# Restifying a Riggen



## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Restifying is an unholy meld of restoration with a little modifying where its either impractical to restore faithfully, or you simply want to improve on the original design or make a few tweaks but keep it true to its roots. I do just that in this thread.

Here's the car Ill be tearing down and refurbishing for you:








Its a Porsche of some sort, cant quite tell from the bodystyle. Maybe one of you GTP guys cant ID this one. I scored it on the Bay for $49.99 plus shipping which isnt a bad deal for a complete, fairly pristine original Riggen. But its been used and neglected over the years. It displays well, but in my collection, there are no shelf queens. This baby is gonna fly again, even if it isnt going to get run hard.

Ill start by taking it apart.








The paint is for the most part pretty intact. And the body isnt all warped, unlike many old lexan/butyrate bodies. But it does have some minor scratching around the chassis 'nibs' that hold it in place, allthough all 4 mounting holes are intact, no tear throughs:









Looking at the topside of the chassis, everything is there. Even the solder joints on the lead wires are intact. The sponge tires have had it, they are long dried out. The rear axle bosses are a little out of shape and allow too much side to side play in the axle. Luckily, brass is easily re-bent and these chassis are infinitely adjustable. Unfortunately, the crown gear has a boogered tooth from all the 'monkey motion' as Bill would put it. We're gonna need a fresh crown:








Its got some tarnishing, but thats to be expected of brass this age. One wiper is a little krinkled, but the other is worn right thru, rendering it useless. I dont have fresh wipers, but I do have something that'll work. 

Completely torn down, we can get to work. Since the crown is toast, the rear wheels have to be taken off to replace it. I didnt have the right hex key to loosen the set screw wheels so I just had to muscle them off, which does them little good. No worries, Ill hang onto em in case I need spares. I didnt feel like scraping off the sponge and cleaning off the glue with lighter fluid anyway.








Now the real work begins...


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

First off, I cleaned off the chassis in some Brasso. Makes a huge difference in the luster, but dont ask me why I didnt tear out the rear axle/gear first. The front axle has a little rustage on it which the brasso didnt fix. No worries, I have a wire brush for my Dremel:









The guide flag is good, but the one wiper is toast:









As this pic shows, the wipers are attached to the flag using a heat swage, which is easily sheared off with a razor:









I shear them off enough to release the used wipers, then finish the job by eliminating all of the little 'tit' that holds on the wipers. I dont mind roughing up the mounting surface, since I have other plans for attaching my new pickups:









Im using desoldering braids to re-shoe my guide flag (surprise) since they are cheap, plentiful, and less finicky than the wipers. The old lead wires were in decent shape, but I scored some lengths of fresh wire from PartsPig (thanks, Dennis!) so why cheap out?









I start by clamping the braid in my vice and getting a bead of solder onto the end of the braid. I lightly tin the end of the wire so I can get a better bond. YES, my soldering skills are awful, but never fear, I have a revised method coming up:


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

My method for attaching the braids is again idiot simple. A little glob of hot glue on the mounting surface of the guide flag (thats why i didnt mind them a little roughed up)...








...and some quick grab and press motion has my braids mounted nice and secure. Hot glue gives a good bond, remains flexible for shock resistance, is easy to use, and gives a serviceable flag. The braid on the left is freshly mounted, on the right Ive shortened/widened it to the right shape:









And we have the newly renovated guide flag, ready to install. The braids will wear a little better than the wipers, are more easily replaced, and because they are more flexible, you can get just as good pressure to the track rails but without the tendency to pull your pin out of the slot. I prefer the widened/shortened braids for better flexibility and more surface area to grab the rails:








. And by the way, the hot glue mounting method also works on wiper type setups. I had another riggen with good wipers, but busted solder joints. Rather than trying to resolder them while attached to the flag and melting it, I removed, resoldered, and hot glued

