# Possible Need of a bunch of Custom Cars



## Scafremon (Dec 11, 2006)

Here’s the story:

A sister company of mine is having an open house in about 6 weeks. The company is an electrical wholesaler – they sell conduit, wire, lighting, etc to electrical contractors. At their yearly open houses they do the normal stuff – vendors set-up tables of products, they barbeque for customers, maybe a car show in the parking lot, door prizes, etc.

I offered the idea of having a my slot car track set-up in the building for some racing, and they loved the idea. 

While there are a lot of little things I need to figure out, such as how to organize the races, and award prizes, the big thing I need to decide on are the cars.

The easy thing for me to do would be to just buy some box-stock cars at my LHS for them to race. But, if possible, I would like to have custom decaled cars made for this.

I am envisioning Nascar style bodies, hard plastic, on magnet chassis (maybe SG+). The cars would have a bunch of generic type race decals on them, but the main sponsor decal would be a specific company, and would need to be a custom decal (or set of decals, like a hood, rear fenders, etc) made from the companies logo. The companies would be big electrical related companies that have logos available from their websites (such as Siemens, GE, Leviton).

In addition (or as an alternate) to the above, I may need some just blank, solid painted bodies, which I could give to customers/vendors to customize themselves if they are last minute racers. They could decal them, or use a Sharpie pen, white-out – whatever. 

I do not foresee me having the time to make these bodies, so I would want to pay someone to make them for me. 

I am also very flexible on anything I have stated above. FI instead of Nascar, Lexan instead of hard plastic, etc. The only reason I am envisioning hard plastic is because I do not anticipate they people using the cars will be careful with them, and I am not going to try and make them do so. Nor will there be pit boxes, or major repairs going on. I envision nascar style bodies just because I think they have more area on them for decals, and because more people are familiar with that style car.

As for qty of cars, it could be as few as 6, or as many as 30. I’m not sure yet to what extent the company will want to take this. If it is too big a project to get that many custom decaled cars made in the time frame, then maybe we will have all cars with same logo (our company logo), or maybe a specific vendors logo, with just different numbered/colored cars.

There are lots of ways to go on this, and I am looking for your input, and for those of you who can custom make a body, or can paint/decal a blank body, let me know what you can do.

-- Jeff


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## zig (Mar 11, 2004)

Lifelike nascars would be perfect, they made a bunch of them in solid colors with no markings. Just add decals of your favorite companies and viola !!!

If your guests are not familiar with slot cars in general they will be blown away by how fast they are :thumbsup:


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## LeeRoy98 (Jul 8, 2005)

I built a Tuckaway on an 80x36 door for a portable track and have been using X-tractions with power down to 12 volts. I could put faster cars on the track but they are much more difficult for the average novice to handle. The X-traction has provided the best handling performance compromise. And they are available from a number of hobby sellers for a great price. The Fast and Furious cars would be easy to customize for your needs.

Gary
AKA LeeRoy98
www.marioncountyraceway.com


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## Scafremon (Dec 11, 2006)

I will look into the Lifelike Nascars in solid colors. That is a good option. I guess I would just call Walthers, and see if they have possibly a few dozen of the bodies? I would not need as many chassis, since I can swap bodies onto chassis for the races.

X-Tractions are also an option, but I may have to get an adjustable power supply, since right now the track is set-up using 4 wall warts. I will look into F&F bodies. My first thought is they are already painted up with flames and stuff, so putting a logo may not look as well. But, if the bodies are inexpensive and readily available, and someone could paint them and decal them for me, that would be awesome.

I'm wondering if these custom decals are going to be a problem, or real expensive. They don't seem to be something that alot of you guys are making on your own, but you are relying on some people who specialize in them. I'm guessing there is alot of work involved, and so it could be pretty expensive for me to get a lot of individual custom logo decals.


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## mking (Apr 25, 2000)

*custom decals*

i dont know if this guy does custom orders, but he is an HO sticker guru

http://www.afxslotcarstickers.net/

one option would be tomy turbo chassis (no tuning required out of the box racer) w/ PM monte carlo/nascar style bodies. those are available on ebay, and i am sure i have 5-10 in my pit box. wouldnt be too hard to paint them basic colors like white, yellow, red, orange, etc, and decal them individually.

mike


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## mking (Apr 25, 2000)

*if you can get the decals*

pete's pavement modified tomy turbo bodies are cool, as well as his nascar bodies. i bet you could arrange a bulk order of those painted generically with your custom stickers


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## Scafremon (Dec 11, 2006)

Going with custom made lexan bodies is definetly an option. It would make it easier to get a bunch of the same body styles, and (I think) make painting easier (I believe you paint these from the inside, correct?). The downside (and I could be wrong on this) would be durability, and having to do special mountings, instead of clip-ons. These cars are going to be run by people who may just look at them as kids toys, and may not treat them carefully, so I was thinking I need something fairly solid.

