Tagged: 59 Fairlane 500, aluminum chassis, Police car, S32, Scratch Built, slot car
- This topic has 27 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 3 years ago by JMSracer.
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April 10, 2020 at 10:45 pm #14512
Art and I recently talked about adding another dimension to the street racing theme. Having a police cruiser to chase the other cars. The chase car gets a head start. You have to stop and count your laps when the police cruiser catches up to you.
I’m pretty sure a Skyliner hardtop/convertible was never made into a police cruiser. But it’s a 59 Fairlane 500 none the less.
I installed the chassis before the rear fender skirts. The body height at the front of the rocker panel is a respectable 3mm. It’s even more respectable at 4mm for the rear of the rocker panel. I thought based on the front wheel housing that the car didn’t look very low. Then I installed the rear fender skirts. Those added skirts make the back of the car look low. Such is life.
The factory hub caps look great on a police car.
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April 11, 2020 at 2:21 am #14513
I was hesitant about painting the doors white. Then I found this on Google Images.
Police cars in the 50’s came in all sorts of colours. All black, all white, mixes of both. Green and black… etc. Looks like Harry Callahan will be driving an all black cruiser with a white roof. Special “Police Interceptor” motor included.
There’s no substitute for 175-pounds of chrome!
The next phase is the Molotow chrome pen around the window frames so I can install the windows and interior. I can’t glue the roof on or steering wheel in until I get a driver. Part of the back seat will be missing, but the entire sides and front section of the interior will go in. I need to think of a big box in the back seat an officer might carry around. Subwoofers won’t do the trick this time around.
I also need to figure out where to get a classic red police light for the roof. Suggestions anyone please?
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April 11, 2020 at 10:35 am #14514
Beautiful police car Ken, is the pod for the side winder a piece of another chassis or you got this as a separate part?
Very nice job.
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April 11, 2020 at 11:57 am #14515
Thank you very kindly Luis.
It’s an NSR pod from Professor Motor. I cut the tabs off and used the center section. I used a chassis building jig to epoxy the pod to the aluminum. It kept the axles perfectly in line with each other. I then added four 2-56 flat head screws after the epoxy hardened. It’s not coming apart even if the car hits the floor.
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April 11, 2020 at 2:03 pm #14516
Here are a few extra pics of the pod and chassis. The screws were too long and stuck through the bottom of the chassis. I had to use a belt sander to take off most of the extra screw material. It was a challenge not to let the belt touch the aluminum. At a certain point I finished off the last bit by hand. I laid 400-grit paper on a flat surface and spend 20-minutes taking off the last 1/16th of an inch. Fingertip sensitivity. Sand a bit, check, repeat… 100 times. :wacko:
I had to tape up all the holes in the motor before sanding the screws to length. Metallic dust is nice in a paint. Not in the motor. I also had to remove the wheels, axles and bearings to prevent dust contamination.
I like the funky hub caps.
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April 12, 2020 at 10:16 am #14517
The windows and interior are in. This is one sinister looking police car in my opinion. Reminds me of the movie “Christine”.
The roof comes in 5-separate parts. Main center section. 2-chrome side posts. Front flip section, and the window. This build was not as fun as the other Gunze kits. Too many parts. But that’s what the real car had. I have to give Gunze credit for the details.
The sidewinder almost fits with the back seat. Very close.
The motor wires through the drive shaft tunnel area to keep the chassis close to the floor without clearance issues from the wire. I used aggressive masking tape made by 3M to hold the wires in place.
The car weighs 95-grams without any weight added. Very heavy plastic kit even without the plastic chassis. I was originally going to put a new Scalex 18k in it to chase down the 14k slow motors. But I had a used Slot.It 21.5k on my bench so I threw it in instead. I’m glad I moved up. It would have been embarrasing to me as the builder to have the slow cars catch the fast car. :wacko: Weight can be both good, and dangerous at the same time. If this car hits the floor… It will be “re-kitted” and a hundred parts will scatter all over the creation. :negative:
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April 12, 2020 at 1:28 pm #14518
It is a beautiful car Ken, Great Job
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April 12, 2020 at 4:31 pm #14519
Thanks a million Luis!
