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Some of you may know that I have been looking for a nice Reedy Sonic for over 3 years, and was not successful until just a few weeks ago. I found and won a nice dirty used one on eBay! Perhaps becoming a lost art, the restoration and rebuilding of a brushed motor! I thought I would share with you the dusting off of the Cobra lathe and my precious Sonic R!

This is the gem as I received it. Its a dirty girl! The endbell is caked in dirt but most importantly for a restoration, the label is very nice!
Cleaning the girl requires a bath. Although I do not recommend this method as it can ignite and burn your house down, the bath of my choice is a motor dip! I use ABS safe brake clean that says it's non flammable, but I highly doubt this! Into the dip at a low voltage, much like a blender but gets every bit of dirt out of the bearings and the rest of the motor!...... Never thought of this till now but if you ever need a drink mixed!
With most of the dirt removed it's time to take it apart, keeping in mind that the positive side is the same side as the green Sonic label so reassembly will not end with a reversed motor! The comm shows some abuse but not bad! We will finish cleaning this up with a clean tooth brush and some motor spray!
The fat comm armature mounted in my trusty diamond bit, mod canned, stock arm, zero timing, Cobra lathe. I have had this thing for what seems like forever. Over the years I must have turned a thousand arms on this thing! This tool, no matter how little used, will never part me!
After two very lite passes, not bad! Motor shows very little use! Just a little left to take off!
Two more passes and a final pass and we are done. Just need to gently shave the edges of the cuts off with a new Xacto blade (on my race motors I used a ball point pen ), and place the motor shimms in the same order they came off!
Some fresh Reedy mod laydown brushes soldered in place!
Finally the resting place, installed in my minty B2 (I just need to get some of the three year dust off )

So Rod, do i send my used motors to the store or to your house?

Nice job

You can send me all the motors you want!.............


You might not get them back though! He He!

Nice and clean Rod, the motor looks good in there. That lathe is very nice as well.

Proud to have the long sought after motor I bet.

You know it! Thanks! The stupid thing is, I don't need another one for any of my queens. The B2 is the only fitting one as Kinwald used a Mr in his car!

Hey, I hope your motors are still there????? When you gonna pick em up?

wow, that turned out awesome! I got a few old motors in a drawer that could use that kind of a resto!

I know I'll be dropping off at least one motor, maybe two. I will paint another body for ya in return

Any time dude! You can even raid my stash!

Not my moustache you perv! My MOTOR stash!

slotcarrod wrote:You know it! Thanks! The stupid thing is, I don't need another one for any of my queens. The B2 is the only fitting one as Kinwald used a Mr in his car!

Hey, I hope your motors are still there????? When you gonna pick em up?

I will see you in two days, (Doing some shopping) I am on the search for a sonic myself. I have a trade in the works, the guy that has a few motors for me has no idea he is getting one of these.

I am impressed with the results of the rebuild, but that lathe is just awesome. I can't get over it, What a nice tool to have.

I like this thread a lot

This reminds me a bunch of when I first joined in 08', before I became obsessed with building with NIP parts. You remember, when you took a chance on eBay on some blurry pic or dirty car......is that a good motor in that car? type of thing. Great job Rod!!!!

my lathe was a dremel and an edge com stick.

yes, i was a team member of low buck racing.