Rare Red Cox Dragster .049 Eliminator 2

It's pretty cool looking, what does the sticker say on the deck?

Is it an Eliminator? Or does it just share the same body. Have you done a search for a Cox car collectors site?

This is an Eliminator 2 #6100 Ron....there was never a dragster named Eliminator..the red was made for the first 9 months of the cars introduction in 1969, then this car came in blue with white stars & red decals, the decal you ask about, infront of the windshield, was there at purchase in 1969, my friend who sold me this, has one NIB...$1200 . Yup this 44 years old...The decal says Before Starting (center), at the top ( Read Instructions), at the bottom( Worlds Finest Presion Engine)...Ron, if you look at Pics of the Re Chromed Baja Bug you and I purchased today..Look at the picture of the bottom of the car on E-Bay...Zoom it and you will see this exact decal only faded!!! Cheers! Cannot find much info on this car or any Cox .049 Cars !!!!

Here's on i sold on ebay a couple years ago, it still brought a couple hun...minus my rat fink

yep, it weird not a lot of info out there on plastic gas toys, planes or cars, to me i'd like to know as much about them as possible, but many collectors just don't seem to care, only the value.

Mark Boesen wrote:Here's on i sold on ebay a couple years ago, it still brought a couple hun...minus my rat fink

yep, it weird not a lot of info out there on plastic gas toys, planes or cars, to me i'd like to know as much about them as possible, but many collectors just don't seem to care, only the value.

Do you have ant history on these cars Mark. I purchased this from a collector who said they made the Red one for 9 months and swithched over to the blue...the Red dragster is very hard to find and history on the production is very hard to find aswell!!

no, sorry, i was into plastic 'RTF' gas planes pretty heavy, still into it, but not so much now, more into collecting info, history, etc. Never really collected cars. About ten years ago i tried finding a web site for plastic plane collectors and ended up starting a yahoo group.

How much for the Rat fink?

nfs. i've had that since childhood...er, i mean since i was young, lol

.

The only info I can find on Cox cars is in Martin Hepperles site in model database and model years.
i can't find the red dragster. Very hard to find unfueled, I saw a red one NIB go for 6 or 7 hundred not long ago.
The white on mine is yellowed even though it was never run.

You can dis-assemble that bottom and bleach clean it white . That looks like the Eliminator 2 that sold on E-Bay not long ago( Nice). Why is it finding history on Cox Cars much harder then the Cox Engines? This car first was produced in 1969, according to a collector, the first 9 months of production was red in color then switching over to the blue/red/white stars & stripes theme and stayed with that theme until production ceased in 1975. Why the switch over?? Trying to find that out is like pulling teeth. Was the red color only produced for nine months? again, no answers. Cox was sold to Leisure Dynamics INc in 1969 after the death of Leroy Cox wife. Anyway...The car had a model number of #6100, later on in the years, after production ceased in 1975, the exact model number was adopted by the Cox FA-18 plane in 1983!!! Another strange fact is the car was sold in two different type boxes with different labels. One was labelled AA Fueler, this was a blue on light blue box. The other box was labelled Eliminator 2, yellow with red cars and a yellow in-lay. . Pics below

Age yellowed plastic can be repaired. DO NOT ever use bleach! The bleach does reduce the yellowing, but damages the molecular structure of the plastic in the process.

A chemist discovered exactly what causes the yellowing, and how to reverse it. It has to do with the fire retardant bromine that's mixed in with the plastic.

The yellowing can be properly reversed, leaving the plastic in like new condition. Using ultra violet light, oxy-clean, and hydrogen peroxide. I have already tested it on an old macintosh I have, and the result was astonishing.

Here is a brilliant write-up on the subject:
http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/

Thanks for the link, the gear on my Scholl Pits has yellowed badly while the white on the Stinker is still bright.
I tried many cleaners and polishes with no improvement, I'm going to try the formula on the gear and see what happens.

Basically different plastics have different chemical makeups. That's why some plastics yellow and others dont, also exposing our toys to cigarette smoke, cooking grease in the air, ultraviolet sun rays, natural age etc also doesn't help in preserving antique plastic and yellows them quicker, I opened up a thread on the preservation and storage of our Cox toys but did'nt get much feedback and ideas from the thread, basically putting these toys in a closed display case away from sun seem to be a good thing...Let me know how this formula works on your yellowed plastic restoration, looks promising!! Sad thing is nothing lasts forever..most plastics are pretty durable but fading and yellowing is pretty common in our hobby. Please post some pics after your done...Before and After would be great. Good Luck@

There are two types of yellowing in plastic, one is from smoke, dirt, etc, that can be cleaned off.

The other is the chemical yellowing that comes from exposing the plastic to ultra violet light, it causes the bromine to discolor the plastic. Its interesting that the cure is also ultra violet light while in the peroxide/oxy bath. If you read the science part of that website, it shows that the actual plastic never turns yellow. Its still white. Its just coated with bromine on the surface of its molecules. The site also explains why you never use bleach to remove yellowing.

If you want your plastic to last as long as possible, keep them clean, and away from any fluorescent lights.

The yellowing removal using peroxide/oxy does not stop yellowing, it only reverses it. After the treatment, the plastic will yellow again in the future over time. It will yellow fastest if its hit by sunlight, or fluorescent lights in the house.

ZACATTACK wrote:Nobody has history on these Dragsters produced by Cox??

I believe I read once that the Cox Red Dragster was inspired by the "Mangler" AA/FD owned by John Garrison and driven by Danny Ongais. I saw the Mangler turn 209 MPH in 1965 when the rest of the field was struggling to run 200MPH. It was one Bad A## AA/FD.
The stars and stripes theme was probably an amalgamation from several cars including Val LaPorte's "All American" AA/FD.
Only the Cox marketing Dept would know for sure though....FWIW Steve