Hot Wheels Ferrari 308 GTS Custom

Next up is a kinda rough Hot Wheels Ferrari 308 I picked up in a big lot a while back. It wasn't all that bad, but I already had a mint one for display, so I figured I'd do something with it.

Now, I have a strong dislike for bright red Ferraris. Other than vintage 250s and the like, obviously, I think that owning a Ferrari in Rosso Corsa displays a severe lack of creativity. So I always set out to find colors that Ferraris look good in that ISN'T red yellow or black haha. And I came up with this..

Matchbox BMW E46 328i Coupe Alpinweiss Custom

Here's another one for my developing BMW Alpinweiss custom series. These are a lot of fun to make! I'm pretty sure Matchbox made a white one of these, but it's packed away somewhere so I figured why not make my own. Nothing too special but it did come out nicely.

Matchbox Dodge Dakota Pickup Truck Restoration

Hello folks. Here's a Dodge Dakota I finished recently. It is one of the cars I have a lot of memories with as a child, but I decided to freshen it up a bit. Here's what it used to look like.

And here it is now. Nothing too crazy, just got rid of the remainder of the light bar in the bed, swapped the wheels for a more modern set, and rechromed the bumpers and chassis. I stuck with the original shade of red and detailed it a bit. I think the final product looks most excellent!

Matchbox Toyota Tacoma Custom

How about this one?? I was glad to finally find an extra one of these to open up and play with! Very disappointed that the surfboards can't really be removed from the car without some serious body mods, which are far above my skill level. So they'll have to stay till now.
I've always admired that lovely green that Toyota sells these days, Spruce Mica. It's a stunning color if you've never seen one in person. This was as close as I could get...

Lesney #41c-Ford GT40 Restoration

Here's another transitional that has been "restomodded". This one took 3 parts cars I believe. The actual transitional one had a broken window and severely bent body, so I took a RW one with a nice body and another with a nice window and here we are haha. Not sure how I feel about the red interior with the green paint but it is growing on me. I might add some decals one day, but for now, here she is... What do you guys think?

Hot Wheels BMW E36 M3 Custom

Here is the first custom I've done of this fantastic new casting from Hot Wheels. The first of many I'm sure...
I've decided this will be a continuing theme with my line of customs.. Alpine white BMWs. I love Bimmers in that color, and there are so many great castings from that brand, it seems like a natural fit! I started with the Matchbox BMW 1M, and am continuing with the brand new E36 M3 casting from Hot Wheels. This one was already white from the factory, but I did a bit of overkill with the tampo removal and ended up removing a bit of the paint, and staining the rest. So unfortunately, it still required a complete strip down. But I'm happy with the result, I think it looks fantastic!

Matchbox Chevy Transport Bus Custom

I've had an infatuation with this casting since I was a little kid, I'm not sure why. Not the casting that you would expect to get an 8 year old boy's blood pumping, but my automotive tastes have always strayed a bit from the norm. I've been trying to collect all the variations of this casting over the past year or so.. there's a lot of them! But I decided to add a custom to the mix.

I had one extra beat up beige bus, one of the ones I had as a kid. I have since replaced it with a mint loose one, so I decided to hack it up for a custom. In the past few years, the boys in orange have transitioned this casting from metal to plastic, which SUCKS! But it did give me an idea. The original was metal body/plastic chassis, and the updated version is plastic body/metal chassis... See where I'm going with this? A full blown, proper metal on metal custom version of this old bus. It took a bit of grinding to get the metal chassis to sit right with the body, but the end results really speak for themselves... This came out to be a really top notch custom that weighs about as much as the real thing! I love it! It'll be taking a front row seat in my collection for sure.

Lesney #44c-GMC Refrigerator Truck Restoration

I've got a big backlog of customs that I have finished this weekend to photograph and post, so I'll start with this one, a 44c GMC Refrigerator Truck. It's been sitting on my shelf for ages, and I can't remember where I got it from, but it was in pretty sorry shape.

I decided to make it a bit of a "one off", something that never made production, but I'd be willing to bet there were one or two of these made, a regular wheels model painted in the later superfast colors. If anybody has seen one, I'd love to know about it! Us Lesney collectors are a bit nerdy, so I think this model is really cool. Wheels were replaced with nicer ones from my parts supply, the originals cleaned up but were broken around the hubs and wouldn't stay straight. No door, I'll get around to ordering a replacement one at some point. I have two of these with original doors, but I couldn't see robbing a mint original one for this custom. Came out alright though, what do you think?

Matchbox BMW 1M Coupe Custom

The BMW 1M is by far the best modern BMW, and the best casting Matchbox has done in a long time. It's the only new BMW I really would have any desire to own, and the boys in orange really outdid themselves with this little model of the potent little Bimmer. However I have one problem with it. They released it in a nice metallic orange, and a metallic blue version is coming. But there has been a very distinct lack of Alpinweiss. That is the only proper color choice for a 1M, and I can't believe Matchbox hasn't made it yet! But oh well, now I have... What do you think?

Hot Wheels Porsche 993 Custom

Good evening folks! I just wanted to share tonight's quickie custom with you. I've been busy this week and haven't had time to do any customs, but I did this one tonight and I think it looks pretty cool! Nothing too fancy, just a repaint of that lovely new Porsche casting, the last of the real 911s.