Well dear readers, we’ve lost daylight savings time, so with the early descent of twilight we can now say winter is full-on! I’ve always liked the winter well enough, but I admit I find the early darkness depressing, and while last winter was definitely too much of a good thing, every indication is that we’re in for what may be another long and cold one here in the Rockies. But hey, am I complaining? Heck no; these conditions make it even easier to do what I love to do: stay in the basement and play with my toys!
While I like to refer to my old Aurora T-Jet fleet that runs on my original Model Motoring track as the “Vintage Road Crew,” I sometimes also call it the “Vintage-adjacent Road Crew” because, to be completely honest, only about a 3rd of the 200 or so cars in this arena can be considered original Aurora T-Jets. Most run on either an original or an original-style Aurora chassis, but many of the bodies are reproductions from the likes of Dash Motorsports or Road Race Replicas, and more than a few are magnificent but modern creations by MEV. And then there’s a couple of handfuls of true imposters, like the run of Dodge Chargers (amongst others) that are even newer Johnny Lightning repros that run on the early Playing Mantis reproduction chassis, so not “classics” by any measure other than their looks. Despite all this, I do have my share of some really nice original 1960’s T-Jets, and I’m happy to say I have just finished cleaning up a terrific pair I recently acquired for a very fair price: a 1963 Thunderbird in light yellow with red interior, and an olive green Oldsmobile Toronado.
Both cars have definitely done some mileage; they both had heavily grooved pick-up shoes and they both needed a thorough cleaning. The T-Bird’s chassis was in particularly good order; it shows one spot of bright green corrosion on one of the rivet plates but other than that it needed little more than a good cleaning to run like a song; the motor is an all red one which indicates its newer than the body but it’s clearly an Aurora original, and its clearly still got plenty of mileage left in it. It could probably use some new tires but for now I’m leaving it as-is, since this long body is a fun “drifter” and the lack of traction actually makes it more entertaining to run around the track.
The body was good overall, although it was dirty; it benefited greatly from my warm water TSP dunk, and though it cleaned up well, the rear bumper has a lot of chrome loss, more than a touch-up with the chrome pen would correct. I knew this was the case so I can’t cry foul, and for now I’m leaving it that way. I may opt for a replacement bumper, although I haven’t decided yet; the tail lights are still solid red and overall the car looks terrific; the red and black interior offsets the pale yellow body beautifully. And it runs, too! Its surprisingly fast, which just makes it that much more fun to skate around with!
The Toronado was almost the opposite of the T-Bird: the body overall is extremely good, but the chassis was rough. One of the electrodes is badly bent and it was extremely dirty. It did run at first, but poorly, with the loud “death rattle” we’re all familiar with. So this one needed a lot more work: in addition to a thorough cleaning, I found the main source of the racket was the rear gear, which had far too much play in it and sat too high above the idler gear. So, out came my handy-dandy gear installer to compress the rear gear assembly, which worked perfectly to reset the height. Soaking the gear plate with oil and re-bending the motor clamp to provide the right tension over the idler gear helped a lot too. Of course the brushes got cleaned, and reinstalled ever so gently so as not to disturb that bad electrode that looks like it’s on its last legs. On this one, I elected to replace the pick-up shoes from my stash of used but good original parts, because the ones it came with were so worn. I also fiddled around with the rear wheels and axle, repositioning everything so that it both looked right and connected well. It all paid off! By the time I got it back together, she ran around the track as smooth and quiet as any of them! The motor in this one is a “mean green,” and while its not fast, it doesn’t have to be! The ’66 and ’67 Olds Toronado was a magnificent car, both a style and engineering tour de force, and they look as good sitting still as moving; a car this classy doesn’t have to be fast, it just has to cruise strong and silent, which this one now does.
These are perfect examples of the caliber of cars that I look to acquire: neither is in mint condition-both are suffering from some chrome loss and a little wear and tear- but for what I paid for them I have no complaints. Truth is, I don’t want cars in mint condition; just like with the real things, I want something I can actually drive! I like working on these old cars, and after a fun evening of tinkering, I couldn’t be happier with these!
I know I’m struggling with the early darkness more this year as well. These are great additions and the work you did cleaning and all was well worth it to add these beauties to the crew!