Enjoy!
The toy cars scene these days is quite similar to the real automotive world. A number of manufacturers dominate the new cars market, but there’s also a growing community of enthusiasts who cherish vintage models from famous makers. Refurbishing is a big thing among fans, and there’s even a dedicated YouTube channel detailing dozens of restoration projects with Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars.
Going by the name of baremetalHW, the channel offers hundreds of videos with all kinds of toy cars from the past and their full restoration. Last summer, we showed you the impossible restoration of a Hot Wheels 1968 Custom Camaro, and today we bring you an even more challenging project. The video at the top details the full refurbish of an extremely broken Hot Wheels 1971 Bye-Focal.
Hot Wheels is awesome:
The car’s seen better times, to say the least. Someone must’ve stepped on it as all its plastic windows, including the plastic engine cover, are shattered. The pink-purple color is not its original shade, but no one can really say what the factory color was. The suspension is worn out and the tires aren’t sitting in the correct position.
The restoration process starts with a gentle re-forming of the roof with a ball-peen hammer, followed by a complete removal of the paint. The latter may sound like an easy job, but the cleaning of the engine compartment seems to be a time-consuming and tedious process. Then, the work continues with a galvanization and a full-body deep polish before five layers of paint are applied.
Thankfully, there are online shops that offer reproduction parts for Hot Wheels restoration projects, because original parts are no longer available. One such seller provided the plastic windows and engine cover for this car.
Watching this old Hot Wheels model return to its former glory is satisfying nearly as much as seeing a classic vehicle being fully restored. The attention to details is amazing and we bet the whole process is quite rewarding. Enjoy watching the video.
Source: baremetalHW on YouTube