These cars were hidden in the depths of The Abyss and it was high time to clean them up and bring them back to life.
Cleaning was job #1. Woof.
After breakdown it was a lukewarm batch in DAWN and a touch of bleach. A soft bristle toothbrush helps a bunch. Once clean they enjoyed what little sun we had today.
The goal was to bring these cars back to life. Yet, it was decided to try and get them BACK to as close to original as possible. All of my cars are runners and have seen some HARD racing and tuning over the years. This was a nice challenge.
I headed over to Curly's and dug around. I found a nice treasure of original Goodyear and later Decent Decade branded stock tires. Also found a fresh stock motor as one car needed it due to a motor swap. Curly was not very happy with me to say the least, but it had to be done.
Original gear means original guide. That meant finding braid for this old warrior. I went back, back, WAY BACK into the Abyss and there they were. Right next to my old Polariod One Step camera and Tandy TRS-80 computer.
Gave both motors a good cleaning. Everyone has their own dunking mojo, mine is 70% Alcohol. 15 years and never a problem.
The original wires were too brittle. Wasn't sure if I had any small gauge wire, Decided to try the SCC silicone coated wire and just twist the stranded copper tight. It worked great. Nice and snug.
Time for a quick truing session. This is where I am glad I never messed with doing the "Super Glue" trick very often. Most times it gets into the bushing edges and can make removal a painful task. Thankfully these were spared of that and were easy to remove and true.
LeeRoy had missing exhaust. Some simple Plastruct tubing worked fine. I shimmed the chassis to allow them to clear and they played the role well enough.
Finished and each one runs great. Aside from chassis mods, they are as close to out of the box I could manage. The mods help the cars anyway and Rusty is a RACER not a shelf decorator.
These cars have battle scars, no question. In fact, I am pretty sure Rusty has helped create some of them since he has raced here plenty of times :)
Each car had a buffing of Meguires Gold Class auto wax to help bring back the shine. It also helped rub off some of the scuffs. But there is certainly plenty of "Character" left.
Running these 2 on the wood was all the fun you could imagine. Just seeing these old legends out there and running as well as they did made my day.
But they are destined for Carrera track so had to test there :) Work just fine.
What a fun day. Had not planned on anything much today until my phone call with Rusty. THEN it was on :)
Thanks Rusty, this was one fun Sunday.
