Way, way back when P was barely speaking, a young couple left a Datsun 510 under the table when they left the steakhouse. I couldn’t just leave it there, so I grabbed it. It pops up from time to time and I give it a spin. When it surfaced recently, it was missing paint and had a bent axle.
I started scratching flaky paint off and thought, “People strip and customize these…”
And that’s where we are today. Pretty significant progress for a week of picking at it a few minutes at a time as I find myself in the garage for other things. I need to feel a greater sense of progress right now. Just imagine if I’d used paint stripper instead of manually sanding/scraping everything at Step 1!
I’ve done considerably more homework on the subject and have gotten back into it. Current plan is to get all my 1/64 die cast out of the packaging and into display cases so I can actually enjoy my collection.
Ford GT (white wing) is my practice car. Stripped, primed, ready for next steps.
Fold GT (older) is my first kinda-care-how-it-turns-out car. Getting a green-to-gold shift.
ND2 Miata because Miata. (I removed a big, part-of-the-casting wing I didn’t like.)
NA Miata because Miata. (I love the NA, NC3, & ND2.)
In the background, you might notice the Audi Avant on beefy blackout wheels, an apparently special Lamborghini Countach I probably shouldn’t have stripped that’s getting stanced-out on big, purple wheels, the Golf chassis, and a handful of parts cars.
Lotus open wheel is getting gold slot mags and some detail work.
I bought the Viper mostly for the wheels. It’s getting dipped.
Same with the E30 M3, though that’s mostly to get rid of the lame tribal stripes.
Not sure what I’m going to do with the big Dodge and Derp Missile 240s, but dipping.
My “Final Exam” is going to be turning the two Pajero Evolutions into a single, LWB Gen 2 Montero. (I might even grind off the hood scoop!) Casually sitting in the back row waiting for their time to shine.
Anyone else play with die casts?
@BradD if you copy and could share any pictures of your display cases, I would really be interested in seeing what you’ve got again. (Just got to see them that one time at the house.)
The call of diecast has heralded my return. (Truthfully, I want to return as I am tired of the vitriol in the rest of my social media life…forums for life!)
I will create a thread for my Mitsu diecast for sure and I will def dig up some of my “customs” for this thread.
Of all the things my parents kept me from as a kid, the one thing I wish they would have stopped me from doing is selling my Matchbox collection as a bulk lot at a garage sale. Fun collectables aside, I had a mint condition USS Enterprise (TOS) that probably would have made a down payment on a house today.
