Tech Tips for Dummies       

My idea of tuning is to create a stable of cars where the same classes of car are close to the same speed while still retaining their unique driving characteristics. I don't care if an individual car is the fastest. Just that it's competitive within it's class.

For example, the trick comes in when matching some of the GT1 cars from different manufacturers like the ProSlot Toyota, the Ninco Mercedes, Ninco BMW, and the Fly Porsche. In this case I used two ProSlot GT2  Porsche magnets and glued then into the Toyota. One as far forward and just behind the slot blade as possible and one as far back and just ahead of the motor. These magnets are not real strong and the car is much more competitive. It still slides and retains its character. You have to drive really well to go fast with it.

Ninco BMW as fast as a Fly Joest Porsche !!!!!

This trick should work with any Ninco car that uses a round magnet. Look at magnet from bottom of the car. If you see a small hole in the bottom of your Ninco that exposes the magnet then your in business. Remove the body of the car from the chassis. Use a small tool of any kind to push the current magnet out of the chassis. You can use the stock magnet or replace it with a Fly magnet or any other round magnet. Either way set your magnet aside and use a drill, knife or reamer to open up that hole in the bottom of your car so that when you replace the magnet you can push it down closer to the bottom of the chassis. Go slow. You don't want to make the hole too large. I used the reamer on my Swiss army knife to do the job. I kept testing the hole until the magnet JUST fit through. You want a good tight fit. Now when you replace the magnet make the bottom of it flush with the bottom of the car. To tune your car you can push the magnet up or down in the chassis. If you need a little glue, try using silicon. Silicon will come off easily if you want to change things later on.

That's it. Now your BMW should give the Joest Porsches a run for their money

Ninco Mod Revisited - I used the same mod on my Ninco F1 cars. Although, I wasn't quite as careful about the hole sizing so I had to put a little Scotch Tape on the magnet to make it a tight  fit. Otherwise the magnet would just pull itself out of the bottom of the car ! With the tape the magnet stays put and the Ninco F1 cars are much more race able. 

Scalextric VW Bugs vs. Fly Cars ??

Word on the street is a Bug with Silicon tires added and two of the new Tweeker 3 magnets stacked one on top of the other in the center magnet hole of the bug will beat a stock Fly car. Can't confirm this myself and I don't know which Fly cars this combo was run against. A modified Bug vs. a stock Fly car ? Is this fair ? He, he, he...

ProSlot Porsche GT-2 Mods

While these cars are a blast to drive right out of the box I couldn't help upgrading mine when a friend brought his over and blew me away. The change will make your GT-2 Porsche's faster and retain that great tail out 911 attitude we all love.

Remove the body and take out the thick factory magnet. Now glue (using silicon glue) a Tweeker magnet just behind the slot blade and a second one just in front of the rubber motor mount. It's real obvious, just keep the magnet on the flat part of the chassis as far forward and to the rear as they will go. Re-mount the body and keep the rear screw loose so that the rear of the car can flex.

That's all there is to it. Just be sure to do this to each one of your GT-2's. You wouldn't want to have an unfair advantage. Would you ??

I bet this would work well on the Porsche GT-3 cars but I haven't had a chance to try it out. Currently, my modified GT-2's are faster than the stock GT-3's. Not bad when you consider the GT-3 has ProSlots hottest motor the EVO-3 and the GT-2's have the EVO-2.

   Scratch Building from Plastic or Resin Models

I have been experimenting with building some of my own cars. After some bumbling around I found these steps to give the best results. I am still learning, so for real detailed modeling ideas you might look elsewhere.  

1. Match body to chassis. For simplicity I use Top Slot kits or kits that will match with current chassis by a manufacturer like Fly, Ninco etc.

2 Create posts from plastic piping found at your local hobby shop. Use several diameters and glue them inside one another to make a solid post. Screw the post to the chassis then use your Dremel tool to shave them down until the body sits at the correct height. Use epoxy or JB weld to glues the chassis to the body. after the glue dries unscrew the body and reinforce the joints with more epoxy.

3. Prep the body for paint. Sand, detail, clean and tack cloth the body.

4. Spray the base color on the body. Getting even coverage and allowing during time. before going on.

5. Tape any large areas that need additional colors and spray. Don't over spray these areas. You want a nice clean, thin paint line after the tape is pulled off. Too much paint will make a ridge.

