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| Ever see a die cast car that you just know would look great moving around your slot car track? Well, those metal bodies are heavy, but it can be done - take it from a beginner! With this article, I'll describe how to do one of the most simple die cast-to-slot car conversions I know of: The Hot Wheels Mini Cooper to an AFX/Magnatraction. Although I did make it somewhat more complicated with some detailing, you could do the basics for this one in an afternoon! The best part about this project is the car we start with. Not only is it almost a direct slip-fit for an AFX car, but it also comes right apart without any cutting! Hot Wheels made the Mini Cooper in 2000 and 2001 (so far), and it's the only current car in their line up that's designed to come apart. This one is a 2000 version, and the body separates from the chassis by popping a catch at the rear. [photos: 1/2] Once the car is apart, one finds that it's now missing a grille (which is part of the base plate) and a hood scoop (which is part of the plastic interior). The good news is that the plastic interior will give us a hood scoop, motor and dashboard for later use. Here, you can see the separated body with the remaining chassis, as well as the hood and grill openings in the photos where I'm removing the glass. [photos:3/4] The Hot Wheel comes with a checkerboard roof and, although some racing Minis had paint like this they didn't have the Hot Wheels logo, so I'm going to remove the "tampo" paint with nail polish remover and a rag. Afterward, a gentle touch on the hood and grille openings with a jeweler's file will clean these up for later use. Here, you can see the roof paint coming off with little effort, and the results while I'm filing the hood opening. Don't worry about the basecoat paint… the acetone won't touch it. [photos: 5/6] Next came "basic painting" of the body. First, I masked off the roof by wrapping the body in lacquer tape and cutting an edge under the drip rail with an X-acto knife. After spraying on a few coats of flat white enamel, and then some satin clear coat, I also masked off the fender flares. Actually, many Minis had color-matched flares, but I decided mine were rubber and they received a few light coats of flat, black enamel. For the masking around the flares, I used Parma's Liqui-Mask, which I trimmed with the point of the X-acto and then shrouded the rest of the car with more lacquer tape before spraying it down. Here, you can see the masking of the roof and the removal of the rubbery Liqui-Mask after painting the flares. [photos: 7/8] After laying on the basic paint, I turned to the grille. Instead of using the pot-metal grille on the Mattel base-plate, I cut a piece of aluminum window screen to fit the area behind the grille opening, and tacked it onto the body with Black-Max epoxy. Then, I took out the fine-tip brush and detailed some Testors enamel onto the car, placing aluminum rivets on the fender flares, coloring the lights and chroming the trim. When I got to the rear turn signals, I had to decide: fuel caps (like the racers had in that location) or amber lamps (like the street racers)? I went with turn signals. Here, you can see the mesh grille, cut on the bias, and some of the detail painting. [photos: 9/10] Since the Mini is a tall casting, the interior of the car has room for detail, so I cut of the roll cage from the plastic parts of the Hot Wheel. Later, I painted it orange and cut the legs down to fit in the available space after remounting the glass into the body. There's room enough to bring the legs down below the windowsill, to rest just above the AFX chassis. Here, you can see the roll cage, before and after. [photos: 11/12] The car still needed a hood scoop at this stage, so I decided to cut the plastic scoop out of the Hot Wheel chassis. Since I'd used mesh for the grille, though, there was enough space to also use the front of the motor, which will be visible through the grille! There's room for the dashboard, too, so I used a cutting wheel attachment on my Dremel to cut out the pieces I needed. The plastic cuts easily, so I went easily. Here, you can see the beginning of the cuts, and the final shape of the piece after it received a shot of flat white primer. [photos: 13/14] Details, details… I asked around on the Internet and received information that the Mini Cooper blocks were a sort of pea/olive green, so I painted the block with a color I mixed with Testors enamels. Using silver, I made a polished aluminum hood scoop and used a light, flat gray and black for the dash and steering wheel. Once the unit was painted, as you can see here on the left, I mounted it to the metal body using Black Max on the wings I'd left for gluing, as you can see in the photo on the right. [photos: 15/16] The body was done. I took my Magnatraction chassis and put silicone tires on the stock, "Cragar" hubs. The Supertires.com AFX rear tires fit exactly into the fender flares, and the Wizzard silicones look good up front. With two pieces of servo tape (thin, two sided adhesive foam, available at RC shops worldwide), I mounted the body onto the side tabs of the AFX chassis. Perfect fit! Here, you can see the body before mounting and an underside view. [photos: 17/18] The roll cage and dash are visible through the open window and this car will run. Oh, it's heavy, but the Mean Green armature and metal body make it one car you don't want barreling down at your car when you've spun sideways on the track! Here's the finished product, in all its glory: [photos: 19/20] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
