[Customs] Keyholder 2nd Attempt

Click on the pic for the story on that M3.
That was the first one I made, and it has been out of commission for over a year now.
Many mistakes were made, and this new project is an attempt to correct and see how it plays out.
Before getting to the new model, let's identify what came out of the first model:

1) Stripping the paint eliminated the possibility of revealing noticeable paint wear.
2) Any colour on the body or wheels are bound to come off even with clear coating.
3) The lack of a notch on the base makes it difficult to open up the container with one hand.
4) The location here the keyring is installed is vital. It should not intersect with an axle.
5) Finding a way to have the base hold itself to the body while being easy to open/close is important.


With these observations in mind, here's what I've come up with this time:


I picked a '70 Camaro for two reasons. It has the front spoiler which I can use
to pull the base off easily, and it's not a car that's commonly seen in my area.



I cheated with the keys. Those are still the same set of keys as last time, but
cutting off the sides was necessary if I wanted to keep the rollcage.


The is one of the biggest changes. I've attached magnets on both pieces to join the two together.
It's a classic technique even phone cases utilize today. It definitely works, though the
use of JB Weld is not what I call presentable. JB weld was the choice of epoxy because I favoured
the durability of the product. I'm thinking of epoxy and maybe a thin sheet of plastic
to cover it up so it would look more presentable next time.


The rollcage is something I could've easily passed up, but I took on the challenge since
it would prevent the interior view from the outside from looking like a sloppy hack.


The wheels have not been changed. They've worn out from a few weeks of use.
I'm thinking the next vehicle I choose should be one to sit well with black wheels.

[Customs] Party Time - 7 Attending.

There's a lot to show off today! Working on several custom simulataneously is exhausting and flustering when trying to eliminate as much waiting time as possible. While one layer of paint is drying on one car, I'll be off working on another body. To keep a level of consistency from the lot of photos, here's a short table of contents with clickable links that will take you to any custom in this post via page jump. I've took some time into re-working my template for the documentation photos. What's always been lacking was a "before and after" shot. I'm sure most of my readers aren't familiar with what it used to look like so having it present does help get a better sense of the changes made. A signature and link would also be beneficial as I do tend to hotlink my photos to other webpages to share my work. Once my photos have enough hits and get spread further out, viewers who don't get direct feed from me personally will now know a source and name to refer to.


1) Hunter Camaro SS Replica (Need for Speed The Run)
2) Surfin' School Bus (paintjob/wheelswap)
3) Ferrari California (wheelswap)
4) Lotus Concept (wheelswap)
5) Gangster Grin (wheelswap)
6) Surf Crate TH (wheelswap/fantasy "Super TH")
7) [Renaissance Series] Jaguar XK120SE

Hunter Camaro SS Replica

(project brief)

Okay I thought the idea was cool before I started. I do like the RRPrf wheels I took off the Boulevards '64 Pontiac GTO as the skinner front tires are extremely fitting! The spoke design itself is a fairly good match to the Hunter Camaro. It's just too bad the Copo Camaro doesn't sport 4 round lamps like you can see in the screenshot.

A matte finish is exactly what I wanted, but I feel I may have scrubbed the surface too much with that polishing compound.

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Surfin' School Bus

(Project Brief)

No plans were made for this. All that was to be done was change the wheels, but then I was already on a roll with removing tampos via acetone on numerous castings and so I got rid of it on this too. Left with a plain metalflake silver body, I recalled having this unused green anodized spray paint which more or less tints a surface rather than covering it with opaque pigments. I figured this would be a good time to try it out since the work surface is already smooth, colour-less and sparkly. Needless to say, the results turned out excellent.

I wanted to slam the bus to the ground, but because the front wheels were oversized, I had no more room to cut into the interior piece unless I prepared putty for the fender. Physical constraints, really.

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Ferrari California

Can't say I love the California, yet can't leave it alone. The FTE wheels were killing me to simply put it. Lowering it was a bonus as there isn't much room for a significant change.

Silver wheels may have looked less obnoxious, but why not? The California's design is bold, so why not go all the way?

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Lotus Concept

Didn't intend to change the wheels, but red wheels can only keep me looking for so long and already I'm not looking back. OH5 wheels are usually not what I'd go for, but I think they might work better on this than PR5s actually.

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Gangster Grin

This car ended up growing on me. I bought this with the intention of taking its wheels only, but the purple scheme would've went to waste if I scrapped it. Deciding on wheels took some time surprisingly. LWs were the initial decision, but they didn't have the impact I was looking for. 5DOT was fairly good, but SK does it just right. The Custom Cadillac Fleetwood casting has my thanks for its influence.

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Surf Crate (Fantasy Super TH)

Of all the crappy Treasure Hunts I asked a friend to pick up for me, this is the only one I couldn't throw into my lots for sale. Contrary to popular opinion, I like this casting. While it lacks some finer details that make a hot rod, the stance it creates is quite catchy. The TH happened to sport a lime I'm a fan of, the tampos are fine the way they are, but the size-3 OH5s weren't cutting it. I decided all this would really need is a change of wheels. While I was playing around with the redline tires, I thought I'd try to transform it into a Super TH.... or at least make an adaptation of one. Most Super THs sport a darker colour of the same hue as the mainline variant, have a brilliant metallic finish and have real riders (rubber tires). I tried that Anodized green paint again in hopes it would darken the lime. It did, but it also altered the hue unfortunately. The glitter didn't show up as much as I hoped. I might need to replace that can soon. To match the redline RR5SP, I laid down a red ring on the SK wheels in the front.