If you've read my tutorials on the tyco Curvehugger/HP-2 chassis mods, then you're familiar with how I mod these little block motors and how I clean them. The long and short of it is, I tear them completely down, clean everything in rubbing alcohol, polish every surface, and vent the endbells to allow the commutators to breathe. The Mabuchi HT-50 motor in the Riggen is the precursor to the motors in those tycos, and the same as whats in a TycoPro, so it responds to the same process. With the motor overhauled and oiled, its re-installed in the chassis. The boogered crown gear was replaced with a tycopro crown, the pinion was of the tycopro design and was in good shape. The shoulder on the tycopro gear is too stubby to work in the riggen axle boss and mesh with the pinion, so I had a brass space that was just the right size, about 1mm wide. I ditched the shorty rear axle for a Tyco 440 X2 piece so it would have the knurling for the crown gear that avoids slippage. I find that on brass chassis, regular oil doesnt last, so I used a little vaseline to lube the front and rear axle bosses. I had a NOS set of Champion set screw wheels from ToyBaron which are the perfect replacements for the stockers. The diameter of these wheels is similar to a 440 X2 so some rear silicones from Buds were the perfect replacements. The stock O-ring fronts were still soft and not cracked, the stock front wheels got some additional polishing with CD scratch remover to bring back the shine:









Where the body was scratched from the 'nibs', it was all limited to the black fogging. Turns out its not a perfect black, but has a little brown in it, so I mixed up a close match from some craft paint and touched it up from the insides. Now you cant even tell where the scratches were. This little porsche screams now! And it looks the business too. Restored to its former glory, but with a few little mods to bring out its potential. AND to make up for my lack of the proper parts to do a perfect restoration!


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

And no sooner than I got this baby together and running, then I had a better idea for the braid-to-lead wire attaching method. It was taking me a LOT of tries to get the solder to fuse to the braids/wipers since I was coming in from above. Heat rises, so getting it to go down just wasnt working right. AND, the previous method relies on the solder to make the physical connections. So....








...I got a little smarter. I poked a hole in the end of the braid, stripped a little extra wire at the braid end, and looped it thru the braid. Then I took a pair of flat nosed pliers and crimped it together, enough to hold in place while soldering it. Then I learned to tin the tip of the iron, get a nice bead of solder on the tip and solder it from underneath. Once the solder wicked thru to the top when soldering, I knew I had a better joint. The smooth side of the solder joint would mount to the flag, the 'bead' side would be on top. This would allow the hot glue attachment a good grip. I also figured out that if I applied the hot glue to the braid, and not the flag it went a little quicker and was a faster move to attach. This is done on the pin type flag modified from an Oscar the Track Cleaner flag as provided by ToyBaron for one of the repro Riggens. I wore out the wipers and restored it using the hot glued braids. That car runs great now!









Then its the same foldover and shorten/widen as before:









Of course it works on the standard flag too. This is a re-do of another classic Riggen that I first re-furbished using my earlier method and with leftover MicroScalextric braids. Its a MUCH better running car now:


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Great pictures and great topic Jeeper. Another high quality "how to"!

Where do you get your bulk braid out here?


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## Tsooko (Oct 15, 2009)

Great How To! 
The secret to good solder joints is to use a liquid rosin flux. Since I have bought a bottle all my joints look great. A little drop on the braid and the same on the wire before tinning works wonders. The stuff I got is made by MG Chemicals and I got it in an electronics store. Best $8.00 I spent.
That paste stuff is good for plumbers only.
Cheers Ted


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## twolff (May 11, 2007)

A tin of rosin flux works just fine. Application is easy to control and one tin will last a lifetime if you don't misplace it.

Plumbers use acid flux AFAIK. Not good on elecctronics.


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## slotnewbie69 (Dec 3, 2008)

nice one !i just finished my tyco pro button to braids conversion,with an old motor from an hp2 junker i was given


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Thanks guys, hope this gives you some ideas in bringing those Riggens back to life. Theyre definitely too much fun to sit on a shelf and collect dust, so RUN EM!!!!

