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wow another great night of fun thanks to all- for you that missed it we had a new racer Jeff, when I was racing I never understood how some guys were happy to be car owners and not drivers but I gotta tell you I loaned Jeff a brand new cooper climax for the historic f1 class and it was way fun cheering him on with that absolutely stock little gem, ok the magnet helped but man it was cool. Today I saw one sold on Ebay for upwards of a hundred bucks though....aye carumba!

Fail # 1282.....there went 3 hours of my life I'll never get back. Well I spent a few hours at the lathe making my super duper axle bushing peening tool only to discover those brass axle bushings are a lot harder than they look...they are not soft brass by any means and the sintered bronze ones will be even harder. Bottom line after making the tool (it actually turned out pretty cool ) I figured out to peen, move or just disrupt enough brass to tighten up the clearance ya gotta whack the heck out of those little suckers- much easier to do the super glue trick or now I'm thinkin about soldering them then honing to the clearance I want. Hey in the old days engine bearings were poured lead Babbitt so a little hard silver solder might work pretty cool- lead has its own lubricity and being softer than the axle will keep from wearing the axle as long as I keep em oiled. More to follow and in the mean time I am ordering an assortment of bushings from professor motor, perhaps different brands have different clearances.

With shipping it was around 70 bucks so I figure if nothing else it would give me spare parts...the one I got isn't my first choice on livery/color and I don't think it has the latest "o ring" chassis style but hey it gives me a weapon for the "BRM WARS"  I really appreciate everyone loaning me theirs to race but honestly some of the hits they take just sound downright brutal, they are amazingly tough but I've been nervous that when one does decide to shatter it would be on my drive!  Now I gotta order some tires and a couple gears and I'm thinkin some spare guides and brushes... cant wait!

Fantastic info Rico ! I especially like the idea of hanging from the guide post to determine bias side to side -Kinda like a plumb bob!. I think I'll have to make some measurements, start a log book and then make incremental changes and record results. Has anyone ever tried setting the car on four identical scales on a surface plate to determine corner weights? I have a small digital scale that seems pretty accurate and repeatable that wasn't very expensive and I've been thinking of setting some up like the race scales we use for the Reynard, with a little math you could determine balance, bias and perhaps most importantly it would show a "tweaked" chassis...my driving isn't good enough to determine by observation--I don't think I drive the same corner the same way twice! anyways if I try I'll keep you posted- thanks again for the help!

My apologies Monte, I didn't see your post- I bought a Corvette from Bill upon arrival and then got wrapped up in racing and didn't get a chance to see what you had-I am always acquiring more so if you still have some you want to get rid of and don't mind bringing them please hit me up next Thurs. Thanks.

So I have figured out this slot car racing is a lot like racing full scale...buying the car is just the first step. Now the process of getting all the things you need to actually run the car and be able to work on it and tune it and maintain it begins. OK so maybe building a box to carry my stuff in instead of a paper sack isn't quite the same as having to have a trailer and tow rig but a task none the less. Then there's the tools and again the same- better to buy quality once, and the lubricants, oh and spare parts, tiny set screws, braids, guide flags, good controller,...and of course tires! thankfully these little guys aren't  $650.00 a set and they don't go away after 5 heat cycles but.....I need a database to keep track of the sizes ! Enough rambling .. to tell the truth I am having fun shopping all the sites for the cool stuff. When I was actively racing the U.P.S. guy was delivering tyres from Goodyear in Akron and parts from Carl Haas several times a month and always offered to put them in the garage for my wife just so he could look at the car....maybe he wanted to look at my wife...anyways we got to be on a first name basis.. now I am getting packages from professor motor and ebay just about every week! as to getting up to speed I had some fast laps last thurs. so now I just have to keep working on consistency and mental focus, Thanks again to everyone for their help- can't wait till next Thurs!.