Last week we discussed about things we collect.
Model cars came up quite a bit, so the question I have for you today is:
Why stop with "buying and storing" when you can make the car unique?
Things you will learn about today:
- What types of customisation are possible
- Some of the things I customised myself, with good and bad results
- What tools you need to start yourself
- Simple how-to guide to get you started
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Types of customisation
Custom cars from new
These are plain improvements from a "lower tier" car into a "higher tier/quality" one.
Hot Wheels that cost 2 to 3 euros are called "mainline" within the community.
Then you have another "midline" tier of 4 to 5 euros, and finally the Premium line of around 10 to 12 euros.
When you get a mainline, do a wheel swap and some details addition, you get pretty close to a Premium one.
Restoration
Older cars usually are banged up from being played with.
But they are also very interesting in terms of history and many are not made anymore due to expired licensing agreements.
In general, I am against restoring cars that you played with, because it's part of their history.
But you can definitely get great bargains in flea markets that are pretty banged up.
With a bit of love and patience, these can be restored to their former glory or even your own interpretation of the car.
Start simple: markers and some minutes
Customising can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be.
The easiest way to start is to grab some markers and add details to the cars. Especially Hot Wheels mainlines and similarly low priced ones have good "castings" (the metal body shape) but lack details like lights, chromes or plastics.
Adding these improves the model a lot with not much effort.
But the changes can go so much deeper.
I will show you the most extreme custom I have done:
A functional bicycle key out of a Hot Wheels '65 Ford Mustang Fastback
I was born in Argentina.
Out there, people use bicycles every once in a while, and when they need to lock them at destination, they use a bicycle lock or chain.
When I moved to the Netherlands in 2022, I noticed they do that here as well, but almost every bike has an integrated rear wheel lock as well.
This gets unlocked with a different key, and it stays in the lock while you ride, until you park and lock it again.
I figured it would be a nice project to try and create a "cooler looking key" for that time I am riding with the key in.
Why a '65 Ford Mustang Fastback?
Well, first of all, it's a cool car.
But the main reason is that I needed a car I could "logically" run the key through.
The front grill of the '65 Ford Mustang Fastback had almost the perfect height and width to accommodate the key. A little bit of filing here and there for it to have enough clearance and it was good to go.
I had to figure other things out like the key extension/retraction mechanism, but to be honest, I just "winged it" and adapted it on the go.
The main idea of having a screw through the key was already there, as was cutting a groove in the base for the screw and key to be able to move inside.
After that, it was a lot of chopping, cutting, filing, fine tuning, trial and error until it was done and working.
It went well, but that is not what people usually do with their die cast customs.
Other customs and restorations
There are different levels of modifications that we will talk about in the next section.
But now I will talk about some modifications I did, in ascending order of complexity (not counting the Mustang).
Wheel swaps and simple customs
This is the first "tier", and it involves opening a car, removing the wheels, putting new ones in, and closing the car.
Some I did include a Ford Escort RS2000 from Hot Wheels (mainline) that was so good in the details, that just with a wheel swap it looked like a Premium line one.
Other cars I did simple wheel swaps to include:
- Mazda RX-7 FD (Hot Wheels mainline)
- Volvo 850R (Hot Wheels mainline)
- Ford Sierra RS Cosworth (Hot Wheels mainline)
- Nissan Z Proto (Hot Wheels mainline)
- Lotus Exige (Matchbox mainline)
And I am probably forgetting some!
Foreshadowing car ownership
I don't know if this was some sort of manifestation or what, but when I moved continents, I brought with me an Audi TT Roadster mk1 from Matchbox.
The car was sort of banged up and I didn't really care much about its use since I didn't have any specific memories with it.
Then I decided to restore it.
It was mostly to try stuff with a car I didn't care much about at the time. To see what I was capable of. If I ruined it, tough luck.
But for no good reason other than "I like the look of it more", I decided to do a spoiler delete, on top of some repainting and wheel swapping.
Over a year later, I ended up owning a non spoiler Audi TT mk1.
Recreating your own car
My first car was one that many of my northern-hemisphere-born-and-raised friends would know nothing about.
A Fiat Duna.
The Duna is a South American made saloon version of the Fiat Uno. I had a red one, after restyling. It looked like this:
I had a 1:43 model of a pre-restyling Duna for years.
