1971 Keeps Rolling Along!

Hey, campers! This week we have the next three 1971 Hot Wheels in my collection! 1971 was kind of a high mark in Hot Wheels history, in that they produced a LOT of new car models! So, hang on...here we go!

The S'Cool bus was based on the Monogram model of the same name. Tom Daniels never worked for Hot Wheels directly, but his plastic model designs were borrowed for some of the most iconic Hot Wheels ever produced. Mattel owned Monogram models, by the way.

Under the hood (body?) we see two blown engines to motivate this beast down the track! This model was released in a bright yellow version and in this slightly yellow/ green version. 

1971 was a big year for the Heavyweights line of Hot Wheels, and they made about every kind of truck you can imagine. I used to think that the Scooper was a trash truck, but it's actually more of a gravel hauler...

When ya just gotta dump your gravel....

The Short Order is based on a stretched 50s style pickup. This is one of the few cars I found "in the wild," meaning not through another collector or on eBay. I got it at an estate sale this summer for under a buck...

The Short Order can become a Slightly Longer Order by pulling out the orange plastic bed.

So there you go! There are more to come! Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

How I Ended Up With Two Daisy 179 BB Pistols...

A few months ago I wrote about how I finally got a Daisy 179 pistol like the one I had as a kid. However, there is more to the story. You see, when I'm looking for an item, I save the search on eBay so that I can see when anything comes up for sale. When I finally get the item, I drop the search and move on. In this case, when I was about to drop the search, a new listing showed up for a non-working model. The gun looked pretty good, and the seller said it would cock and fire, but it wouldn't actually fire a bb. Best of all it was under ten bucks (slightly over with shipping) so I put in a minimum bid just for fun. As it turns out, I was the only bidder, so I now had a working and non-working example of the gun.

Interestingly enough, the non-working gun is actually older than the working one. You can tell because it has a brass trigger and hammer. It dates from the early 1960s, whereas the working gun dates from the mid 1970s.

At the time I was much more excited about the working model, so I kind of forgot about the cheap, junk one. I figured I could use it for replacement parts or something if I ever needed them. Then, as the months passed, I starting thinking about restoring it.

The seller was right. The gun cocked and the trigger released the hammer, but everything felt very weak. The spring and plunger on the magazine were not installed correctly, which let me in on the fact that someone had tried to work on this gun in the past. This embolded me, since I probably couldn't mess it up more than it already was. With my trusty screwdriver in hand, I dug in.

When I gently pulled the two halves of the gun apart, I noticed a problem right away. The main spring was broken, and the top part was missing. There was a little rubber part rattling around inside as well. The reason the action of the gun seemed weak was that it wasn't engaging the main spring that knocks the bb down the barrel...because that part was gone. 9

Google can be a wonderful thing, and it didn't take me long to find technical drawings of the gun, and a place that sells airgun parts. I ordered a new main spring from JG Airguns and hoped that would do it.

When the spring came in, I quickly opened the gun back up and installed the new spring. I also turned the magazine spring around so it was correct. With a great amount of hassle, I got the gun back together. Things didn't seem to fit well, but I finally managed. I then went to the back yard to test it.

It was a qualified success at best. The gun now felt tighter and did, indeed, fire the bb...but only if you could keep it from rolling out of the barrel first. In other words, if you cocked the gun with the barrel pointing down, the bb would simply roll out. Barrel up, it would fire. Obviously something was wrong.

Looking at the drawings I saw a spring that I hadn't noticed before, and that I didn't have. Its whole function is to keep the bb in place until the gun is fired. It seems that whoever worked on the gun before me lost it when he had it open.

Back to JG Airguns. They shipped it quickly and I was ready. I'll show you some pictures of the install...

The four screws that hold the gun together are removed. 

The three problem areas. The first arrow on the left points to the magazine spring that was backwards. The second arrow points to the (now replaced) main spring. The third arrow (on top) points to the missing bb retainer spring.

The retainer sping is now in place! However, see the little rubber part circled at the bottom? That part simply didn't fit. I couldn't even get the gun back together with it there. I finally left it out and the gun works perfectly! I'm assuming that the guy before me thought it went to this gun and it doesn't. It might go to the later model. Even though it is on the drawing, it doesn't look exactly the same. It works without it so I don't care.

The gun all back together and working great! The
little rubber part is below it.

So there you go! I now have a gun that it worth about ten times what I paid for it! Sometimes you have to put a little elbow grease in on those treasures! Until next time, keep searching for treasure!