Thunderjet 500 bodies

[Ecbill]

Recently some Johnny Lightning Thunderjet bodies have come to my attention, that are not a direct bolt on for many TJet style chassis. The Daytona and Corvette Gran Sport specificly. The underside of each body, hits the top of the gear plate, preventing contact with both posts at the same time. Curious if this is a common problem with any other Thunderjet 500 bodies?

Not a big deal in my estimation. Its not hard to modify the body or chassis to make them fit. I buy and sell a lot of these and recently had a guy pitch a royal fit because he couldn't screw the bodies on, his chassis.

Upon checking them, I found there is some interference with the gear plate which varies according to which type of chassis is used. Aurora, AW, T-Dash and JL all fit differently.

Also noticed that Wizzard sells body spacers for JL bodies. May be a more common problem than I thought.

What kind of experiences have you guy had with these bodies?

Bill

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Its been a long time since I sold off all my HO stuff (Thunder Jet only), but my impression of the new AutoWorld stuff (not the greatest of everything from the old Auto World catalogue), tends to be a rather bad imitation in so many of the products. That said, I wonder if a light sanding of the interior of the body would clear the problem. Alternatively, it is easy to file the high spot of the small driver gear of the top of the gear plate. Just hold a file to the spinning gear until you get a slightly domed shape. We also filed down the front edges of the top plate. Its all old info, so you might get better info from other guys on HRW.

[Norman]

Top plate clearance is a common problem with a lot of bodies from most manufactures.
All I've ever done is cut the top plate rails flush with the plate with a hobby knife.
Just cut back to the motor pinion is usually enough to get the body to fit.
I guess you could grind the inside of the body too.

[RichD]

Johnny Lightning/Auto World ThunderJet 500 chassis have gear plate rails that do not extend all the way to the front of the gear plate, so their bodies are designed taking that into account. It is a common practice to trim the gear plat rails of the original Aurora T-Jet chassis. If you might enter your cars in formal races that may not always be allowed and when it is only the rails may be trimmed, removing any of the main part of the gear plate could get you disqualified.

[Ecbill]

Modifying those bodies or chassis' is really no big deal. The average hobbyest the should be able to tackle either task with little difficulty. I tried to explain that to the buyer who returned them to me. Even offered him some tips on how to do it. It a shame that he wasn't up for such a minor challenge. That's part of the fun of the hobby.

Most of the problem with the Gran Sport is the fact that the windshield extends below the bottom of the body by about 1/16". Shaving that down should do it. The AW chassis fits best because of its shorter rails.

Spacers or shaving the gear plate rails should do the trick on the Daytona.

Mostly I fool around with the AFX bodies and only have a few of the Thunderjet 500 (TJet style) JL bodies in my collection. No problems with any of them.

Personally, I'm thankful for JL, AW, Dash and others for making a variety of new bodies for the Tjet style chassis'. A little bit of challenge to make them fit is a small price to pay. However, it would be good to know if the are other bodies with known fitment problems so that I don't get blind sided by complaints from unskilled buyers.

[RichD]

I got what looks like a resin pop of a diecast NASCAR body as a race prize. To get that body to sit correctly I had to shave down the gear plate of a JL/AW chassis, which would not have been legal for organized racing purposes.