One day I saw a model of a Fiat Uno EF (1990) that was a special edition prepared in Argentina. The thing that caught my eye was that it has a front end similar to the restyled one I had in the Duna.
I thought: what if I swap this into the Duna and paint it red?
So I did.
A very crazy idea that I didn't even measure beforehand, but went surprisingly well.
To complete the look, I needed:
- Steelies: Some proper wheels that looked like the ones in my car.
- Paint: My car was red, and the one I had was grey.
- Extra bits of plastic: my car had some side protection made of plastic that I wanted to recreate as well.
I purchased another 1:43 car, this time an Alfa Romeo police car that had period steelies, very similar to the ones I had, as a donor.
I stripped the paint and repainted it red.
I used epoxy putty to recreate the plastic protectors for the doors.
The end result was above my expectations and I was quite happy. The only problem was that for some reason the paint didn't adhere properly and it popped.
I need to get back to this and redo the paint so I can have it finished.
Levels of modification
As I mentioned, there are several levels of modification you can do to a car. Some of them are:
- Marker details
- Wheel swaps
- Repaint
- Bodywork addition
- Hardware modification
Marker details
Improve the look of the car simply by adding some lights or trim details.
This is the easiest way to start.
You can do panel gaps with a fine marker, or get some red, orange, white/grey markers to do the light details that in these type of cars, are usually body colour and look very low quality.
You can even buy a chrome marker to do some extra shiny bits.
Wheel swaps
The biggest "value" modification in terms of money and time investment versus the perceived quality of the car.
These usually come with rubber tyres instead of plastic ones, and they are a huge improvement.
It changes the look of the car completely and it's not a huge effort other than opening and closing it.
Repaint
Paint is a whole different skill and I will not pretend I know much about it.
But if you try it out, it really changes the game as a whole.
It's much harder to do than the previous suggestions, but not impossible.
After opening it, you get the body separately into a bin with paint stripper. When you remove the paint you can improve the surface, prime it, apply paint and finally a clear coat for finishing.
It's very similar to painting a real car, I think.
Whether that's a pro or a con, I'll leave it to you to decide.
Bodywork addition (epoxy putty, 3D printing, etc.)
You can get more creative by adding wide body fenders with epoxy putty or 3D printing, to name a few.
This allows you to do the craziest modifications to the car, to truly make it your own.
Plastic sheets can also be cut and molded into all sort of extra parts (mirrors, wings, etc.)
Hardware modification
If you're feeling adventurous, you can even cut the metal body with a jewlers saw and do lots of weird things.
I have not done this yet, but I've seen people do complete front/rear end swaps, or create convertibles that never existed.
It opens a whole world of possibilities, that if you're skilled enough, can yield very convincing results.
Quick how-to
If you're interested in doing this yourself, here's a quick how to, in order to get you started.
Tools needed
This depends of course on the job you want to do.
But for anything other than painting details with markers, you need to open and close the car.
Some tools are:
- Drill or rotary tool like a Dremel (to open a car)
- Drill bits of various sizes (to open a car)
- Tweezers and/or pliers (to hold and place small pieces)
- Paint stripper (to remove paint if you want to repaint)
- Files and/or sandpaper (to improve the body after paint stripping)
- Spray paint cans or airbrush (to prime and repaint body)
- Clear coat spray can or airbrush (to protect after repaint)
- M2 screws or super glue (to close a car)
How to open a car
The cars are usually not built to be opened easily (like unscrewing or prying something), so you need to remove the metal columns called rivets, that hold everything together.
For this you need a drill or rotary tool (like a Dremel), and some drill bits.
I use 2 or 3 sizes:
- 1 mm to drill a small hole that I use later for closing the car.
- 4 mm or 5 mm to remove the rivet head.
How to wheel swap
After opening the car, the wheel swap is very easy.
You need to pry the plastic teeth in Hot Wheels, or pry the metal board (acts as suspension) in Matchbox/Majorette.
Once you remove the original set of wheels, you just put the new ones in.
If you are careful with the removal, you can just push everything back into place and close the car.
If you had to cut or break some bits, you can always super glue the axle into the chassis.
