Summer is arriving, but in addition to plans for summer vacation I’ve been working like a dog lately. That hasn’t left a lot of time for the tracks; in fact, its been well over a month since I ran a tournament at Drag City. In addition to the other “life stuff” though, I’ve also been spending some fairly hefty funds on the slot car hobby of late. I’m going to have to “cool the jets” for a while after the acquisitions I’m profiling here, because this latest round of additions to the Road Crew were EXPEN$IVE! Since one way to present them is as good as any other, here they are in order of acquisition:
’68 Firebird in green
I’ll start with the only one of this foursome that was a bargain: I got an incredible deal on this green ‘68 F-boid. I already have a great example of this body in yellow, which appears to be the easiest color to find it in, followed closely by white and then red. The green and blue versions, however, are significantly harder to come by. I found this one Etsy for an amazing price, although I noted that it was photographed without being disassembled, so there’s always a risk there. Sure enough, when it arrived I discovered the front screw post was split; it was actually still holding well enough, but knowing that such a condition will only get worse with use, I did elect to put a repair sleeve on it. But even at this, it was a bargain. It arrived on a good running but obviously non-original Tuff Ones chassis and it was very dirty, but a hot TSP bath and a scrub with a toothbrush cleaned it up beautifully! I cleaned up that Tuff Ones chassis and set aside for later use and mounted the cleaned and sleeved body on a more appropriate open-rivet T-Jet 500 original I had built previously and was saving for just such an occasion!
I really like the way this car looks in green, and as dirty as it was I was very happy with how well it sparkles after proper cleaning; perhaps its rough appearance as-purchased accounted for the low price; even with the post repair I got it for almost half its current market value, proving that sometimes you get lucky!
’68 Torino GT in red
And sometimes you don’t get lucky, because there was no deal here! I had to gnash my teeth and go to war to get this one, and it cost me a mint by the time I finally saw that green banner on ePay. I don’t understand why any and all versions of the Torino are so hard to come by and so expensive; I guess its combination of the rarity of all models and the desirability, but since the green and black versions of this body are far too rich for my blood and I knew I didn’t want it in white or yellow, that left red, and as much as it cost, I’m pretty happy with it; the body is in almost mint condition-appears to hardly have been used-and the open rivet chassis it came on, while probably not original to the car, is also in almost mint condition and runs great. The funny thing is that, IRL, I don’t even like Ford Torinos, but this is a body that was completely missing from my collection so I had to have at least one. Now that I do, I can sleep more easily at night!
’67 Galaxie XL500 fastback in yellow
This is another one that always seems to cost a fortune no matter where or how you find it, and it also seems to be particularly hard to come by in good condition: most of the ones I see come up for sale are pretty beat. So when this one appeared in almost mint condition with a “Buy It Now” price which, while not cheap, was a little lower than an identical one I had just seen sell for via auction, I hit that button!
Yellow wasn’t my first choice of colors, but the ones I wanted most-dark blue and turquoise-were, again, too expensive. When it arrived I knew I’d made a good choice; it looked almost virginal, running on a closed rivet chassis that looked like it had seen virtually no track time; it needed nothing but a little oil to get up and go. Like the Torino, I did not have an original example of this body in my collection; what I did have was an excellent copy made by an unknown maker which, while as good as the original in quality, was made in a color that the original was never available in, so I now have a copy of “the real thing” in the Road Crew!
’62 Galaxie police cruiser in tan with black top
And I saved the most expensive-and probably the most exciting-for last. After losing out on two nearly mint versions of this one that sold for insane prices, I had to downgrade my ambitions to this slightly rough-edged copy of this early vibrator from 1962. The Galaxie police car was made in a small variety of color combos, the most common of which appears to be tan with a white top. However, I already have a very nice copy of this body in that color combo without the police logos and roof light (making it an unmarked cop car???) and thus I wanted the one with the black top, which seems to be harder to find.
I got it, but the price was high, all the more so considering it was mounted on what was probably its original Vibrator chassis, which of course I can’t use. I did save it-marked and unaltered-but had to provide a chassis of my own, and thus it got mounted on a really special one I had built a while ago and was saving for a special car: the very last of my closed rivet salvage jobs, this one was set up with a 15 tooth Tuff Ones pinion and matching Auto World ring gear and a set a blue and white Auto World magnets which, while nothing special on an AW Ultra-G, are like rocket fuel for these old-timers. Mounted thusly with a small shim on the front post for clearance, this is now surely one of the fastest cars in the road crew, as it should be! Speeders beware!
The fastest cars around there ain’t no doubt
Are those big black & white jobs that really move out
On the Hollywood freeway flyin’ past,
Writin’ up hotshoes drivin’ too fast…
Freeway Flyer, gonna shut you down now
Freeway Flyer, gonna write you up now!
~ Jan & Dean
Well, as expected I am still waiting on my order for 4 bodies from MEV-hopefully they will be arriving by next month-but now, with so much going on, and the price of everything continuing to spiral out of control due to the failed policies of our pathetic excuse for national leadership, it is likely that Drag City will be going on another temporary hiatus while I focus-and spend-on other things for the next month or so. Hopefully I’ll have some new and exciting things to share after I get my back from my trip to Arkansas in mid-June, amongst other summer activities.
In the meantime, have fun racing, and remember what your humble blogger always says…
Some exciting new acquisitions! That police car is something else! The variety of the collection is breathtaking and having examples of all these model variations that work and run, it’s like an interactive museum for adults!
You’ve got me curious. What is a “hot TSP bath”?
Tri-Sodium Phosphate and warm water; cleans up these little slot cars like magic without harming the finish on any of the plastic parts. Its good stuff, though like all things good it is becoming more and more difficult to obtain.