I hope it inspires you to build one of these Gunze Sangyo kits. They are truly a cut above the rest. :good:
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April 13, 2020 at 10:24 am #14522
Great work Ken! Have you found some decals that will work?
The Happy Canadian Scale Modeler!
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April 13, 2020 at 10:50 am #14523
Thank you very kindly Art!
I have not found decals yet. It’s still needs to be figured out.
These cars all have blank spots for licence plates. I should try using that old Ontario licence plate site to see what I can print up from 1959.
I need to make a trip to the dollar store to try and find a toy fire-truck or police car that I can remove the light. Details…
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April 13, 2020 at 11:48 am #14525
“You’ll never take me alive Coppah”!! Great build Ken!!! Yes, was going to suggest trip (when possible) to Local 1$ store, or, if you wanted a functional light(how cool would that be), consult Pete of Pete’s light kits…
Lots of plate images on the web…
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April 13, 2020 at 5:24 pm #14526
Thank you very kindly Porsche911!
I had to go out on a work call today. Dollar Tree was on the way home. I found a plastic tow-truck with a transparent plastic red light among the various plastic emergency vehicles. I figure it’s better than making one from scratch. I get it home and my wife asks what the pull tab is for? I never even noticed that it came with a battery-tab. Turns out this toy comes with a flashing red light for a $1.25. I removed the light assembly and it weighs 4-grams. I can replace the large, heavy batteries with ones less than half the size from the dollar store. Now I need to run wires under the roof and down through the interior where I need to make a spot for batteries and a push button. More work… :wacko:
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April 14, 2020 at 5:51 pm #14529
I actually found some small red ‘lights’, ‘Cop Car Cherry’ in shape, from an old science project for 1 of my lads, but I think a wee bit too small scale. Glad you found a solution, and if it doesn’t work, you’re welcome to have them.
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April 15, 2020 at 3:55 pm #14530
Thank you very kindly for the offer Drew.
Here’s what I found at Dollar Tree.
The blinkin’ system weighed 4 grams after removing the speaker. Most of the weight was in the batteries.
I had smaller batteries from the dollar store. But they would not stay in the holder. So I got creative with some plastic tubing. There are three batteries in the white plastic tube.
The card for the flasher logic fits in the back rest of the passenger seat. The button fits under the passenger seat. The batteries rest between the front body post and interior. The wire for the light goes up top.
It took several tries to take a pic of the light while flashing. My apologies for the bad focus. The light is super bright red! But the camera turned it white. You can see a bright red reflection off the flat black interior.
Let’s go get some bad guys!!! B-)
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April 15, 2020 at 3:57 pm #14531
I forgot to add that the entire light assembly went from 4-grams to 2-grams after the battery swap.
Thanks for looking.
Ken
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April 16, 2020 at 8:09 am #14532
59 would have a black plate with white lettering. (my 1960 porche year of manufacture plates were white with black lettering) they alternated in that era. you told me but I forgot what front to rear weight ratio did you find worked well? Thanks Jim
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April 16, 2020 at 11:19 am #14534
Hi Jim,
It may depend on the type of car. Art’s Lola T70 Mk2 is about 70% rear, 30% front and is my fastest car. But the car is very low.
The Rover BRM is a much taller car and is closer 50/50. It handles well with D11’s on the rear. My fear would be too much weight at the back with those tires might have too much traction and just roll over in the corners. Better to slide a little in the corners rather than roll out. I’m still trying to figure this all out.
It’s not the same for every car. Low CanAm cars seem like they can afford a bit more weight on the rear axle. I hope this helps?
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September 1, 2020 at 1:04 am #16281
The police cruiser has a badge. The Sheriff of Mayberry is on duty. B-)
Debugged and ready for testing. In other words the tires don’t rub now. :yahoo:
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September 1, 2020 at 8:34 am #16282
Barney Fife rides again!! The Mayberry moonshiners won’t stand a chance!! Have fun with it tonight!! Great looking custom build and a ton of work!! :good:
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September 1, 2020 at 9:41 am #16283
Excellent!!! Your decals look great too! Cool theme for the cruisers class! Let’s see how she goes tonight! :good:
The Happy Canadian Scale Modeler!
