Two Worlds Collide

After writing about the Hot Wheels Dodge Rampage conversion I started to wonder if the E. L. Moore Husky VW Pickup might fit into the scene I had in mind.

In an earlier post I noted the Husky VW Pickup is in 1/66 scale according to internet sources and that made it a bit large for HO scenes; however, 1/66 is close to 1/64 so it might be ok for the S-scale Mt. Lowe tribute layout.

Wikipedia tells me the VW pickup stands 1940mm tall. In 1/64 scale that's 30.3mm, and 29.4mm in 1/66. In comparison, a 6' tall man would be 28.6mm tall in 1/64 scale. The Husky toy stands about 24mm tall. The photo makes it quite clear it's too small for either 1/64 or 1/66 scale, and the 6' tall test figure in the photo proves the point. He should be just 1mm or so shorter than the VW's roof.

The VW is closer to 1/81 scale, so that sort of explains why it doesn't look too bad in E. L. Moore's photos.

Well, all is not lost. If I can find just the right spot in the scene the VW might look ok as long as there aren't any strict S-scale items or tall figures nearby to give up the ruse. Hmm. now that I think about it, maybe I need an S-scale photographer up on Inspiration Point...

Rampages Big and Small

Back: 1/24 Dodge Rampage | Front: 1/64 Dodge Rampage

I thought I'd take a little break from mountain building and work on cars. The layout will have a parking lot / depot scene where people can leave their cars and change to the trolley to get to Inspiration Point. I have some specific cars in mind for the scene and was lucky over the last few months to buy what I wanted online. A couple have arrived and another is on its way.

Left: Hot Wheels Rampage straight from the package | Right: Modified

I wanted either a 1980s Plymouth Turismo or a Rampage for this scene. I couldn't find a Turismo, or its cousin the Charger, but I did find a Hot Wheels Rampage. I bought two since they were inexpensive. In the above photo you can see what it looks like straight out of its packaging. 

Transforming the toy wasn't complicated: the rivets were drilled out and it was taken apart, the paint was stripped off, the 4-wheeler was cut off, and a new bed was made from styrene and installed. It was then repainted and epoxied back together. 

Scale-wise it isn't too bad. It looks ok next to the 6' tall, 1/64 scale figure. It might be a little on the small side, but it visually fits in, which is the goal. To the left in the above photo is a Hot Wheels '71 Porsche 911 that has also undergone a repainting. Well, I'll set custom cars aside for awhile and get back to custom mountains :-)

A TTC Surfin' School Bus?

Centre: Hot Wheels Surfin' School Bus. A long lost member of the TTC family?

Quite by accident I stumbled across the Hot Wheels Surfin' School Bus in what looked like a paint scheme highly reminiscent of the one used by the TTC in years gone by. I found one for sale on eBay for a reasonable price and immediately pushed the buy button. It came in an unopened blister pack, so purists might feel lightheaded as I note that I ripped it open and staged a family portrait. If I can figure out how to remove the factory stickers without damaging the paint, I'll replace them with some suitable TTC decals. It actually won't look too bad size and shape wise on the layout. It'll be some sort of hot rodded ride to the beach owned by an addled TTC fan.

Later. Tell the teacher we're surfin'.

E. L. Moore's Husky time travelling VW pickup

Converting the Husky VW pickup diecast to look something like the one E. L. Moore used in a few of his photographs was a fairly easy job.

I must admit though that I didn't use any techniques commonly seen in YouTube videos dealing with diecast restorations. I decided not to completely disassemble the toy, strip away the paint with chemicals, respray it, and then put it back together with screws. I don't think Mr. Moore would have done anything like that. I took the easiest path, and I speculate he would have too.

Picking up a Jones Chem Co. | Outside the Carolina Foundry | Picking up at Bunn's Feed & Seed

Before I got started I had to pull together my reference material. I used images of the vehicle found in three of his construction articles: Jones Chemical Co., Carolina Foundry, and Bunn's Feed & Seed.

