Alternative track materials
So cardboard isn't a discovery but I recently re-floored my basement and the boxes the planks came it seem nearly perfect to use as a wide banger track. It even has walls already there and ready! So if you know anyone that is redoing floors, maybe ask them to save a few of the boxes...might save you some cutting and folding, if nothing else.
Silly question, but how many people have tried using vinyl rain gutters for their builds? Split it all the way down either side, looks like you could run two cars wide in there ........ or split it the other way and have single-track drag lanes, ready for orange track to be laid down.
- I've seen stuff like that before. The vinyl gutter things and even aluminum. — redlinederby
- Saw the aluminum runs .... looked pretty trick. I think those as a drag strip with orange track laid down in them would be great. No idea of where to get that much channel, though. — SpyDude
- I was just exploring this today. 5/12/24 — Dano74
I was going through the garage Looking for Alternative track material. And I came across this baseboard The backside has a perfect cut out for a hot wheel track or just the Hot Wheels itself. Now if I can figure out what I'm gonna build and where I'm gonna build it.youtu.be/F2hdzZa4c8Q
- Good catch! Take 2 of those baseboards and put them side-by-side and you a nice 2-lane with a nice boulevard. — redlinederby
- Since you're already in the garage, start there. — SpyDude
Well I used 48' of the baseboard I had found in my garage. It's just hot glued to the wall for all my straight runs .The baseboard is also wide enough to park some extra cars along the sides on the flats.
I am currently trying 2 different materials. Pink foam and used flooring (interlocking planks).
I found that the flooring, since made to float when installed the back has an ~1/8" thick plastic coating on it. It seems to be perfect for this use, as it is slick, flat, and tough. It does flex some, though. A single plank I am using is 5' x 6" wide. The ends are made to lock together so longer runs could be made by gluing a spine to the underside for reinforcing.
the pink foam is cut with a hobby band saw, and hand will be shaped for contour. Foam sands/shapes easy, and a coating of paint + thinned (acrylic) joint compound + paint should give a tough surface.
another hot wheels track material that I used years ago was 2 rolls of flexible, vinyl baseboard, glued to a wood backing. the curls that go towards the floor are the walls, and the wide flat sides but up to each other. a 4" baseboard yiends an 8" wide track
20 years ago I built this.
dragged out of the weeds this weekend as good track building mojo
tilt launch
(does anyone use a tilt launch now?)
extruded aluminum. the bad part that made it a poor race track
the shape was like this
so one lane would drag the top of the car
we would still load it with 8-10 cars and launch
lower flat track was basicly a steel 2 x 4 with no holes in it
we called it houston traffic, because the chaos at the open section was great to watch,
and reminded you of the insanity of the freeway
- Pretty awesome memories there! I believe at one point, Chaos Canyon started with the tilt gate (they actually used a railroad bridge), but decided to go with a static starting gate. Apparently when the bridge banged down into starting position, it would jostle the cars out of position and hang up. — SpyDude
- Now, looking at your old track, if you got a second piece of that railing and bolted it alonside the first so that the outer lanes were the racetrack and the inner lanes were the Z'd parts, that might be serviceable again. Point the Z's at each other, run bolts through the sidewall all the way down the length of the track, and only use the two outer lanes. — SpyDude
has anyone tried to make curves out of a bowl?
like this:
15" diameter, super slick, and the acrylic could be painted, and glued,
maybe you could backlite from under
cut in half for a 180°
- There's a couple of YouTube videos where guys used big salad bowls to create curves for their drift tracks. Seemed to work okay after a lot of fiddling. — SpyDude
- Where can i find those vids mate? — fhk_diecastracingmalaysia
Was doing cleanup at the house and forgot I had this thing, (pic is example)
(looking at things with a different eye)
the top is aluminum, 3" and 2 halves riveted together
compound curves but not too drastic
may have to do some tests
Well my track it's made out of slot tracks, just because I'm on quarantine and I can't get choroplast right now. I've thoug of using electrical trunking like referred above but it lacks the turns. Aluminium trunking could also do the trick but I think it will damage much more the cars than plastic. The orange track it's cool but doesn't allow contact between the cars, and if not correctly mounted one track will always be shorter or longer than the other imo.
Still think that choroplast it's the best solution for those that can't buy or get Sizzlers fat tracks etc in Their own countries like myself.