Low Budget Race Team

[Ralphthe3rd]

Project Cars. The '59 JL Pullback Corvette is an on-going project to convert to T-Jet powered and not look like a 4x4 (it's 3/4 finished). The '63 Galaxie is a recent Barn Find that arrived today !...looks like it was a Race Car :auto-driving: at one time. It will be restored to almost factory condition...I hope :think:


The Galaxie Just Arrived, didn't even knock the Cobwebs off yet !

The 'Vette just came out of the Paint booth yesterday, but still haven't decided what color to paint the coves(I was thinking Gold?), and haven't decided what interior color yet (any suggestions?).

The 'Vette NEEDS the Chrome Trim Re-applied as well.

The '63 Ford will get restored(hopefully) to stock condition, and lose it's racing heritage. Will be used for Parade Laps only after it's done.

[Ralphthe3rd]

My White Goop jar is full :handgestures-thumbup: , and I've already begun the slow, tedious task, of building up the rear wheel wells on the Galaxie, Free Form Style...It's harder this way, but I have no choice, and have done it several times before on other cars with very good results.
Speaking of the Galaxie, The seller said it didn't run, but it does NOW ! ..it was just really dirty under the hood. And nothing needed replaced, except for the rear tires. But there was one BIG Surprise, and that was...a Very different Armature, that I never saw before. I dunno if the top plate actually went with the Solid Rivet Chassis, and probably didn't. The Top plate was marked with a Pat. # so it may have been later than the rest of the car. BUT, getting back to the Arm, it was almost an X-Mas tree style, but had two Red Windings and one Green, and Get This, the Lam Tips were light GREEN :o ! And I think the tips are the same color as on Mean Green arms ? Here's another surprise , when I Ohm'd the poles, all Three came up as a straight 8 Ohm ! And btw, the brushes were the Factory Silver type, like the Wild Ones etc used. Performance wise, it runs just a little better than an average 16 ohm T-Jet, but after a few laps, it runs kinda HOT :( I tried swapping in stronger magnets (it had very weak- Black/Black) and also swapped in Wizzard Brushes, but there was No dif in performance or running temps after the swap. ***Does anyone have any ideas why it runs Hot ? FYI- everything in the drive train spins freely, and the car coasts very well.

[dreinecke]

Love the Galaxie! Is the arm going bad?

[Ralphthe3rd]

Work Progressing slowly on the Galaxie (Body off frame) Resto. The rear quarters are still being filled in with (Goop)welding, before the grinding begins. The Corvette is almost finished, with Chrome trim added and interior done. And the Old Cheetah is having some work done as well, keeping the boys busy this winter ;)

[hoganracing]

Wow, Ralph! The rear wheel well work really looks good. From here it looks like you are well on the road to mastering the goop process. Keep up the good work.

Patrick

[Ralphthe3rd]

Thanks Guys :) I'm slow but steady- lol :lol:
Patrick, I've restored about 10 Rear wells on T-Jets, and they all came out pretty good. BUT, this '63 Galaxie will be by far, the hardest to restore, because of the shape and lip. This one may not turn out as good as the others :|

[Ralphthe3rd]

From the FWIW dept., a Friend on Facebook, wanted to see my collection of HO Motorcycles, especially the Micro Machine bikes from Galoob. Well.....

The Eight bikes in the Foreground are the original Micro Machines, that I bought when they first came out around 25 years ago. The Red Harley Dresser is missing the Black Leather-clad sitting rider, seen elsewhere in this thread sitting on the XR750. All the other bikes seen in these pix are Hallmark Mini Harley X-mas Ornaments....And Bert also wanted to see my layout, well, here's a portion of it....

[Ralphthe3rd]

Ok, it's been awhile since I posted anything, so here's a few additions to my stable. First off, the Red '71 Corvette(AW Body) is sitting atop my New T-Dash chassis, this chassis is still being sorted out. The old Tyco '40 coupe just came to me from my friend Brad, who is getting out of HO Slotcars, and sent me 4 of his. FYI-the(Glow in the Dark)body already had the fenders removed, I just modded the grill & nose, and added a Faux motor(to fill in the empty space somewhat) and some numbers. This car runs on a Tyco 440minus2 (No-Mag)wide pan chassis, yes, I removed the traction magnets for my Tyco 440 Class. The Pinto is a Resin body copied from an old Ideal TCR Modified body, it rides atop a Tyco 440minus2 (No-Mag)Narrow chassis, and yes, I painted this one. The two Tycos ain't pretty, but they are fun to drive without Traction magnets :)

[dreinecke]

Great stuff. I have to say though that I LOVE that Pinto!

[Ralphthe3rd]

Not much posting going on lately, oh well. Anyway, I like Antique cars too- besides Customs and Race Cars, and these are some of my faves in 1/64 scale. The two Red (top up)roadsters and Vicky are old Tycos, and the Black 5 window in AFX Specialty. And believe it or not , they're all pretty good runners too :)

[dreinecke]

I had that tellow one as well as the same car in black. I think those were the longer AFX chassis if I recall. Nice old tin!

[Ralphthe3rd]

[dge467]

Nice! Some of my favorites.

[Ralphthe3rd]

Finished up a fairly Simple Street/Strip Build for a customer today. What was different about it was, the chassis was built around the body, which was slightly different. The Body itself was a very nice Resin Cast '70 Olds 442 that was a little on the small side, more like the Scale that MEV uses, as was *marked as HO Detroit on the underside of the hood. Anyway, although the body "looked" nice, it had several issues when trying to fit it to a T-Jet Chassis. First off, the front screw post was molded a millimeter or two too far rearward and wouldn't allow the body to even sit on the chassis. Secondly, the front wheelwells did NOT line up with either the SWB or LWB positions of the standard T-Jet Chassis, but instead, the Truck axle location lined up perfectly. Soooo... some body work on the underside was in order.And thirdly, if I was going to use the Truck hole for the axle, it would sit really low in the front, BUT need Tall front tires, and when using tall fronts, the tire would contact the underside of the hood area and that would need ground out and clearanced for the tires. Anyway, all that work was performed and the body finally fit the chassis. As for the chassis, it was NOS and we used a 6 ohm mean green arm with Wizzard brushes, and a standard 9t cluster gear, we used a lightened Brass Idler gear, and DASH Pick-up shoes with AFX PU springs. We used a shorter guide pin that had the hole countersunk/beveled and a tapered flathead screw was used to give clearance for the low front end. And here is the results. I might also add this Build runs really good, and handles the curves alot better than I expected -given the narrow front axle used.

[dge467]

Very nice Ralph!