View Full Version : AFX-magnatraction/AW XT chassis questions


Xence
10-02-2007, 12:37 PM
I've just signed up on this forum and I'm really happy to see that this forum is ALOT more active than the other one.

Thank you for reading my post first and foremost. This will NOT be a short post as I have a MESS of questions to ask, so please bear with me.

Here goes. Oh and one more thing, any piece of this that anyone wants to answer I will gladly take any sort of information you guys can provide. If you can answer even 1 of these questions I would be highly appreciative.

1st question: (long) I grew up in the 70's with the AFX/TYCO genre and as such I'm not into the T-Jet's nowadays but am WAY into the Auto World X-traction's. I, and I'm sure most of you have seen this as well, I received an email from bud's ho about a sale he was having on XT chassis. Well considering he had them at $5/piece and anything $100 and over was free shipping I bought 20. (Yes my wife rocks, she understands my addiction ) I bought this many because I want to learn how to make these handle better and faster. I see someone, and I can't remember the person's ebay id, selling some sort of pink chassis that were set up for a 'pancake?' league and besides the fact that they look cool it sounds like they really went through a lot of work to make those run just absolutely perfect. I would LOVE to know how to do this. I don't mind spending the time doing this as this is a hobby that I really enjoy.

Oh and on a short note: Did anyone see the old orange AFX chassis that was on ebay which went for somewhere around the tune of $1400? I thought I was going to die watching that auction. Incredible.

2nd question: (long enough) On many of my old AFX chassis I notice that either the pickup shoes(?) or the metal contacts where the shoes are held in and thus providing the electrical spark to the rest of the car are sort of oxidized but then on other of my old chassis they look almost perfect. How do you clean these so they look like new, or is this even possible? I saw someone selling replacement parts so I could remove the old metal and replace it with new pieces. How does one get the rivets out so they can replace these parts and then how do you put the new ones in there? Or is this even the way to go?

This is almost worse than doing crack.

3rd question: (short) I noticed someone else was saying how they didn't like the way the new #7 can-am car sat so high on the chassis. I agree wholeheartedly. How do you fix this so it looks the old cars? The old cars sat really nice but the new ones sit so high I almost didn't think they belonged on there.

4th question: (long enough) On AW's site, and I don't know the owner personally, it was talking about how he was sick of sellers gouge people for the white XT's. Anyone know what the deal was here? Also does anyone know if AutoWorld will be re-releasing the old porsche and Ferrari's and whatnot? Is the company doing well? I have no idea about any of the previous questions and am only asking as I am an avid collector/enthusiast of this hobby. I have no inside knowledge on this and am just looking to learn a little about the company I'm helping to support.

5th question: (ok I know I'm getting out of hand) I saw someone on the bay selling, for t-jets, some sort of a boiling device. RTHO? I think is what it was called. Does anyone either make this for the Magnatractions or is there another way to do this or ??????

Last questions: (Really ridiculously long) Has anyone, and from reading some of the stuff on here I have to assume it's been done alot, air brushed their cars? If so, I REALLY need pointers, and I mean from the ground up because although I'm a musician I have very little artistic ability. I bought one of those testors air brushes awhile ago and attempted this and was thoroughly disgusted and ended up throwing it out. It was a cheapie and I knew going into it that might not be the best thing but I didn't want to spend loads of cash on this only to find out I hated it. Now that I did a bit of it, even if it was done badly, I know that I want to do more of it. My questions on this are thusly: Which air brush do you guys use? How do you make the cars nice and clean? What's the deal with primering a car first? I want to do all the old school can-am stuff as I was only a kid at the time but even after 20 years I still love the way most of those cars look. For example: The old AFX porsche 917 (I think) and the old AFX Ferrari's and things like that are what I'm looking to paint. Those are the first cars, there are others of course but those would get me started.

Thanks for reading my post. Any answers, comments, questions, criticisms would be welcome. :thumbsup:

Cheers,
Xence

TK Solver
10-02-2007, 12:52 PM
I'm also a big fan of the XT chassis so I'm sure we'll exchange notes down the road. Here is a link to a thread providing some good information. http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=191590&page=1 Within that thread is another link to another thread. All good stuff.

roadrner
10-02-2007, 02:35 PM
Xence,

As a fan of TJets and AFXes from the Aurora days, I too like the new stuff from AW & JL. However, just incase you're still interested in the AFX MT chassis from days of old, they are still available today from a myraid of places. Just do a search with Google and stand back and get ready to surf. Plus we have a couple vendors like SCJ on the board who have these too. :)

Welcome to the board and have fun! :thumbsup: rr

T-Jet Racer
10-02-2007, 05:35 PM
I like to soak the chassis in Tarn-x, it does a good job removing the oxidation, then I use a dermel with a wire wheel on it to clean and buff the contact area where the pick up touches by the spring and the spot on the pick up where it goes in by the spring also the area that touches the rail. Also be sure to hold the contacts up by the motor brushes and hit it with the wire wheel, of course the magna track wont need that! I also use those 3m scrubbing pads, you can get them at home cheapo. they clean up the stuff pretty well and dont remove much material at all. Welcome to the gang! Good Luck!

Bill Hall
10-02-2007, 05:59 PM
Welcome aboard! This is THE place to be. A great bunch of folks with knowledge and history.

If you do some digging in the archives, many of your questions are answered in great detail. Not to mention a host of subjects you didnt mention. When I originally joined, I scuttled around in history and it was a great way to get up to speed.

SCJ
10-22-2007, 04:16 PM
Welcome to the board X.....

As RR has already pointed out, if your looking for old school Aurora parts, pieces or complete cars, LMK.

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