Monday, August 17, 2009

Kustom RideZ: Tri & Beetle Me

Kustom RideZ

Hola! Welcome to Gee's Garage! I am a Hot Wheels customer and I also like to customize my Hot Wheels. In this attempt, I used two castings: Hot Wheels Custom Volkswagen Beetle and Hot Wheels Tri & Stop Me. Actually the Tri & Stop Me was an accidental purchase, and I wanted to customize the VW Beetle for a long time but didn't know what to do with it!

custom tri & beetle me

Initially I intended to custom both together, but as I fiddled around with the pieces it struck me. They both fit really well together! Since I have just recently bought a second hand cordless Dremel, I decided to make full use of the cutter.

custom tri & beetle me
custom tri & beetle me
custom tri & beetle me
custom tri & beetle me


Cut the front portion of the chassis and rear boot lid off. I liked the mould of the rear engine, so I decided to use that as part of my emphasis. Chopped off the rear exhaust pipe, made some room at the bottom of the beetle interior so it sits on the tri & stop me chassis.

custom tri & beetle me
custom tri & beetle me
custom tri & beetle me

Test fitted the interior and chassis, fabricated floorboards and filled the gaps in between with putty. While the putty dries I worked on the bodyl stripped the paint and sprayed primer.

custom tri & beetle me
custom tri & beetle me
custom tri & beetle me
custom tri & beetle me
custom tri & beetle me
custom tri & beetle me

I then painted the interior to bring out the details from what I thought was a very good mould (why did they make the boot lid stuck shut to cover this detail in the first place, i wonder). I googled a picture of a vw beetle turbo kit attachment and using that as reference, I scratchbuilt it with leftover guitar strings. Once the putty had dried, I painted some portions of it flat black. I didn't paint it smooth to try and create a worn texture.

custom tri & beetle me

Painted the body two tone colours: Flat black and faded green-yellow. Put on some decals, attached a hinge for the body shell and chassis, then it is complete: The Tri & Beetle Me.

Custom #12 - 17/08/09
Custom #12 - 17/08/09
Custom #12 - 17/08/09
Custom #12 - 17/08/09
Custom #12 - 17/08/09
Custom #12 - 17/08/09
Custom #12 - 17/08/09
Custom #12 - 17/08/09

Monday, August 10, 2009

Work In Progress: Tri & Stop Me, VW Custom Beetle

I have disassembled the VW for a while already, and I have got no ideas as to how to custom it. The name already says its a custom beetle haha! Ah well, I got an idea now so I'm gonna work on it along with the Tri & Stop Me. Check this space for the completed work, or go to HWC Malaysia to check out the WIP thread!

custom tri & vw beetle

Friday, August 7, 2009

Kustom RideZ: Canyon Carver

Kustom RideZ

Greetings from the land of Australia! If you have noticed, since the turn of the new year I haven't been up to much customs. The last set of customs I did was for the HWC Malaysia; I had to spray paint the body of 80+ VW New Beetle Cups for the purpose of distribution as their club cars.

Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket

So that was my last custom work before I jetted off in a nutshell. I have not seen the completed VW New Beetle from HWCM since, hopefully they'll get to distributing it soon!

Now to the main event, the Canyon Carver. This was supposed to be a group build on HWCM, the title being Hot Wheels Originals. I chosen the Canyon Carver because of one custom I saw of a Honda bike, and I decided to do one myself.


Sweet looking piece of custom yeah? Inspired by that photo, I set out on my own custom Canyon Carver.

custom canyon carver
custom canyon carver
custom canyon carver

As usual, the removal of rivet and paint stripping is the beginning.

Photobucket
custom canyon carver
custom canyon carver

Next is the primer coat, then followed by the main colours. Initially I chosen yellow on the front shield, flat black for seats/handles and blue for the main body colour.

custom canyon carver
custom canyon carver
custom canyon carver
custom canyon carver
custom canyon carver

Next was tempo work, I used some 1/12 Honda RC211V-05 Movistar decals (whichever that could fit) and carbon fibre decals, both from Crazy Modeller. The decals were very high quality, both in terms of transfer and print. Because the yellow didn't really match the body well, I repainted the front shield blue.

custom canyon carver
custom canyon carver
custom canyon carver

So yeah, that was about all the work that was done on it. The completed pics, enjoy!

Custom #11 - 07/08/09
Custom #11 - 07/08/09
Custom #11 - 07/08/09
Custom #11 - 07/08/09
Custom #11 - 07/08/09
Custom #11 - 07/08/09