Some premium 3rd party wheel come with separate axles and wheels. Those have instructions on their own and you should follow that.
How to repaint
If you also want to repaint the car, don't close it after the wheel swap.
You need to:
- Remove the old paint
- Sand/polish the surface
- Prime the body
- Paint body
- Clear coat the body
Remove the old paint
Remove every plastic part: the chassis, interior and windows from the body. Dunk it into a container with paint stripper, or grab it with some pliers and apply paint stripper with an old brush that you don't care about.
After a few seconds, it will start to bubble the paint and you will be able to easily remove it with another old brush.
Sand/polish the surface
Usually these bodies are not very well refined, so this is the best opportunity to improve it with some surface smoothing.
Go from coarse (low number) to fine (high number) in terms of sanding paper, to smoothen the surface and in the end, polish it with some polishing compound if you have.
This can be done by hand, but much easier if you do with a rotary tool like a Dremel and the proper attachment.
You can do something smooth to the touch or go the extra mile into a mirror finish. This will 100% affect the later look of the paint on the car.
Prime the body
You need some white or grey primer as a first layer.
This is to give the paint you will use later something to grab onto. If you skip this step, the paint can still look good, but even a tiny chip will turn into the whole paint coming off by chunks, wasting your time and making you very sad.
Don't avoid this step. I'm telling you from experience.
Paint the body
Painting the body is a topic as a whole.
And one I'm no expert in, so I will let more experienced people teach you the specifics.
But in my case that I don't own an airbrush, any spray can with paint for metal works fine, as long as you respect the type of paint and layers before (primer) and after (clear coat) in terms of compatibility.
Do your research, but it should not be anything more complicated than a couple of coats of paint with proper drying in between.
Don't rush it, because if you do, you will work twice.
Clear coat the body
Finally, after absolutely drying the paint, you can apply a clear coat.
The clear coat is like some transparent spray paint, that will give the car the glossy look and protect the paint from later damage.
It's the best way to finish the car for a longer lasting result.
How to close the car
Finally, after all the work is done, you need to close the car.
To do this, I usually drill with the 1 mm bit, and then use an M2 threaded screw to close it and be able to open it in the future, if I need to.
An easier way to close it is with some drops of super glue. If you think you will never need this open again, you can try that.
The screw looks tidier, more professional as a finished work, so it's your choice.
Some people use a tapping tool to create the threads for the screw, but I don't have one, and never felt like I needed one. Might do it more easy for you though.
Do as you feel more comfortable.
Other improvements
Some more things that can be done and I didn't explain here is to add custom decals, or even custom parts made with epoxy putty, epoxy resin, plastic sheets or 3D printing.
I tried to keep it simple and cheap, both in time and cost.
You can dive into the rabbit hole of customising in YouTube and see all sorts of crazy things that people are doing.
You will certainly be amazed by people's skills.
Here are some interesting channels you can start watching:
QOTW#3 Have you ever customised, restored or bought a customised die cast?
This week I wanted to know about your experience with customs and restoring. Here are some of the answers.
Edu made some attempts at customs when he was a kid. He used markers, which I think is the easiest way to start, and it really makes a difference.
Aitchworld reached out too, and he was frankly the star this week.
He replied and shared a lot of examples of his customs.
Picked up the hobby during lockdown.
He collects 1:64 mostly, and has some from childhood and some more recent.
Regarding restoring, he thinks similarly in terms of the "character" the car's "battle scars" provide. He sometimes restores and sometimes he leaves them be.
He has done wheel swaps, repaints and even decal usage (that I haven't done yet).
And just like I did with the Fiat Duna, he has also recreated one of his cars.
Closing the year
I usually promote my course at the end of my emails in some way, but today since the end of the year is close, I want to share my apparel store.
Many of you might not know it even exists, but here are some of the t-shirts you can get there.
If you like any of them, feel free to get them through this link.
It will not get in time before holidays, but you can get a really cool shirt with original artwork to gift yourself or your loved ones.
And it makes sense to clarify that I do not sell anything I would not wear myself, so I can assure you they're as enjoyable to wear as they're cool to look at.
โStart 2025 in style!โ
That's it for today. If you enjoyed it, let me know! See you on the next one.
All the best,
Juanma from Creating Lightly
โ