Pack Winner! Thanks to everyone!

[derbydentist]

I need some help quick! I just found out yesterday that there is a district race within driving distance that will allow my son to race in their race because our district isn't doing a race but the problem is my car doesn't meet the rules for the district race! The biggest rule that I am worried about is the wheelbase. I did my wheelbase at 5" and the rules say no more than 4.63" how can I make this happen? I would just drill new holes but I hollowed out the car in that area plus I have my fenders on and I can't put it in my jig. Any ideas? Here is a pic of the underside of my car I have since removed a couple unnecessary wood rungs under the car. My only thought is to glue a piece of sugar pine in the area where I want my new axles and drill a new one but I may have to freehand it because of the fenders?

 

[derbydentist]

 

[derbydentist]

Plus I just thought of another problem my fenders will be far away from the wheel now after I move the wheelbase aaaahhh!

 

[Crash Enburn]

4.63" max? That's a new one.

It looks like you have enough material in the side to hold your axles. You can insert the DFW, set the steering, and then add a drop of white glue on the inside of the body. While not ideal, I believe that your front fenders will still help, even if they're 3/8" in front of your wheels.

 

[derbydentist]

4.63" max? That's a new one.

It looks like you have enough material in the side to hold your axles. You can insert the DFW, set the steering, and then add a drop of white glue on the inside of the body. While not ideal, I believe that your front fenders will still help, even if they're 3/8" in front of your wheels.

Yea very weird number to pick I'm not sure I can even find that number on the ruler haha. After this pic was taken I removed more wood from the sides and in this area so I may have less to work with than this- does the white glue allow it to come out afterwards is that why you recommend white glue? I guess I can try and swell the wood with a drop of water and put the axle in and hopefully it will keep its position long enough for me to get it tuned and run down the track a few times and then I can add the glue to the axle. The other rule is that I have to have the axle tips exposed. I assume this is to make sure you aren't using s solid axle? Or official BSA axles? Not sure.

When you put a drop of water to swell the wood and make it tight does it stay that way or does the wood relax back? I had to do that for my rear axles but haven't tried to check the tightness since the race.

 

[Crash Enburn]

I believe the 4.63" number is simply 4-5/8" rounded up. You can move the front axle forward by 1/4". Why even care?

The white glue will have a very firm grip on the axle (as well as doing a little bit of helpful wood swelling). I expect you can still break the axle free later. When I last used water, the holes did not relax again at least during the race time frame. I expect that the wood would remain swollen, but be more susceptible to being recompacted.

You can always add more wood to the inside of your chassis — either on the sides or as a new rung.

 

[derbydentist]

Oddly enough the first holes I drilled in that area are exactly that number. I didn't fill those holes so they are still there. I could glue a piece of wood to the inside adjacent to the holes and then use my holes on the outside as a sort of guide sleeve to drill into the new wood.

 

[B_Regal Racing]

For a scout race, I would find in the void with some basswood, maybe 3/8" in thickness, and glue it in; then drill axle holes where they need to be. Hopefully, you can pop off your fenders and move them back.

 

[B_Regal Racing]

Something like this

 

[derbydentist]

Wow thanks B-Regal for taking the time to do that - that does help visualize things! I'm not sure I will be Able to pop my fenders off bc I used bondo to smooth the seems and not sure I want to risk damaging things just before the race. The 1/16" slot on the side of the car was already prepared for the 4.63" wheel base so I should be good on that side. Maybe I could add a piece of balsa to extend my fenders closer to the wheel instead of moving them? Thank goodness I didn't do trailing fenders or I would have to remove fenders. Why basswood vs sugar pine? I haven't worked with bass wood much. Does the basswood drill better and does it swell up with water added as well as sugar pine? So you think a solid piece of wood for the new axle location would be better than two side pieces? I have to have the axle tips showing so I need to take a dremel to the middle of the wood to expose them. Would drilling the axle holes on the new strip of wood first and then glueing in be better? I have holes in the side of the car there already so I could just line up the holes with an axle in there and then glue in place. The other option is using the existing hole to act as a guide for the new drilling but it would be free handed. So many options not sure it matters as long as the axles stay in place. I may have to remove the wood in the old axle location in order to stay on 5 ounces or I could take some putty out. Am stewing over this and haven't actually gotten started but I really need to haha

 

[B_Regal Racing]

Sugar pine would work as well, but Basswood is readily available at most hobby stores. All in all, I would probably just build a new body. If you are truly stuck, I could make one for you and just mail it. I have some extra GEE fenders laying around.

 

[Thinkin'Bout Racin]

Sugar pine would work as well, but Basswood is readily available at most hobby stores. All in all, I would probably just build a new body. If you are truly stuck, I could make one for you and just mail it. I have some extra GEE fenders laying around.