The first job was to carefully use a flat bladed screwdriver to pry the extensible scaffolding out of the truck's bed. It was in there quite solidly and took considerable force to free. I can only assume that was to make sure a child with kitbashing on their mind couldn't do an impromptu deconstruction :-)

And there's what you're left with: a big square hole in the bed. I eventually covered this over by gluing on a 1/16" piece of balsa wood as that appears to be what E. L. Moore did according to the reference photos.
 

One reason I didn't deconstruct this thing was that it appears to be held together with 4 rivets instead of the usual 2: there're 2 to attach the chassis to the body, and another 2 to hold a wheel springing plate in place. Yeap, the wheels are sprung on this baby so it doesn't bounce around at high speed on rough roads :-)

The chassis also indicates why I refer to this vehicle as a pickup and not a flatbed, which is what it appears to be: 'Volkswagen Pick Up' is stamped into the chassis.

All the painting I did was pure speculation. Even my assumption that Mr. Moore painted his and didn't use it box-stock is speculation. Just thought I'd note this.

I assumed that if he painted the body he'd choose some shade of Moore Green. All the colours I used on this project were brush applied Tamiya acrylics, and for the body I used XF-5, Flat Green. The bumpers were painted XF-16, Flat Aluminum, the chassis used XF-1, Flat Black, and the headlights were XF-2, Flat White. The wooden flat bed was painted with X-19, Smoke.

The part I haven't shown is where I installed the time machine. That'll just have to be my little secret, but I'll share photos of its anachronistic adventures :-) 

The time travelling VW pickup

Left: Picking up at Jones Chemical Co. circa 1974 | Right: Picking up at Jones Chemical Co. circa 2022

Comparing VW pickups and vans

Left: Husky's VW pickup (1/66 scale) | Right: An HO (1/87) scale VW pickup

Through the magic of eBay I found and bought a Husky brand VW pickup. After comparing the Husky to a variety of E. L. Moore photos where his VW pickup appears, I'm fairly certain the Husky is the one he used. It looks like he pried out the extensible scaffolding in the bed and covered over the hole with some wood, likely balsa :-) 

The internet tells me the toy is 1/66 scale, which is close to S scale's 1/64, so it's going to appear a little large compared to other HO scale items. 

The Husky in comparison to other HO scale VWs

Although the toy is in good shape I'm going to convert it to E. L. Moore's version. This may seem like sacrilege to collectors, but I don't plan to destroy any of the components, so it could be changed back in the future. Longtime readers might recall my attempt at converting an HO VW van to the E. L. Moore pickup, and may also recall that it was lost just a few months later. I'll do my darnedest to prevent that from happening to this one :-)

Was E. L. Moore's VW pickup a Husky toy?

Left: VW pickups at Bunn's Feed & Seed | Right: 1965 VW pickup made by Husky Toys

I've been doing some looking around to see if I can identify the VW pickup diecast toy that E. L. Moore used in many of his photographs. I'm wondering if it's an item from Husky Toys. It's possible, but it doesn't quite match. The search continues.

A composting MG 1100

While digging near the composters, Debra unearthed this little car. We suspect it belonged to one of the children of our house's many previous owners.

After examining the chassis and consulting the internet, this appears to be Matchbox No. 64, the MG 1100, which dates to 1966.

Overall, discounting the impacted dirt thing, it doesn't appear to be in too bad shape. If it was interred in the late 1960's, that means it could have been in the ground for 55 or so years.

Well, some people have barn finds, we have compost finds :-) I see a restoration project on the horizon.

Crazy about a Mercury

A variation on this photo along with some musical commentary by Alan Jackson. 

Customization gone very wrong

From that to this:

I was searching through my old spares box and came across the parts of a Lesney Mercedes-Benz 220SE that I had tried to 'customize' sometime back in the '70s. However, unlike the Maserati Mistral, I didn't have all the parts, and the ones I did have were pretty far gone. In a spirit of restoration - or maybe just being full of spirits :-) - I decided to superglue together what was left, and that improbable vehicle was what resulted.

It was -20C here last night. Driving around in that Mercedes would give new meaning to 'cool ride'.

Hot Wheels Maserati Mistral restoration is complete!

