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2014 Tasman Cup Car Build


Stubbo

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I have just started building cars for this years VRAA series in North America so I thought it might be of interest to some of you to follow the build and see how it all turns out. They are basically the same build as a Tasman Car

 

This year we are going to be running Brabham BT 7’s (or 11’s).

 

So the first step for me is to get the body. I had one of the old Atlas Brabhams that I tweaked a little and then made a mould of it.

 

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Now for some resin.

 

I forgot to get a photo striaght out of the mould but it looks a bit like this and weighs in at around 9 grams

 

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The Atlas body is a bit of a hybrid between a BT 3 and a BT 7. I’m going to cut off the rear to make it more like a BT7.

 

Here it is cut down. I have also “thinned” the body as much as I dare. From around 9 grams out of the mould it is now around 4 grams. I have also cleaned up all the openings. I put on a shot of primer to make it show up better.

 

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Here is the body sitting on a test chassis.

 

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This is a chassis I built using techniques and tips learned from others. Particularly useful was the series of how to video’s by Matt Biedermann from the USA. I can highly recommend these if you want to learn some things from a really good builder. If you don’t have them already PM me for a link to the video’s .

 

Using a chassis like this helps me make sure the car sits right and that things are going to be in the right place.

 

Now I will start to get the other bits together. Windscreen, driver, roll bar, engine bits etc.

Alan Stubbings

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It will be interesting to watch this build. I have two castings of this car,one narrowed closer to scale width. I had started the build a few years ago,but put it in the two hard basket. I could not fit a gear in the transaxle casting. Then I found some Wizard gears and fitted a Slot It hub to the gear,BUt was never happy with the mesh. I think Terry may have got his car running with the wizard gears.

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I ran a BT7 some years ago in the VRAA,my first VRAA scratch build,the car was spectacularly unsuccessful,but its hard to compare then and now as I have built a lot of these are over the last few years,each one being slightly quicker than the previous one,I thing the wizard gears were okay but the car was a challenge to get gears under the rear body work,now with a bit more experience I may find the task a little easier.

 

I'm upstairs so I don't have the car here but I'm pretty sure the wizard gears do not come with a grub screw "facility"i think I may have soldered the crown gear to the axle.

 

Be good to see how the BT7 turns out Stubbo,there are too few Brabhams in the VRAA.

 

Terry

 

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Edited by terry
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I have looked at wizard gears before and thought about getting some, just never got around to it. Its a pity they dont do an offset crown too. It would be an interesting project though. Are they aluminium or steel?

 

The pic of the undercoated body sitting on the chassis you can see the addition of tube on the bottom of the car which Alan has incorporated into the mold. This gives the body about a mm more depth so we've managed to be able to get away with fitting the 24 tooth slot It crown. Still have to grind the underside of the exhausts too, but they are still able to hide cover the gear. This is what was done on our first Brabham VRAA entries.

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After raiding all my little boxes and bins, I have got together a whole lot of bits and pieces to select the best of those to go into the build.

 

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The shims in the middle of the picture can be used if the wheel inserts are too small for the wheels that will be on the final chassis.

 

The next few days will be spent cleaning up all these little bits, making sure they fit where they should, painting the drivers heads etc and having them ready for when they are needed.

Alan Stubbings

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I ran a BT7 some years ago in the VRAA,my first VRAA scratch build,the car was spectacularly unsuccessful,but its hard to compare then and now as I have built a lot of these are over the last few years,each one being slightly quicker than the previous one,I thing the wizard gears were okay but the car was a challenge to get gears under the rear body work,now with a bit more experience I may find the task a little easier.

 

I'm upstairs so I don't have the car here but I'm pretty sure the wizard gears do not come with a grub screw "facility"i think I may have soldered the crown gear to the axle.

 

Be good to see how the BT7 turns out Stubbo,there are too few Brabhams in the VRAA.

 

Terry

 

rearend.jpg

rearend.jpg

 

Nice gearbox Terry ! Any chance on an underneath pic ..why is the gear on the left?

 

 

You must have a shed Stubbo :) I better get cracking !

