dwdirks

Here are some photos of my model car racing set up in my basement. It's 4.5 ft wide and 16.5 ft long, each lane is 62 ft long. The track is a mix of plastic Scalextric Classic and more modern Scalextric Sport, all analog. It has been under development for over 3 years and I'll probably be doing upgrades and improvements for several more years. To me, construction and adding scenery is just as fun as building and racing the cars.

BC native, now living in Pennsylvania, still a Canadian citizen .

I bought a cheap ($5) 1/32 VW bus toy and converted it into a broadcast van for my slot race course. I took the toy apart and then added bits and pieces of plastic, wire, odds and ends from the inside of an old laptop and stereo receiver and ended up with this van. The satellite dish is a clear plastic suction cup painted flat white. The interior control center is cobbled together from more odds and ends from all over my basement. The broadcast van is now in place next to the TV tower behind the hairpin curve at Overlook Raceway Park, my basement slot car track.

Phirewriter, High octane and Gramps46, thanks for the comments and questions. I found the truck at a tourist place in Lancaster County, PA, I'm sure you can also find it online if you search for inexpensive 1/32 scale die-cast. I will try to post some photos of my track in the slot car section in the next few days. I did already post about my F150 Racing Truck a few months ago. Here's a link: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/121280-f-150-race-truck/

I needed a race safety truck for my slot car racetrack so I found a cheap ($5) 1/32 scale die-cast 1950's Ford pickup and converted it into a race-ready safety truck. It's just a static model, I did not convert it into an actual slot truck. The Safety Truck adds just a little bit realism on my slot car track. The safety workers are from a Marx toy set that were called NASA workers. I will restyle them to look like race track safety personnel. The jack and part of the fire extinguisher are from an old Scalextric pit box set. The light bar is from a rally slot car. The broom is cobbled together from bits of wood and a slice of foam sheet. The gas can is a rectangular piece from an electrical board with some wire insulation for the filler neck. The hose in the truck bed is some insulated wire with a scrounged metal fitting on the end that I thought looked like a hose end. Balsa wood push bars were added to the front and rear bumpers. The race flags are made from bits of stiff wire with shiny paper flags in red, green, yellow, black and white. The truck is getting pretty full of safety gear. Our safety truck is now nearing completion. Now we need to hire some workers to operate the truck. The truck is pretty much ready to go but the new crew members are still a little bit up in the air while their uniforms get the finishing touch. They don't look too happy right now. The safety crew members are finally on the job. Ready for action at the highest point of Overlook Raceway Park. The no. 38 Mustang is leading the no. 88 Camaro as they fly by the Safety Truck and crew.

Great model car show at the Super September Showdown in Boyertown, PA on Sunday, Sept 10. Here are a few photos and a link to more on Google: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPl4oGn5ok3hdmr_BtY6Fn2CtdPvaBID-z_x2AmKU_kHizVTIzplTRowXJvfKhbWQ?key=Q3gyNFdUbXNLWmFoZld1dFVDOUpBcWNDZ3RrV1F3

Since I will not be able to attend NNL East this year, I thought I would look at the photos I took last year. I think you may enjoy looking at them too. There are over 1,000 photos at the link to Google+. https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/109795296019003728412/album/6394813194677595297?authkey=CLmR6f6CsNrzuQE

Thanks, Draggon and Cobraman. Some folks tell me that the driver looks a bit like Cal Naughton, Jr. from the Talladega Nights movie. Maybe? By the way, since he is driving this truck, he really should be afraid - never know what may go wrong given the amateur construction and dodgy materials used. Here's a somewhat amateurish composite photo of my basement slot car track (I used Microsoft PowerPoint): I'll add a few more photos of my track in the next while.

Got some work done on the chassis for this F150 Race Truck. AMT chassis ready to put under the truck. The front tires are from an AMT 1/25 plastic kit (Dodge Caravan, I believe), sanded down to a lesser diameter. Chassis mounted under the pickup body. A couple of button magnets were added to help with road holding in the corners. Decals and stickers were applied and soon we'll be ready to race. Some of the decals were a bit old and look rough around the edges. Oh well, they'll get really banged up once we start racing anyway. Almost ready to go - seat belts on, window net up, time to fire her up. Finally, we're on track and rumbling past the pits at Overlook Raceway Park. Hope the photo of our new race truck turns out okay. Our truck looks okay and the fans seem to think so too but handling is still pretty shaky - need some serious tuning to get lap times down into respectable territory. I'm not sure that this AMT metal chassis is really all that good but we'll give it a try.

I kit-bashed an AMT Charger slot car (1/25 scale) with an AMT Ford F 150 pickup model kit (1/32 scale) and ended up with a new race truck at my basement slot track called Overlook Raceway Park. I used the metal frame and running gear from the Charger slot car kit. I cut up the pickup so the motor would fit in bed. I opened up the wheel wells with a sanding drum on my power drill and added wheel flares with some spare plastic sheet and putty. Hood scoop was made from scrap bits of plastic. I used an old plastic pilot figure as my driver. Had to do some surgery to get him to fit into his new race truck cockpit. The front grille was opened up to improve air flow by sanding plastic off the back - works great. The 1/24 AMT slot kit provided a wide track chassis that made wheel flares necessary. Lots of putty and sanding required to make them look decent - here it's in process. Partially finished interior set on chassis. Rough pickup body set on chassis for test fit. First coat of primer is on, still need lots of sanding, polishing and finishing. Driver does fit into the interior. Still need a seat belt to keep the driver safe. Paint is now on body, bed cover and front splitter. Need to get to work on the chassis so we can get this truck on the track.

Hi Joe, glad you liked the photos. Any of your cars in the photos? If so, which ones?

Thanks for the nice comments about my Super September Showdown photos. Google + works great for storing and sharing photos and you get up to 15 GB for free - more than enough storage for me.

Here are some photos of the great models at the 2015 Super September Showdown in Gilbertsville, PA on Sunday, September 13: Here's the rest of my photos: https://plus.google.com/photos/109795296019003728412/albums/6195918885772375169

My first car was a champange gold 1969 Mustang GT with a 351 Windsor engine with a 4 on the floor and a black interior. Great first car. Bought it for $3,500 in 1970 and sold it for $3,800 in 1972 before going to Germany for a year. Bought an old 1960 VW beetle in Germany to bomb around Europe - lots of fun.

Thanks for the great photos. Some good project ideas here.

I did manage to visit D & J Hobbies in Campbell when I was in the San Jose area last week. Good hobby shop with lots to see and buy. Thanks for the good shopping advice.

Brian, thanks for the bad news about San Antonio hobbies. Seems like it is hard for hobby shops to stay in business these days. dwdirks

Thanks to Simon and Gerry for hobby shop suggestions in the greater Bay area. I will look up your recommendations.

I will be visiting the Bay area next week and would like to know if there are any hobby shops in the area that I should visit. I am especially interested in plastic model cars and 1/32 scale slot cars. Advice about good hobby shops to visit will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Mike for your reply about the 1/6 motor and transmission. Yes, it will be too big for a 1/8 Big T but it may make a good cartoon car. We'll see if I ever get around to scratching a tranny for the motor.

Hi, I just bought a 1/6 scale Ford SOHC drag engine and would like to install it in a 1/8 scale 'Big T'. Should make a great looking dragster. But, where do I find an appropriate transmission? Or, could I modify a 'Big T' tranny to look like a transmission that would fit behind the SOHC? Any ideas and advice will be greatly appreciated. D Dirks