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[Renaissance Series] Jaguar XK120SE

I'm not sure how or why, but the paint on this came out incredibly smooth! No sanding or polishing was needed. It could've been because I didn't strip the body and painted right over, or it was I lucked out with the final coat of clear.

Seeing as how I learn there are already similar existing recolours released, tan interiors may need to become a staple for the Renaissance series from now on.

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[Tech, Wheelswap] New Tools Received, Quickie Wheelswaps

Stuff from DealExtreme finally arrives. I like shopping on dx.com from time to time for cheap gadgets/electronics and stupid little toys you wouldn't find in large department stores. The free shipping has been a selling point for me always. They ship free from Hong Kong to just about any location. Check 'em out if you want little doo-hickey devices, electronics, video game and phone accessories.

 10 pc. Diamond Taper Files. I should be fine with the current set I have, but perhaps these will provide more options for me later down the road.

Always wanted to try one of these funky-looking tripods. Was hoping I would be using this instead of the vintage tripod I have for my Hot Wheels, but it can't get low to eye-level of the tiny cars. It'll come in handy for something else later. 

That speciality store had some new items I've never seen before. It's the 2012 Nostalgia Nose Art series. There's a good and bad part to the story. The bad part is that of the 6 different cars in the series, there was only 3 different castings available at the store: Customized C3500, Dream Van XGW and Baja Breaker. I was tempted to grab the Baja Breaker for its rubber treaded tires to fit on my 4x4 customs in the future, but ultimately decided to stock up on the C3500 which had polished steelies. The good part is that they were going for only $3! This store is sometimes a great place to grab premium Hot Wheels. Usually it's not, but sometimes it's the only place here in the GTA.

 I'm so relieved I no longer need to seek the dremel to disassemble cars anymore since using the drill requires so much less time from start to finish.

3 super stretched trucks

Wheels are out as simply as 1, 2, 3!

Haven't found a body to install them on yet, but I did grab them for a reason. (wink)

Aside from that, I squeezed in time to do some quick wheelswaps to fix up the ugly wheels on otherwise good to so-so casting recolours.

Silly green wheels put me away at first, but I cannot resist a purple cruiser with psychedelic patterns. I put gold LW on it. Purple with gold is traditional and appropriate.

 I knew what I got myself into when I saw the MC5s, but it was a recolour of a new casting so my cognition couldn't beat my impulse in time. Luckily I had a solution to it. I even coloured the grill pattern in the front!

Thought the solid red wheels was significant, but it must not have been if I found so many of them. Must've been the translucent wheels then. Anyway, this was fortunately less work than the other two since the new wheels had the same axle lengths so no refitting was required. Think I could've went with something else, but this was working pretty good too and the already-correct axle length was a huge plus on saving time. Lamps, exhaust tips and even the Chevy emblem is coloured. Now would ya look at that?

Thoughts? Comments?

[Diecast] New Grabs for March

Got around to photographing the latest purchases. The Greenlight and Vintage Racing were purchased from one of my favourite eBay sellers carcraze7. He sells all his cars loose and as a result his shipping prices are one of the lowest I've encountered in the past year. He also opens the option to allow best offers so that's also great for those who want a better deal. Check out his stuff some time, even with the increased postage rates, he still manages to provide much lower shipping prices than a lot of sellers.

 I don't know a thing about Smokey and the Bandit but I do like the Firebird as well as black & gold colour scheme. I was happy to our Walmarts carrying a case because I feared Canadians wouldn't get them!

 I need more of these Vintage Racing cars.. especially that green Dodge Challenger!

 Shelby GT500 Super Snake. Love Super Snakes, even if the back wheels are too big.

Ford Edsel. From that Hollywood series... or something. Love the colour scheme as always.

2013 Hot Wheels Camaro. Finally got some!

 The Tarmac Attack is one of my favourite new castings of 2013. It's so cute! An idea of making a line of customs of these crossed my mind one day as a response to all the Kool Kombi customs I've seen. Darn shame I've never seen one yet.

 Cadillac El Dorado. Wasn't aware there was a Hot Wheels casting of this, but as soon as I saw one I just needed to have at least one.

 Custom '62 Chevy. It has no surfboard, but that's okay. The satin red paintjob is damn gorgeous.

 '59 Chevy Corvette. I still like '55 Corvettes more, but this Greenlight is fairly pretty too.

 Ferrari 612 Scagletti. It's from the exclusive Ferrari 5-pack, but I bought this one from carcraze7. I can wait for the 5-pack to hit stores here, but that may not be until May I'm guessing. The tampos on the headlamps are beautifully done. I like the overall finish of this more than the cheesy metalflake finish of the previous 5-pack. There's that level of "pop" a plain metalflake finish (with no headlamp tampo) can't achieve.

Lambo Aventador. The next colour in the Aventador line up. The black chosen isn't a flat black, but rather it gives off the same impression as a handful of watercolour paint layers. Describing it is a bit strange but I suppose one way to put it is that it appears like there's a lot of depth in the colour itself... if that makes any sense.

Didn't see any Treasure Hunts recently. Maybe next month.