also I'm trying to paint with my left hand still in a brace (and I am left handed) so it's not perfect. Hopefully by the end of the year I'll have gotten some new brushes and honed my painting a bit. The $3 Tyco pan chassis is the prefered mount but you will need to Dremel off the body mounts to get it mounted with velcro. Figuring the body will cost about $2 when available, a $3 chassis and some decals, a complete racer can be had for less than $10.

The first three cars for me will be Juan Pablo Montoya's Juicy Fruit Dodge, Matt Kenseth's DeWalt Ford and Tony Stewart's new team, the Old Spice #14 Chevy. I will also be doing a pink #77 for Sarah. Other cars planned for my fleet will be Lagano's #02 Home Depot, a #44 UPS Toyota, #55 NAPA Toyota, #1 Bass Pro Shops Chevy, #07 Jack Daniels Chevy, #6 Auto Club Ford, #99 Office Depot Ford, #12 Alltrel Dodge, and a #2 Miller Lite Dodge. With Sarah's car and my personal car that makes 14 planned for the spring.

How do the cars handle? Imagine a polymer X-Traction with hard tires. Lots of horsepower, not a whole bunch of traction. This is how I wanted it. And by the way, the track is AWESOME. There are track vehicles on it now that I didn't know about, and some 30 fir trees (Christmas trees) all the way down the back straight and outside turn 2. If you know of the palm trees on the back straight at Homestead, this is Sequoia Speedways version. I'll have to post some pics of it tomorrow.

All good news Pete!

Nice to hear you are finally home.

Awesome Pete! :thumbsup:

Glad you are feeling better and things are getting a little bit more back to normal. :)

WOOHOO!!! Pete's in da house (at his home!)!! :woohoo:

Glad you hear you blew that popsicle stand Pete! Welcome home! Now this is just like the ankle time bro - gonna have to take it easy or your going to have to do the Tour de Hospital again...so don't over exhert yourself.

Car looks great Pete! I can't wait to see this car and the rest of the fleet with their tampos on! Have lots of fun!

PD2:thumbsup:

Back home, recuperating and with the best medicine available!! Sarah and Smokey (and :rolleyes: maybe the white cat too??)!! Add in a double dose of slot cars and you are on the road to recovery!! Great news!! Just take it easy for now..don't overdo it!! I understand you've had plenty of time to think about what you want to do once home, but don't try to do it all on the first few days!! As for the bodies, they look great :thumbsup:and I just might have to get me some for Christmas!! It'll give the kids something new to mess with during the vacation!! Glad to hear your back in the driver's seat!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

UtherJoe

After testing one cut "low down" I tested one cut a little higher and to be honest the higher cut car seemed to handle better.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/MVC-028S-1.jpg

Here's an unpainted version sitting on a chassis. The higher version sits .25" higher at the roofline. It also makes the cars look more realistic.

After testing one cut "low down" I tested one cut a little higher and to be honest the higher cut car seemed to handle better.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/MVC-028S-1.jpg

Here's an unpainted version sitting on a chassis. The higher version sits .25" higher at the roofline. It also makes the cars look more realistic.

I thought dirt modifieds were lower to the ground? Back when I ran RC I had an SK Modified - cool car to put together, but never did get to run it on the dirt oval. Car ended up getting modified into a drag racer. HAHAHA!!

Lookin good!

PD2:thumbsup:

It's been really foggy the last couple of days so getting good pictures with my old digital camera hasn't been easy. All of our indoor lights are those CFF bulbs and give off a really strange light. But here are the first two in decals:

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/MVC-046S-1.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/MVC-047S-1.jpg

These are Sarah and Yoshi's cars, her's is a pepto-pink color, the Dave Marcus car is dark green. The highest point on the roofline is just 7/8th of an inch so it's not like they're monster trucks, it just give them a more realistic height. Height difference between my first cut-out car and these is more like just under 2/10th of an inch, not a quarter. I'm probably in the minority of those who like something that looks real over something that may be more aerodynamic. That was one of the reasons I like 1/32nd scale so much, I just don't have the room or money to make it worthwhile.

