Gold 15th anniversary Fox .35

Ken Cook Sat Mar 26, 2016 7:03 pm

I haven't been able to attend my club in months as life has just been in the way. I was fortunate to receive this nice little piece of nostalgia from a very good friend of mine. While still a Fox, it still carries a bit of weight in my heart. This is a gold plated version of the Fox .35 which was introduced in 63. I have seen less than a dozen of these and when I do they're just beat to death. The plating on these just flake off and the oxidation that forms on these just ruin them. I just carefully wiped this one and I didn't go crazy on it. It still needs some careful TLC. It's the best running version I have ever seen of this particular engine. Unfortunately he lent the engine to someone who cut the venturi and drilled what appears to be a flood off in the side of the venturi. These can bring some good dollars even for a Fox .35. It's hard to see on the monitor, but it's gold not the shiny case and a neat piece of nostalgia. My friend owned it from new and I get to enjoy it. It will be a runner and I'm looking forward to see it in use.

**Cribbs74** Sat Mar 26, 2016 9:54 pm

Looks good Ken. I have only seen one in person up in Wichita. It wad a good runner.

ian1954 Sun Mar 27, 2016 5:49 am

I have only ever seen one of these and it was completely untouched with the original packaging - it looked outstanding. It was with one of my fellow collectors who intended to mount and display it.

He asked me to make a stand for it which I did and decided to have the stand gold plated. Why? Because like learning and trying new things!

The kits for doing this are very expensive and so I contacted the firm that distributed them and they gave me the name of a chap who lived close by who had just bought one. I contacted him and he was looking for practice pieces as he was setting this up as a business. He had had excellent results with some metals but not aluminium.

I supplied him with a box of castings, aluminium parts, cylinder heads and bought a batch of materials for him.

It was immediately obvious that it wasn't easy! Quite a few castings ended up ruined whereas machined bar stock produced acceptable results. A few months later he had worked out a process for passivating the aluminium prior to plating and the results were excellent. I got the stand plated, a PAW engine (complete) and a few cylinder heads, venturies and drive plates.

The PAW engine was never used and I swapped it for some lathe tools with another collector. He still has it on display and has polished it.

However, some of the heads that I had plated were Super Tigre heads that I had modded on request. I saw one recently and most of the plating had flaked away. It was a well used engine ( if that is what beat up means!), the drive plate still looked good though.

I learned from this that it is difficult to get a bond with gold plating to aluminum and yet I have seen aluminium bathroom fitting with good gold plating. I think that the bond also depends on the quality of the aluminium and the surface.

Ken, it is nice to have an engine that you have feelings of nostalgia for. I hope that when you run it and fly with it you enjoy the nostalgia.

getback Sun Mar 27, 2016 9:29 am

Beautiful Engine Ken , I have never seen one in person . That is a shame someone drilled on it but will still give you years of enjoyment . What do you plan to put it on ? Eric

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Gold 15th anniversary Fox .35

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