Project: Cool Cat

Project Log -- How It All Began

8/27/06

I've had the car for awhile now, but not until this evening did I take the time to get a really good look at it from all angles. Here are pictures of the box (sorry about the USPS tape, that's how it was sent to me):

The car has normal marks of wear, but nothing too serious on the surface. The biggest problem is the wing, which has been re-mounted to the roof after the back of the body (where it belongs) tore off from roll-overs. No biggie, I'm going to give it a different body eventually anyhow.

This "Street Cat" version has Pro-Line's 1.5" Waffle rear tires, but otherwise the rolling chassis is identical to the original. The shocks, though they don't look it, are oil-filled and you can adjust a spring's preload by twisting a the stepped upper spring clip around & aligning it with tab on the shock body at different levels. The springs are too stiff no matter how you adjust them, though.

There are trailing arms up front, while the entire rear section of the car can twist and/or move up & down thanks to a big ball & socket joint at the front of the transmission housing. The car I got has some different rear shocks than stock installed, but the originals are in the box, too.

Under the body, there's not much to see -- the whole chassis is sealed with a big plastic cover. Under that, there's space for electronics, while the battery tray is bottom-loading (with no cover -- you strap it in with large reusable zip ties!). The servo is directly connected to the steering linkages, but at least there is a servo saver.

My first task will be to just generally clean things up and see what the car needs to get it running smoothly in stock form.

9/4/2006

Would you hate me if I told you that for this 19-year-old classic car I had a complete, brand new spare parts car? Well, I do, sort of. The Cat platform lives on to this day as the Spirit. It just so happens that I picked up a Spirit to test for a new site I'm working on and decided to hang onto it for awhile. Here you see both chassis just beginning to be disassembled side by side:

There are a couple of elements of this picture that are worthy of note. First off, you can see a total of three sets of chassis side rails. One is the original set from the Cat -- those are being put out of commission. The second is still on the Spirit chassis, where they will remain. The third set I picked up from the bargain bin at the LHS around 2001 if I remember right, and yes, they were marked for the Cat, not the Spirit. I thought I might figure out a use for them some day, and they were only $1. Here I am a half-decade later with a very good use for them. Incidentally, I also had a front chassis & shock tower unit at one point, but thought it belonged to a Nikko Rhino and eventually threw it away. Turns out I wasn't too far off, but I wish I had kept it.

The other interesting thing in this photo is some strange liquid-looking wavy shape in the battery compartment. This will prove to be quite an unexpected problem, one that I'll address in my next update.

In case you're wondering by now, no, I don't plan on just taking all of the new Spirit parts and putting them on the Cat, or taking a few parts from the Cat and putting them on the Spirit & calling it a total restoration. First off, that would defeat the purpose of doing a classic car project. It would be cheating, and even if nobody else noticed, I would always remember which parts were true vintage and which were modern-day releases. Secondly, there are a few very, very subtle differences between the two chassis, so I wouldn't even be able to fool strangers if they looked closely enough. From the Spirit I will use the clean, new hardware and miscellaneous components here & there that truly are identical to the originals and that can really do for replacement.

Picking up from my last update, I decided to first completely refresh the transmission. Take a look inside:

Is that beautiful or what? There's a little bit of gear dust around the edges, but for the most part, everything looks clean and crisp! I'm very pleasantly surprised, indeed. All I ended up doing here was to clean everything & gently relube it, and replace the still-shiny bushings with some teflon-sealed bearings.

Now about that warped chassis...

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