#HOT WHEELS 68 EL CAMINO 1999 HOW TO#
#HOT WHEELS 68 EL CAMINO 1999 WINDOWS#

They were pretty shaky as the tape is kinda bumpy to draw on. I then drew the flames freehand using Ultra fine point markers.

#HOT WHEELS 68 EL CAMINO 1999 HOW TO#

So, I decided on water slide decals, but how to do it? Well, I took the body and covered the hood and sides with wide masking tape. Some people have the skill to mask and paint on the stars and flames but I am not one of them. Obviously, they cannot be purchased, as no one has made anything even remotely close to these. The biggest challenge of all, was how to do the graphics. They had the holes I needed to locate the pins of the wishbones. To attach them, I used leaf spring extension shackles turned sideways from a 70 GTX. I did need to add a second cross member for the 3-link wishbones. The front suspension consists of the front subframe from a 62 Catalina, the extended springs/shocks from a 70 Monte Carlo lowrider, and the dropped buggy axle and wishbones from an unknown source. I used a section of chrome driveshaft which is connected to semi-truck transfer case to assist in the drivetrain’s believability. All I needed to add was a cross member to attach the front of the ladder bars to. The rear axle and ladder bars are from the Li’l Gasser kit which I parted out long ago. I also wanted to go with as much chrome as I could as that is what many Hot Wheels have.

I needed to really raise the body without looking hokey but, I had no actual chassis to start with. I reversed the disc brakes and painted them black to act as background. I meticulously hand painted the ridges to simulate the 10 spoke wheels in the picture. They are five spoke with ridges down the center of each spoke. The wheels are some “bling” low profile 23s that I was planning on selling on ebay. The 68 rear bumper I wanted for the 70, but it is actually a bit too wide for my resin body so I used it here instead. The front bumper wasn’t need by the 70 Elky so I was OK there. The amazing thing was, with a little effort they actually came out evenly tinted.

I found you have to get it really dark in the cup to get light blue on the glass.

#HOT WHEELS 68 EL CAMINO 1999 WINDOWS#

I took a tip to tint windows by using food coloring and Future floor wax. The windows were from the same GTO and were surprisingly scratch-free. As it turns out, once the rear seats were cut out, it mated perfectly with the body. I had an old junker 72 GTO that came with built model 'lot' I purchased on ebay. I couldn’t use the El Camino interior or windows as those parts are spoken for in the previously mentioned 70 El Camino build. The struts are rectangular evergreen which matched the scale of the Hot Wheel car struts perfectly. The wing is also from the deceased Countach kit but has the center point sanded away. I painted all but the actual chrome pieces with “chrome” paint. I tried making the headers from lead solder but the scale was not right. I made the scoop from part of a VTEC engine, two pieces of rectangular evergreen and cut-down tail-light buckets from a Lamborghini Countach. The parts I actually needed to fabricate were the unique hood scoop and the “bundle of snakes” exhaust headers. I found a chrome, blown, Top Fuel engine that came as a toss-in to a 'lot' of wheels I had bought on ebay. The patriotic red white and blue, tickled my fancy. So… I searched the internet for other versions of the car and found one I liked. My little boy's toy car had an ugly orange, blue and black paint scheme that I did not wish to duplicate. I then remembered that I had an orphaned 68 El Camino body left over from a plan of using its kit to build a resin 70 El Camino. It was a customized 68 El Camino with a wing and engine in the bed.

I picked it up, looked at it and the proverbial light bulb went on in my head. One day, I went to sit on the couch and my youngest son Keenan had left one of his Hot Wheels on the seat. I needed something that would look cool AND, be within my skills as a builder. On the other hand I do not have the talent to fabricate one of the wild creations Hot Wheels has produced over the years. All of the spare parts I own (except for wheels and tires) would fit into two model boxes.Īny way, I was trying to imagine a build that would be more than a Hot Wheels paint scheme on a box stock kit. I do not have much of a parts box to begin with. To start with, this was a TOTAL parts-box build.

Hot wheels 68 el camino 1999