Please add us to your Christmas list also!

 

[derbydentist]

I really appreciate the offer B-Regal unfortunately I have to use the same car that raced in the pack race plus it is this coming saturday the 22nd and with my schedule I only really have one night to work on it. Being realistic with myself I will probably just leave the fenders alone and have a larger gap. I will cut a piece of sugar pine(because I dont have any basswood at the shop) as one solid axle piece and put that in my jig and cut the axle holes in that before installing it in the car. Then I will place it in the car and line it up using some axles placed in the holes and they will also hold it steady while I glue it in place. After its dried then take a dremel to the spots where the axle tips will be to expose them -front axles and back axles. Then I should be good to go with some weight checking and most likely having to remove some putty. Then retuning and running it down the track a few times. Now I just need it to go as smoothly as I just described haha

 

[Thinkin'Bout Racin]

I really appreciate the offer B-Regal unfortunately I have to use the same car that raced in the pack race plus it is this coming saturday the 22nd and with my schedule I only really have one night to work on it. Being realistic with myself I will probably just leave the fenders alone and have a larger gap. I will cut a piece of sugar pine(because I dont have any basswood at the shop) as one solid axle piece and put that in my jig and cut the axle holes in that before installing it in the car. Then I will place it in the car and line it up using some axles placed in the holes and they will also hold it steady while I glue it in place. After its dried then take a dremel to the spots where the axle tips will be to expose them -front axles and back axles. Then I should be good to go with some weight checking and most likely having to remove some putty. Then retuning and running it down the track a few times. Now I just need it to go as smoothly as I just described haha

I just cut, fitted and sanded a cross brace out of pine to re-enforce a body that I felt had too much flex. It was actually much easier than I thought. I cut it close and then hand sanded to fit. In your case, you could fit it both to the body and with the axle holes. I used CA glue with no accelerator as I wanted to make sure I had time to position the brace where I wanted. It was not even the full height of the weight pocket and ended up weighing next to nothing.

I marked the body cavity with pencil after I had it positioned during the trial fit. That aided greatly when positioning the piece while gluing.

If you have a large enough piece of pine, make sure to fit it tight in the jig. You could even drill two hole locations. That way when you trim the piece down to fit into the cavity, you would have a spare in case something does not fit right.

You could "fill" wheel gap with some balsa pieces to match both the wheel and the current opening. They could be attached with a decent two sided tape, so they could be removed later if desired. If you have time, they could also be painted to match the beautiful car that you have. You could even touch up the edge of the two sided tape with a small brush if it bothers you??? Or ... maybe some thick foam tape that could be painted could be attached to the inside of the fender opening ...anyway, just typing out loud. That could be trimmed to match the edge of the opening with an Exact- O-knife or a one sided razor blade

Good Luck!

 

[derbydentist]

Thanks for the brainstorming! I think those are some great ideas- I need to see how much time it takes to do some of these changes and see what I've got time for when I'm done. You think ca glue vs epoxy to glue in the wood axle section?

So I just found out that the track for districts is a 32' freedom track- anyone have advice or experience on one of these tracks vs a best track? 32 seems soooo short and it worries me cuz my pack rack I didn't really pull ahead until the last 5 or 6 feet of the race. Not sure what the length was on the pack race track. Basically the car that starts the fastest and all other techniques being similar will win. It looks like the same track as my pack race. I can tell from last years district pictures that there are at least two other cars rail running and have some fast cars. Any help on how to tune my car in this type of track would be greatly appreciated!

 

[derbydentist]

Another question- how many consistent runs can I expect to get with oil? The race coming up does 8 in the first round and then another 8 in the finals- seemed like more than I though- usually it's like 4 for each round. Between 1st round and finals ,if they let me, should I reapply a drop of oil?

 

[B_Regal Racing]

Not sure. 30 runs. Maybe more. I have had cars for months not slow down on oil. Just clean the wheels...

 

[Skywalker Racing]

You'll be fine. I wouldn't reapply.

 

[derbydentist]

Not sure. 30 runs. Maybe more. I have had cars for months not slow down on oil. Just clean the wheels...

Thanks for the quick responses- I plan to at least wipe the wheels down cuz some will be running graphite- what should I use? I don't have a magic eraser handy but I've heard people use that. Would a microfiber cloth like for my eyeglasses work?

 

[wags2633]

I tried a magic eraser with and without alcohol, but prefer a 7-way finger nail buffer using #4-#7--like DD4H sells. As advised on this forum, it makes a noticeable difference. The magic eraser seemed too fine to remove all the accumulated bumps.