When I was little there was only one good way to take apart your Hot Wheels cars - throwing them against the wall. Or often in my case, smashing them between bricks. Either method is quite efficient, but with my whole Hot Wheels racing kick in full gear, I needed a more “mature” way to get my cars apart.
I guess there is a fine line between “customizing” and “modifying,” if there is a line at all. I consider customizing more of a cosmetic change, whereas modifying I consider more behaviour changing. In the case of racing Hot Wheels, it’s more about modifying in an attempt to get a fast car (although customizing is where I’m heading next). With my track pretty much done and being used for regular heats, I’m having fun finding out which cars are fastest and then trying to figure out why. A lot of it is probably simple physics, but at the scale of Hot Wheels, little changes make big differences.
Thankfully one of my friends that has joined me on the Hot Wheels kick has a knack for modifying things. He also has a Dremel tool that is ideal for taking apart the cars cleanly and without all the mess of smashing. The trick, of course, is to be able to put your cars back together once you’re done.
After a few trials, getting a stock car apart isn’t too bad. Using the Dremel and a cutting bit, you can grind down the rivets that hold the car together so they are even and smooth. All you need to do is grind straight down on the rivet in small little circles until the rivet head is gone, leaving only the shaft. Once you have this done, the car body usually pops right off, giving you access to all the interior parts and wheels.
In this case, I had a stock car that I thought would make a good racer. It had nice big wheels that spun well and the wheel base was pretty wide. But the back wheels rubbed in the inside of the wheel well, which slowed the car down and cut into the back tires - this needed fixed. So again with the Dremel and the same cutter bit, I ground inside the wheel well until the tires didn’t rub. This sounds simple enough but it was very tedious because I just didn’t want to grind the fenders off, so I had to reassemble the car after every few strokes to check the clearence.
With the car apart, you can also play with the interior and windows. Obviously these parts add weight to your car, which may not be desired, but they might also effect how your car races. I haven’t really proven anything in this arena, but it sounds good. Windows in and the air goes around your car. Windows out and the air goes through it…stuff like that. It’s not very scientific, but it’s fun to think about all the same.
Another nice part about using the Dremel to cut the rivets clean is that you can assemble your car without glue and race with it. Obivously in the end you’ll want to glue the chasis to the body with some super glue, but if you’re wondering what changes effect your car the best, you can assemble, test, disassemble, modify, reassemble, test…etc…all you want. It’s quite handy. And naturally, having your car apart is essential for customizing your car with a new paint job or other alterations, but more on that later.
Using real tools to take apart your toys is a lot of fun. I’m not saying it’s any more fun that smashing your cars against the wall, that is a blast as well, let me tell you. But grinding, sanding, testing, and all that stuff is a lot of fun and challenging on such a small scale. It’s like your own little Hot Wheels chop shop. The only bad part is that now when I’m in Target looking at cars, I’m wondering what cars would make good mods!
Uh oh… If racing Hot Wheels cars requires disassembly, I’m in!
I’ve never been able to resist the urge to take something apart!
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Uh oh, Brian….Big G and Dwight’s wives are going to hunt you down and make you pay for getting them into Hot Wheels!
Psssh…the more the merrier!
Hey, just be glad this “hobby” is cheap. So cheap that even Big G can afford it! ;)
It’s like the old pinewood derby only more challenging. Anyone can carve a wood block and make a car. But altering a diecast metal car to create a better running machine…now that’s fun!
I need to get shots of Dwight’s mods because he did a great job making a mash-up car plus a new paint job. He’s all about it and I thought I would just be the Track Guy and leave the tiny work to him - but this is fun…in the end, it will cost ME more because now I need to buy all the tools so I can do it too!!
Alistair loves hotwheels cars. We have a few so far, so maybe I should bring a few down next time and see how they do at the track.
Sounds like maybe we’ll need two divisions…
Stock Car, and Super-modified
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I have some thoughts on “rules” already jotted down. Maybe I’ll write a bit about them to see what people think.
I’ve even used a food scale to weigh each car (in grams), so there could even be weight classes - 30g, 40g, 50g+ - I’ve found lighter cars to better on the track.