Bill, I got the braids at Radio Shack. But you have to be careful, they rotate their stock between braid and strand. Strand is near useless as slotcar pickups.

Tsooko, I use the thin solder with a rosin flux core. But youre prolly right. I have a LOT to learn as far as soldering goes and will take pretty much any advice. I found that after watching some youtube videos on how to do it correctly, placing the pencil underneath the work is a HUGE improvement on how well it works.

And I have some tycopros coming from the bay, and some bright ideas on how to rebuild them. Some of it is based on this, some of it is unique to those cars. So when I get em in and get em torn down, expect a tycopro tutorial also.


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## slotnewbie69 (Dec 3, 2008)

cool!mine is a bit messy,but it's a first attempt,so i look forward to seeing a tycopro tute!


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## joegri (Feb 13, 2008)

yo grunge your ' how to 'got me fired up !! got a coupla 3 or so rig chassis on the shelf collecting dust. maybe just maybe i,ll pull,e m out. seems i cant mak,em run that good and put ,em back.i did refurb a 45 ohm controller last week and took 1 for a few laps. so there is smoke there .this 'how to 'could be fire!! thanx for the monkey wrench.now i gotta put the tjets away for awhile and play with the riggen. they are smooth a silk .just have a hard time on my routed track(rear chassis rubs on rails in some spots)great job on the pictorial too!! and a veeeery nice score. terry riggenracer will be proud of you.


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Well, throw up the pics, Newb. Lets see what you came up with.

Joe, youre doing yourself a major disservice by not running those babies. The Riggen chassis is loads of fun, and if you cant get it running right its an easy fix. Once you tear one down you realize just how simple these things are. Youre pickups are hardwired right to the motor, and this can literally accept pretty much any gearset you can put onto it so there's nowhere for the gremlins to hide. If you have a weak motor, junk it. Any block motor could be fitted to this chassis with the intelligence and skills of a circus monkey. You can see what I managed to accomplish!


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Yeah agreed...get em out get em fixed and get it on!

Nuthin like the old school feel of brass sleds. I want more.


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Bill have you picked up any of the new repros? You can get into a 'fun kit' which is the basic chassis where you provide the motor and body for $35. They used to be $10 cheaper, but now there's an upgraded guide flag which upped the price. I just got a fun kit and complete chassis with this piece and Id say its worth the $10 extra. Ill post up pics of that soon too.


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

> The secret to good solder joints is to use a liquid rosin flux.


Tsooko you stole my thunder! I was about to post the same exact thing. Get yourself some of liquid rosin flux in a little needle applicator bottle and you will be a Soldering God too. The only thing I would add is to clean everything that is to be soldered with isopropyl alcohol prior to applying the flux. Good solder joints are all about cleanliness prep and using the right flux. Once your perfect solder joint is done and cooled off, clean it all again with alcohol.

*Rosin paste flux* works okay and is better than no flux but the paste part is just a carrier that adds gunk that you'll have to clean up afterwards. I mostly use rosin paste to clean and tin my soldering iron tips. 

Plumbers paste flux is acid based, works great for mechanical connections, but is generally not recommended for long lived electrical soldering applications. Same for liquid acid flux which is great for custom brass chassis fabrication. Always clean up your joints with alcohol after using any acid flux.

If you do a fair amount of electrical soldering, invest in a good temperature controlled soldering station with interchangeable tips, a flip top alcohol dispenser bottle, needle bottle filled with liquid rosin flux, a tip cleaning sponge, and some flux brushes with half the brush length trimmed off to stiffen them up. Use fine gauge rosin core silver solder. Clean everything on both sides beforehand with alcohol, apply liquid flux to both sides, tin both sides, solder the pieces together with a bit more solder applied at the joint, let the joint cool naturally (don't blow on it), then clean up using the stubbed off flux brush dipped in alcohol. Simple recipe for great solder joints.

Oh by the way, thanks for the great article on Riggen restoration. I have a few of these laying around in need of TLC and new pickups. The braid idea looks rock solid. I'll add this to my rainy day list.


