I got an e-mail from a guy who had a real 50 Mercury custom car. He sent me pictures and wanted to know if I could build him a Hot Wheels to match his car. I decided to go ahead and make a lesson plan on it while I was building it.
First drill out the rivets and crack open the car. Strip the body and grind off the top of the motor so the interior will fit once we fill the hood.
Use masking tape as a mold to hold the JB Weld in place while it sets up. Don't press the tape tight at the fenders though. We want a little JB Weld behind the fenders for a good bond.
Now fill in the opening and let it set up. Then do the other side the same way.
Once both fenders are done put tape under the hood and fill it in too.
After it has hardened set it on a piece of sandpaper and slide it back and forth to even out the bottom. Once the bottom is right it is time for the tedious work.
Sanding!
Take off the side trim if you want and sand the fender skirts even with the body. Then do the hood. If you took the trim off the side you need to redo the door lines where the trim was. I use the little saw blade that came with my Xacto set to groove the lines back out. You can go ahead and sand all the casting flaws out while you are at it. Start with 220 grit to do the rough work and then use finer sand paper to smooth it out. I spent almost 2 hours on this one.
Take off the side trim if you want and sand the fender skirts even with the body. Then do the hood. If you took the trim off the side you need to redo the door lines where the trim was. I use the little saw blade that came with my Xacto set to groove the lines back out. You can go ahead and sand all the casting flaws out while you are at it. Start with 220 grit to do the rough work and then use finer sand paper to smooth it out. I spent almost 2 hours on this one.
Spray some primer on it to make the flaws stand out. That way you can see what needs to be filled or sanded.
I use glazing putty to fill in the low spots and flaws.
Sand it down again to get it nice and smooth. You might have to do this a couple times to get all the flaws out of it. The better you do here the nicer your paint job will look.
You'll have to trim out the base so the wheels will fit up under the car. I trim the front too so the front tires can be brought up under the front fenders. Also trim the sides of the base where the Fenders were filled in. If you got JB Weld too high in the car trim it out so the windows and interior will fit.
Now That the base is trimmed and it's ready to paint find some nice wheels for it. They need to be skinny to fit in the back fenders. Set the body on and make sure everything fits the way it should.
Go ahead and do the paint. That part is all up to you. Flames, fade, stripes, whatever looks good. I did this one in a burgundy fade down to pearl black to match the paint job on his real car.
I hope you had fun and learned a little something along the way. If you build one of these using my instructions please send me a picture of your finished Shoebox so I can put it on my site.
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