1/32 Toy Indy Car Conversions?

[LAMing]

Hi All:

I used to hang out here at the Oval Racing forum quite a bit, but my concept I had at the time fizzled out and I went AWOL from slot cars. I've recently re-entered slotting, but with totally different focuses. So far it's working great. That brings me to my question:

Thought I'd ask a few questions about the toy Indy-type cars of Marx, Lionel, etc. Here's a pic of the type of Indy cars I'm talking about:



My questions pertaining to this type of car:

Have any of you ever taken examples of the various toy-type Indy cars and modified them to take a chassis?

OR, better yet, any of you figured out a way to retain their axles and motor by modifying the under pan to receive a conventional braid guide, therefore eliminating the funky pin w/rivet head or bronze slider pickups?

No sense in re-inventing the wheel if one (or more of you) have already done it.

Thanks for any input!

OH, and I still marvel at the skills I see here at HRW at creating drop-dead gorgeous oval cars. You guys are amazing.

Andre

[chrisguyw]

Hi Andre, The ones I have done have all been on scratchbuilt brass/wire chassis,........eliminating all the stock running gear. That said, it would be fairly easy to drill a hole in the existing Marx chassis plate, and add a modern day guide/braid.

If you are looking for some neat open wheel "oval" cars, EJ's hobbies have really nice "Midget" kits, that are based on the 1/24 Monogram injection molded bodies..........while they are 1/24th scale, they are "Midgets" and are a perfect size for your track (s).

He also did some nice 1/32 Watson Indy Roadster kits, but, these are sold out/out of production......these were "clear" plastic bodies that needed to be painted/decaled........I only used the body for this build.



Cheers
Chris Walker

[LAMing]

Hi 'ya Chris!

Welll.....

I seriously doubt any conversion I make would ever approach your modeling/painting levels or complexity!!

However, I do think it might be fun to have some front engine cars that resemble some of the sprints I've seen in the historical films and old mags. (Some of those looked like Indy cars to me.)

I think you're right: On the cars with under pans, it ought to be "do-able" to use a piece of styrene tubing in the needed diameter to accommodate the stem of a guide of choice. It would be a simple matter to drill the correct diameter hole in the under pan to receive the tubing and glue/reinforce the tubing on the inside with gussets. All that would remain is to make clearance for the wires to swing.

On my short track ovals I'll be racing on, I'm confident the "train motors" (assuming such a motor can be optimized by cleaning/lubing) will be fine to leave in place. If not, there's a peanut can out there somewhere that will work.

I guess I just needed validation and confirmation that my idea has a good chance of success.

I reckon this means I get to put "tired Indy cars" on my "watch for" list!

I'm hopeless.



Andre