# scratchbuilt ho slotcars



## joegri (Feb 13, 2008)

hey sloters ive been messin with the idea of differnt ho cars and decieded to order a 3000 riggen unasembled chassis. due her on the 17 april.im pretty jazzed about that! now ive got to repower and consider time to route myown. but its the scratchbuilts that knock me out.could be the ultimite in slotin.if you got 1 or have built 1 i would like to see em. i found a place scratchbuilt.com check it out . there is a guy mike who made some ho scale cars and cad drawings 3-d. can you imagine a car you built tearin up a track u built ! just in the dreamstate now but heading towards reality. so if you got 1 lets see them!! keep on dreamin.


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## GoodwrenchIntim (Feb 22, 2005)

Home made brass pan riggen copy


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## videojimmy (Jan 12, 2006)

don';t know if this qualifies or not... but here it is anyway










it went in this body


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## joegri (Feb 13, 2008)

yeah now thats what im talkinbout!! how do the cadu handle? did ya havta repower yer track? and is that a pacard caribean ? any scratchcounts . hey goodwrenchintim did you use a chassis jig ? man im likin the scratchbuilt idea.im in planning stage now finding out what tools are needed solderiron/jig/ and some nippers that the scratch talk about.keepem comin and thanx for adding!!thanx vj that is a crisp scratch are the fronts built into tha pac?


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## slotmichl (Sep 20, 2004)

joegri said:


> there is a guy mike who made some ho scale cars and cad drawings 3-d.


Hi!
this is Mike speaking. Actually there were not many scratchbuilt cars I have, that were built from me! There is only one stainless steel Riggen copy that I tried, and even this as only laser-cut here, but assembeled from Ron/RiggenHO.

If you want to see some scratchbuilt cars check my picture album:

http://www.picturetrail.com/slotmichl

There were some picture of my custom track as well. Not really routed, but rather leaser cut as well. So you can see I am rather a steel than brass guy....

Michael


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## GoodwrenchIntim (Feb 22, 2005)

joegri said:


> yeah now thats what im talkinbout!! how do the cadu handle? did ya havta repower yer track? and is that a pacard caribean ? any scratchcounts . hey goodwrenchintim did you use a chassis jig ? man im likin the scratchbuilt idea.im in planning stage now finding out what tools are needed solderiron/jig/ and some nippers that the scratch talk about.keepem comin and thanx for adding!!thanx vj that is a crisp scratch are the fronts built into tha pac?


 No jig all hand cut with a dremel, I did use my 1/24 motor blueprinting die to make sure the rear uprights were straight an true


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

Michael, pretty amazing stuff you have there.


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## slotmichl (Sep 20, 2004)

AfxToo said:


> Michael, pretty amazing stuff you have there.


Just had to check again. There were several chassis shown that were mine, and several (most of'em actually) that I got just the pictures sent in from some collections or the manufacturers themselfes.

Mine were from epay long ago, when this stuff was actually sold. Quite cheap I had to admit. Who was interested im old brass few years ago? Beside the music of course

Michael


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## chaparrAL (Oct 31, 2008)

I gotta figure out how to post pics here . till then check out thurman scratdhbuilt under Brass wars in the RiggenHO site. A group of us old early 1970,s racers have a yahoo thread going called HO geeks and geezers . We may get together i hope at the HOPRA Nats, at least a few of us. Old style cars are making a comeback.


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## chaparrAL (Oct 31, 2008)

Hey it worked ! Enjoy!


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

This has the single most exciting potential for the hobby and I hope it sees a major revival. The current mostly spec-class, deep pockets, exotic part-de-jour treasure hunt forms of racing (i.e., everything short of unlimited) leave very little room for innovation and creativity for the builders. Getting back to the basics, taking magnetic downforce out of the equation, reinstalling respect for gravity, balance, dynamic handling effects, fabrication skills, and blowing the restrictions off of creativity will be a welcome addition to the hobby. Maybe a Scratchbuilding forum is in order?


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## demether (Aug 26, 2008)

AfxToo said:


> Getting back to the basics, taking magnetic downforce out of the equation, reinstalling respect for gravity, balance, dynamic handling effects, fabrication skills, and blowing the restrictions off of creativity will be a welcome addition to the hobby.


AMEN :thumbsup:


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## K.L. VanAtta (Mar 23, 2009)

All,

To expand a bit on what Al has said. The Yahoo Group site is "MidwestHOGeeks" and is made up of racers who raced in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin HOPRA in the early to mid 70's and some other people who are interested in the "Brass Wars" era of HO racing.

There is also an E-Mail group which I have ended up moderating which is dedicated to the cars, people, and culture of the "Brass Wars" times. To be truthful, some of the people and culture aspect is spent reminiscing about the "pranks" and "adventures" we used to have at races. The glory of our, collective, misspent youth.

As a splinter of the e-mail group, a rules group has been formed to look at rules from that era and establish guidelines to help the "Brass Wars" cars and spirit return to the HO slot car hobby/racing. The focus is on having fun, the spirit of the times, scratchbuilding (chassis), innovation (where would HO racing have gone with out the advent of magnetic attraction), and Concours d'Elegance. Oh, and more fun!

This is all very much in the early stages and if you want more information please go the RiggenHO.com, join MidwestHOGeeks, or drop me a note (PM me here). We're just a bunch of old racers who want to relive some of the fun times we had many years ago with cars that don't require a magnets to go fast.

Be good,

Keith VanAtta


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## demether (Aug 26, 2008)

could you give us the adress of MidwestHOGeeks ? 

I think that is very interesting. I just started to build h0 magnetless car, starting modding plastic magnet cars to "demagnetize" them : 

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=247218



the next step will be to create an hybrid plastic/brass magnetless chassis, based on tomy turbo, a little like tycopro or superII. 

Of course, the final step I'll do will be creating scratch full brass chassis. But I don't know if the better magnetless car should be brass or plastic for now. 

My own "concept" is based on 2 things : create good racing magnetless chassis, but low cost and easy to build to create monotype race classes.


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## K.L. VanAtta (Mar 23, 2009)

All,

MidwestHOGeeks can be found at, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MidwestHOGeeks/

RiggenHO Brass Wars here, http://www.riggenho.com/HOBrassWars.htm

There is a lot of information on Ron Bernstein's RiggenHO Brass Wars site, including the type of cars raced, can type and AFX pan type, manufacturers from that era, and painted bodies. Slotmichl, also has a fine site here, http://www.picturetrail.com/slotmichl, which documents cars from the 1972 to 1975 period in Michigan and Indiana HOPRA.

Be good,

Keith VanAtta
*A.I.R.O*
_Absolutely Insane Racing Organization_


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## demether (Aug 26, 2008)

thank you !


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## chaparrAL (Oct 31, 2008)

the motor


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