39 replies to this topic

[Mopardevil]

Hi guys,

Been a long time lurker here but never registered & posted. I picked up this little beauty at a 1:1 car show over the weekend for next to nothing. I have always been a fan of the Little Red Wagon & anything mopar for that reason & had always planned to get one of these 1960's BZ LRW's one of these days. When I saw it I grabbed it straight away.

Does anyone have any info on these cars as Im keen to see what is missing. From what I can tell is its missing the 4 black screws that attach the body to the chassis, I have seen some photos where some had a spring on the drop arm, mine doesnt. Also the drop arm looks like it may have broken & repaired. I have also seem photos of a weight on the drop arm. If anyone has any photos or info please let me know so I can compare. Also does anyone have or know if there are any spare parts for this car?

I threw it on the track & it ran straight away, no dramas other than the pinion slipping. I plan to put new tyres on the back & give it a run on the track & see how good it wheelies. I also plan to hopefully buy a repop vac body & paint it up so I can use it on the track occasionally as I dont want to wreck the original body anymore. The original body will be on the car for display purposes.

So if anyone has any info, pics, whatever or anything on this car I would love to see it or pointed in the right direction. Would be great to see what else is missing

here it is -









Thanks in advance
Greg

[munter]

Great to see you here Greg!

I will sit back and enjoy reading what the slotmiesters divulge on your LRW find.

regards

[Mopardevil]

Thanks John very nice to be here.

Another question for you all. Did this car originally come with foam or rubber rear tyres? Any info would be great!

[Donzilla]

Now Heres a Little Red Wagon!........made by DCR in 1992................................

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[Joe Mig]

Here is mine, if you close at the drop arm you could see the spring.







I just love the color !

[TSR]

Hi Greg.
Info, I got. Let's do an analysis here and see where you stand. First, you should know that the real thing just sold weeks ago in an auction in Los Angeles for over $600K.

Second, Bill "Maverick" Golden, the builder and driver of the real thing, LOVED the BZ toy and had a few of them that he actually raced at local raceways. The remaining examples of his LRW and the briefcase containing them have can be found at the LASCM.

Third, the BZ LRW was a very successful seller, so it is not really hard to find, but MOST suffered from major body cracks and it is hard to find one truly intact.

Yours appears to have had a tough life of sorts and the original wheels have been replaced by Strombecker items, and they look fine. The original motor is also long gone, replaced by what appears to be a Champion 701, or simply a late-production Mabuchi FT36D motor with a Cox pinion. The spur gear is still the original Weldun anodized aluminum job that came with the car.

At one time, the drop arm broke, so the owner bolted one to the remnant of the original, and the added parts looks like something from a Hasegawa Japanese stocker kit. At that time, the return spring disappeared.

The guide was also replaced, this one looking like a Cox early model.

[MG Brown]

In case anyone is interested- Lindberg will be re-releasing the LRW plastic kit in 1/25th 1st quarter 2010.

Also announced at iHobby is the new "Drag Team" double kit.... planned for December 2009 release.



Of course these are static models but would make a nice basis for a slot conversion project.

[vnvslot]

I always loved this car. I could get years ago a 1/24 kit of a Little Red Wagon (maybe Lindberg?). The chassis is a German Schöler Tigre. I repainted the wagon with a personal livery and this was the result. Hope you like it.

[Mopower71]

Hi Greg.
Info, I got. Let's do an analysis here and see where you stand. First, you should know that the real thing just sold weeks ago in an auction in Los Angeles for over $600K.

Second, Bill "Maverick" Golden, the builder and driver of the real thing, LOVED the BZ toy and had a few of them that he actually raced at local raceways. The remaining examples of his LRW and the briefcase containing them have can be found at the LASCM.

Third, the BZ LRW was a very successful seller, so it is not really hard to find, but MOST suffered from major body cracks and it is hard to find one truly intact.

Yours appears to have had a tough life of sorts and the original wheels have been replaced by Strombecker items, and they look fine. The original motor is also long gone, replaced by what appears to be a Champion 701, or simply a late-production Mabuchi FT36D motor with a Cox pinion. The spur gear is still the original Weldun anodized aluminum job that came with the car.

At one time, the drop arm broke, so the owner bolted one to the remnant of the original, and the added parts looks like something from a Hasegawa Japanese stocker kit. At that time, the return spring disappeared.

The guide was also replaced, this one looking like a Cox early model.

Philippe when did you last talk with Bill. Seem he doesn't come around one other forum I belong to, he also hasn't responded to e-mails. I do know that Don Garlits has most if not all of the memorabilia that he was selling, and has been in touch with him.
I had talked to him about his slot car at one point in time.
Norm

[Mopower71]

I am still working on my scratch built little red. Haven't accomplished much, and it's boxed up now.
All my stuff is boxed up, as I moved at the end of spring. I need to get a good place to get everything back out so I can work on them.

