Starting to mod after all this time..few questions..

Rusty Monday, 12/18/2017

Been a member here for some time.Hosted a few races a while back and saw just how fast some of the great builds here are..Tried modding  a car or two with no luck some time back..Been reading,learning(I hope) and now plan on doing some mods..Picked up a 17' Ford GT,seemed like a good candidate,low and wide.Does have the plastic chassis though..Ran it down the strip against some of my stock fast cars.It was to say the least a total dawg...Took her apart,changed out the wheels and axles for some FTA's and added a little weight.Hey big improvement. Now for a few questions..What is the weight limit on most races,where is a good place to get lead weight,and is JB wield the most common used deal?I'm using shoo glue because that is what we had on hand..I've been using scrape lead found here and there..You have to form it to use in these little rides..Sanding the tires,do it with a dremel?Does this help much??. I'm sure most of these questions have been dealt with on other post but thought this would be a good opportunity to condense some of this stuff for newbies and even the ol' dudes like me..

Thanks and hope you all have a great Christmas!

Rusty


Discussion

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LeagueofSpeed 12/18/17

Sounds Great!!!! 57g seems to be the Mendoza Line in most races...with some variance due to different scales. I use both JB Weld and JB Quick and I get lead and metal weights from my local hobby shop...then powdered graphite. Also, sanding the wheels and polishing the axels is a must....you can clearly see the dimple on the wheels where they come out of the mold, and it's 99.9% of the time raised up higher than the wheel surface. I'm going to post a video of my wheel sanding technique over the Holidays...but I start with 400 grit and finish with 800 grit...but the video/tutorial will make it all clear how I do it. Looking forward to racing with and against you in the New Year....Happy Holidays...Peace-League of Speed.

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72_Chevy_C10 12/18/17

Hey Rusty! Glad to see you back on here! To answer a couple questions...JB Quick is probably your best bet...a good source of lead are HO train weights (some even come with adhesive backing)...I like running 57 gram races generally (57 gram comes from being the metric 2 ounces)...I'm still kinda on the fence about wheel sanding - it kinda depends on the wheels...I'd rather turn them on a lathe, myself, but not everyone has accessential to a lathe.

My best advice to to just start building cars and testing them. You'll find things that work for you!

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redlinederby 12/19/17
Site manager

Along with the weights and stuff, I'd suggest trying to taking a metal chassis from one car and using it with the metal body from your GT. There's not real reason you have to have a matching body/chassis other than for looks and style. If you want that "clean" look, that's cool and it does look better but it's not a requirement in most races.

There are plenty of cars with metal chassis on the pegs (they usually have the plastic bodies). Finding one that is the right size may take some hunting but then it's usually just some grinding on the body to get clearance for wheels and such...but just depends what you're after.

Personally, I'm very lazy when it comes to modding. I usually add weight and use FTE axles if they're available. I don't bother sanding wheels or even polishing the axles. I've had too many stock cars that are blazingly fast and they have all the dimples and bumps as all the rest...in my brain, it's more about weight distribution (even if science disagrees with me).


  • Thanks Guys!Great info here.. — Rusty
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Diecast64 12/19/17

fishing weights are an easy source of lead.  Lately I've been using some adhesive backed weight "tape" stuff that I've been getting from the local boy scout store that is used on Pinewood Derby cars.  I like it especially since my kids have started modding a bit so I don't have to worry about the kids and the lead.  

I wouldn't sand the wheels with a dremel if you're talking about putting a sanding attachment on the dremel and going at the wheel.  It will take way to much off or melt it.  If you are talking about mounting the wheel to the dremel to spin it and using a fine grit sandpaper (like C10's lathe description) that could work, but getting the wheel mounted, centered and spinning, etc. can be tricky.  Somewhere on here I think Traction Event described a wheel sanding method.  I think it was actually on a post I started years ago with similar questions about how to make a fast car.  I'll see if I can find it and post a link.  

I'll echo C10 and LOS on the JB Kwik - good stuff...but kinda stinky ;)

Another thing that is helpful is some sort of alignment tool to make sure the wheels are straight when you swap axles/or use axle tubes.  You can easily make one.  One of the easiest most ingenious examples was I think shared by Crazy Trucker Dude if I remember right (but may be mistaken). He went and got a whole bunch of pencils and glued them together to make parallel ridges for the wheels to fit in.  Again a tool like this is helpful, but I'm finding as I mod more and more that there are a lot of castings that just don't fit well into any of my versions of alignment tools because of parts of the chassis sticking up here or sticking out there.  Still trying to come up with that universal one that will fit everything.  

Most of all, just make sure you're having fun.  We all want fast cars and like to compete.  But in the end, we're just playing with our toy cars and it should be fun.  The speed will come, but enjoy the ride while you get there. :)

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Diecast64 12/19/17

Here is a link to that other thread I was talking about.

https://www.redlinederby.com/topic/making-a-really-fast-car-not-just-a-faster-car/1948


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LeagueofSpeed 12/19/17

Just a prototype, going to be making major improvements on more stable/stout models here shortly.


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Rusty 12/19/17

Hey thanks guys for the ideas and encouragement!

If you had been at our place a few minutes ago you would have heard me laughing out loud..

The fun part for sure,we have success!!Got this boy back together ,55 g,one of my fastest cars now..

Yep it is all about the fun,great to compete,but even more fun feeling like you took a dud and made it into a fun car..

Sorry had to post a couple pictures...:>)

 https://storage04.dropshots.com/photos7000/photos/1361757/20171219/182820.jpg
https://storage04.dropshots.com/photos7000/photos/1361757/20171219/182838.jpg






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