James Bond 007 Road Race Slot Car

DBL07.co

I'm working to restore the AC Gilbert road race set https://www.dbl07.co/vintage-sears-james-bond-007-road-race-1965-set-by-ac-gilbert/
Has anyone had any luck restoring the track for this slot car set from Goldfinger?
Cheers

PoorMansJB

I've refurbished several of these; which aspect are you asking after?
From the look of your link the set you're working on appears complete.

DBL07.co

PoorMansJB wrote:

I've refurbished several of these; which aspect are you asking after?
From the look of your link the set you're working on appears complete.

ha, I WISH! Those are stock photos, not mine
I bought 2 sets hoping to get 1 lap around the track but I'm not sure where the fault is. I don't have it in a permanent setup so I can't solder the connections, and I have checked wiring underneath, but the main culprit seems to be the metal track is pushed down and not able to make contact with the cars. So I would love to pull all the track and replace the metal, but I can't think of a good replacement and I can't seem to find a replacement part for just the metal.
I have seen the slotcar metal tape, but I would like to restore it close to stock if I can.
What do you suggest?
Thanks!

PoorMansJB

DBL07.co wrote:

I bought 2 sets hoping to get 1 lap around the track but I'm not sure where the fault is. I don't have it in a permanent setup so I can't solder the connections, and I have checked wiring underneath, but the main culprit seems to be the metal track is pushed down and not able to make contact with the cars. So I would love to pull all the track and replace the metal, but I can't think of a good replacement and I can't seem to find a replacement part for just the metal.
I have seen the slotcar metal tape, but I would like to restore it close to stock if I can.
What do you suggest?
Thanks!

Not sure it was the best use of my time but I spend nearly 100 hours refurbishing the set I've retained for display. Sorry to say that my fix was to sand down the track surface until the rails were sufficiently exposed.
In some spots the crimping method used to secure the rails actually cut through them so I added jumpers on the underside to connect shorted sections.

superado

PoorMansJB wrote:

Redeemed and made much better by the look of it! Is the display table a readily available item?

PoorMansJB

superado wrote:

PoorMansJB wrote:

Redeemed and made much better by the look of it! Is the display table a readily available item?

LOL! Hardly. That was another 100 hr project. Only piece of furniture I ever built.

superado

PoorMansJB wrote:

superado wrote:

PoorMansJB wrote:

Redeemed and made much better by the look of it! Is the display table a readily available item?

LOL! Hardly. That was another 100 hr project. Only piece of furniture I ever built.

{[] The lengths we go and things we do to learn for our fandom...I love it!!!

Donald Grant

superado wrote:

PoorMansJB wrote:

superado wrote:

Redeemed and made much better by the look of it! Is the display table a readily available item?

LOL! Hardly. That was another 100 hr project. Only piece of furniture I ever built.

{[] The lengths we go and things we do to learn for our fandom...I love it!!!

I second that! Damn that's cool!!

DG

DBL07.co

Donald Grant wrote:

superado wrote:

PoorMansJB wrote:

LOL! Hardly. That was another 100 hr project. Only piece of furniture I ever built.

{[] The lengths we go and things we do to learn for our fandom...I love it!!!

I second that! Damn that's cool!!
HOLY Crap, that is the most beautiful thing I've seen on the web! Great Job! and the 100hrs, totally worth it! I like being the old guy from Toy Story 2 that restores the toys )
DG

surfgl

Sorry for the piggyback post, but I just got one of these sets and on two of the panels (elevated curved ramp and lower pond section), several of the male metal rail tips had broken off. I didn't think soldering a new piece on to the existing rail (if you could find such flimsy tin as a replacement) would work.

Did either of you have this problem, and if so, how did you extend or create a new male tip to create the electrical connection between sections?

I was thinking of buying another set, pray for the best and hope 2 sets could create a good one, but that's an obviously expensive proposition with no guarantee.

Thanks for your thoughts!

PoorMansJB

surfgl wrote:

Sorry for the piggyback post, but I just got one of these sets and on two of the panels (elevated curved ramp and lower pond section), several of the male metal rail tips had broken off. I didn't think soldering a new piece on to the existing rail (if you could find such flimsy tin as a replacement) would work.

Did either of you have this problem, and if so, how did you extend or create a new male tip to create the electrical connection between sections?

Hopefully I can explain this in a way that makes sense ...
Finding the metal isn't that challenging: Hobby shops/hardware stores usually have a selection of light weight tin/steel for fabricating small parts, etc.
I cut some narrow strips maybe 1" long (the approximate length needed to reach the "crimp" in the rail. (If you look at the underside of the track, you'll see the rail in held in place in a number of spots by the factory exposing the metal and making a small twist to secure it in the plastic.
If you dremel away a bit of the plastic around the crimp, you'll expose enough to solder the added section to the existing rail.
Working quickly this can be done without melting the roadway.
It's tedious work but it was the only solution I could come-up with which effectively kept everything original (though I did make other modifications which weren't in keeping with the set as manufactured).
Note I'd only go to this extreme with the panels since, as you mentioned, it's really not practical to buy another in hopes all the pins are present, etc. If nothing else, over time different shades of green were used and you're going to wind-up with a mismatch.
If there's a problem with the raised turn, I'd just buy another one; those are pretty easy to find on eBay.
Once you're sure of continuity, you could run a little cyanoacrylate ("super glue") at the bottom of the guide where the pin exits the panel to ensure it remains in place.

surfgl

Thanks, PoorMansJB! I truly appreciate your time and solution! I usually like to keep things original, but I've wanted one of these for years and just want the damned thing to work!

Would have never thought of Superglue to hold the added piece down...I guess if they'd had THAT in the day, we wouldn't have had to deal with the crimp issue...I thought it funny that the instructions say "if the rail juts up, simply press it back into the roadway with a screwdriver". LOL!

If they hadn't used crimping as their poor engineering solution to keep the rails IN the track, I wouldn't have track popping up problems, and you wouldn't have had to sand the track down! Why didn't they just mold the rails in, and use stronger metal contact points, like Aurora?! Anyway, sorry for the rant, and thank YOU for your help!

Looey

Hello everyone! I joined ABJ on the strength of this post.
I've thought about buying a Gilbert Road Race set, but they are all going for stupid prices and I'd be intimidated by having to hack into a vintage toy to get it to work properly!
I LOVE PoorMansJB's table top set. Probably a stupid question, but if you only have half a track, I take it that means you can't drive around on it?
I thought about updating the Gilbert Road Race concept for the Craig era, here's my Photoshopped version of what a box might look like.
If anyone's interested, I can show you pics of the completed layout...

Looey

Oops! Looking more closely, I can see it actually is a full set, it's just half is hiding behind the mountain in the photograph! Here's my version, made out of cardboard from Student projects I'd had in my loft for 40 years!

Higgins

Wow, just wow!!

IceQ

Loving all this! You should template the Matera set and sell on Etsy! I’d buy one!

The Red Kind

Sooo cool😎