Mark, thx for the tip.mtoothpicks worked great. Opened up no issues. Cleaned up the contacts and reformed them for better contact. Thanks broke too for the tip. Runs much better now. Thanks to all. One interesting thing I found was the head light led was covered with shrink tubing. It was a loose fit so came right off but weird they would cover it. 

Thx mark. It's a pretty tight fit, she'll to chassis. Are there locking tabs of the shell to chassis at certain points that I need to address? Can't tell from the photo. Just paranoid of damaging the shell. Been ther before so extra careful now. Thx for the photo.

Doc

Gentlemen, thanks for your suggestions. I'll give your suggestions a try.
Regarding popping the trucks out do they just pop out from the bottom. Or do I need to remove the bottom plate?if so, how is that done? I looked at popping off the bottom and top plates but wasn't easy and didn't want to break it or damage the body. Seems very tight. Thanks for any further help you can provide.

Doc

Anyone experience this and have a fix? Runs good on sweeping curves and straights but doesn't run on 15" radius. Thx for any suggestions.