Just sign them Toyguy and we will see what the hammer brings.

That just might work. LOL

Okay, I found the treads I was looking for. I have been busy of late so not much time for my own toys. Recently I started on the Bentley and the caravan. I got the parts in and stripped the toys down. ONLY problem was I lost the spring suspension for the Bentley to Rust. It just eat itself away.



You can see how rusty it is and I only soaked it for about an hour or so. It just fell to pieces in my hands after that. What to do now.





I came up with the idea from another thread, by Theo, I think. The spring plate is held on by a grommet or eyelet. After removing it and trying to get it to work again it went BOING and was gone. Somewhere on the floor in my shop. NEVER to be seen again. I have some leather working tools and bits an pieces so started thinking. If I took a new eyelet and made the hole in the base larger I could use that. I took a piece of aluminum sheet and made a spring plate and drilled a hole in it.










You can see the old spring plate and what happened to it. The new grommet or eyelet is in place. A little squashed and larger than the original but it will work.










All I really did was cut it out with scissors and then drill the hole. I filed the other side of the hole to get rid of the burrs left from drilling and then gave it a few hits with my small hammer to flatten it out. I also gave it a bit of a curve by only hitting at the hole and around it. This worked well. I have a new spring plate for my suspension.


I will be putting this in Tips and Hint too.

Great job Jim. Perhaps you need to cut the "U" shaped indents at the front and back so you have the independent suspension as well as the fingertip steering.


Cam

Maybe on the next one as this one is done. I am just happy it won't sit like a low rider when finished. This is my first one and to be truthful, I did not think of the U shape. this one had a fancy "finger" at the ends and I was not going to try to copy that. It looked like it was some kind of limiter as it was bent towards the base plate at the end. Not sure if you can see it in the photos.

Looks like you've done well there Jim. She will look good when finished. What colour you painting it?

I am not sure yet, Jay. I am tending towards one of the South African colors though so maybe Cream body with Red interior and darker cream folded top. I don't think I will do it Lime green. The LIght gray body with Maroon interior and tan top would look nice too. The Bronze it was originally is out. I don't like it and with Maroon interior and a Blue folded top I think it is too busy.

Nobelco,  Very nice work Jim. Since my DeSoto is part of the local play action, the buttonheads were never made permanent. I am going to the hardware store and find those eyelet/grommets and re-tune the suspension. I used a tuna fish can and doubled folded it twice, hammered and heated it in the vice to get it straight as I could. Installed the axles between the base plate and "new spring". There have been no complaints thus far and I know it drives regularly, but your idea is worth a try. dinkyboy

Nobelco,  That looks a lot like what my first paint jobs were like, 'cept I liked all black. That was before all black was "in". Do you think I started a trend? I only needed one brush and one jar of paint. My logic was that is was economical and limos were black then as well. Gave it sort of that "rich look." Don't you think....? Geeeez, now I feel bad 'cause I thought it was pretty with all that silver. Shuda painted the tires though, I did.
The silverish caravan looks like a mixture of brush cleaner was still on the brush. I did that sometimes too but wiped it off and repainted it again. He probably didn't have any Bounty. We always did. Still, it looks good to me........ dinkyboy

Thanks Erwin. I think we all went through a painting faze with our toy cars. I know I did for sure. Brown, silver and gold were my favorites backt then.

Erwin, when you go looking for the eyelets, get the smallest you can find. Maybe you can find ones the same size as the base plate hole. I had to drill my out to 7/64.

Boy, you mustaf bin rich or sumtin, brown - silver - gold. Wow.
I only had money for one color..........

Jim, I will surely look for the smallest eyelet/grommet. if I find them, I will send you some.
dinkyboy

When I was a kid I used to get an allowance. Not much each week but I could go to the movies and get popcorn or a candy bar and a drink. All this and I still had a nickel left from my 25¢ per week allowance. Not much left but I would save it and every couple of months I could buy a Dinky Toy. .50¢ to $1.25 back then. I could earn a buck if I cut the lawn, more it I did the neighbours too.

...........allowance! Whats that?



Just joshin ya. All mine went to DINKYS.

As far as small eylets are concerned have you considered pop rivets? I found that the very tiny eyelets had very short shanks, so what i did was to pull the nail out of the rivet, saw the shank to a suitable length, then used a centre punch, a slightly larger nail would do, to open the shank in the same way you would using an eyelet, being soft metal it splayed very well