How do I carefully dismantle a promo to restore it?

[Motor City]

I was eating at a Bob Evans a while ago.  They had model cars on display all over the restaurant high up on shelves.  I noticed a '63 XL convertible with a broken windshield frame, but it was all there.  I told the store manager that someone should repair it before it was broken off.  So he gave it to me!  I took it home and removed the hand painted silver accents from the cowl vent area (below the windshield).  It was quite filthy as you can imagine.  While cleaning it up with soap and warm water, most of the chrome came off of the bumpers and wheels.  The steering wheel rim was missing, and the glass was missing part of one vent window area.  So I ordered chrome, glass and a steering wheel from Modelhaus.  How do I safely remove the wheels from the tires, the taillights from the rear bumper (which are heat sealed into the bumper), the top-of-fender ornaments (also heat sealed, and the convertible boot (also heat sealed)?  The steering wheel and dashboard appear to be molded as one piece, so instead of drilling out the old column, I expect to snip off the new rim, paint it, and bond it to the original column.  Any thought on this?  Thank you, everyone!

[StevenGuthmiller]

First of all, in order to keep it as original as possible, I would have had the original chrome pieces replated rather than replacing them with resin.

But that's water under the bridge at this point.

The wheels are most likely pressed into the tires.

Those can be removed by "un-pressing" them.

place the tires up on a couple of blocks of some sort with the front of the wheel facing down so that the wheel itself is not touching the blocks.

Then just lightly tap the back of the wheel with a small hammer to slowly force the wheel from the tire.

As far as heat sealed parts go, just carefully cut away at the back of the part until the part comes out.

I've literally just taken a small needle nose pliers & carefully broken away the melted pieces of the back of the parts until they were free.

Worked just fine for me.

Just don't get too brutal.

The best way to remove these parts would probably be with a Dremel tool with a reamer bit just grinding out the melted area of the part.

The plastic that promos of that period are made of is pretty durable & flexible & can withstand a fair amount of cranking on.

The steering wheel was never molded to the dash in these promos.

It was probably either glued or heat swaged into place.

I would cut it off at the dash, re-drill the dash & replace the steering wheel with either a kit wheel or resin.

 

Steve

Edited November 10, 2016 by StevenGuthmiller

[Motor City]

Hi Steve,

The resin wheels looks slightly different than the originals and the resin grille doesn't fit as well as the original, so I'm inclined to replate all of the original parts at this point, or buy a kit that has a bad body.  Other than with this car, I've rarely seen a  steering wheel in a promo that looked to be molded as part of the dash.  There usually is a slight gap that can be seen where the stem would fit into the hole.  I am a little reluctant to drill through the existing wheel, but putting in a full steering wheel would probably hold up better than just gluing the rim onto the spokes.  I thought maybe running the tires under hot water would soften them up enough to remove them easily?  This car has the typical promo wheels with thick, ribbed axles.  Thank you for all of the other great tips.

Jim

 

[gtx6970]

Drop the tires and wheel in a bowl of hot water for about 5 minutes they'll pop right off

I do it all the time with old annuals tires / wheels

[Motor City]

Thanks for the great suggestion, Bill!

Jim

[ChrisBcritter]

Re the steering wheel: AMT used some sort of powerful liquid cement to attach the steering wheel, which blends with the opening, giving the appearance of a one-piece unit. The dashboard was attached to the interior the same way. Don't know what type they used, but standard cement won't affect their promo plastic.

One caveat here: I've had this happen on a couple AMT promos - '62 T-bird and '66 Galaxie; that plastic can be brittle. The T-bird was a junker I parted out to get the wheels for my '61; when I was removing them the front of the chassis broke into pieces, and one of the chassis screw posts snapped off when I was unscrewing. On the '66 - my recent acquisition - the chassis screws came out OK and I was careful to thread them in on reassembly, but even so I heard the posts cracking - so that one is back together for good.

[Motor City]

Thank you for the information, Chris.  I'll make sure to be careful.  I did repair the windshield frame, so it is barely noticeable. 

 

Jim

[ChrisBcritter]

Sounds good. I've got a red one in nice shape; what color is yours - red, light tan or metallic beige?

[Motor City]

Rangoon Red

[Edsel-Dan]

I have one too

Also Rangoon

I had to repair the frame on that one

I got it lines up then also added a Pin through it to make sure it would hold and stay

 

I did the reverse on removing promo tires

I placed them Axle end down, and pressed on the tire to pop it off.

 

Softening in warm water might  have helped a little

 

I also have the 61 & 62 Galaxie Convertibles in Rangoon

The 62 did not need any more that the 63

But the 61 almost needs a new body!!!