Motorized Land Rover by John Cahill
 
 
 

 

This is a 1974 Series III Landrover that I bought in 1987. It had overdrive in 4 gears (plus reverse!) and an 8000 lb Warn winch. I loved it…and after a couple years I did a total restoration of it, including redesigning the heater so it actually put out hot air in the winter *grin~*

 

 

This is how it looked after it was restored. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, I found a 1/24 scale model in a hobby store and made it up to match the restoration.  It is the only such kit I have ever seen, I think it might have been a Heller kit, but I am not sure.  The Landrover has long ago been sold to make room for other fun cars, but I always kept the model as a reminder. 

Recently in moving cross-country, the model was damaged and rather than rebuild it or trash it,  I decided to make it into a slot car 

 

 

 

 

 

Making it into a slot car involved making my first brass chassis, and also finding a source of large off-road style 1/24 scale tires (which meant making them!). Originally I was planning to make it front engine/rear drive but therejust wasn’t enough room in the engine compartment.

 

 

 

There is an “in-progress” pic, you can see the cutout for the motor and crown gear in the rear area.

 

 

 

 

 

The car came together really well.  If it had been front engine, I would have left off the hardtop, but with the hole in the back section I put on the hardtop, windows and doors. Ultimately I feel pretty good about that, as it looks really solid driving along on the track.

 

 
 

I am especially pleased with the tires.  I used S-111 Por-a-Mold Synair Urethane mold material and the tires were molded from Experts Choice Silicone Rubber (both sourced from Bare Metal).

 

I tinted the tires with standard black paint tint.  The rubber is quite sticky and flexible, and you almost get a pneumatic feel when driving.  The tires didn’t require any truing and I think that was largely due to using a hard (true) model tire for the mold master as well as building a firm box around the mold and not removing it. 

 

 

Here are a couple of pics of making the master, you can see the hard model tire suspended in the mold material.

 

 

 

 

Here’s a pic of molding a tire, before and after

  
 

The Landrover is fun to drive.  I used a little Carrera 1/32 motor and fairly low gearing (7 tooth pinion and 33 tooth crown). It drives very truck-like.There are no magnets and a few lead weights near the “Slotcarheroes” guide.

  
 

 
 

That’s about it….here’s the Landrover hanging out on the family track

Thanks for reading this.  Best regards, John.