Hot Wheels and Matchbox Customizing Thread

[Cano]

With a couple more sponsors, more aerowork in the name of top speed and a sturdy cage, that Porsche could really look like one of those big-money efforts that go to Bonneville every year onyl to be blown away by brick-shaped Model As.

 

[Nessy]

Cool spray booth AOS (might have to make one myself), and being a layperson i will indeed ask the purpose of the slatted tissue at the back..?

Anyway, just a very slight update on the Z (not had much free time to do anything ATM).

As can be seen on this pic, the lower sill got filed away inadvertently when filing the rear/front arches... also the badge on the buttress needs some attention:



I did add new sills on each side, but unfortunately it fell off when i managed to drop the car on the floor before the putty cured , i have cleaned up the badge though, and added a new front bib/spook/airdam/spoiler (whatever it's called ).



All i need to do now is redo the other sill, and then i'll be ready to do the arch blisters and wing-mirrors.




PS, AOS, if you still plan on doing some putty work, i highly recommend the 'Flex-I-File' sticks (shown in pic)... the 6000 and 3000 grit is sweet for creating sharp fine edges.

 

[jtl46]

Friends, if you want to submit any customs for this weeks post, sent them over today to lamleygroup@gmail.com.

 

[Nessy]

jtl46. Nothing to submit from me as yet, but hopefully my 240Z should be at the primer stage by the end of next week, wouldn't mind if you posted a pic of it primered (probably take me another year to paint it ).
PS, cool blog as always, checked out Ernest Li's blog too, he's done some Awesome stuff.. i see he beat me to doing the RWB aswell, it's a good job i decided to go with a 993 instead of the 994 , he's done a great job on it. 👍

 

[Cano]

Ernest Li's blog

link.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Friends, if you want to submit any customs for this weeks post, sent them over today to lamleygroup@gmail.com.

Honestly since I have no PC at home at the moment, it's just easier for me to have you right-click and save them from here, rather than have me email them to you.

 

[AOS-]

PS, AOS, if you still plan on doing some putty work, i highly recommend the 'Flex-I-File' sticks (shown in pic)... the 6000 and 3000 grit is sweet for creating sharp fine edges.

WORD!


And the reason for the slotted tissue is to allow air passage. You know that an aerosol can shoots out air mixed with liquid paint. If the back back was sealed shut, where would all that air rushing in go? Out the front, where your face and hand is. Because I don't have a running fan attached to the back to draw the air out the back, I have to let all the air go out on its own, but at the same time I don't want paint flying straight through because I'm painting indoors so I really don't want paint anywhere on the floor or walls. The tissue is supposed to catch the paint, while having slotted layers allow air passage. It doesn't work as well as I make it, because I've made the wall of tissue too heavy, but I only put down so many layers to be safe.






Here's an update on those stripes I've been trying to find a more or less perfected method of doing.

We all know that at such a small scale we're working at, masking tape alone can't cover up seams from doorlines or any surface changes because of the nature of this size. So I though of using a flexible material to fill in those gaps. Today I tried using petroleum jelly in two different ways:

First, I laid down the tape to mask off the area I don't want paint on, and then I placed down the jelly all around the edges to cover up what the tape may not have covered.

Still got bleeding, but I think this is because I didn't handle the jelly well enough.... vaseline has a different molecular structure than I first thought.

Then I tried using petroleum jelly as the mask itself. This time I tried to be neater by using a chisel-tip rubber brush to apply it onto the surface as clean as I could be, using the rubber tip to smooth the edge. Somehow, it turned out worse.

Don't worry about the bits where paint came off The body needs to be worked on anyway.

I think I should try wax. Now I just need to think of a way to make it easier to work with wax because while melting a candle as a source is simple, once the wax leaves the heated area, it coolsand hardens almost immediately.

I might also consider using runny black enamel paint on a cleared white surface. This way if I still get bleeding, I can clean the edges up by scratching it off with a knife or with thinner and a paper towel.

 

[CodeRedR51]

 

[photonrider]

^ Reminds me of a car in GT4.

With a couple more sponsors, more aerowork in the name of top speed and a sturdy cage, that Porsche could really look like one of those big-money efforts that go to Bonneville every year only to be blown away by brick-shaped Model As.

Nothing competes with a brick-shaped Model A. Everybody knows that. I think.

 

[McZachenF1138]

Here's a few quick wheelswaps I did late last week.


This has now been stripped and primed for paint.


I like this as is, but I doubt I'll keep it like this.


Narrow large Real Riders are very hard to come by and the Blings ones were the only ones I had for this Bug.
I have some cool things planned for this one.


I painted these wheels obviously and while they may not look the best on this truck, I'm very happy with how they came out.


Man, it's hard make these wheels look bad on anything.



And one more thing, do you guys know what vehicles have the small white wall mags that are readily available?
All I have are these that came off of the T-Bucket. The front Prefers are for mock-up purposes.
​

 

[photonrider]

Nice, I love the Bug, and would keep the Celica as is - with a bit of detailing.

Don't do as I say - do as you do!