If only Comedy Central were still picking up odd ball “sports” shows.
I have a few cars I could run stock, but modding them might just dig into my already limited time….. Although, I could squeeze a little engine in there. BWAHAHAHAHAH….
You could probably put a little CO2 cannister in one of the cars! Ha!
Modding the cars is very time consuming with, honestly, not much pay off beyond the fun of modding them.
Any future Hot Wheels Derby event will be all stock races, I’d imagine. We’ll just have to find a good way to keep things fair between cars.
Just be ready to race for pinks!
My .02, There should be a racing for pinks and a racing for fun. There are a few Hot Wheels that I would love to run but would not part with. But, Hot Wheels are cheap enough that I would pick up a few to run under “marbles” rules.
I have a downhill racing track and my very fastest car (bone shaker) wheels are now bent. After coming across your site I took it apart with a dremel (no problem, thx). But how do I fix the bent axel or replace to make the car faster?
Hi, Nick, glad you found us! I wouldn’t think you could un-bend an axle, but you could replace the axle.
Now that I’m in a mod mode when I see the cars in the store I’m scoping out the wheels and wondering which wheels would look good or race well. So I’d say just find a car that has the same wheel design (and width) and just replace your axle entirely.
I’m not sure you’ll be able to get out the axle from the body pins without cutting into the body, so you may have to fix (glue) the new axle in place. Not sure exactly how that will impact performance, but I guess if you car isn’t running now as it is, it won’t hurt.
Let us know how things turn out, get some pics! And if you haven’t yet, click the Hot Wheels top skybox in the right rail for more cars and articles!
Thanks for the information. I’ve accepted that if a hot wheel is extremely fast for whatever reason and the kids get a hold of it and mess up the wheels or axle the it will never be the same. I did take them apart and rebuild them with new paint and found this to almost as exciting as racing them. My track is 48 feet and keeps the kids pretty busy.
48 feet! Damn…and here I thought 15 feet was happy enough. You got any photos of this mega track? Of course, I don’t have a free 50 feet to lay that kind of track, but I’m envious either way.
And I’m afraid modding the cars will be a new hobby of sorts. Oh well..
Since I’ve stumbled across something others will hopefully be enjoying, we all need a place to share. So I setup a social site for the (rebranded) Redline Derby Racing group.
If you mod, customize, or just play with your Hot Wheels, stop by and share!
http://redlineracing.ning.com/
I put the track up for sale on ebay even though I really don’t want to sell it. I set the reserve really high and I’m 100% sure it will not sell, I just wanted to see what kind of attention it draws. Here’s the link…
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=230299457690&Category=2500&_trksid=p3907.m29
This way you can see what it looks like. I have it set up inside my house for the past 2 weeks and it has been a lot of fun testing cars for speed. The kids play with it non stop and my wife accuses me of liking it more than them. I’m going to post some video on youtube soon also.
Here’s the video link…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3t0rpuhTGk
Woah - nice. Thanks for sharing - I left you some questions over at the Redline site…thanks for joining!
I saw that Race Grooves rented out their track for parties and that’s what made me want to make my own track. Not to rent it out, just to make massive track to have fun when friends come over.
If I had something that big in my house my dogs would be riding on it like a slide!
I wonder about doing this no more! I have a beautiful little Aerovette with a not-so-nice blackish green paint job, a repaint is in order! A Dremel moto tool will get the project off in the right direction, great article!
Good deal, Max! However, just wanted to pass along a site I found otherwise for modding Hot Wheels. It’s http://www.HotWorldCustoms.com - it’s pretty good with lots of good stuff.
I found that their suggestion of a 2-stage drill technique works better at getting cars apart than the Dremel. The Dremel is ultra-handy for cutting/sanding. A tiny drill bit first makes a little guide hole, then the bigger bit carves away the top of the rivet. It’s quicker and leaves less destruction.
And if you haven’t stumbled upon it yet, hit our Hot Wheels community at http://redlineracing.ning.com/ - we’ll be talking mods, racing, and other stuff there.