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Sorry no pics on the chassis,but I can tell you it was very basic,BWA rear bracket,BWA front bracket,55 thou wire rails,and a much criticised TSRf guide,with huge Parma braids,ken did not like that!

 

My first 1/32 F1 chassis and I had no idea of what I was doing,but there you go,I(sort of) enjoyed the experience came 2nd last,the body came from FPF from the UK and I think the gear was on that side because of the restrictions in getting the gear under the body,

 

Still have the body here and I often think I should do another chassis to see if I can improve on that first effort,maybe a team car Stubbo??

 

Terry

 

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Sorry,I don't want to steal this thread.

Edited by terry
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No problems Terry. I sort of hope it will turn into a discussion, tips, ideas, technique etc type of thread. The gold stripe seems to be quite neat where it curves at the front of the car. How did you achieve that? Did you do the stripe first then the colour?

 

Team Cars....an interesting thought.

Alan Stubbings

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I painted the green first ,then masked off the green to do the gold.

 

Its interesting that we are seeing a change in chassis design of late,I'm starting to see more "flex" introduced into chassis builds and although I'm not too sure if this is of any benefit its good to see innovation,be good to see up close some of your recent stuff,

 

I know when I started doing this I had no ideas on where to start and certainly Matts youtube demo on chassis build is a big help,to all of us,but the more designs you see the easier it is to understand how the things are made and constructed.

 

My biggest concern at the moment is getting my hands on 15" wheels,seems that the BWA/Dart source is a long way from fulfilling early promise.

 

Terry

Edited by terry
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If you read SCI Dart is trying very hard to find another manufacturer of both the 15" wheels and the brackets. Fingers crossed.

 

He has advised that the 15" wheels won't be $8US a pair - unsure of pricing but they will definitely be more expensive.

 

Terry - you could try either RS 15" wheels or CB design inserts. The CB design wheels seem to be the pick of the bunch.

 

Cracking car that green #14........

 

Further off topic - drop me a PM of when you might be doing Tasman round - be good to get up and have a looksie.

 

 

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The MRRC/SRC alloys are slightly under size and need a ream out to get them onto 3/32 axles.

 

The ones I bought were the cheapest alloys I could find at about $NZ11.00 per pair.

 

The insert area is stepped which can be a problem.

John Warren

Slotcars are my preferred reality

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Another potential supply for wheels is Ranch Designs. Mark H put me onto them for a skinny 15 supplier. Not tried them yet, so I can't comment on quality.

Computers. They'll never catch on.

 

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Tiny Tyers Targa - The build saga continues - Aging wood - A recipe for staining wood - Don't take a fence - Step by step paling fence - An old shed for my new cars - Wooden garage under construction

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Forgot to mention that I had ordered a set of the CB design 15x 6 wheels a couple of weeks ago,well they have arrived and I must say they are impressive,the quality is, as you would expect from SCC, top drawer,and my Pauls tyres fit well,although they are not as snug as other wheels,so I will need to glue the tyres on,no problems there of course.

 

Luckily i have inserts here that will do a couple of different cars so the build can now proceed(VRAA).Still not sure what car to use though,it is nice to have a few choices.

 

Good to mention that SCC have their online delivery process sorted out.

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The CB design wheels are very good quality. I have made wheel insert shims suited to the BWA .375" inserts to fit these rims Terry. It seems BWA inserts are the most popular choice of insert but they need some work to fit non BWA wheels, I dont know if this becomes a factor when deciding which wheels to buy. CB offer a 14" as well.

 

You could trade #s' with stubbo for the VRAA Terry and run your Tasman car or the excuse to run that lovely little # in post number 10!? A team Brabham is an interesting concept too.. be nice to see all the Aussie blokes running a Brabham!

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I've stripped down the BT7 and its on the bench,I have inserts from Phil,which are as near as you can get to Brabham inserts,they fit the SCC rims,now I just need a bit of time to have a look at the options,I sort of like the Brabham though,its kind of....pretty...its a Brabham,what more can you say!

 

More to come on this hat,but building will need to start very soon!

 

 

Terry

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