At last, a TopCat for Dan!

[naushad]

Dan what's happen to this...ended here with the suspense like a "to be continued" episode of Sunset Beach...

[GJW]

that chassis is amazing dan, jeebers!!!

[jamin]

Great job on the chassis Dan, keep it polished, it looks ace and different to all the powder coating and anodising we all use. Good work, now get it built

[DerbyDan]

Dan what's happen to this...ended here with the suspense like a "to be continued" episode of Sunset Beach...

Haha - sorry, i'm afraid the chassis polishing is THE only notably thing that has happened with this project.... so yes this project is very much 'to be continued' - hopefully some more will happen over the Christmas holidays?

I have actually dissmantled the shocks for this car & started to clean & polish these up too - but only using Brasso - they have come up quite nicely... but not to quite the lustre of the chassis. The rear shocks I have for this car are some used items I brought from ebay soon after purchasing the car... now I understand that the later standard 'silver' Schumacher shocks were 'plated' (I have a pair of these too where the plating is quite clearly flaking off) but these shocks that I have selected polish up just like the pair of front shocks - like raw aluminium, but are quite clearly a slightly different (darker) shade

@ Ben - the TopCat came with either a polished chassis or the dull silver annodised finish that this car obviously came with (what you got appears to have been 'luck of the draw') my original TopCat Bitd had the polished chassis (on which I discovered the joys of the effect of Brasso ) So this car had to have a polished chassis too!

[naushad]

Great!

I wait with baited breath....looks to be a goodun though!!

Regards

Naushad

[DerbyDan]

Managed to get a bit of work done on this over the Christmas break... I must admit that despite being an un-run car i'm finding the clean-up & re-build of this car very slow going. The car was obviously built by someone who had little idea on the best way of putting together a competition R/C car.... the diff & gearbox was completely filled with grease & all the plastic parts have been crudely cut from their sprues so extra trimming has been required to neaten up the mouldings, along with the extra flashing/imperfections that came as standard on these early Schumacher parts. Anyway here's some pics to show the build process so far;

Shocks polished & parts cleaned ready for re-build with new 'red' seals


Shocks built - note my 'new' ebay rear shocks are the plated type so have a different level of 'sheen'


Gearbox & diff parts cleaned ready for re-build. The diff rings had just previously been superglued to the outdrives, but a dip in acetone cleaned off the old glue. I then honed & glued the rings to a sheet of wet & dry paper, then cut the paper with a scapal, using the washers/rings as a template - giving me perfect circles of the grippy paper on the rear of the rings for gripping against the diff outdrives - as per the original method described in the manual.


The original plastic cage for the diff thrust race had started to break-up, but I found a replacement thrust kit in a bunch of parts I had left over from my days when I drove either the Fireblade or Axis/SST cars - the cage part being brass rather than plastic and the same dimensions as the original, so my diff was re-assembled using the new part. I remember the plastic cage being weak Bitd & I remember buying an aftermarket parts where the thrust balls were held captive with a pressed brass cage (an SRM or Wasp part perhaps?)


Diff & layshaft assemblies complete


Trimming flashing from plastic parts is very time consuming!


Gearbox complete - I polished the ali side plates with varying grades of wet & dry paper, then a final buff with good ol' Brasso - they don't have quite the same 'lustre' as the chassis but it was the best I can achieve without using a mop that will 'dub'-over the edges.




So, now onto the suspension parts & more plastic trimming!

[Groomi]

Oilites!

[DerbyDan]

Oilites!

Yup! - Its only a shelfer & I only have enough ballraces for the axles. Also If I had the ballraces for the gearbox I would also need to find the little sleeves that fill out the difference between the layshaft & the internal dia of the bearings... I don't have these

[CAT3K]

Nice work so far.

Those oilites.. yeah the first thing i bought for my Cougar when i was a kid was a bearing set

[zoomzoombang]

Dan, did you polish the inside of the shocks too? If so what did you use? I have some cougar 2 shocks that I'd like to try and get more life out of. Brasso is the only one I could think of. Thanks.

[DerbyDan]

Nice work so far.

Those oilites.. yeah the first thing i bought for my Cougar when i was a kid was a bearing set

Must admit I ran my original TopCat with the oilites for quite a while before getting the bearings - I blew all my spare pocket money on a second hand Speedmaster Gold Star ESC just to get it up & running (my previous car - a Mardave Meteor, still ran a mechanical speedo!) My car racing was run on a real shoe-string budget so priorites were more about what kept the car going rather than optimum performance. However I think the next purchase was the bearing set as I knew what a difference they could make.

PS; I still have that Gold Star ESC, it will find its way back into this TopCat & be connected up to an MG Orange dot motor that I found for sale - the MG was the first motor that I installed into the original TC

@ zoomzoombang - no I didn't polish the insides of the shocks - just the visible faces. I would have thought a good clean up & rebuild with fresh oil & seals is all that you will need - if the bores are scoured then fine wet & dry paper rolled into a tube is what you'll need

[CAT3K]

Must admit I ran my original TopCat with the oilites for quite a while before getting the bearings - I blew all my spare pocket money on a second hand Speedmaster Gold Star ESC just to get it up & running (my previous car - a Mardave Meteor, still ran a mechanical speedo!) My car racing was run on a real shoe-string budget so priorites were more about what kept the car going rather than optimum performance. However I think the next purchase was the bearing set as I knew what a difference they could make.

PS; I still have that Gold Star ESC, it will find its way back into this TopCat & be connected up to an MG Orange dot motor that I found for sale - the MG was the first motor that I installed into the original TC

I've managed to find a Nosram International for my Topcat. It was the top spec speedo i could never afford bitd

I probably have those sleeves and bearings kicking around here somewhere Dan, if you ever decide the oilites just won't do

Paul.

[DerbyDan]

So I had a little time over the weekend to take some pre-assembly pictures... all the plastic parts have been cleaned & gone over with a sharp scapal blade to remove any unsightly flashing to ensure correct assembly & free moving of parts.

The box is what my original TopCat came in all those years ago, it survived through being the storage box for my Scalextric cars




Some NIP parts inc a front bumper & wing mounts/buttons (Thanks to DennisM for the mounts) The MG Orange dot motor was the first 'proper' (non silvercan RS540) race motor that I owned Bitd - this one I found on ol'ebay, it appears to have had little run time & in great condition so will be perfect for this build. Likewise I have opted for the 2" block rear tyres which were 'the' tyres to run on the mixed carpet + polished wood floor track at the club where I raced the original car

[CAT3K]

Looks ready to assemble now It'll be almost like building a new kit.

Have you decided on a paint scheme?

Paul.

[jamin]

Great display of parts Dan, and just love that polished chassis! Are you going to do it box-art colours? I think that would look cool