41 replies to this topic

[Mad Mark]

for some reason out of nowhere I started getting more interested in old hotwheels. Ive always thought the redlines where cool but never went out of my to collect besides always keeping eyes peeled for them at thrifts stores. got some black walls at the thrift for fun ad thought Id practice a resto.

this was an American victory? I think its called? super beat up base is bent and front chipped chrome missing. front of body is bent down and rough so wasnt worried about ruining it.

[Mad Mark]

Some filling and bending got the nose better. also removed the rear wheels as one had a big melted spot on it.


after paint stripping and more sanding and some polishing. I know you need these to be like a chrome if you want a spectraflame type paint job which I sorta want to do:

[Mad Mark]

no other pictures in between but this is what I ended up with. I airbrushed some neon pinkish looking nailpolish that is pretty translucent and clear coated with spray max 1k. give a somewhat spectraflame appearance. I also heated and reshaped the base and molotow touched up the missing chrome and touched up the chrome on the wheels.

The front post kinda press fits and hold on the base but the engine on this double as a body post for the year so I tried to drill and tap that and lets just say it didnt work out. broke a drill bit off in the post. so I had to dremel a slit in the post to get the bit out. then I broke my tap off in the post so at that point I gave up and just glued it all together in the back haha.

Still looks better than what I started with might be worth a $1.50 instead of 50 cents now haha

[Brian Czeiner]

Restoring/customizing Hot Wheels or Matchbox is a hobby I would like to do some day.  Lots of people doing it on YouTube. It seems like an enjoyable craft.

 

Yours looks great. It is a prime example of how much the proper prep influences the finished product.

 

You may want to take a peak at Marty's Matchbox Makeovers on you tube. He shares a wide variety of products and techniques for restoring small diecast cars. Many products are local to him in Australia but a comparable one could be found here in the states. The videos themselves are entertaining too.

[Mad Mark]

Restoring/customizing Hot Wheels or Matchbox is a hobby I would like to do some day.  Lots of people doing it on YouTube. It seems like an enjoyable craft.
 
Yours looks great. It is a prime example of how much the proper prep influences the finished product.
 
You may want to take a peak at Marty's Matchbox Makeovers on you tube. He shares a wide variety of products and techniques for restoring small diecast cars. Many products are local to him in Australia but a comparable one could be found here in the states. The videos themselves are entertaining too.

I’m sure I’ve watched a few of his vids. that’s what kind of made want to try was watching the resto vids on YouTube. pretty entertaining.

[Bill Breck]

I watch the Matchbox restoration videos all the time as well as many other restoration videos. My friends and I had the redline cars back in the day along with a small track including a loop-da-loop. 

 

Restoring/customizing Hot Wheels or Matchbox is a hobby I would like to do some day.  Lots of people doing it on YouTube. It seems like an enjoyable craft.

 

Yours looks great. It is a prime example of how much the proper prep influences the finished product.

 

You may want to take a peak at Marty's Matchbox Makeovers on you tube. He shares a wide variety of products and techniques for restoring small diecast cars. Many products are local to him in Australia but a comparable one could be found here in the states. The videos themselves are entertaining too.

 

[Dave Crevie]

Who woulda thunk it? When they came out, Hotwheels were toys to bang around with. No thought was put into the cult following they would generate years later. So many were destroyed and thrown away.

[Bill Seitz]

Looks a lot like a McLaren M8D, except I've not seen any Can-Ams of that vintage with an exhaust out the top deck like that. Messes up the airflow on the wing.

[Eddie Fleming]

Looks a lot like a McLaren M8D, except I've not seen any Can-Ams of that vintage with an exhaust out the top deck like that. Messes up the airflow on the wing.

Hot Wheels are caricatures not models of cars IMO

[Dave Crevie]

It is closest to a McLaren M-8D, but there are a lot of differences. On the real car the location of the louvers are behind the front fenders, not in front. The air intakes on top of the body are NACA ducts. And, of course, the exhaust exits under the rear of the car, not over the top.

 

 

You can see the headers running under the car.

 

 

 

The M-8F rear wing is similar, but some details are quite a bit different.

 

 

Chances are Mattel changed details on the models to get away from licensing issues. And to appeal to the younger kids.

 

 

 

 

[Bill from NH]

Perhaps the Hot Wheels designer chose to add a few design changes the real ones didn't have, in order not to get into a licensing agreement with McLaren.

[mike1972chev]

To redo ANYTHING 1/64 scale is a tedious mission in my book. (I wouldnt like painting anything that small.    )  Looks nice.

[Dave Crevie]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised about how popular collecting Hot Wheels has become. No more eccentric than model railroading, or slot racing come to that. Back when I belonged to a model railroad club, there was a small group of us that would go to a tavern after we were done at the club. We were all dating at the time, and it was a much better meeting place with the girls than the club. I couldn't see bringing a date there, with a bunch of grown men playing with little toy trains, and introducing her to the guys. "These are my friends".