I've spent some odds-and-ends of time finishing the Maserati restoration. It went fairly well except for chipping the paint during a test fit of the chassis, which required the body to be resprayed. 

At the end of the previous post in this series I was ready to strip the old, original paint from the body. I wasn't sure what to use for a paint stripper, so I decided just to drop the body in Super Clean and leave it overnight. Next morning the paint was soft and loose. Some scrubbing with a bristle brush under running water removed most of the paint. The photo on the right is the result. I then used a dental pick to clean paint from the panel lines and a few areas where the paint refused to let go. After that, I polished the body with a small wire brush attachment in my Dremel.

The chassis was a gloppy mess of thick, black enamel. I don't think the fine little springy axles had much spring as they appeared to be stuck in place. Although, the wheels did turn.

Some careful poking and prying with tweezers and an Xacto knife popped the axles free. The hardened enamel was then scraped from the wires. 

The wheelless chassis was then dropped in Super Clean and left for several hours to soak. The usual process with a scrub brush, dental picks, and the wire wheel was used to clean this piece. The front bumper also underwent the same cleanup process.

And this was the result. The wheels are considerably springier now that the wires were de-glopped. The chassis had a slight upward curve from when I pried it from the body back in the '70s, so I straightened it out with a pair of pliers. I also carefully straightened the wheels so they wouldn't look quite so misaligned. 

We've been lucky weather-wise and there was a mild day when I could spray the body outside. After several light coats this was the result.

After hardening for a few days I tried test fitting all the components and wound up chipping the paint on the front :-( So, a fix up and another round of painting, drying, and then spraying with several light coats of Testors Gloss Cote. 

Then there was another round of parts fitting and gluing the components in place.

The front bumper is attached to the chassis with a medium thickness superglue. The chassis is attached to what remains of the body pins with Weld Bond. 

There are still some gaps in the chassis to body fit, but nothing extreme. I only did the minimum amount of chassis and body bending as I didn't want to risk any serious damage. 

That blue image is what remained of the toy until a few weeks ago when I accidentally found the old chassis and bumper.

I didn't try any wheel restoration, so it's still got the 'racing aged' ones from it's speed demon career in the late '60s and early '70s :-)

I brush painted the red tail lights. I think the toy originally had the headlights painted silver, but I didn't try that on the restoration. After having to respray the body once, I didn't want to press my luck and have to do it again.

And that's that. A pleasant little project and an interesting diversion. 

It's easy being green

Since I probably used the same type of paint on the body as I used on the interior I decided to soak the body in Super Clean and see what happened. I dropped it in just before dinner and checked on it afterwards. The blue was very loose and some light work with a stiff brush removed most of it, and maybe some of the original green too. 

The photo gives a better idea of the match between the original paint and the Tamiya I plan to use. Close, but not identical. Also, the original paint is likely worn and dulled due to age and having an overcoat of brushed on blue enamel removed. That jar of purple fluid is Super Clean after it had been used to strip the paint from the interior and the body. I started fresh and you can see it's a bit cloudy now, but still good for more work. I'll continue on to see if it can remove the original green. If not, I'll need to buy something more powerful.

Maserati interior cleaned up

I did some work on stripping the paint from the Maserati's interior. Back in the '70s I painted with Testors' enamels, and that's likely what I used on this. I wasn't too sure what was best for removing this paint, so I stuck with what I knew, and let the unit soak in Super Clean. After 10 minutes or so I used a small, stiff brush and a fine metal pick to remove the much loosened paint. Several rounds of this stripped off just about all the old stuff. After reviewing the digital images I see a few paint flecks still stuck on in some odd places, but they shouldn't be hard to remove. The interior looks more-or-less ok now, so I'll move on to cleaning up the body.

Maserati green?

I dropped by the hobby store today and saw they had a can of Tamiya TS-20 Metallic Green. It looks pretty close to the body's original colour - you can see a bit in the wheel well that I managed to overlook way-back-when when I brush painted on the blue. Now, to find some suitable paint stripper.

