Part 1 : The Black Max
For some time I had been eyeing the AFX four gears with malice. Always found them kinda nostalgic and have collected a few originals along the way. Although they were lacking something I always felt that they had great potential for some Model Murdering.
A few bodies were accumulated fairly cheaply as haggard specimens with missing parts are common fodder at auction. These were tossed on the work bench and pushed around for several months while I studied my victims.
That herdy gerdy ride height had to go! In the original design the body has to sit on the gear plate rails as the forward cowl area and hoods are very pinched and narrow. I finally mustered the courage to take a stab at it and chose a black "A" coupe which was hacked off 2mm ahead of the cowl seam.
Important note: In retrospect this first slice should have been 4 mm ahead of the cowl seam...but I'll get to that later.
Now that the forward chunk of the body is out of the way a t-jet chassis can be poked in for a look see. Clearly the forward magnet housing has to be shaved down for fit and a rear screw post has to be added. A little file work is required under the cowl to smooth things out for fit and the extra dangling windshield glass has to be removed.
With the chassis now snuggled in I realized that I was short at the cowl cut as the gear plate hung out some so graft work was required later. At this point the decision was made to go all out and hack the forward chassis pan and rails away for a full on brass front end and the period street-rod look. Only the center strip is left with the screw holes.
The brass front ends have morphed slowly from something that was quirky into a rigid and very functional prosthesis. Half a dozen different versions over the last couple of years have resulted in a bolt on contraption that is fairly easy to duplicate and allows me to adjust the wheel base during mock up and initial track tuning.
Frame rails are just rod stock that index into the forward magnet housing via small holes. A frame connector is fabbed from flat stock and indexed across the chassis's front screw hole with a hole of it's own. The frame rail assembly and connector are soldered together.
An old school drop axle is bent from square tube. Helps to anneal the brass stock with your lighter which helps keep your bends tight and prevents tearing as you work the bends in to create the spindles. Once it is bent and checked for parrallelism holes are drilled through it to accommodate the frame rails. The axle will now slide up and down the rails. Small brads are polished and turned so that they impinge fit into the hollow axle ends to create front stub axles. AFX rims were used with the hubs removed and the stub axles are trimmed to length.
For the coupe a Muscle Machines dummy motor was chosen and a screw insert was installed so that chassis, frame, and dummy motor all screw together. The stock guide pin is retained but is countersunk and uses a shaved head screw.
Old school drop pick ups were fabbed to allow the dummy motor's Zoomie pipes to be retained, however the bend ahead of the shoe hook is adjusted to inhibit lift and a hair of "Z" bend is put into the contact patch angle to compensate for the rear bend. The Zoomiez drop pipes hang right where your pick up hangers would be. Pick up springs are CA-ed into their cups.
With power hooked up the front axle is just taped in for testing and allows the wheel base to be played with until you find the sweet spot. Once established it is marked and soldered to the frame rail assembly. Small vertical holes are drilled through the axle just inside of where the kingpins would be ...if it had any. The "Hairpin" style split radius rods are created by dropping rod stock through the axle and bent into shape. One end of the rear portion is left long and is bent at 90 degrees so that it can pivot into a through hole in the bodies rocker panel and impinge fits into a corresponding hole in the chassis. Once all fit the rear tails of the hairpin are soldered closed and the assembly is now captive on the axle. Note: The hair pins are NOT soldered to the axle so that they can pivot/hinge out and away for body removal.
Rough body work included a top chop and a rework of the forward rocker step. The step was pie cut and rolled in to smooth out the lower rocker area into a more pinched and correct appearance. My booboo with the first cowl cut was extended via grafts using the Vitale technique to cover the protruding gear plate. A fire wall was also constructed to cover the forward motor housing and remaining gear plate
Final testing indicated that wheelie bars were required. The chassis sports hot rod AFX guts and likes to get slot hoppy when the throttle is cracked. The bars are round stock with a flat stock connector strap that mount to the rear screw in standard fashion Fast and quite reliable now, it will navigate 9" radius easily and stays in the slot nicely.
Part 2 : Project X
With the coupe completed and set aside until I choose a paint scheme, I moved on to a panel/sedan project. The victim in this case was a slime green panel. I scribed out the rear window blanks right away because they bugged me...LOL! Very similar to the previous build, however there were a few twists to straighten out. Due to the panel's short tail area a regulation screw post was not to be had and the rear tail of the chassis had to be bucked off flush at the rear of the gear plate to get the wheels in the wells. A stand off resembling the stock bracket was considered and tossed. I never cared for the floppy/loose effect this design was notorious for.
I opted for a slotted horizontal cleat in the tail of the sedan. The upper rib of which controls lateral chassis movement and the lower rib locks it in snug to control the vertical axis. Now that the rear is secured the frontal portion played out as before with these exceptions.
The front frame rail assembly was narrowed to an 11mm width The dummy motor is a Hot Wheels affair with Dash super modified pipes. This combination allows the retention of the stock shoe hangers as the pipes go over the hairpins rather than behind. Also the wheel base was extended to 2" allowing the radiator/grill to mount behind the front drop axle and show it off a little better. This also extends the hairpins into more prominence where as the shorter wheel base coupe tends to hide them.
The sedan proved to be very fun to drive with nothing more than smoothed out standard t-jet internals. In spite of the fact that the top wasn't chopped the center of gravity is quite low and has very nice track manners. Dropping the rear axle was not required because the chassis is able to move well up into the body cavity.
For now I'm going to enjoy them as is while I decide the annoying details. Although they look rather delicate, don't be deceived! They are very rigid with no torsional flex and have already survived a rigorous testing program of wall splats and barrel rolls that Magilla Gorilla requires for all my builds.
Detail of the floating pick up assembly and how the guide, frame, chassis, and dummy motor sandwich together.
