[Anthony B]

A huge point is - they did not look like that when I got them  

A lot of cleaning up, sourced a few destroyed parts and then a rebuild and paint 

[Gary Brantley]

Then, you've done a lovely, and loving, restoration of both those!  Well done indeed Anthony!  I've taken some pics of my old slot cars in the last few days.   Some are before pics "just as I found them in my case" and some are of them after a bit of a cleanup and polish.  I'll try to upload them tonight and post a few hosted pics later if that's okay?

[KensRedZed]

Hi Gary,

Don't worry about asking Anthony permission to post pics on your own thread. He's just... an administrator! (Runaway! Runaway!) 

We all look forward too seeing your cars. Please post away.

[Gary Brantley]

  Okay, you asked for it!   I just finished uploading them a while ago.   I've got some pics taken before I did any clean up, and some show the same cars after cleaning and a bit of Novus polish.   The crazed glass on the Dino is the result of me spraying the entire car with some sort of clear gloss (enamel I suspect?) way back in Oz I believe.  

Here's my Cox 1/24 Lotus 40, with a replacement body bought back in late '66 or early '67 after the original, identical body suffered too much hard -racing damage.   

before:







after:











Cox 1/24 Ferrari Dino Coupe. before:





after:





Now, I'm hoping someone may be able to positively identify the next car.  It might be a 1/32 Scalextric but I just don't remember.  It was bought just days before we left Australia in March '67, and was never in a race.  It's a Brabham Formula One car of the era:

before:




after:






Folks, I have pics of the undersides of all these cars and some close ups of my "hot-rodded" Mabuchi 36D:





my home-made air intakes, inside the front opening can be seen also.   I think I got some thin tin from metal shop at Belmont High in Geelong.  









I paid some local, older racer to for a rewind and balancing job on this Mabuchi 26D motor.   One can see the heavier gauge wire it was rewoud with, as well as the pace he filed away some of the armature in order to "balance" it.  It all seemed a bit exotic for a 13 year-old kid, lol, but tha motor would haul butt!





I had this Ackerman steering set-up mounted for a while, on the Lotus chassis with a Cheetah body.  It didn't handle very good and I soon took it off.   Pretty cool detail:





And finally (I know, right?), here's the Dino Spyder body in its sorry state of affairs.  I would call attention to the pilota however; it's my fellow-Texan, ol' Jim Hall of Chaparral fame!   Check out his monogramed driving suit...





tire detail:




Thanks for bearing with me folks!  I hope you enjoyed the pics!  They bring back a lot of great memories. 

[KensRedZed]

Gary. Those are amazing and cool vintage cars. Thanks for sharing. 

Sorry I can't identify the chassis. Someone with a bit more slot car history is required.

[Gary Brantley]

Gary. Those are amazing and cool vintage cars. Thanks for sharing. 

Sorry I can't identify the chassis. Someone with a bit more slot car history is required.

Thank you Ken!    I'm glad you liked them; I had a whole lotta fun with those cars "back in the day", lol. It would be amazing to run those again!

btw-I know that I edited my earlier posts, but now I can't seem to find the edit button...hey, I'm old, okay?!?   Well, there it is for this post but it doesn't show up at the bottom of the post with the pics. Is one allowed just one edit? Learnin' the ropes here!

[CMOTD]

There is a 4 hour window to edit your posts Gary. After that time the button disappears but you can always contact an admin to alter something for you or just add another post.

[KensRedZed]

Gary,

Send a PM to Chrisguyw. He might be able to help you rebuild your chassis like new. He knows about vintage cars since before the invention of dirt and likes rebuilding these things. There are probably many other members on this site than can also guide you.

Making something old, become new again is half the fun of this hobby.

[Gary Brantley]

Thanks for that tip Dave!   I may well do just that.   There is a three-lane 1/32 scale track at Kings Hobby in Austin, Texas and about five years ago, I took the Lotus in and asked if I might just try it on their track to see if it still ran.  They didn't mind at all of course, and when placed in a slot and given some juice, the old dear actually ran backwards!   I don't know if that was the result of the Australian rewind or what, but it was neat to see it moving under its own power again.

Here's a pic of my carrying case from Australia.   Inside, you can see where it once had foam dividers, and also the original body shell for my Lotus 40.  I thought the label inside the lid was cool, and I never recall seeing it before.  Finally, a few wrenches from the Cox kits.

[KensRedZed]

Gary.

Who's Dave?

In my best Cheech and Chong voice I have to add "Dave's not here, man" 

It's all good. You must have been thinking of a friend named Dave while writing this. Some of us call it a "senior moment".