The new W-196 arrives......finally

Nice.

Take the parts from both to make one good one for a shelf queen and still have the other one fixed up to run.

This is curious and poses a lot of questions.

The body looks brand new inside and out, no fuel residue at all and the engine appears to have never been ran. But the rear tires are worn (fronts look new) if however slight and the fading of the seat and nothing else is a head scratcher.

Re-body? Maybe, but what about that engine. Kid pushing it around wearing the rear tires? It will still get a clean-up especially the tires. I almost hate to, tire treads look like they have tiny rocks embedded in them. Almost scale from Le Mans.

Think I will ask the seller.

I dunno...........

My bet is it was pieced together using good parts from several models. So the body may very well be unused, but chassis parts could have been at one time.

You already know how easy it is to make an engine appear new.

Nice model there, you even have two drivers. I have a scan of the stickers if you want to try to make them. I tried some inkjet sticker paper and did OK but was hard to work with.

I contacted the seller through ebay and received this response:

Dear rsvmgb,

First, sorry it took so long. I think the weather plus a federal holiday made it a bit longer than "3-day" priority.
Second, I am pleased that you're pleased. I thought it is a stunning piece of work, but it didn't look like that when I got it. Here's the story:

I volunteer for our church's rummage sale, and this came in in the base of an old wood hanging bird feeder; when we get donated items, we rarely meet the donors and the provenance usually remains a mystery. It looked cool, but it was filthy, and I could tell that underneath was a nice car. It wasn't familiar to me, so when I bought it and brought it home and began researching it, I realized what I had.

I disassembled it and cleaned everything up part-by-part. The belly pan had some pronounced scratches under the nose and tail cone, apparently from being launched. There was quite a bit of time spent wet-sanding, compounding and polishing those out, and I polished the rest of the body using microfiber cloths and fine scratch remover, and gave it a couple coats of carnauba wax. I think it came up pretty well. The screws bolding the body together had that residue that congeals from the fuel sitting and drying out, and I used acetone to clean them up before I reassembled it. The driver (Fangio? Sterling Moss?) had been crudely painted and jammed wet into the cockpit. I carefully extricated him and let him marinate in brake fluid for about a week. Much, but not all, the enamel came off and I carefully got the remainder off with dental picks and a #11 Exacto blade. I also removed quite a bit of yellowed glue that had been used to reattached the mirrors and exhaust shroud.

It looked so good, I almost kept it once I got it back together, but I've got so many models already, and I'm not an .049 guy, so I thought it should be acquired and appreciated by someone else who will. Now that the transaction is complete, I will donate the money (minus my listing fees and PayPal charges) back to our mission effort.


- icguy




Your previous message

Hi, I received the Cox tether car today. Took awhile but it arrived in great shape and I'm very happy with the purchase. These are quite collectable and I'm curious if you know any of the history of the car or how it was used in the past? Thanks, and I will leave you positive feedback.

R.S.V

My response:

Hi again,

First, let me thank you for taking the time to answer my question. You are a person after my own heart as I enjoy restoring old model airplanes and tether cars, Cox and Enya model engines being my specialty. You certainly did a fantastic job.

My speculation was that it was a new parts re-body of an older car due to the wear on the tires and the faded seat covering. I am gratified to learn that the model is an intact original.

Presently I am attempting to restore a rather trashed example that I found last month also on ebay. Just about every part is damaged or broken but it did come with a windshield in good condition that I will transfer over to your model making it complete. Your car will come in handy as an example.

Best regards - Bob

I hit this a bit on my "Help" thread, but.............

I did find a flaw or two..

The posts framing the windshield are broken off, minor detail.  But the tab on the right side suspension arm was broken off as well. Major detail, but I just substituted one from the other car.





And, as a public service and to save some hair pulling if you ever have to disassemble/re-assemble the rear end assembly on one of these and then as your putting the last e clip in place on re-assembly discover that you will have to disassemble it all over again...........

You must reassemble the axle from right to left because one side of each wheel's hub is relieved to accept a retaining e-clip.

Clip goes on first, then the wheel proper side out, then another clip, then the suspension arm beveled side in tab side out, then the differential being sure to capture the tab with the fingers, then another clip, then the left side suspension arm.  Now you have to slide the suspension arm over toward the differential, then slide the wheel on proper side out far enough to put on the outer side e clip.  Then slide the wheel over fully against the clip, then install the inner wheel retaining e-clip.  Easy unless you have started from the wrong side. Ask me how I know.

E-clips.  The damaged car was missing one and I broke another on disassembly.  The new car had an over-sized clip that did not hold well.  Sent me to the ebay store looking for assortments.  I always buy assortments.  Cheaper from China, but I need them now.  Bought both SAE and Metric from US importers.





And, a little wire wheel on the axle, and some Howard Feed-N-Wax on the components worked wonders.

Nice to have that assortment of clips Robert! I also have an assortment.. but not as nicely organized/stocked as yours.

Here's what I have; an old "K-D" assortment



I did recently purchase pliers though.. albeit "cheap ones".. (I recently mentioned my being so cheap, that I squeak like a bad wheel on a shopping-cart..) but these were on clearance for less than $5.. at my local Walmart.




I'll tell you something Bob... when I saw this plier-set on clearance.. I thought to myself; I don't have an immediate use for this tool but.. it's a tool that you don't want to be without.. when you have to R & R a snap-ring..   ...

Regarding your models' rear-diff.; it's a miniature engineering marvel in itself. Maybe you've seen this image previously posted here on the forum by CEF member hingeman or maybe even had your rear-differential all the way apart.. but I'll post this image just for the record..



I'm enjoying watching you rebuild this model Bob!

I got a smile out of your squeaky wheel shopping cart reference roddie. Our local Walmart is well represented in that department.

I have that set of snap ring pliers and I can't get them to work for me. Perhaps it's my shaky hands, probably is. Seems the springs don't hold tight enough to hold the attachments on. Some file work on the tips might be necessary, but they are a requirement when removing those rings.

Yes, I have had that differential all apart. It's a marvel of engineering and castings. Easily the most expensive part of the model to produce.

Bob