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September 1, 2020 at 11:32 am #16286
Thanks guys. 🙂
We hope you can make it even if you’re a bit late MIA. :good:
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September 1, 2020 at 5:39 pm #16287
Umm… The 59 Fairlane and 59 Caddy both don’t fit in my box. The cherry is too high on the cop car, and the Caddy is too long. Oops. :wacko:
I just realized that the Charger Daytona doesn’t fit in my box either. :unsure:
On my way with extra boxes!
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September 1, 2020 at 10:51 pm #16288
Art. Thanks for hosting a fun evening of testing!
The event was a great success. The Gunze kits are stunning to look at, and drive. Incredibly stable.
Barney Fife caught some bad guys. B-)
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September 2, 2020 at 11:22 am #16296
Art
Thanks for hosting last night’s test session for our new class; the Boulevard Cruisers.
What a fabulous class of cars. Â They work so well, my Thunderbird may be the best handling car I own… its definitely in the top three. Â I can drive it hard into any turn without any concern that it will come off, it glides smoothly and very quickly around any turn. Â Also, every model is very evenly matched. Â All of Ken’s models and my car were turning the same lap times within 100’s of a second, it was impossible to pass each other unless one of us let up on the throtle. Â So much fun racing nose to tail for multiple laps…
The reason our cars were evenly matched was that they are all set up with the same aluminium chassis, built by Ken. Â I have commissioned 11 chassis from Ken for a number of my cars, the Thunderbird cruiser was one of the first cars. Â If you are considering building one of these cars, I highly recommend you consider purchasing a custom aluminium chassis built by Ken, you will not be disappointed. Â I have built over 40 brass/piano wire chassis, each chassis build takes me a full day to complete now, it use to take up to one week and on many occasions I had to scrap a chassis and start over. I was never sure how well my build would perform, and it took a few years of building to develop the skill to build to a competitive level.
Another way to look at it it cost. Â Assuming you can purchase a body for $30 which would be the lowest cost, most will be around $50 + shipping, any Dart kit will set you back $50 or more to start with. Â Then you have to add the chassis, and parts including, brass, piano wire, solder, guide, spacers, wire, braid, motor, bushings/bearings, gears, axels, wheels, tires, paint, decals… Â Your lowest cost build will tally $120 + ($140 average). Â In my opinion, you will be much further ahead, save yourself many hours of toil while uncertain about your final result. Â Why not take all the risk out of it and begin with a winning chassis. Â This especially applies to anyone who is just beginning with only one or two builds under their belts, and even more for those with no builds.
Hope everyone can have at least one completed build ready by end of September when we race our first Boulevard Cruiser events.
Cheers!
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September 10, 2020 at 11:20 am #16325
“I have commissioned 11 chassis from Ken for a number of my cars” …. Sheeesh, you must be halfway to retirement now Ken!! LOL
I’ve taken a lengthy hiatus from our addiction, errrr I meant passion, but am planning on getting going very soon; no doubt I’ll be ringing your door Ken for one of these highly coveted and successful creations, just have to figure out what put one(them) under.
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September 10, 2020 at 11:29 am #16326
“I have commissioned 11 chassis from Ken for a number of my cars” …. Sheeesh, you must be halfway to retirement now Ken!! LOL
I’ve taken a lengthy hiatus from our addiction, errrr I meant passion, but am planning on getting going very soon; no doubt I’ll be ringing your door Ken for one of these highly coveted and successful creations, just have to figure out what put one(them) under.
Only thing this needs is a 3D rendering of Barney behind the wheel!
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September 10, 2020 at 12:36 pm #16327
Thank you very kindly Porsche911. It’s all about having fun. 🙂
My wife will be very pleased to know I can retire 11-chassis from now. :good:
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September 10, 2020 at 2:44 pm #16328
I’ve been busy building during the lockdown 911. Â Happy to help out and promote friends in the hobby.
I’ve built another 11 aluminium chassis myself over the last two months, plus another nine chassis; four brass/piano wire; one photo etched front motor GP and the balance Shapeways/plastic.
B-)
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