Mounting Interiors

[8 lane racer]

What Is The Best Way To Mount A Full Plastic Interior In Say A Nascar Body For Full Affectiveness But Without Hindering The Handeling Of The Car.thanks

[Phil I.]

I cut mine to size and use a small piece of tape in the front and a larger, all across the back to do 2 things. One is to KEEP the back up cause in coming down it can get in gears and or cut and grind and ruin tires. Second is to use the stiffnes of the tape & interior in help keeping the back from being bent or broken from a rear hit. The front wont help with a bunch of tape so with the little tape it doesn't stop or hurt the body flex which helps handling. Plus if it does fall down. It won't hurt anything.... Mite help.........

OL' RACER FRT......
PHIL I.

[Mike R]

If it's legal to do so, position the interior in body and just use the tape at the back and let the front hang down. This allows air to catch the interior and give a little more downforce. I had several of the local top guns show me this in races where we have to run interiors, primarily the state series race, and it does make a difference in handling.

Mike R

[zinnco]

Mike - What may be happening is the body is now allowed much more side flex. This is true in all scale cars, but especially in 4 1/2" NASCAR. The additional side flex causes the car to act as if the chassis had additional side-to-side movement, creating a tendancy to slide rather than deslot. Observation of this effect may look like more straightline downforce, but it is actually not. Downforce while hung out in the corner, caused by the rear end of the car aligning better with the tangent of the slot, is another topic.

For best results, use the smallest piece of tape that will reliably stick the front of the interior up to the cowl area. Use a larger piece at the rear, perhaps overlapping the rear edges to help keep the body off the rear tires. The rear deck area of the interior may be left a little long - to the centerline or slightly past the rear wheelwell. Do not use tape on the sides of the interior. .007" and .010" bods will, of course, react differently and keep in mind different manufacturers measure thickness differently. Sometimes .007" = .005".

I have suspected that the real benefit of paper interiors is in eliminating the bind the body experiences when it flexes against the edge of (even) a non-side taped lexan interior. Have not back-to-back tested because paper interiors are illegal in all the series I run. However, many of our southern brethern swear by them, and they are fast. With zero obstensibly added downforce.

Then again, do whatever works for you!

Tom Z.

[Bartx7000]

What I learned to do from a local expert was to staple the interior in the back to the trunk with 2 staples. One on each edge. Cute the interior out as small as possible. Let the front of the interior hand down. It lowers the CG and does not impede the flex. I have only used tape a few times and it usually fails from the oil and motor cleaner before the race is over. It sucks to be winning and eat your interior in the gears on the 7th heat. Two staples never fail. I use the parma rapid51.

[slotcar fever]

Cut interier so that it dosent hit the inside of the body. Allow as much body flex as posible.

The less weight the better. Cut just enough to cover the windows.

Clean body and interior.

Place a dab/dot of glue at the back end, in the middle, and in the front, if you have to, then place in body.

[Major Bedhead]

Zinnco , I think you are on the same path I am ...

8 lane,

I race 4.5 inch nascar and have done so with great sucess. I have found through the years that the most important thing is to allow the body to flex. I have previously used the standard plastic interior and tape it across the back and then use a small piece of tape to suspend the front but allow it to hang and not drag on chassis.

Now I print my own paper interiors at home and put them in the car - they allow the most flex possible. I have found a tenth buy doing this. Body's only last so long and I usually just replace the paper interior per body. I still use the standard tape and only tape interior across the back and not on the sides making sure body can flex without interior binding it up. Paper interiors may or may not be allowed, check your local rules. I had a person complain at the track that my homemade paper interior was not 3 dimensional, so I took the drive and cut his head and body out and bent him up, so mow you can see the driver and he is sitting it, not flat on the paper

To me it also matters how much tape you use in the body and also the thickness of your body. I prefer .007 body.

I also use body armor in my car, body armor is a thin piece a thin piece of lexan (like a report cover) and cut it up in a small strip 1/2 inch high and about 1 inch longer then your body pin holes. Get a roll of double sided gift wrap tape, (clear scotch tape style) and apply it to the thin lexan strip. I usually mount and trim the body first, then apply it after and then put a pin in the holes again.
(I only reinforce the the body where it mounts to the chassis. I find any other tape will only cause the car not to handle. With the body armor installed I have never ripped a pin hole and it allows the body to flex as if without tape.

About the tape coming off and the interior falling down in the rear, I have found that cleaning the body off inside between heats using a q tip prevents the oil from soaking into both the interior and the tape that holds it to the body.

