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| I am not a big fan of the Hot Wheels Chaparral II, 1998 FE #28. You might say most diecast that are painted all white put me to sleep. So with this in mind I decided to give it a shot at making some small improvements on a 70 cent Chaparral 2 on torn card that I picked up at a Toys "R" Us |
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| I had two simple goals that I hoped
to obtain upon completion. #1 to have a Chaparral with a nice paint job, #2 to have wheels that looked good and rolled as though the car came from the factory. I chose the "Life Like Rubber Wheels" from the Johnny Lighting "Gene Simmons" Kiss car for the wheel replacements. |
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| Remove the chassis from the body. To do this I used a 9/64 drill bit. I was surprised with how easy it was. It seemed as though the drill only made only few revolutions and the body popped right off. From past experience this was the exception of the rule. |
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| At this point my Chaparral turned into 5 pieces. Next I removed the axles with the wheels. To do this I used my Dremel Tool to remove the tabs that hold the axles in place. I remove all the tabs but I understand that some modelers remove only one or two so that the new axle and wheels will snap into place. If I do it their way I usually end up bending the axles so I find it easier to remove them all then epoxy the new ones in place. |
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| While I was doing the wheels of the Chaparral, I removed the wheels that would replace the old ones from the JL casting. After removing the body from the chassis I discovered the Kiss cars's interior was riveted over the axles after seeing this I thought that the removal was going to be more difficult. But after closer inspection, I discovered that it was the interior that was holding the wheels and axles in place (no tabs) and all I had to do was lift each end of the interior and the wheels would fall out, this was a plus as the new axles remained nice and straight. |
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| Now I was ready for stripping the
Body and Chassis. I use Zip Strip. Please be sure to read instructions
carefully of any stripping product you use. While stripping, it is a good time to paint any interior and engine parts you wish to paint. I decided to leave the interior the way it was but to paint the roll bar and engine part(s) with TESTORS CHROME. When you remove the parts from the stripper use a tool of your liking to remove the old paint from the casting. I use an old jack knife blade. This casting has a lot of grooves for the paint to adhere to, use an old toothbrush to get into those hard to get places. After cleaning, look for any mold lines that need to be filed away. This casting seemed to be pretty clean so next I spray painted all metal parts with silver paint. After deciding that I wanted the base silver, I masked the base with TACK TAPE making sure not to cover the section that I want to paint with the top coat. I also masked the front of the car so that I could paint the rear end of the body with BOYD PEARL GRAPE paint. After the rear end was painted I removed the tape, masked the rear end and painted the front end with TESTORS CANDY GRAPE. |
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| To get a good paint job out of a
spray can, it is important to use as little paint as possible.
First place the paint can in a pan of warm water for a few minutes,
this helps thin the paint inside the can so it will spray finer.
Be sure to put several THIN coats on rather than one or two heavy
coats. I like to put the casting under a lamp during the drying process. I use a reflector lamp with a 60 watt bulb placed about six inches from the casting then surround the lamp and casting with aluminium foil this makes a small oven that gets the casting hot.. You may also use a kitchen oven set at about 200 degrees and place the casting in it for about ten minutes. This process encourages the paint to flatten out and gives a nice baked on finish. After the top coat is completed, paint any details like tail lights with a small brush (first paint them silver then when dried put a coat of TAMIYA CLEAR RED for lenses) Finally a clear coat is applied over the body. Set the painted parts aside, and attach new axles and wheels. I use DURO, MASTER MEND EPOXY to hold them in place. When the paint has dried for at least 24 hours and handling will not leave finger prints, attach all parts in place and secure the base to the body with what ever product you are comfortable with, I use the epoxy rolled into a small rivet. It can then be drilled and painted. |
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| Upon completion I was very happy to have a Chaparral that had a fresh look and could roll across the table. | |
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