Wheels & Tires

[Bruce Caldwell]

I am currently in the process of restoring several older Parma Womp Womp cars in addition to a number of vintage Revell and Riggen cars from the 60s and 70s. I have just gotten back into the hobby - where do I get replacement wheels and tires? Sizes, etc? Thanks for the help.

[HomeRacingWorld]

[BIG E]

Any commercial raceway should be able to supply what you need for the Womp cars. As far as rolling stock goes, the original releases in the early '70s came with 1" diameter black foam tires in the rear, 3/4" diameter, wide black foamies in the front. The "O" ring fronts on the cone shaped aluminum wheels came later on, all mounted by set screws to 1/8" axles, of course. We raced 'em like that for years, bending the tail of the chassis up a bit to get the car lower to the track (watch that gear mesh!), but using drill blank axles with the rear oilite bushings soldered to the chassis. This enabled the cars to run smoothly, especially on the big commercial tracks. The wheels were much heavier aluminum than what is available today, so unless you're gonna put new rubber on old wheels, just go with the appropriate size Pro Track replacements, they work great. 7/8" or .790" modern rears are a good upgrade, unless you want to keep the original tire profile. I believe the original wheels and tires were manufactured by aj's for PARMA, who later on purchased aj's (except for the HO stuff) to the best of my knowledge. The story goes that by then most of what aj's was producing was for the PARMA RTR cars anyway. Like I said, that's the story I've been told over the years, as I purchased loads of those wheels and tires back when I had my commercial raceway. Hope some of this helps you out.
You'll have lots of fun with the restored Womp cars, whether running them on a commercial track or home plastic sectional track set up.
If you need bodies, I've got a few PARMA factory painted ones, as well as some clear Lexan aftermarket bodies (cheap!). PM me if you're interested.
Have FUN, and... Enjoy! -- Ernie :>)

[padirtfan]

I've had good luck getting bare wheels and donuts in natural rubber compound from and mounting and truing my own. I'm not sure if it's cool to share the vendor I use or not. You can then either coat them with silicone or just run them as they are. I find the natural rubber to work pretty good on my Artin plastic track. I found this to be the cheapest alternative in my case.

[RichD]

You can post the name of a vendor, you can only include a link if that vendor is a paid sponsor of this BB.

[padirtfan]

Thanks, I was never quite sure how that worked and did not want to offend anyone or run afoul of the rules. I've bought them from Alpha Products.