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## Rickc (Jul 9, 2002)

Quick soldering tip. maybe not a biggie, but hold the iron in your non-trained hand. Left, for most of the world. You will be needing the most control on the hand holding the solder. Keep your tip tinned, clean, and shiny. If you can get it, use 63/37 solder. Sets faster than 60/40 (less time in a plastic state).


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

grungerockjeepe said:


> Bill have you picked up any of the new repros? You can get into a 'fun kit' which is the basic chassis where you provide the motor and body for $35. They used to be $10 cheaper, but now there's an upgraded guide flag which upped the price. I just got a fun kit and complete chassis with this piece and Id say its worth the $10 extra. Ill post up pics of that soon too.


Yes, and thanx. Only too familiar with their site! :freak:

I have vowed to complete some things before I entangle myself further in another arm of the octopus we call "the slot hobby". While I love pancakes and whatnot, I'm feeling kinda topped out on them of late. Something new kinda appeals to me of late.

Besides I thought I'd let you run out of money first as we be rubbing bids lately...No bigs, you run on ahead! I'll troll along behind soon enough. 

Kinda digging that scratch built unit I brought back from the grave. Sadly my brick and mortar went TU so a new brass source is on the horizon.


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Bill Hall said:


> Yes, and thanx. Only too familiar with their site! :freak:
> 
> I have vowed to complete some things before I entangle myself further in another arm of the octopus we call "the slot hobby". While I love pancakes and whatnot, I'm feeling kinda topped out on them of late. Something new kinda appeals to me of late.
> 
> ...


So youve been trying to nab some of the same riggens on the 'bay as I have? Ill bet you tried to get that same VW bug a few days ago.


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

So how do you guys like running the Riggens (old and new) on plastic track? While I always thought that they were a blast to run I do seem to recall that they are very sensitive to the slightest amount of track/slot/rail irregularity and are much better suited for custom and routed tracks. Same goes for the DynaBrutes and even TycoPros.


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Ive never run on a routed track so no basis of comparison. But yeah, any irregularity is going to give you trouble, but less so than with a non-mag AFX. At least these brass chassis have enough weight to smooth it all out a bit.


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

AfxToo said:


> So how do you guys like running the Riggens (old and new) on plastic track? While I always thought that they were a blast to run I do seem to recall that they are very sensitive to the slightest amount of track/slot/rail irregularity and are much better suited for custom and routed tracks. Same goes for the DynaBrutes and even TycoPros.


Feel is hard to quantify...so I'll shoot from the hip. I'm running on lock and joiner, but addmittedly it has been massaged to remove the snaggles and bumpties. While the track work paid huge dividends; IMHO, properly installed braids are the difference maker. Absolutely night and day! No question.

Solder them up, install them, fold them over...go racing. Ya may have to fluff them a bit from time to time, and re-aim them after a serious crash; but all in all they are still my favorite method to tranfer current from the rail to the chassis. 

The obvious disadvantage is that they must be creatively adapted to most HO chassis, AND have a shunt of some sort soldered to them. The benefits are rock solid current transfer, reduced arcing, reduced noise. In addition, surly startups, stuttering, and jittering are all but eliminated.


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## resinmonger (Mar 5, 2008)

Bill Hall said:


> ...In addition, surly startups, stuttering, and jittering are all but eliminated.


Hmmmm. Maybe I need to solder some braid and shunt wires to me. I have all three of those problems... :freak:


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## joegri (Feb 13, 2008)

can i jump in . the rig chassis is what got me goin on getting rid of the plastic track and routing my own.it just wouldnt go on plastic for me so i routed.now it seems that if the rail height isnt perferct then it scrapes.new contacts made it go very good but i,m thinkin braids. i,ve got all the material to do the job,i just wanna finish all the jet chassis that cover the bench.the rig chassis is so smooooth when i got it dialed in but it only lasts for a lap or 2.i,ve made some tyco pros that run way better than the rig. just my 2 cents.


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