 

There was one occasion where I got to the bar earlier than the rest of the crowd. So I plunked myself down at the bar to wait. There was a young guy sitting a few stools over, so I said "hi". He held up his glass and proclaimed, "21 today!". I took that to mean that he had just turned 21 years old, and could drink legally now. So I ordered my beer, and one for the boy. He chugged that down, held up the glass, and said "22 today". 

[Brian Czeiner]

There has been several comments on here about what type of car the Hot Wheels actually was. It prompted and idea of refurbishing Hot Wheels into similar 1:1 racing cars they best represent. For instance, this example would make a great M8 resemblance. Hmmmm. 

[Dave Crevie]

That would make more sense to me. Take the die cast bodies, and correct what is wrong. Add scale wheels and proper paint and lettering, and you have a nice model.

[Dave Crevie]

Looking around, I found that Hot Wheels has a "premium" line that are actually pretty good models.

 

 

 

Not at the level of detail found on the much more expensive die cast models;

 

 

But certainly I can see the interest in restoring, or even upgrading, the older, "well played with", Hot Wheels.

[Brian Czeiner]

I think Hot Wheels are still geared toward being an inexpensive toy for kids with a level for the collector. I believe most who collect them do it for the love of them as we do with slot cars. There are some manufactures out there taking 1/64 scale diecast into the next level of realism as noted by the video link. I have seen videos of individuals going even past these examples in detail. The craftsmanship is far beyond my patience or eyesight.

 

https://youtube.com/...8kwGeJUeykDvJIY

[Dave Crevie]

I have seen videos of individuals going even past these examples in detail. The craftsmanship is far beyond my patience or eyesight.

 

 

Which is why the high end die cast models, like those from Joeff, Bburago, Auto Art and Solido have become so popular. Not everyone has the ability to work in such a small scale. Or the patience. Instant gratification is the rule now. 

 

By the way, being able to get finer detail was why I changed from HO model trains to O-scale back in 1969. And now that I'm a shaky old man, I'm glad I did.

[Mad Mark]

There has been several comments on here about what type of car the Hot Wheels actually was. It prompted and idea of refurbishing Hot Wheels into similar 1:1 racing cars they best represent. For instance, this example would make a great M8 resemblance. Hmmmm.

Pretty sure hot wheels has an actual m8 casting from back in the day. they do have numerous actual can am cars even from the very first cars. this was just a fantasy can am car so figured I’d keep it with the period and have a wild spectraflame paint job on it.

[Brian Czeiner]

Pretty sure hot wheels has an actual m8 casting from back in the day. they do have numerous actual can am cars even from the very first cars. this was just a fantasy can am car so figured I’d keep it with the period and have a wild spectraflame paint job on it.

 

I think you did a great job with it. Your results are top shelf even when I zoomed in on the picture. Which is more then I can say for some of my work. I was just thinking out loud and letting my own imagination of the leash for a bit. You never know where an idea may take you or someone else. I'm not surprised to hear Hot Wheels did replicas through the years. From a marketing point of view, it does make some amount of sense.

 

So, when are you doing the next one?  Greg may need to put a Hot Wheels, Matchbox or 1/64 scale restoration sub-category on SB?

[Mad Mark]

I think you did a great job with it. Your results are top shelf even when I zoomed in on the picture. Which is more then I can say for some of my work. I was just thinking out loud and letting my own imagination of the leash for a bit. You never know where an idea may take you or someone else. I'm not surprised to hear Hot Wheels did replicas through the years. From a marketing point of view, it does make some amount of sense.
 
So, when are you doing the next one?  Greg may need to put a Hot Wheels, Matchbox or 1/64 scale restoration sub-category on SB?

thanks! I actually started a baja bug hotwheels from my childhood I ruined with sharpie doodles and I think it got stepped on a few times. need to finish stripping the white enamel on it.

[Mad Mark]

Didnt get a before picture but looked like it should have been tossed.

I must have really liked this one and played with it outside on the concrete with how tore up these wheels are!

[Mad Mark]

I stole some nice wheels off another car and swapped them out along with straight axles.

the casting on this is really rough. I didnt want to get crazy sanding mold lines so I just tried to get the metal shiny for another attempt at a spectraflame paint job. mostly doing this to try and fix up a actual redline at some point.

[Mad Mark]

Tamiya transparent red acrylic with a minwax polyurethane clear. Guess I need to figure out how to galvanize coat these to get them to really shiny so they extra pop.

[Brian Czeiner]

At home nickel plating is pretty easy and should provide a high shine prep.   It would benefit the chassis too in future builds.