Custom Built Hotwheels.

I've got a friend that builds some amazing Hotwheels by hand, and I've been wanting to try it for a while so here goes. Got a few in mind but this one is more of a practice / first attempt to see what goes on. It may or may not turn out.

Start with these guys. Almost too cool to chop up. Thats why I bought 3.





Drill the rivets out.



Get out the die grinder / demel and start hacking.









Strip the paint off. Just spray some paint stripper on there,



Let it sit for a bit, and wipe or blow it off.



Took a few coats but it came out fairly clean.







Lotsa fun, eh? Looking at making a single cab. Fellow I know is working on one and its starting to look like a pretty nice rig. Might even paint this one baby blue like his.

I did this a few years back with the old school Mini Coopers. They were stupid easy to take apart since they had a little latch to remove the body from the frame. Didn't do much more than some repaints though. I'll look around and see if any have survived the kids.

You can order custom wheels and all sorts of shit for those too I believe.

i ruined a couple of rare ones back in the day doing this shit

Didn't we all?


Well, that and making "wrecks" to be by the side of the track.


MV

seven figures...150 toy cars. that's got a shit-ton of "sentimental value" built into that price.

Wow. Guess I'm in the wrong business...

Made up a bed out of some aluminum scrap.



Trimmed it up and fit it to the body.



Mixed up some JB Weld and glued it on. Also used it to fill in the extra wheel wells.





Glued on the rear panels.





Did some quick measuring and printed out a practice frame on the 'ole 3D printer.







Trimmed up the windows and interior to fit the smaller cab.



Assemble!









Not to shabby for a quick off the cuff job. Now I can measure where the rear wheels need to go and start cleaning up the body. Have to make a few tweeks to the frame as well.



Whaddya think, worth a couple grand?

Today's progress.

Cleaned up the body some more.





Punched a rear window in.



Shot some primer.



I bought a cheapo Harbor Freight airbrush a couple of years ago but have never had a reason to try it out, so here goes! Dug out my ancient dried up model paint and rehydrated them. Mixed some blue with some silver metalic to get a metalic baby blue.



As you can tell, I have no idea what I'm doing... Still fiddling with the airbrush. Think I'm starting to figure it out though.



Put some white on the top. Didn't have any masking, but I figured this was a practice anyways and the paint was probably going to come back off so I tried it anyways. Came out okay until I managed to knock it over and schmear the paint.



Anyways, its back to base metal now... I'll give it another go tomorrow.

That is seriously cool! I'm anxious to see how it comes out.

He is showing off, nothing more!

Jim

Knowing DP, we will never see a finished product!

Jim

Hey, they get finished. Eventually.

Now you have my attention.

Which one you got?

Mendelmax 2.0. See my 3D Printer thread here: http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=854167

Airbrushed some white on after a fresh coat of primer.





Let it dry and then taped it off.



Mixed up some new blue paint- little darker this time but I like it better than my first attempt.



Peeled off the mask. It's... okay. Need to turn my air pressure down a bit I think but good enough for a first (second) attempt. Will try some light buffing when it's cured to smooth it out a little, actually looks a bit better than in the soooper up close pics.





Think I'm going to try and make the bed look wood-ish, even though a single cab has a metal bed. Then time for details like headlights, etc, and still need to make up a new base and toying with maybe building a custom motor to hang out the back.

Cool. I repainted a couple a long time ago.

Looks like it's coming together pretty good !

I'd like to give it a try and make a crew cab version...had a real one until it fell off the trailer on the interstate....

Where are You finding those VWs ? I have searched all of the stores in my area and haven't seen any ! But Ebay is loaded with them !

Have you got any sources for decals ? I see some guy on Ebay that has all sorts of custom decal versions of different cars !

I've been looking for several different VW's... found THREE of these "Koombi's" in the Walmart box, and bought all of them. I guess they are sort of hard to find.

I debated on doing a "supercab" version of the bus, but my next build is going to be a crewcab version of my Old and Simple $200 F150. This ones more of a practice to see what I can screw up.

Take today, for example. My .50 cal cannon fell on the single cab.



Which of course, means experiment time! Tested a few different polishing techniques.

Wire wheel. Meh.



Buffing wheel with buffing compound. TOOO much.



Although when you clean it up it gives it a bit of a well used patina.



And lastly, buffing wheel with Turtle Wax. Worked out pretty well- smoothed the paint out and gave it a bit of shine. Just have to be real careful you don't rub through the paint.



Anyways, going to strip it back down and do repaint #3 this weekend.

Hey DP! Before you paint, fill in those forward vents and gas filler door too...

Fun project! I'd do mine in the "found in a field" colour palette.

Chad.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one with OCD.




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