 

[AOS-]

Buy a '63 Mustang Boulevard and take it's tires. It has RRC wheels, but the tires got a thin white wall. Both front and back are size 1. Unsure about the Tire

That, or you can grab a 2011 Christmas '41 Willy's, and it'll have size 1 and 2 white wall Cragars, the exact setup you're looking for.

 

[SVX]

2002 old? lol.

Old enough not to open the blister.

 

[McZachenF1138]

That Willy's will have short axles though and I need long ones. I really don't want to have to do that kind of work.

 

[photonrider]

Old enough not to open the blister.

Smart thinking. Remind me not to debate you when you're 42.

OTH - I'll probably be dead by then, TG.

 

[McZachenF1138]

My dad finally talked to the guy at work he knows that does powder coating.
He said that it will work as long as there isn't any plastic and that the paint is about two mils thick, so door and other body seems won't be a problem.

 

[Nessy]

@ Cano, here you go dude:

(It's the green one half way down the page.)

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/thinkofernest/MYBLOG/yblog.html?m=lc&p=5

I did actually originally toy with idea of getting the Kyosho 994 or 993, but decided against as i was unsure whether a HW wheel-swap would work on them.. Kyosho say they're 1/64 scale, and true 1/64 scale could mean a possibility of them actually being much smaller than the typical HW cast size (between 1/60 - 1/58).
If my (Realtoy 993) RWB comes out anything remotely like what he's done with that Kyosho, i will be mighty pleased.


@ McZachen.
Do you mean the powder coat will come out 2mm thick?, if so that is mighty thick... will imagine you'll lose all shutline detail, it's maybe an idea to grind down the wheelarch apertures before coating, as adding (potentially) 4mm thickness to them (combined loss of diameter), will maybe see you unable to fit the wheels after coating. Look forward to see the finished results though (and am hoping you've got the powder coat 2mm thickness wrong), as the finish of powder coating is Awesome. 👍

@ AOS. Shame about the masking not working (vaseline method), i hope you find a solution as i hope to do some tidy lines in the future. If you're going the wax route, maybe worth trying some bee's wax instead of candle wax (more malleable when cooled.. (used to put that stuff in my hair, it does stink though. ), either that or invest in some thin Tamiya masking tape and some decent burnishing tools.

PS, cheers for the paint-booth explanation, 👍 it makes sense.

@ R1600. Nice work on the MR2 wheels, it makes them look like 'Enkei's', what are they?

 

[McZachenF1138]

Nope, mils are different than millimeters. Mils are thousandths of an inch.
So in decimal form, the powder coat will be .002 of an inch on the car.

 

[CodeRedR51]

The wheels on the MR2 are from an old Matchbox Premium car. I have this little box of spare wheels from when I started customizing years ago. I re-discovered them last night.

 

[Nessy]

Nope, mils are different than millimeters. Mils are thousandths of an inch.
So in decimal form, the powder coat will be .002 of an inch on the car.

Oops, back to school for me. didn't realise you mean't a thou.

R1600, i thought they may have been MB wheels, did you grind out the centers?

 

[McZachenF1138]

Oh okay, so you do know what I'm talking about then!
I'm sorry about the miscommunication there though, I'm just so used to calling it simply "mils" as that is what we say in my classes.

 

[Nessy]

Imperials not my first language, always been more of a decimal man.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Oops, back to school for me. didn't realise you mean't a thou.

R1600, i thought they may have been MB wheels, did you grind out the centers?

Not sure what you mean. The wheels were already loose in a plastic bin I had. I did have to shorten the axles though just a tad. One cool thing about the MR2, when I drilled it apart the wheels just fell out. They're not held in by little tabs. 👍

 

[McZachenF1138]

Imperials not my first language, always been more of a decimal man.

I used to know the decimal equivalent to every 1/32 of an inch, but now I'm down to every 1/16 of an inch.

 

[AOS-]

So I'm thinking of having a stash of FJ40 Land Cruisers to form a gang theme or some kind of army... I've got 5 so far.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Sorry, I just read that. Many thanks dude, I'll post another restoration job soon, just gotta finish the pics.

Sorry for the late reply but your welcome! I have been restoring the axles on many of my old Hot Wheels i have had since i was really young, needless to say they have needed them for years! So glad R1600Turbo created this thread!👍 I have a few customs coming soon!

As for the Stutz Blackhawk, you did great with that one to! Love the wheels and the interior! Very well done! By all means keep up the good work!

 

[CodeRedR51]

Got some paint on the RX-7 finally. I might ditch the replica idea and switch the wheels and go with a different theme.

The MR2 is getting mud flaps and a detail, then it's done.

 

[AOS-]

Hah. My RX-7 is going to be white.

Also, I like this container I got from work last night:

On the top half, oversized wheels goes in the top left, then Real Riders (excuse that OH5), 10SP, J5 & Y5, and 5SP Studebakers.

5SP, OH5 and MC5s all go in the unit under the big wheels. To the right of it are everything else I don't like. On the bottom row are misc Matchbox/Maisto wheels, then it's Matchbox 5-spoke, reserved spot for LW, and the lat is PR5s.

Ku ku ku ku.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Has anybody ever drilled open red lines or any older Hot Wheels a of some sort?

 

[CodeRedR51]

Negative. The rivets are different and it looks like a pain in the ass.