Good as New!

After an extremely busy day at the alcohol and drug treatment center it was time to turn my efforts on restoring the white Gala guide flag assembly that was originally on my late production Riggen chasis. Yesterday I received the factory repair kit from Ron Bernstein, and the hands-on experience of assembling the replacement black plastic guide flag assembly provided the necessary insight as to how the Gala pieces fit. The sides had been melted together to form a one piece affair, and careful sanding with 2000 grit sandpaper and polishing with Mother's Polish resolved the problem on the guide sides, returning it pretty much to the state it was in when new. A good electrical connection to the motor brushes was simply made by sandwiching the lead wire ends between the top and bottom guide flag surfaces and positioning them to rest on the top of the steel braid brass endcaps. The whole shebang was snugged together by the white keeper nut once affixed to the chassis nose. This particular guide flag was unused albeit modified, and perhaps one of the few survivors of its type. Ron confirmed that Gala produced the guide assembly, crown and pinion gears in clear, white, and black and that a Riggen chassis to still have all of the original pieces in white after four decades was indeed exemplary. A nice snapshot of the way it was when brass ruled the races. God Bless! Tonymgbbrown