7 replies to this topic

[strummer]

I recently picked up another Aurora A Jet Mustang; it's in pretty rough shape, but since I like to tinker with things, I thought I'd give it a go.

 

The chassis was the easy bit; after the usual cleaning and lubrication, the motor runs fine. Am waiting on some additional parts, but otherwise, we're good to go. 

 

The body, however, is a challenge; lots of deep scratches, dents and splits. I've done the initial work, and it's ready for some primer, so I can then see what more needs to be done:

 

 

 

My question (and perhaps yours too) is: "why?" 

 

I know in my case (as I said) I like to do this sort of thing, and I'm cheap!

 

How about you?

 

Mark in Oregon

[don.siegel]

I think the answer is the same for most of us Mark... 

 

I like the feeling of getting something back in shape, in my case more the mechanicals than the body part. I enjoy refurbing bodies too, but most of the skills are beyond me! 

 

Don 

[Dave Crevie]

Absolutely true. There is a faction of us enthusiasts who get the biggest joy out of saving an item from the trash can. We look at it and wonder what kind of life it had. What little adventures did it have? At one time, it brought joy to someone. It can again. It is why I will take something that looks like this;

 

 

And bring it back to where it looks like this;

 

 

 

 

 

 

[don.siegel]

Very impressive Dave - a beautiful dragster out of that bit of junk. 

 

Don 

[strummer]

Very impressive Dave - a beautiful dragster out of that bit of junk. 

 

Don 

 

Absolutely! 

 

I think this still needs some more body work...

 

 

 

I fear my ability to do decent body work is sorely lacking...

 

Mark in Oregon

[Lone Wolf]

Mark, don't get discouraged. 

 

I love bringing "junk" back to life.

 

What type of paint did you use?

 

Is it enamel?

 

That is harder to work with due to drying time.

 

You can always make it better.

 

Let us know if you want to take it further.

 

If I were you I'd start off by sanding the body with some 400 wet to flatten it out some being careful of the body details.

[Dave Crevie]

Looks OK so far. The hardest part is getting the standing details like the window drip rails and trim around the louvers. The nice thing about working in plastic is that if you screw something up it is easy to go back and fix it. My skills in metal working came out of building plastic model kits when I was a kid.

[strummer]

Just for laughs...I went ahead and reassembled everything; for some reason I found it rather difficult to get the new replacement tires (Paul Gage, of course!) attached to the back axle without their rubbing against the wheel wells. Then I figured out why.

 

Here are the (2) Mustangs, back to back:

 

 

...and a closer look:

 

 

I had not realized the "original" (red) car had had its wheels wells cut!  

 

In any case, there you go; you learn something new every day, I suppose... 

 

Happy Fourth of July.

 

Mark in Oregon

 

PS: Gee, these A Jet motors run REALLY nicely; very smooth and quiet. Hard to believe these are only 3-pole...