But, I would be interesting in hearing from Pete with his ideas. 

I did some looking into the Life-like Nascar cars, and they seem to be readily available, but possibly already decaled. Can these be sanded/repainted and look close to a color-molded car? This is one avenue I also want to investigate. I could buy a bunch of these bodies for a few bucks each, and send them to someone with painting/decaling skills. 

I'm going to order some water-slide decal paper for an inkjet printer, just in case the custom logo decals are something I need to do myself, but my preference would be to pay someone who could also do this for me.


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

*You are you're own worst critic*

Uh Scaf,  I think you are sorely underestimating your ability! After watching your track buildup with your fastidious assembly and attention to detail; I know you can knock out a few cars. 

I'll testify to the toughness of Pete's bods. He has also stepped up a thickness in the PTEG he uses for the bods after I sniveled about blowing up an Odyssey a while back. They're designed for the rigors of club racing. Several of his makes snap right on to the AFX,Magna,Xrtac chassis. They are easy to cut out and paint. Use acrylic model paint and brush it right on ...er I mean in. Even if you totally fudge one up the still look quite good cuz they are painted on the inside and retain nice luster! :thumbsup: 

If you are gonna over-paint hardshell bods get ones without tampos, stripes and graphics. All that junk will show ghost lines after the topcoat shrinks up and would have to be sanded off for superior results. For the hardshells just yank the glass, wet scuff them with 1500, scrub and wash with comet then rinse. Bomb can 'em and clearcoat if so desired.

As mostly rookies will be driving, get the peel and sticks for the trimmings, they are way more durable than conventional wet slides. You can fix them up with waterslides after the carnage.

I cant think of a better event/oppurtunity for you to get your feet wet and your fingers sticky than now. If you can bomb can garden furniture you can paint 'lil cars with the rest of us!

Bill


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## Scafremon (Dec 11, 2006)

Bill,

I do appreciate the confidence you have in me, and I imagine that after a few painting attempts I might end up with fairly decent looking cars. If these cars were for my own personal garage, I would no doubt embark on this project myself, and if I do end up doing this, I will surely be requesting tips like you have given above.

Part of the reason I was throwing this out here for others to do was because the money for this isn’t coming out of my pocket. Well, initially it will, but I will (hopefully) get reimbursed. I figured if there are people who are experienced at this stuff, and enjoy doing it, they might be able to pocket some spending money while doing what they enjoy. I’m also certain that they could knock out this project 10x faster then I would be able to do on my own, and I still need to finish up my track for this.

Next week after some more brainstorming on the project with coworkers, I should have a better estimate on how many cars I will be in need of. I’m thinking it is somewhere between 20 and 40. I also have a guestimate number in mind of about $20 per car. I think $10 should be enough to get a chassis (if I go with X-traction or Life-Like) and a body, be it resin or lexan,. That would leave $10 per car for someone to paint and decal them up. I’m not sure if that is generous, or insulting. 

-- Jeff


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## gear buster (Dec 1, 2005)

*cars..*

Lexan is about the cheapest and most durable of the bodies to do. But you need to add body tubes or clips for the chassis to attach the body.
The hardbodies like the JL or lifelike is fairly chaep and durable also but easier to do decaling and painting. It equals itself out.
$10 a car is to decal/paint is a very good price I beleive.
When I do cars for shows or our track I usually sale them for $8 or $10. Depends on what it cost me for the bodies. 
Pete is probably about the best deal I have found on the lexan.
painting the bodies is not to hard. Im with Bill.. If you can shake spray anything you can paint hardbodies. For an easy tip on bombin bodies.If you want a fast cure. Heat the can slightly with a hair dryer. Just luke warm. To hot and the can will spray itself :freak: ..Makes the paint dry smoother and spray a better pattern.
water decals is good but as Bill said again :thumbsup: ..Peel and stick..
Water slids you should clearcoat after applied for durability. Peel and stick just as it says.."Peel and stick." nothing else.
I paint sponsors logos on bodies.this takes a little more patients.. And nerves..lol :drunk: There are some sponsors you can't find other than custom made decals.
My saying..Grab a can..shake it... aim.. and pull the trigger.
one more thing. Make sure the tiny hole in sprayer is facing away from you.


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## mking (Apr 25, 2000)

*turbos vs XTs*

i have had good luck using these clips for mounting lexan bodies:


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150080526860

tomy tubros are probably more consistent out of the box than JL or AW Xtractions. if your buying chassis in bulk you probably can get turbo chassis for $10/ea.

