1/24 Racing Champions w/cracked paint and shrunk windshield

[dlwracer]

I just picked up some Racing Champion diecast and one of them has bad paint cracking, and the windshield looks like it "shrunk" and disconnected in a couple key areas. My thoughts are this model must have been sitting in direct sunlight for a long time and maybe the heating up/cooling down shrunk the plastic windshield slow enough that it didn't just "break' or crack, but rather disconnected from the glue points and slowly shrunk. I'm guessing there's nowhere to get a replacement for that? The paint may also be a result of sitting in the sun, inside the package for alot of years. The "model year" of this diecast comes from the 97 season of NHRA races, so I'd imagine it was made in 98. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get severely cracking paint to look a little better? In a previous life I was a body/paint guy and the only time we had to deal with cracking paint was the clear coat cracking which sometimes could be fixed. But with these diecast's there's no clear to fix so is there any solution other then a total repaint? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[THarrison351]

Well, I hate to tell you, The body is going to fall apart. The Zamac is corroding

 

[Geno]

Yep, I've only ever had one do that and it went pretty quick. FM's '57 Bonneville.

[randyc]

What those guys said.   If you do too much handling , it may start falling apart.  

[Dave Van]

Looks like ZINC PEST which there is nothing you can do. Be happy you do not own some of the O scale trains that have ZINC PEST and cost owners $2500.....it's happening now!!! 

The window deal may be more the zinc swelling and moving.

Toss it or live with it.......nothing you can do to fix.....raid for parts

[cobraman]

I have a yellow 1/18 scale Cobra doing the same thing.

[dlwracer]

Thanks guys....I kinda figured there wasn't much in the way of fixing it....but I thought maybe I would be able to strip it and repaint it but sounds like the actual metal is failing....I did read through a topic on here that was talking a bout that issue. Well at least I didn't pay much for it! Thanks again everyone for your replies/education!

[1959scudetto]

David, the windshield has not shrunk, but the body has expanded - sooner or later it will fall to pieces (I had the same thing happen with 2 or 3 of my (cheap) diecasts.

There is no way to stop this process, unfortunately.

[AC Norton]

I HAVE , UNFORTUNATELY PURCHASED ONLINE FROM TIME TO TIME, A FEW RACING CHAMPION 1/64 PIECES THAT SUFFERED FROM THAT CRACKING PAINT PROBLEM....RIGHT IN THE CAN THEY GO, BECAUSE AS STATED HERE THERE IS NO FIX  UNLESS A COMPLETE PAINT RESTORATION IS IN THE WORKS....CHEAPER TO JUST WAIT AND FIND A MINT ONE, I WOULD SAY.....ACE..

[Motor City]

I bought a Buick Grand National front fender emblem when the cars came out.  It is diecast and the chrome is failing, so I think it has the same issue as these models.