Ages and ages ago I brought a scrapyard of old slot cars from a popular auction site. One of the cars was this SCX Subaru Impreza.
The chassis that came with the car was marked as an Impreza, but was a couple of mm too long for the body and so it had bowed quite severely and nothing lined up properly. So there was no chance of it being able to run as it was.
We’re going to use a Penelope Pitlane brass chassis to bring this little car back to life.
The decals on this car were also very, very thick and a couple were damaged, so I decided to strip all the old livery off.
I softened the decals with a hairdryer and was able to peel them back.
The decals left behind a lot of residue. To get rid of it I sprayed some WD40 onto a cloth and wiped it away.
There were two plastic tabs that hung under the back half of the interior. They were right where the back axle needed to go, so I chopped them off.
You’ll notice that a rear light lens is missing in these pics. I…umm… temporarily misplaced it. But I did find it a little later!
The chassis is a Penelope Pitlane F1Rm with a standard Mabuchi motor (I assume Scalextric but I couldn’t be 100% sure, a Scalextric black rear gear, nylon bearings and the gold wheels that came on the car (with new tyres on the back).
I also used bearings either side of the wheels at the front as spacers, to stop the axle from sliding left to right.
To fit these Penelope Pitlane chassis I use wooden dowels cut to length, which are hot glued into the shell and then I screw the chassis onto the dowels.
First I lower the chassis into the car and hold it so there’s a very slight gap between the wheels and arches. I then measure from the base the chassis to where the dowel is going to be glued inside the shell (both dowels needed to go on the interior)
I then cut the dowels to slightly over length and glue them into the shell.
From there I can fit the chassis, and sand away excess material.
It can be a fiddle to get this right. Just make sure to double check your measurements and be patient.
Once the chassis is all lined up and ready to be mounted, I drill a little pilot hole into the dowels through the holes in the chassis, and screw it into place.
I added a few little details – orange side markers, silver mirror lenses and some silver on the metal pins. Then I’m calling this one done!
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By Richard Francis.
