Hi all, at the '17 Vic Fair I bought this couple of Cheetaracha bodies
IMG_3471
IMG_3472
Yes, they aren't exactly mint, but taking in account that the tags on the bodies show their prices in euros, they may qualify in a contest for the cheapest cheetaracha body ever. Seriously, I thought that, for that prices, maybe there was a possibility of doing something decent with them. To me, the Cox Cheetaracha is the nicest looking (even if far from accurate) of all slot cheetahs and I always wanted to have one. Building some kind of special with one ot these, using whatever parts, was my initial idea.
The bodies sit in a box for one year: I was having a look on them from time to time, only to put them back in the box. Last winter I was lucky enough to get a wrecked standard Cheetah with almost all parts I needed (many thanks for it Pete!). It is shown here, with the parts, together with the cheetarachas
IMG_3635
Starting the job, I realized that the green body, besides being split in two pieces by two wrongly repaired cracks and having important parts missing, was too brittle to work with (I have seen a number of cracked dark green Cheetarachas, maybe its plastic is more brittle than other colors). So I decided to use its left front corner to easily repair the missing one on the red body. I located a correct driver and made repro headlight covers and a front spoiler from originals borrowed to a friend. Here are all the parts
IMG_3706
and, after cleaning, sanding, painting, mounting and decaling, here is the final result:
IMG_3755
IMG_3754 by Eduardo Casas-Alvero, en Flickr
As they came to me, the chromed parts were rather "unchromed parts" (see the pictures), so I was about to paint all of them in black and give the car a somewhat sinister look. Fortunately, after the advice of a friend, I tried a new (at least here) chrome marker (brand is Molotow) with excellent results. Now it's time to look for a decent chassis...
IMG_3471IMG_3472Yes, they aren't exactly mint, but taking in account that the tags on the bodies show their prices in euros, they may qualify in a contest for the cheapest cheetaracha body ever. Seriously, I thought that, for that prices, maybe there was a possibility of doing something decent with them. To me, the Cox Cheetaracha is the nicest looking (even if far from accurate) of all slot cheetahs and I always wanted to have one. Building some kind of special with one ot these, using whatever parts, was my initial idea.
The bodies sit in a box for one year: I was having a look on them from time to time, only to put them back in the box. Last winter I was lucky enough to get a wrecked standard Cheetah with almost all parts I needed (many thanks for it Pete!). It is shown here, with the parts, together with the cheetarachas
IMG_3635Starting the job, I realized that the green body, besides being split in two pieces by two wrongly repaired cracks and having important parts missing, was too brittle to work with (I have seen a number of cracked dark green Cheetarachas, maybe its plastic is more brittle than other colors). So I decided to use its left front corner to easily repair the missing one on the red body. I located a correct driver and made repro headlight covers and a front spoiler from originals borrowed to a friend. Here are all the parts
IMG_3706and, after cleaning, sanding, painting, mounting and decaling, here is the final result:
IMG_3755IMG_3754 by Eduardo Casas-Alvero, en FlickrAs they came to me, the chromed parts were rather "unchromed parts" (see the pictures), so I was about to paint all of them in black and give the car a somewhat sinister look. Fortunately, after the advice of a friend, I tried a new (at least here) chrome marker (brand is Molotow) with excellent results. Now it's time to look for a decent chassis...
