I have had that chassis for a while. I built it in the spring of 1972 and used it in a couple of warm-up races, then apparently gave it to Earl Campbell of Team Mura to race. He used it as a back-up car for the 1972 Western States race in Lynwood, California. He set fastest qualifying time and finished in second place in that race, the largest one that year in the United States, with the other chassis I built for him. He used a very good motor built for him by Mura’s Bob Green, as well as one of the new M.A.C. Ferrari bodies. With a nearly identical sister car fitted with a Team Checkpoint 24-1/2 single, I won the thing and all the marbles. This is how I restored this grand old lady of a car, with the help of Mike Steube, Bryan Warmack and Jairus Watson.

Here is a surviving color picture of the car:

About a year ago, Dennis Hill was kind enough to let me have most of Earl’s old surviving chassis for the museum we are building in Los Angeles. Bless him, and he will soon have the reward for his generosity. In the lot was this chassis, which I recognized from my old files. Sure enough, it was one of six chassis built for that race, of which I gave Earl two, Chris Burlew one, and I retained the others. This appears to be the sole survivor of that production.
So I decided that it was time to restore the old girl that had apparently gone through a bit of hellish time on the track. So after a thorough cleaning and re-soldering of several broken joints, it was ready to re-assemble.

This style of chassis was the ultimate evolution of the 1968-1972 pro-racing chassis as devised by Bob Emott, Mike Steube and Lee Gilbert. My personal contributions were the adoption of a drop-arm stop that acted as a pivot allowing the main rails to flex below the drop-arm line, as well as stiff springs to eliminate any possibility for the drop-arm to drop. Other period details were serious front end crash bumpers designed to break off in a serious impact, absorbing much of the energy and saving the frame from major damage.

My friend Mike Steube did the final cleaning in his tumbler.
Now I had to address the motor question. I had a small lot of period Steube parts and reconstituted a motor suitable for the car. Long-time Checkpoint racer Joe Cormier supplied the armature, still in excellent condition and renewed. Bill Steube’s signature is still visible on the armature stack. Bill was first to use red dye to protect the stacks from rusting.

I had a near-mint can with Bill Steube-ground and fitted magnets and a used end bell with pre-Mura stampings hand-made buss bars.

The end bell was very dirty and the fixings very corroded, so I scrubbed the whole mess and ended with this kit:

I had to machine the head off the two screws that hold the Mura brass cups that formed the brush spring posts, so as to reverse the cup and have the screw head fit inside it:

The brush holders required lots of polishing, the one on the right showing the amount of corrosion:

Time for re-assembly, and fortunately, being the packrat of all times, I kept the tools that were lovingly handcrafted for me by Bill Steube 36 years ago to align the brush holders and armature with the end bell:

So I re-assembled the end bell keeping the screws a bit loose, and fitted the 3-piece alignment tool:

I used my old Unimat mill table and vise to hold the armature shaft to line up everything until it felt like it ran on ball bearings:

Once all aligned, I used a small square file to clean up any edges so that the old Mabuchi FT36D brushes (the best ever made) slide into the brush holders if like on ice:

Here is the finished animal, retaining its originality and those lovely hand-made buss bars:

The motor is then assembled in the conventional way with the utmost care. The brushes are shunted and the terminals soldered to the buss bars. This ensures that most of the heat will travel to the lead wires that will act as heat sinks. Note that only two motor screws have been fitted.

Now we need a “glue shield”. In 1972, I devised this cute little device to replace the usual brass piece soldered to the chassis. M.A.C. made a mold and I used it extensively, but few others did until years later, I don’t understand why as this little gadget was really protecting the negative motor brush from goop and dirt. They were later copied and sold by the Outisight Company founded by my ex-teammate, Chris Burlew.
First, the useof a 1/4 drill to make the center hole insures a clean and precise job:

The shield is then drilled and trimmed to fit onto the motor using the two missing screws and another above the bearing:

The Faas original pinion has been cleaned and is soldered to the armature shaft after a fiber armature washer has been fitted to avoid any acid traveling to the motor bearing:

Last, the Thorp commutator cooler is pressed onto the shaft:

So now, we have our motor and have gathered all the parts: a pair of NOS Steube tires (yes, we still have a few sets!), a replica M.A.C. Ferrari body artistically replicated from period photos by artist Jairus Watson, one of the actual original drivers painted for that race which incredibly survived all these years, axles, original Faas gears and period lead wires (with period vinyl insulation, none of this modern silicone that looks so out of place on a vintage car!)

Now the motor is installed in the frame:

A self-tapping screw is used on top of the motor bracket. This is the last of my frames to use a motor bracket. A few months later, I soldered the base of the can directly to the frame rails, a move that made Bill Steube going ballistic as there was one more spot needing cleaning during rebuilds…

Since the motor braces were still present after all these years, s simple joint was all it took to affix the motor. To get rid of the acid, the entire frame and motor is then rinsed under a very hot water tap, than dried and any humidity pushed away with pressured air. Then all moving surfaces are lubricated with synthetic oil.

A set of double lead wires are soldered to fabricated brass guide clips…

…and fitted to the car. Solder joints are done with non-corrosive paste and the car receives another wash in mild solvent to get rid of any acidic material.

Now, axles, spur gear and wheels are fitted.

The body is them mounted, trilled, vents are cut and the body is mounted on the finished chassis:

Now, the air-control side dams and trim spoiler are added using Pro-Weld clear Lexan glue:

Is not she a beauty? The colors were identical to that of the 1972 Dan Gurney Eagle works car for Indy, which I also decorated. Earl Campbell painted the original body. 35 years later, Jairus Watson did a tremendous job of replicating it as closely as could be.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 7:52 pm and is filed under Vintage Slot Car News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.