morrisey0's Trackmaster Oval Car
Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2023 7:41 pm
I picked up this super rusty POS earlier this week, and have cluttered up a couple of other threads with posts about it, so to quit all that I started a thread for it on it's own.
Back story: An ad pops up on FBMP for a vintage oval car a couple of hours away from me. Within 10 seconds I see a couple of Novak products, an oval car transmission, and an $80 price tag. I am on my way within the hour without looking any further.
I ended up with this.
Now, I live within a 2 hour drive of where I got this thing. I have many things in my life that have been stored in an unconditioned garage or shed for 2-3 decades, and none of them are as rusty as the steel coated items on this vehicle! It literally looks like it was in a lake or buried in mud for quite some time. I don't care! It was worth the purchase price.
Through the very useful "identifications" section of this forum, I learned from GomachV that this is a Trackmaster RC10 oval conversion chassis with a Custom Works Dominator steering set up. Then scr8p informs me that the trans is from a Badger oval car.
Great news off the bat is that the super hacked chassis is a Trackmaster chassis, and Jeff at factoryworks.com supplies replacement chassis! So that part is sorted.
Then there is the front end, and yea, at first I wanted to recreate what was there, but yea, no, 80% of the front end made it's way to the trash can. Shocks, rod ends, Dominator hinges, caster blocks, and one steering block was about all that survived.
Then the rear. From the pic you can see some sort of f'glass shock tower screwed to what remains of the black shock tower, and then an Andy's rear body mount mated to it is some form or fashion. This is kinda weird because the more I look into the original shock tower (in its full form) that is mounted to the trans plates, it probably would have worked just fine for the intended purpose. The rear arms have been cut up to make a little extra room for driveshafts. Again, most of it is garbage. The only things saved from the rear are the shocks, the caster blocks, the trans and shafts.
It is around now that I realize that the trans plates don't mount directly to the chassis; they mount to the arm mounts, which in turn mount to the chassis as typical on RC10s. And as far as I realize now, you can simply screw this trans / arm mounts to any ol' RC10 out there. But not so simple.............
sidenote here: I slap that crappy looking trans in the ultrasonic cleaner for 20 minutes, and the gd thing comes out shining! I don't think they were made this way, so I think a po polished this thing up. I simply finished off what was there, and I can see my reflection
I get my replacement chassis plate from FTW, and go to mount the trans, and it doesn't quite match up. Come to find out the PO had "ovaled" the mounting holes for the trans/ arms mounts to make it fit. Which leads me to where I am this evening. GomachV has suggested shaving some of the arm mounts, which is a great idea but I worry about leaving enough meat on the bone, and this trans (and mounts) are pretty rare, so I don't want to modify anything unless I have to. phin suggested flipping the flanged bearings to narrow the plate width, which again is a great idea, but then there is nothing to keep the bearings from leaving outwards, and it leaves too much play on the shafts internally. The trans plates are 1/8" themselves, and the bearing depth minus the flange is about 3/32", so that is letting the shafts slide.
So this is where this little POS stands tonight. Feel free to throw ideas. What would usually be the most difficult way may be the easiest way, and that is to change the mounting holes on the chassis just a little bit to match the trans. As of this moment, that is the route I am probably going.
Back story: An ad pops up on FBMP for a vintage oval car a couple of hours away from me. Within 10 seconds I see a couple of Novak products, an oval car transmission, and an $80 price tag. I am on my way within the hour without looking any further.
I ended up with this.
Now, I live within a 2 hour drive of where I got this thing. I have many things in my life that have been stored in an unconditioned garage or shed for 2-3 decades, and none of them are as rusty as the steel coated items on this vehicle! It literally looks like it was in a lake or buried in mud for quite some time. I don't care! It was worth the purchase price.
Through the very useful "identifications" section of this forum, I learned from GomachV that this is a Trackmaster RC10 oval conversion chassis with a Custom Works Dominator steering set up. Then scr8p informs me that the trans is from a Badger oval car.
Great news off the bat is that the super hacked chassis is a Trackmaster chassis, and Jeff at factoryworks.com supplies replacement chassis! So that part is sorted.
Then there is the front end, and yea, at first I wanted to recreate what was there, but yea, no, 80% of the front end made it's way to the trash can. Shocks, rod ends, Dominator hinges, caster blocks, and one steering block was about all that survived.
Then the rear. From the pic you can see some sort of f'glass shock tower screwed to what remains of the black shock tower, and then an Andy's rear body mount mated to it is some form or fashion. This is kinda weird because the more I look into the original shock tower (in its full form) that is mounted to the trans plates, it probably would have worked just fine for the intended purpose. The rear arms have been cut up to make a little extra room for driveshafts. Again, most of it is garbage. The only things saved from the rear are the shocks, the caster blocks, the trans and shafts.
It is around now that I realize that the trans plates don't mount directly to the chassis; they mount to the arm mounts, which in turn mount to the chassis as typical on RC10s. And as far as I realize now, you can simply screw this trans / arm mounts to any ol' RC10 out there. But not so simple.............
sidenote here: I slap that crappy looking trans in the ultrasonic cleaner for 20 minutes, and the gd thing comes out shining! I don't think they were made this way, so I think a po polished this thing up. I simply finished off what was there, and I can see my reflection
I get my replacement chassis plate from FTW, and go to mount the trans, and it doesn't quite match up. Come to find out the PO had "ovaled" the mounting holes for the trans/ arms mounts to make it fit. Which leads me to where I am this evening. GomachV has suggested shaving some of the arm mounts, which is a great idea but I worry about leaving enough meat on the bone, and this trans (and mounts) are pretty rare, so I don't want to modify anything unless I have to. phin suggested flipping the flanged bearings to narrow the plate width, which again is a great idea, but then there is nothing to keep the bearings from leaving outwards, and it leaves too much play on the shafts internally. The trans plates are 1/8" themselves, and the bearing depth minus the flange is about 3/32", so that is letting the shafts slide.
So this is where this little POS stands tonight. Feel free to throw ideas. What would usually be the most difficult way may be the easiest way, and that is to change the mounting holes on the chassis just a little bit to match the trans. As of this moment, that is the route I am probably going.
But there is a reason for that season, as long as the body situation works outs.