Mopardevil good to see another Mopar lover on here.

[TSR]

Philippe when did you last talk with Bill.

I did not, Scott did.

[Mopardevil]

Hi guys, Thanks for the replies & all the great info. It is a shame that the one I picked up has had a hard life & it seems most of its original parts are gone, but hey it was very cheap. So are the wheels in Joe Migs wagon the original wheels? Do they all have the oring type front tyres? Did they come with any other tyre of wheel.

In any case im going to enjoy this one & at least get it running again. I have cleaned it all up now & repaired a few small cracks on the body & it looks much better now. I am still keen to buy one in better condition so if anyone has one in better condition & more complete than mine that they want to sell please let me know as Im very interested. Or if anyone has any parts for these also please let me know. I may even scratchbuild my own as well, just have to get through my current list of projects.

The little red wagon played a large part in my mopar addiction as did the sox & martin & hemi under glass cars.
Thanks for all the info!!
Greg

[Mopar Rob]

The little red wagon played a large part in my mopar addiction as did the sox & martin & hemi under glass cars.
Thanks for all the info!!
Greg

For me it was the Don Carlton Motown Missle and seeing the Big Willie Robinson ad's in Car Craft magazine.
Being from Chicago having Mr. Norm's and the ChiTown Hustler didn't hurt either

As a kid my next door neighbor had a 69 Charger, a guy down the street had a 1970 Road Runner with an Air Grabber, and one of my brothers friends had a AAR Cuda' and another had a Hemi Cuda' that he died in while street racing in the Forest Presereve area in the suburbs

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[Mopower71]

Do you two have any Mopars now?
One of mine is in my avatar.
This is my Dart that has been apart for about 10 years. I just brought it over to my new house about two weeks ago. Need to get busy on this one.


And my Race car umm Street car

[MG Brown]

Gently moving back to topic...

Wheelstanders are still as popular as ever as shown by this photo taken at the "Time Machine Nationals" Labor Day Weekend.



This would be a good slot project made from Revell's VW "Samba" kit.

[Mopardevil]

Hey Norman Yeah Ive had various Mopars over the time. I am in Australia so here in Oz we have our own mopars. Currently I have a VG Valiant Pacer coupe, which is the same body as your 68 Dodge Darts but with different front guards, grille. The Pacer is the sports model. I also have a VC Valiant safari wagon.

Anyone else have these BZ LRW's?

[Joe Mig]

So are the wheels in Joe Migs wagon the original wheels? Do they all have the oring type front tyres? Did they come with any other tyre of wheel.

As far as I know they are original wheels but I'm not sure about the knock offs .

This is the wheel stander that messed me up as a young kid .

[MG Brown]

Very close to an SCX Slotcar re-issued recently.

[Don Wedding]

Greg, Here is my updated version of the LRW for our slot car dragstrip, No wheelies but it will run close to 1 second on a 55 foot track. I have run my vintage BZ LRW on our track and it will do a wheelie the full length of the strip.

I met Bill Maverick Golden for his last tour of the Little Red Wagon in 2002. He was running at our Local Dragstrip in Chandler Indiana. He made numerous appearances thru the early years because he lived close to the Tri-state area.

I Brought My BZ LRW that was still in the original Box for him to sign on his last tour of 2002. You Should have seen him smile when I handed that to him to sign. He told me the history of how he worked with BZ to market the car back in the 60's.

He was sitting in the bed of the Little Red Wagon doing his own Mechanic work before a run. He had the 2 starter wires loose and would attach a pressure gage in the spark plug hole to check the compression on each cylinder. He would bump the wires to advance the engine just enough to get a reading on the gage.

He did it all; You could not ask for a nicer guy.

The last Picture is what I have collected of the LRW that were manufactured for the Slot car hobby. Besides the BZ version there was the Riggen in HO scale, Tycopro, Autoworld cutout body you attached to a Aurora T-jet chassis, 1/32 scale vacuum form body you could attach to the chassis of your choice and a very early Tyco S Ho slot car. All were influenced by the LRW .

If I missed any please let me know.

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[MG Brown]

Cool Deora conversion!

[Mopardevil]

Don thats a fantastic collection of LRW's, just great.

So what chassis did you put under your 1/32 & where did you get the body from? Does your bz have the same wheels as Joes above but with knockoffs?

Thanks for all the replies
Greg

[Bill from NH]

Greg, are you the Greg Batten from southern Maine?

[Horsepower]

Chicago Custom Car Show 2009

[MSwiss]

There's a guy who drives around my neighborhood in a "Little Red Wagon".

It's got the original 318 but he has a muffler bypass lever in the interior (that he seems to like to use )
so it's pretty loud.

It's got a "model" Hemi engine( which I never realized they made) in the bed
so it look's real authentic.

[tonyp]

I tried to find one to make a street rod out of but cold not find one that wouldn't need a ton of body work.