optima mid lwb rebuild/cleanup
 

Optima mid lwb (custom) i received recently. As you can see, it looked pretty bad when it arrived, all i have done is strip, clean, and reassemble so far. I have ordered new belt covers and spur/motor cover.

http://www.oople.com/forums/<a href=...d/th_053-1.jpg%20http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...oyd/th_058.jpg%20http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...oyd/th_059.jpg%20http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...oyd/th_060.jpg%20http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...oyd/th_061.jpg%20http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...oyd/th_062.jpg%20http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...oyd/th_066.jpg%20http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/...oyd/th_067.jpg[/IMG]

Looks much better ! Good clean up !

Did you use gt85?

Chassis (both top and bottom plates) had sticky stuff ranging from silicone sealant, glue of some sort, and the sticky back from Velcro etc. I First washed all parts (non metallic) using washing up liquid, then to remove sticky surfaces I used lighter fluid!! Lol... It's awesome stuff.
After that I washed again. I soaked the bearings in wd40, gave metal parts a clean up with autosol. It's looking ok. Far from mint, but it's capable of running now. ;-)

It's good to see a restoration that actually involves cleaning up and restoring the original parts. It makes it much more involved keeping it as original as possible than just replacing everything with new parts.

Cheers Terry, ive always wanted to try my hand at vintage cars, granted, it would be wonderful if we could all find NIB cars for pennys, but, personally, i think ( like wheeler dealers on tv) its just as much of a pleasure/challenge to try and bring back cars from our past.
I could go on and on about my history of rc racing/cars owned etc... as could anybody on this forum.
i have a new found hobby, and i hope i can sort a few more cars out like this.
Thanks again.



Craig

Terry...I do the same. I always try to limit buying nip parts...otherwise it really accelerates the cost. Personally, if I want NIP for most of a kit I'd buy NIB!

Bald Eagle....lighter fluid sounds interesting...I have used paint stripper which is probably similar stuff? But it really stinks! Does lighter fluid smell a lot aswell?

Yeah it smells quite a bit, it doesn't linger too long though.