As far as being lower or higher I shot for something looking less like a pavement car by giving it a slightly higher stance.

http://i3.ebayimg.com/01/s/000/77/52/944d_1.JPG

Some of the guys I did cars for down in Bakersfield are coming up tomorrow for the 49er-Cowboy game, we may do some racing and I may see if they want to participate in a series with these cars. I tell you, the 440X2 without the traction magnets is a blast on 12 volts. I'm going to get half a dozen or so A++ draws to send to Greg to see if he would be interested in doing a resin cast.

Hi Pete I'd be happy to cast it,only need one good one uncut,its so cool your working in the hobby again and that you have willing help.
best regards, greg

Greg, let me draw a really good one sometime next week and I'll get it off to you. This thicker plastic throws a small artifact on the back end but on the exterior. If you were to cast resin inside my drawn body and remove it you wouldn't get that artifact. This only happens with thicker plastic or lower temps. I can't heat this stuff beyond 280 degrees or it bubbles, I've been drawing it at 260 degrees/20 seconds when it begins to sag. Of course...I haven't done this in a while either, I've only done a dozen and I need to get back in practice.

They look great all decaled up and race ready Pete! I like them! And actually, the lines do not look bad and to me, look very close to the real height and lines of the real pic you posted - about as close as anyone would get! Fantastic job for a guy who has been out of the hospital for all of 3 days!

I too like the detail and scale realism of the 1/32 cars, but I've backed off significantly in my purchase and racing of the scale - I've been purchasing HO and 1/43 more. The 1/43's give you the detail and smaller foot print. I'm really excited and can't wait for the Mega-G's and the future of those bodies! Ought to really bring more scale realism and detail to the HO ranks!

Have fun today at the game and race!

PD2:thumbsup:

Sarah made a point to mount both that first body and her car and really the difference is the butcher job on the rear wheel wells. The cars are nearly the same height within a millimeter. It's weird how something like that would make it "look" lower when it wasn't.

Chili is in the crock pot, Dr Peppers are on ice, slot cars are warming up in the pits. 25 minutes to game time. Go Cowboys.

Well wasn't that a nice welcome home present for ya Pete?!? Da Boys won! How did you do in racing?

PD2:thumbsup:

Controversy erupted, pit crews fought and the spectators littered the track with bottles and cans. On my track all scoring and timing is done with mag-reed switches under the starting line. Without the traction magnets the 440X2 cars still trigger the computer, something XT's and T-Jets wont do due to the placement of their magnets. However when a car spins and is pushed over the line by the second place car, it would not trigger it's own counter. So does it still win even though it crossed first?

On the last lap I spun in turn 3 and my buddy pushed me all the way around, sideways, across the start finish line. Essentially my car crossed first but it did not trigger it's lap counter. If this had been NASCAR I would have won. But Section 2, paragraphs 2 of the old CCRA rules says "A car must obtain a win while under it's own power by crossing the start/finish line ahead of each and every other car in the contest". And of course Mark had a 15 year old copy of MY old rules in his transporter to reference.

So even with a promoters objection, I lost. I did finish second as Sarah was several laps down, but I threw away what was a really nice, close race that had much of it's outcome in pit strategy and great driving. And I have included that same rule in the new rulebook for 2009.

So, are you gonna switch to Hoosiers?

Hey Pete! Glad your back on the track again!

Rich

Soon, next Patto's order I'll be getting Hoosier tire decals.

Speaking of Patto's, got the 3 cars done I ordered the decals for.

