Shane

[67cst]

what did you do to lower your hotwheels, i got a couple drying and im messing with the plastic frame, i cant figure out how to get the wheels inside the fenders without cutting them or screwing with the inner fenders....wtf man...whats the big secret

thx
Derek

[Shane]

you have to do A LOT of cutting and grinding to get one of these down that low.......Dremel Tool....the Hot Wheels customizers version of a Plasma Cutter....LOL

Seriously, here are a few steps to get you started....

1.) drill the rivet out of the bottom, take the body off the "chassis" (base casting).

2.) carefully snip the tabs that hold the wheels on the base casting and remove wheels without bending axle.

3.) crank up the old Dremel tool and start cutting out anything that will prevent the wheels from going up into the body. (think of it as a body drop on a much smaller scale)

4.) You will have to narrow the axles so the wheels will fit "under" the body. You can do this with a set of side cutters.....measure how wide the axle should be, slide one of the wheels over to the other side of the axle, snip the axle with the side dikes ...and then re-crimp the axle wire with a set of regular pliers or a hammer and a flat punch. You will now have to trim the base casting so the wheels will fit back on it. Then rough fit the wheels to where ya want the body to sit....grind some more......re-fit again....grind some more.....drink another beer....grind some more.....re-fit again....so forth and so on until you get it to "sit" just right

5.) once you have your stance just right, mix up a small bit....(pencil eraser size).... of JB Quick Weld and put just a dab on the spot where ya want the axle/wheels to sit. Install wheels and tires and sit base casting to the side to dry. You will have to "build up" the area with the JB Weld to "raise" the axle up into the truck body....hence the lowering......the wheels just sit up higher on the base casting.

6.) while the base is drying....take out the interior and windshield and drop the body into some paint remover. Leave for about 15 minutes....remove, wash with warm soapy water and scrub with a toothbrush...preferabley an older one or at least someone elses ...prime....wet sand w/ 400 grit.....re-prime....wet sand again with 600 grit.....then paint with your favorite "rattle can" color. The blue one in the pic was airbrushed with DuPont ChromaBase ('99 Corvette Blue) followed by clear coat with House of Kolor dry pearl powder mixed in. Then wet sanded with 1500 grit and then hand rubbed with 3M Swirl Remover. (the wet sanding and hand rubbing is optional since the only part you can "rub-out" are the tops of the hood and cab and down the sides)

I know...I know...I got way too much free time.......LOL!

Hope this helps....and have some fun with 'em......jeez, they only cost .97 cents.....take 'em out of the package .

[ebfabman]

whew!!!.............miller time................

[Shane]

maybe this will help out....you can actually see where the base casting was trimmed (where the wheels are) and you can also see the JB Weld holding the axle in.

[Shane]

here's one of the body casting......

[67cst]

it all makes sense now, i never knew you cut the bed ... i just finished a couple and they are lower then the stock one but not as low as yours, ill try and get some pics on sat when i can get a camera...hehe fun stuff, i wish real trucks were this easy to paint and lower

[Shane]

check out the other thread.....XXL did an excellent job on his....and no hole in the bed either.....nice work.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...threadid=18691

These things are great for time killers......and really test your bondo and wet sanding abilities on this scale too.

[Super Chevy]

That is a sweet hotwheels,

This reflect the plans for your truck by chance?

[Shane]

no...actually mine is gonna be silver...LOL.

Just happen to have some of this blue around the night i decided to airbrush....

[XXL]

I did the axles a little differently... mine doesn't rely on the black plastic undercarriage, and in the pics in the other thread, mine doesn't even have the black part installed (it will be later). The way I did it was to use the tan plastic interior piece to carry the front axle and the metal under the bed to carry the rear axle.

After you take it apart you'll see that the bottom of the interior piece has 2 tabs approximately where the wheels go. If you put a small notch on the back side of those tabs, just big enough for the axle to ride in, the height is pretty much perfect for maximum drop. I wanted mine to roll so I decided to keep the axle live by not gluing it in. Instead, it is trapped into the notches with a heavy staple super glued parallel to the bottom of the plastic piece (kind of hard to explain without pictures ).

For the rear, you'll notice a couple of metal tabs in the same general location as the fronts were. I whacked those out with a Dremel, then cut a very shallow channel from side to side in the bottom of the bed that was centered in the wheelwells. This is where the axle was laid and trapped in the same way as the fronts.

To narrow the axles I removed a small section (1/4" or so) from the middle of the axle, then reattached them using a small piece of 18 gauge wire insulation. I just stripped of a small amount of insulation and used Super glue to stick the two metal ends back together inside the insulation.

I trimmed the bevel off the inside edge of the front tires to get a bit more clearance but they are stock width. For the rear, I decided not to cut the bed so I narrowed the tires with a little sandpaper action. It would have been nice to keep the wider tires but as low as it is you can't really tell they're narrower. I'll just have to make sure I keep it off the lift at the local Hot Wheels Garage so you can't see under.

I hadn't done anything like this in several years and it was a nice diversion... and cheeeeeaaaap! Much cheaper than playing in the garage

Kenneth