I had an Aurora 1/32 set back in the mid-'60s; most of my friends had HO scale T-Jet stuff, so I got pretty familiar with the brand in that scale as well.
Just last year I re-activated my interest in the hobby. Naturally I gravitated towards what I knew from before: 1/32; and have been playing around with some things, both current models but mostly vintage, which is what I like best.
Like a lot of people who live in fairly rural areas, I rely a lot on eBay for the majority of my purchases; I find that site to also be a great learning tool for finding out what was made in the past. Anyway, a small lot of 1/32 stuff I bought there showed up yesterday: a motor, a couple bodies, etc. In the bottom of the box was this:
A quick glance at the chassis told me right away it was a T-Jet: I think it is/was their "Lincoln" model...or what's left of it. Both front and back bumpers are gone, as is the "spare tire" and one of the front (actual) tires. As you can see, the wheels wells were REALLY butchered.
The rear axle/wheels/tires are (I think) Auto World items: one of the tires was partially missing, so even though I took everything apart and cleaned and did the typical maintenance needed for something like this to function (which of course it did- you can't kill these things 
), it couldn't actually "run".
Of course I have zero parts for T-Jet stuff, so I looked around for something that I thought could work as a substitute tire. I found a rubber washer that I thought might work. I had to enlarge the center hole by 1/8" by using hand files. To reduce the outer diameter by the same amount, I chucked the whole thing onto my little drill press, and careful application with a flat file gave me the needed result.
Here is a photo of the original Auto World part, the washer I started with, and the "finished" item:
Dunno if this will be of interest to anyone, but it was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon... 
As a final thought, I was reminded of just how logically constructed and easy to work on these little guys are...as well as how tough they are...and they are incredibly charming!
Mark in Oregon
