After completing the track work I shifted my attention to my ongoing projects....While I was in Georgia I got a call from Mike Naber about some used slot cars for sale. A friend of his that used to race at Pelican Park wanted to sell all his cars and stuff. Mike set up and brokered the deal. After I was back home Mike shipped the cars up to me.
The intent of this purchase was to make some cars available to newer racers. A few days ago I started taking a closer look at my purchase. I picked out the chassis that looked the worst. This one has been run hard, and repaired more than once. After doing some extensive Dremel grinding to remove excess solder and what looks like bird poop, I gave it a closer inspection. One of the hinged side pans was totally locked up. Hoping it was just corrosion or crud, I fired up my tumbler and threw the chassis in. After a good 18 hours of tumbling the chassis was all nice and shiney but, the side pan was still locked up. So over to the work bench it went....
I don't sell anything to racers I don't feel good about. This Hanna NASCAR chassis (STR 259) is rough. Multiple repairs with poor soldering. I am not great when it comes to soldering, but these were worse than mine! I used a cut off wheel in a Dremel to cut open one side of the square tubing that makes up the hinge for the side pan. Then I used a small hammer and screw driver to open up the tubing so I could slide the pan off the steel rod of the hinge. Turns out solder had wicked up into the tubing (probably during a repair) which had locked up the pan. After I got it apart, I cut off the old square tubing (which I had totally mangled getting the thing apart). The edge of the pan was then filed flat and smooth again. I cut new pieces of square tubing, reassembled everything using light oil on the steel rod inside the square tubing. The light oil is to keep the solder from wicking into the hinge joint again. After all the parts were assembled and squared up on my jig, I soldered up the side pan. After soldering I cleaned everything up with soap and water. Success, both hinges now move freely! Tomorrow STR 259 will go back into the tumbler for the final cleaning.