I should take some pictures to show what i mean, not sure if this has been posted on the board or not, I don't get on here as much as I should. Hope this helps and you are able to figure out what I mean .. sorry.

Thanks
Joe

[slotcar fever]

Zinnco , I think you are on the same path I am ...


Now I print my own paper interiors at home and put them in the car - they allow the most flex possible. I have found a tenth buy doing this. Body's only last so long and I usually just replace the paper interior per body. I still use the standard tape and only tape interior across the back and not on the sides making sure body can flex without interior binding it up. Paper interiors may or may not be allowed, check your local rules. I had a person complain at the track that my homemade paper interior was not 3 dimensional, so I took the drive and cut his head and body out and bent him up, so mow you can see the driver and he is sitting it, not flat on the paper

Thanks
Joe

Joe,
Thats a great idea, and I was wondering if you had the file /gif that you could upload.

[Major Bedhead]

Joe,
Thats a great idea, and I was wondering if you had the file /gif that you could upload.

Slotcar fever, I will go home and perfect the fold lines and email it to you PM me your email address.

Joe

[RollinI]

What I learned to do from a local expert was to staple the interior in the back to the trunk with 2 staples. One on each edge. Cute the interior out as small as possible. Let the front of the interior hand down. It lowers the CG and does not impede the flex. I have only used tape a few times and it usually fails from the oil and motor cleaner before the race is over. It sucks to be winning and eat your interior in the gears on the 7th heat. Two staples never fail. I use the parma rapid51.

8 Lane,

Take his advice!!

[TOM MAR]

8 Lane,

Take his advice!!

I'll agree with that! When I returned to slots, both Rollin & our local track owner Buddy showed me this & my NASCAR's are within 1/2 a tenth with & without an interior.

[Firerescue127]

You could try to be slick, and put your interior in so it gets caught up in the gears early in the race, and ask a turn marshall to just pull it out. I've seen this a time or two.

[Big Ol' Durl]

Okay, there are few things about slot racing i can claim any knowledge about, but, ahem, paper interiors is one of them. Beer consumption is the other, but I digress.

Without getting into the plusses or minuses of paper versus plastic interiors (which I WILL get into if you want, just say the word, bucko), I WILL say that the method of attaching them with staples is far superior to tape. I know this to be true because I tried it for the first time this month at a 600-lap race, running 4.5" flexis with vintage stockcar bodies, and I friggin' podiumed, dude! And you know me, I never podium.

Anyway, I found the COG and body flex issues to be true (at least as far as i could tell), but the adhesion to the body was what did it for me. Tape can be problematic, especially in long races and with the use of lubricants. Not so with the staple.

In fact, I only used ONE staple, centered under the rear window, and that interior ain't going anywhere anytime soon.

So ladies and gentlemints, you heard it from Durl: staples, not tape.

And carbona, not glue.

[Big Ol' Durl]

You could try to be slick, and put your interior in so it gets caught up in the gears early in the race, and ask a turn marshall to just pull it out. I've seen this a time or two.

That is SO against the rules out here. Interior comes out, you stick it back in. And by "you", I mean you, not the turn marshall.

Jeez, just reading that has upset me so much, I need to go get a bottle of knowledge.

[Alex"Ace"Molle]

First off a question. What kind of stapler are u guys using that has a throat that can get around the complex curves of a slot car body with out ruining it.

Second. if your having problems with your interiors coming out because of failing tape due to excess lubricants and cleaners. YOUR USING TO MUCH DAM LUBRICANTS AND CLEANERS.. Specially if you use a fresh piece of tape every race like you know u should ( I know us slot car racers are all cheap bastards but come on, spend that .05 cents and use a fresh piece of tape every race). I'm guilty of being cheap and not changing my tape too yet I still have bodies and interiors that i have been racing for seasons not just races but seasons and have yet to have had an issue with failing tape from lubricant over soaking.


For starters i only use plastic drivers. I hate paper drivers, done right plastic drivers are not any slower than paper.

But my preferred method and has been for years is trim the driver to match the contour of the side and rear windows and put a small crease about an 1/8 of inch from the end so that the driver contact to the body is minimal to give the most movement and run a piece of tape length wise from the driver onto the underside of the rear deck lid or trunk

the front of the driver is a a little different in that i fold the driver in two spots on the molded in lines that run across the top of what would be the dash board so that the front of the driver is low in the car. Normally i leave the front of the driver un taped to allow free movement and flex but I sometimes will tape it up as a tuning option.