Bolink Round Tracker: Project Awesome Bill From Dawsonville
Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2022 7:59 pm
Picked up a Bolink Round Tracker a little while back just to add to the pan car collection. I picked the car up mainly because many of the nylon pieces are engraved with "minicars" which I believe was a Swedish brand bought out by Bolink, but the fact that the markings are still there peaked my interested.
A little rough and dated from the beginning:
Did a little work to figure out the semi-close measurements of the original radio plate as the one on this car was cut in half, then printed off a few mock ups. Once I got it close, I sent the specs off to FactoryWorks. Jeff already had the Bolink Digger plates on file, which are the same front susp plate, rear susp plate, and rear pod top plate. The Digger main chassis was also the same dimensionally, but not drilled for the Round Tracker radio plate. With the radio plate worked out, Jeff was able to "place" it on the main chassis design and drill the holes to match. Cannot thank Jeff at Factory Works more for his help on this this car, another present car, and I am sure future cars!!
Before long, parts arrived. And of course did the whole restoring of what parts would be reused and replacing what was bad. Which, really nothing outside of the chassis and one oilite bushing was bad on this car, and most of the hardware was 6-32 stuff, so a trip to Lowes got most of the SS fasteners taken care of. I already had the Bolink motor sitting around, so it now has a home.
I picked up an Aristocraft Tx/Rx system [almost] NIB just because I think Aristocraft stuff looks older than it is, and I originally wanted to try to look like a 1980ish car to be correct with the chassis. The Aristocraft / HiTec black is like a brownish black, and the plugs are large and white, and just the whole thing looks more correct for an early '80s rig. I thought I had worked out a deal on a couple of Zeta Pro Micro ESCs, which again aren't as old as this chassis, but give the look of being that old. But the eBay seller decided to never actually ship them. 
I then found an Aristocraft ESC NIP from the same period, so that is on the way and should match the rest of the electronics fantastically, and it is BEC which the Zeta was not.
Then came the whole ordeal with wheeltrack and bodywidth. Basically, pan car bodies from this era were all over the place, and you just kinda hoped you found a body you liked that was somewhat close to the dimensions of your chassis. As you can see in the first pics, the Round Tracker came with some very narrow front wheels, and they didn't even match the design of the rears (this was stock). I found some Bolink "front wheels to be used with adapter," but they are literally 1.5" wide, exactly like the rear wheels. I ended up cutting a pair down to match the front wheeltrack of a body that I thought I was going to use. But then, after some random searching, THE BOLINK BODY came to me! That of Awesome Bill From Dawsonville! 
My dad was a die hard Ford guy, and a semi-Nascar fan, which meant while I was growing up in the 1980s, Bill Elliot was a hero! The wheelbase of the body is close enough, and I actually need to use another pair of front wheels not cut as much to match the body, but it should fit very well when done.
A little rough and dated from the beginning:
I then found an Aristocraft ESC NIP from the same period, so that is on the way and should match the rest of the electronics fantastically, and it is BEC which the Zeta was not. My dad was a die hard Ford guy, and a semi-Nascar fan, which meant while I was growing up in the 1980s, Bill Elliot was a hero! The wheelbase of the body is close enough, and I actually need to use another pair of front wheels not cut as much to match the body, but it should fit very well when done.
