The New Guy In Town

Ive made some new progress on the 66, i need to narrow the tires just a bit but im liking how it is coming together, i narrowed the front and rear, and replaced the tires from the funny car to those of the topfuel. I believe these tires are .5s but i still have a little way to go, front bumper is just sitting there, no glass ect. But here it is...

Hey Flat !! Nice job on the Nove, is that a plastic body? Nice job narrowing up the back, only one problem, it looks as though the back tires are riding up on the rails. The four gears are about the only chassis where you can get the back tires up on the rails like that. It'll just spin a lot that way, don't ask how I know, I just do.

Ninja,

  Ive read all of the rules and even though i dont fully understand some restrictions such as ohming and winding and dewinding of an armature we can simply both agree that as ive only purchased my cars and pulled them from their boxes they should pass all prerequisites. After spending the time and reading over everything i still didnt see where any of the chassis magnets had to be removed,  only assuming that the stock magnets that come with an all stock 4G chassis like the ones i own are labeled as " dot magnets " correct? 

Looking at the nomenclatures side by side made it easier for me to understand that the larger the number the more modifications that could be made to said chassis type and the smaller the number the more stock the car must remain.

Being as i am as green as the hat of a leprechaun, and im working on trying to fix my drag car, im inexperienced and out of money to put forth in buying parts and modifying the cars i have to be competitive. But i knew that going into the race and im am happy just to be apart,  just as youve stated they may not make it through qualifying but from a mechanical stand point i will have a better understanding of how fast the cars actually are AND my kids get to see their names on a screen... Win/Win for me... even if i lose.

Im just gonna bring what i got, and swing for the fence. Thanks for the guidance, it goes appreciated.

NoSub, Thanks for steering me in the correct direction, my understanding before was a bit blurred but now that ive read over everything its cleared up a bit. This being my first week of actual sanctioned slot car racing theres no possible way i can fully understand everything so Thanks for looking out.

TGM,  Its a Hotwheels body, as of right now the only plastic bodies i have are stocks. But i like the looks of it, i plan on doing an iroc and a 67 barracuda. I may be able to use the cuda and the nova on the same chassis but i havnt got that far yet. I plan on adding painted turn signals and enhanced graphics to these, ill just be using them here to mess around with. I enjoy seeing the old school cars roll down the track better than i do the funnycar/prostock bodies lol.  Im looking into finding something to strip that body of paint if anyone has ideas, i have aircraft stripper in the shop but i was afraid the whole body would melt down. 

Depressed Racing Group Eh? LOL where do i sign up? I think when i send these cars off to race ill glue a 1/64th stop sign to the front of each of the bodies so when whomever im racing looks in the rearview to see how far ahead they are they know what to do. LOL

Ahh 1/43 scale, lol cant see the cars... o geez. 
Take the glasses off the top of your head   O.O   be 4eyed like me lol. My grampa use to wear his toward the back of his head when i was a kid, i asked him why one day and he did like this..  o.O  and said, So i can keep all my eyes on you Boy. LOL

I have to agree some of the rules have me scratching my head. Double flange wheels are restricted in most classes? What advantage do they give outside of holding a tire on better. I can understand in stock type classes but the rest escapes my logic. Some rules are to keep cost down and that is as it should be. Save those traction magnets in a safe spot as they are a specific size which fit the cars. I bought aftermarket ones which do not fit properly.
Once again I do not see in the rules for NTF where traction magnets are NOT allowed. It says NO restrictions which means leave them on or add more. I have seen the traction magnets actually slow down some cars.

JJ, Thanks for pointing that out, i knew of the front end dragsters, i was born and raised in Fresno,CA. My dad raced at Lions down in Wilmimgton back in the 70s, being as it closed way before i was born i never got to go but there were plenty of pictures of him racing his green chevelle in the shop i grew up in. I was unaware they were called nostalgia dragsters. Now im picking up on how the races are put together. All Around Rules, Chassis Rules then Body Rules... From all the pictures ive seen it was random bodies vs random bodies so i figured the stock bodies would work and were wrong, i would be willing to guess this is due to weight difference. Makes a little more sense. Ive been saving quite a bit, everyones been real helpful, ive found some good tips in accidental places.

Yep i knew about the tires i mentioned it in the little stuff i have left to do, thanks for the comment on the car, its still a work in progress i plan on changing the color to a candy apple maybe keep the stripes, the tires i was just barrowing from a TF chassis and i didnt want to cut them i was just using them to mock them up, they are about a 16th too wide. I also saw how riding the rails could slow you down in " 4Gear Tips and Tricks " thats a very good thread, you guys have some cool cars. Im going to make the windows darker and try and make a cover so you dont see the chassis through the windows. ill post more pictures as progress continues.

Hey Eagle, Thanks Bud its good to be here, you guys are great. Ive learned alot to many things i was oblivious to lol. Thank You for the offer but i think i will opt out this go around, ill try and catch the next one if i qualify. No worries though ill venture out and get bodies and race with you guys when i can, im personally just not big on barrowing it has absolutely nothing to do with you personally at all and like i said i appreciate the offer.

NoSub, thanks bud i thought it was a option kind of deal, no restriction means you can add more? I could see how moving them would help but i fear more would cause too much downforce only slowing you down. Ive sanded them and have experimented with bleach and 409 ( Yep.. been looking in the past lol ) bleach was almost a given as it softens rubber and that actually helped on a set i tried it on. ill do some more test to see if it lasts.

Thanks for the pdf, thats how ive been keeping all my notes. Ive been inputing them all into Polaris Office 5 on my phone.

-Flat

Peter,

Great tips, ive already streched the shoe springs in all cars and pressed the metal tabs down for the brush cups which helps press the brushes to the motor, Worked Great.

Now that you mention it i have a couple cars that only touch the fronts of the shoes and ill be working on fixing that, i also thought of removing the plating but hadn't. I was reading about you and Al talking about silver being the best conductor but copper being the best of the worst simply because its more readily available and ive been giving it some thought as to ideas on a track. Ive also had a few ideas on making these plastic tracks more flat and how to do it.

Ideas: i was reading Lewis talk about tracks and how copper is a better conductor than steel but getting the cars to be attracted to a copper track is impossible with magnets. My thoughts go to Mig wire,copper coated steel core. I would need to ohm some wire to see how good it would be vs my current track but ive also thought about Tig rod... its thicker and same build, again... i would need to test to verify.

Holding the track down: i mentioned working at a hotrod shop and its the basis of this thought. I noticed the 9" straights bow in the center so rather than having a Straight, Flat track you have a drag race in the foot hills. The interior of most cars today is plastic and the kick panels not using screws like they did in the past now use metal anchors. If you pop your kick panel out youll see a metal anchor that has sharp points inward which grab a plastic tab and those pop into a square hole. If you were to make a base out of plywood or whatever your choice and recess the track into your base, you could cut these holes into the base and use the anchors to hold the track down and when maintenance was needed you could pop the track out. They sell the tabs at most autoparts stores by the bag for a few bucks.