creating line controlled lowrider model cars that
can hop and dance. The first cars I messed up on
hydro's and paintjobs but by studying more and
more pages of Lowrider Bicycle magazine it gave
me more ideas on how to put together my own
lowrider cars with cool features like locking up the
rear and hidding the battery in the switchbox.
This AMT 1/24 scale '64 Chevy Impala
model kit was my first lowrider model
car. I messed up the chassis so I
build
one using black 2 mm thick styrene.
I glued panels for the shafts and build 2
Mabuchi 130 motors with gears on top
so the rear would stay up after releasing
the switches. These motors I swapped
later on with HO Motors. All is powered
by a 6V old school camcorder accupack.
I build a chassis using 2mm thick styrene you can see it's
very basic and easy to construct. It has 2 shafts for the
front and rear axle to travel up and down in.
The hopper string is kite wire and it touches the chassis
only once to reduce waer and tear.
The hopper motor is a regular 130 motor juiced with 6V.
To prevent the axles from moving back and forth I soldered
a stabilizer on top of the U-bars. 2 HO motors with dental
floss line sticking out of the collars are strong and fast
enough to rock the car sideways and also keeps the car
locked when you release the switches an excellent feature
I must say and I called it The Way of the Knot.
Purple Daze lowrider I created using the
1/24 Arri 1970 T-Bird it's an easy and
clean kit.
With Purple Daze I wanted it to be able to
roll back and forth so I constructed a drive
system using a a worm gear and a 130
motor. A hinge was attached to the 130
motor so that it can move on both axes to
make the car go up but also hit the sides.
In total the car has 4 motors with 2 HO
motors in the trunk, a hopper motor and
the drive motor. I also included some small
light bulb under the chassis' front so that
when you hop the car the lights will flash.
scheme using Revell paints. Interior I created
using styrene and velour and it has swivell
seats and even a real working speaker
that's hidden under the brass mesh.
To control everything I build what I call a
universal switchbox which is THE way to save
money on boxes and switches. You can use
a food container or a special electronics box
big enough to fit your battery and switches.
With a VGA connector you hook up all your
rides check out the Plug and Play article I did
for Lowrider Bicycle Magazine.
friend Brian Archuleta. It has a clean setup
that makes the car roll back and forth, hop,
hit sides and 3 wheel motion.
The chassis has 5 motors one more than I
normally use on this type of rides because
I wanted to make the front lift and lock
besides hopping. A small switch on the
switchbox let you choose between hopping
or lifting. This same setup I also use on my
new 1/12 RC Black Magic Impala.
with the kit. Two HO motors are mounted
in the trunk to make the car go side2side.
The drive motor also uses a worm gear
setup and can swivel up and down and
turn sideways. Two pieces of paperclip
with a bend "O" are soldered to the brass
axle housing with lines of floss attached
to it that pulls the whole drive train down
to the chassis making the rear lift and lock.
a lower section on the chassis just
behind the rear wheels that holds a
metal rod. The lines run over this rod
to prevent wear and tear..nothing so
annoying than fixing worn out lines all
the time. On the front of the chasis you
see the extra HO motor that lifts the front.
On top of the shaft there two strips of
styrene to make prevent the U-bar from
sitting to low.
car he used an already
painted Revell body and created a custom interior.