Trial fitting the Maserati's chassis & bumper

Rubber cement was used to temporarily hold things together

 After carefully prying out the interior and windows I found the chassis and bumper fit quite well on the body. However, the fit isn't too good with the interior and windows in place. I'll need to think about where to make adjustments, but with the body, interior, and windows undamaged (except for a small crack in the back window) it should be possible to make a reasonable restoration. And I think Tamiya's TS20 Metallic Green spray paint might come close to matching the toy's original colour - which you can see peeking out from the front wheel well.

With this kind of luck I need to buy a lottery ticket!

Being partially insane I decided to go through every single drawer in my old spare parts cabinet, and by some minor miracle I found the torn-off bumper and grill stashed amongst a pile of old plastic parts for 1/24 scale model cars. Good grief, chassis in a box of old papers, and bumper in a drawer of styrene cast-offs!

Well, the chassis and bumper are a bit twisted, so the fit isn't too good. Maybe some judicious work with pliers and epoxy might do the trick. It'll never be a perfect restoration, but it'll at least have sentimental value. I wonder if I can colour match the body's factory green?

Maserati Mistral chassis found!

Hot Wheels Maserati Mistral

The last time I showed this Maserati Mistral Hot Wheels car it was in a pretty sorry state and missing its chassis. While rummaging through stuff from my parent's house I stumbled across a Hot Wheels chassis on which was stamped 'Maserati Mistral'. I dug up the body and attached the two together. Not a bad fit, although the chassis is a bit bent. If I'm lucky enough to find the still missing front grill and bumper I'm going to try my hand at restoring it a la Marty's Matchbox Makeovers. The search continues!

Diecast wrap-up

I'm going to finish off the diecast series with one long post of the leftovers. Those two Hot Wheels motorcycles used to have training wheels attachments that would allow them to race down the orange track, but those have been lost to time. I'm pretty sure I have a trike as well in some box around here.

Ah, the Hot Wheels Mighty Maverick. This was another of my favourites and luckily it too is intact. That giant rear wing was the highlight for me. Well, just about any car with an airplane sized wing bolted to the trunk caught my attention back then. The proto-aerodynamicist in me I guess. I considered the Richard Petty SuperBird the ultimate in automotive big-wing technology. I don't know if there was a Hot Wheel of that thing, but I did at one time have a model kit, but, alas, it's lost to time :-(

I found this other picture of the T-Bird misfiled somewhere, so for completeness I thought I'd post it.

The Deora is my favourite custom car and this is Hot Wheel's Deora 2003. 'Nuff said.

While I'm on Deora memory lane, back in maybe 2005 or there abouts, I kitbashed this lunar hot rod from 1/24 Deora and Moon Scope kits from AMT. No, the ATV in the back isn't gas-powered. It had all that removed and converted to electric :-) Looking back on this thing I think lunar dust would have gummed up all its works and left it inoperable.

The green Hot Wheels Hot Heap over on the left is the closest to mint condition of all the old cars in this collection - I think that's because it didn't get raced much. Original colour. Windshield intact. Straight axles. All signs of not much use.

This Hot Wheels '68 El Camino is virtually brand new compared to most of the other Hot Wheels shown here. Back in 2011 I was picking up some things for my father at a Zellers near his house, and decided to drop by the toy department to see what was new in the Hot Wheels world. I thought seeing the El Camino was a good omen as I'm a big El Camino fan. It's too large for the layout, but I'll think of someway to incorporate it into the Alta Vista TC.

I think this Hot Wheels bug was originally my sister's. We had a coding scheme where we used flower-power decals to identify her's. It's missing its engine.

The Hot Wheels Lotus Turbine. And following the trend that if a wheel is missing, it's missing from the rear on the driver's side. Ok, in this case the driver's side is both sides :-) so let's say on the left.

These are fairly new Hot Wheels T-bird convertibles and they had a supporting role at The 2016 LOL Bring What You've Got Car Show held along Ocean Blvd.

When I bought these Hot Wheels Radio Flyer and Express Lane cars not all that long ago I recall they reminded me of MPC's Zingers kits.

This Johnny Lightning Sunbeam I think dates from '98 or thereabouts. A excellent rendition and a favourite.