Tony Stewart's new ride for 2009.

http://pages.google.com/edit/sequoiaspeedway/MVC-053S.JPG/MVC-053S-large.JPG

Juan Pablo Montoya

http://pages.google.com/edit/sequoiaspeedway/MVC-054S.JPG/MVC-054S-large.JPG

Matt Kenseth

http://pages.google.com/edit/sequoiaspeedway/MVC-059S.JPG/MVC-059S-large.JPG

And this is Mark Champions rather generic looking h.m. elliott inc. sponsored car.

http://pages.google.com/edit/sequoiaspeedway/MVC-058S.JPG/MVC-058S-large.JPG

For now I'm racing Kenseth'scar but I will be doing my own scheme sometime in the future. This makes a total of 6 painted, race ready cars.

...and this is Yoshi's proxy car that will be driven by either myself or Jim Hicks jr.

http://pages.google.com/edit/sequoiaspeedway/MVC-0566S.JPG/MVC-0566S-large.JPG

Man Pete,
Those bodies, decals and paint all look sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rules are rules my friend! Actually, it is a good rule and glad you carried it over.

The cars look awesome! I love the Tony Stewart car! That thing looks great!! I really hope that Tony does good away from JGR this coming year. He should - he's owned an RC company, a dirt racing team, not to mention his time in F1. Surely he will be able to take his new team some place. Looks like he has some good guys signing up too.

Glad you had a great time bro!

PD2:thumbsup:

Finally got some sun today, took pics of my Kenseth Dirt Mod show car that I made for Mike King.

http://pages.google.com/edit/sequoiaspeedway/MVC-068F.JPG/MVC-068F-full.JPG

http://pages.google.com/edit/sequoiaspeedway/MVC-070F.JPG/MVC-070F-full.JPG

These are Patto's peel and sticks, but the PETG plastic is so smooth that I had to clear coat it before applying so they would have a surface to hold onto. The CoT decals look great, I'm doing a show car from my Stewart and JPM sheet for Mike as well. And before anyone asks, yes, I plan on doing a junior car too, just not immediately.

Glad to see your getting back in a slot groove

for those that dont know, i ended up with Pete World Gran Prix bodies.

i hosted my first official race on 11/22/08 (I beat MartyB!!!!) and one of the classes we ran was G-Jets on Pete's indy bodies.

thanks again pete!:wave:

No problem. This is what the hobby is all about.

MKing,

You definitely got some sweet cars there! Race them good! Keep us posted on your races too - always good to hear how the cars are running compared to the races Pete ran.

Pete,

Cars still look good - sunlight or no sunlight! HA!

PD2:thumbsup:

I got my Christmas present early this year, a new digital camera. I'm still playing with it trying to learn it. I have a Yashica SLR film camera that is all manual format that is easier than this thing. It also shoots video, so I'll be working on a short film about vacuforming soon too.

Merry Early Christmas!! How to videos are always a winner here!! From what I've read, clear resins are nasty to work with, so vacuforming lexan will have to be the way to go for windshields. I'll be looking foward to this video!! Your dirt mod's are awesome looking and I'll be in line for some when they are available. Great stuff!!!

UtherJoe

Pete, will you be doing any bodies for the mega-G chassis?

We already have Roger Corrie, Gary Fast, Andy Abbott and as far as I know Richard Picard on board, but the more the merrier.

Deane, not sure. I generally build a car up on a chassis as a roller so I make sure the wheels and tires all look right and there are no rubs. Case in point; the Copper Classic Spinter.

http://sequoiaspeedway.googlepages.com/copperclassic.JPG/copperclassic-large.JPG

What would the subject matter be? Daytona prototype? I'm not ruling it out but I'd like to have an idea.

Joe, easiest way to make a mold for the windshiled is use a clay that will air dry hard, and push it in from the inside to form where the window would be. Let it harden completely then you can do a simple heat of the plastic and stretch it over the clay. No vacuformer needed, trim and install. My vacuformer covers about a 4" X 6" area so I could do two HO cars side by side. I generally only do one at a time for quality control.

Exactly what I was thinking on the clay part, never occured to me to not need a vacuformer!! Even easier!! Thank you!!

UtherJoe