Some of pete's bodys are made for the Xtraction/Turbo mount, or if you use other lexan bodies you can use the clips. actually i think you already have a clip for the super G's. did you ever get that to work? 

mike


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Scarf, send me your address and how many bodies you need (up to a dozen, that's all I have plastic for right now, I can order more in a week and a half), they'll be in the mail Monday, Tuesday if you want them painted. I can do IROC colors if you like, like some pastels and neons. I don't have a lot of decals so I'd have to leave that part up to someone else though.

These pavement modifieds Bill and Mike are talking about will fit anything AFX from X-Tractions to Tomy cars with the standard body clip. They're made from .010 PETG instead of Lexan and as they say they can stand up to the punishment. They're yours for the asking.


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## Scafremon (Dec 11, 2006)

Hi Pete.

I'll PM you my mailing address. 

From looking at your website, it looks like the Dirt Modified is the only body you have that uses std clips, and which doesn't require any modifications to the chassis. Is that correct?

For starters, I'd like to purchase (2) of the Dirt Modified - maybe you could paint one, and then I will give the other a shot at painting. As for colors, I don't know what IROC colors are. If they are pastels and/or neons, I would prefer going with just a standard color, maybe a yellow, blue, green, or orange to match my lane colors. I may want to go with lane colored cars to make marshalling easier, but on the other hand, that would put each companies car on specific lane, so maybe not.

I will take the cars into work and have the mgr who will actually be in charge of (read: paying for) this event to see if he likes it. I actually don't even know what a 'dirt modified' is - I'm guessing some type of dirt track race, or maybe cars that dirty?  

Bill / GB,

I will look into peel-n-stick, but if they are thick looking stickers, I think I would rather go with decals. And Steve, thanks for the spray can tip.  

Mike,

I just tried the lexan body with clip again, and now it works. It really seemed it was binding up something last time, but I did not notice it this time at all. On my new layout, I ran about 10 laps with an SG+ and F1 body, and best lap was 7.9 secs. I then put on the lexan body on same chassis, and in 3 laps I was down to 7.4 secs. Does that make sense that the body change should shave off time like that?

I was then going to try lexan with the silicone-covered-foam-tire SG+ axle set-up, but I think I screwed up something on the car. Maybe an endbell (he says, not knowing which end of the car the bell is even on). I need to do some searching on this issue now.

Thanks Pete for popping in. I'll PM you shortly.


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## mking (Apr 25, 2000)

*hi jeff*

Pete lexans dont require any speacial mounting clips, they are designed to use the stock "tabs" the hard shell bodys engage

and yes, using a lexan body WILL account for increased lap times for 2 reasons; weight and center of gravity. 

slot cars are LIGHT; so the addition of a hard shell body (even an F-1 body) adds a significant amount of weight in terms of the % of overall weight. lexan bodies are much lighter, so that will increae laptimes

then the center of gravity is much lower using a lexan body, so you can corner faster (less chance of a deslot). 

thats why most organized racing uses lexan bodies. 

"real" racers probably wouldnt use the clips i sent you, becasue the clip is on top of the chassis, raising the center of gravity. most racing chassis; BSRT G-3s, G-Jets, Wizzard chassis, and slot tech chassis (panthers) have lexan mounts molded into the chasses (ok, the BSRT chassis have holes drilled in the chassis to accept mounting posts to be added).


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Also Jeff, my cars do not require special paints for lexan, you can use just about any hobby enamel you like. Just paint on the inside as you wish. I'll send you a painted one as well a clear one. Don't worry about paying for them, they're my contribution. 

The pavement modified pictured is based on the NASCAR Whelen modified raced in primarily the Northeast and Southeast. The car does use the stock body pegs found on most Tomy cars, we've taken to using a small square of 2-sided tape as well just for extra securement. 

If you intend to race Magna-Tractions or X-Tractions then I have a couple of alternatives; The Eagle which is a formula style open wheeler or my pavement sprinter. Both of them also also use the stock chassis mounts. If you're doing a road course then I'd recommend the Eagle.


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## Montoya1 (May 14, 2004)

mking said:


> and yes, using a lexan body WILL account for increased lap times for 2 reasons; weight and center of gravity.
> 
> lexan bodies are much lighter, so that will increae laptimes
> 
> then the center of gravity is much lower using a lexan body, so you can corner faster (less chance of a deslot).


Do you mean decreased? I have always found a car will go much quicker with a properly mounted lexan body...


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## mking (Apr 25, 2000)

*increased, descreased, yada yada yada*

my bad

lexan bodies are faster than hard shells. speed increases and lap times decrease.


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