6. After the paint is dry. Sit down with a warm bowl of water and apply the waterslide decals. Decals are supplied with some kits or you can create your own by using decal paper and supplies found at hobby shops or Micro Marks webs site. Apply one decal at a time. Keep you fingers a little moist and use a small bit of paper towel to BLOT the decal once it is in place. You can also use the edge of the paper towel to draw excess moisture off the model by just touching the edge of it to the model and letting the paper soak up the water. Take your time and you'll have a great looking car.

7. Once all the paint and waterslide decals have had time to dry. Spray the entire car with Testors Glasskote to clear coat the entire car. A couple of thin coats of this and your decals will look like they were painted on. 

8. Once the body is done use a white glue like Elmers to carefully glue the glass into the car. Elmers will dry clear and any slop will be almost invisible.

9. Assemble car and tune as you would any other car.

I am still playing with chassis construction. If your new to this like I am, stick to bodies that closely match a known chassis like the Airfix 917 works well with a Fly Porsche 908 chassis. The other option is to buy a Top Slot kit that is designed to match a chassis. Take your time, have fun, and remember it's only slot cars.

For more detailed tips go here for Great Car Building Tips

More tips at this site. Scale modeling Central 

Even more tips. High Speed Models Click on Technique.

For "How To" articles go to - rec.models.scale FAQ  

Metalizer Painting tips and more  - The MRRC Mercedes W154 Project 

Source for 1/32 Decals - Patto's Place for Slot Cars

Walkarounds - Jaguar XJR9-LM and More   

More Walkarounds - F1 Walkarounds and detailing sites  

What's a Walkaround ? It's  series of photos taken of the real car from as many angles and configurations as the photographer can get. They seem to be very popular for aircraft and rail road modeling. If you have a chance to create a walkaround for a historic racing vehicle please send it to one of the sites above. Then when someone is building that killer slot car they can use you work as a resource.

  Car Tuning and Repair

1. Inspect all new cars for free spinning wheels. ANY tire rub will slow you down. The offending bits should be trimmed carefully with an Exact-o Knife.

2. Once the car is running free with no binding, determine if it handles comparably to cars in your stable of the same style. Take your time noting the overall speed and handling and plan any changes you might make. 

3. The trick to tuning is to go slow and don't over do it. 

4. Things to think about before you glue in your magnets.

Glue - Use silicone glue so you can remove any magnets (and the glue) easily.    

Type of car - i.e.: rally car magnets in the nose for more tail sliding fun. 

Motor Available - You can easily overpower your motor with some magnets.    Use just enough to do the job.

Magnet Type - I like the "Tweeker" magnets from Sportcraft Cars. They are strong enough and small enough to tune you cars without overpowering them. At times I've even cut them in half with a Dremel tool for really fine tuning. Plus they're cheep !!

Have Fun and Experiment - It's only slot cars after all !!

Scalextric Tips

Controllers - My controllers tend to get sticky after running them for a while. This makes driving the Classic Nincos very difficult at low throttle settings. To correct this I drilled a SMALL hole ( 1/16  inch) in the top plate on the left SIDE about 1 1/2 inch from the top. I use this to spray contact cleaner into the controller then maybe a drop of  3 and 1 oil. This  frees things up nicely until next time !!

Track Rails - To clean the rails I use a SMALL amount of Contact Cleaner on a towel and just wipe the rails. Don't slop too much on the track itself. Who know what it will do over time to the track.

Brushes - I use Contact Cleaner here also. Plus I use a gray eraser to tidy things up. This really helps when a car seems to be slowing. Look for a build up of gunk on the brush. Once gone, the car will be faster and drive more consistently.

Chassis Contacts - I have some Scalextric cars that I just couldn't get to drive right. They stuttered around and acted like they weren't getting a good connection. I cleaned the brushes and still no go. Then I realized the little strip contacts that the brushes contact were not making good connection. I pulled the guide pin off the car, CAREFULLY bent the little strip contacts down just a bit and put the the guide pin back on. WOW !! Cars that were a pain to drive are now running like champs. Simple fix. Can't believe I didn't think of this before !!!

Remember - IF you open your cars, drill holes, glue magnets, or otherwise change your cars, track or other bits you're on your own. You may not be able to return these items. I only put these tips here as examples of things that worked for me. If your uncomfortable with any of this have someone help you that is good at this sort of thing.

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