Daisy and The General

This custom dairy delivery van from Hotwheels has been aptly renamed Daisy Delivery and looks fantastic in it's General Lee livery.

This was created for a customer and will soon be sent across the pacific but something happened that has turned this build into something well, pretty awesome.

I am extremely proud to share the news that this build has earned me my first Lamley Customs Blog feature and mention! I have been a huge fan of the Lamley Group and their Customs blog for as long as I can remember, and to be included with some of these guys I look up to is, well it's freaking amazaballs that's what it is! (yep, I just said amazaballs. I know. Let's just move on shall we 😉 )

Creating the Customs

Removing the Paint and Polishing the Body.

The first step, as with any custom is to remove the paint (obviously).
This is a simple case of either using a spray form of paint stripper (as I do) or using a tin and paintbrush. Both is equally effective, although the spray can is easier to apply (but costs around twice as much when you consider how much use you get from it versus a tin... but I digress)

Now I think I use the term "simple case of stripping the paint" a little too liberally because in this instance it was a pain in the diecast!
I used the Pop Culture Grateful Dead Dairy Delivery vans as my base because their wheels were perfect for this build and as such I didn't have to mess around with changing wheels and removing axles (winning!) but what I quickly learned was that the laminate/clear coat they use on some of these Pop Culture releases is so thick and strong it makes the process far more long winded and well, irritating basically! :p

For the sake of a useful guide, here is how you strip the paint and polish the casting ready for a new coat of paint:

Spray or brush a layer of paint stripper over and around your diecast vehicle.
Leave it for 30 minutes and come back with a medium sized clump of steel wool (medium grade if you have options). *The paint stripper will probably say to leave it for 10 minutes before removing paint. Ignore that. 30 minutes. NO. Just... 30. Good.
pick up the car or hold it down where it sits and brush the paint of the sides in one go. do the same for the top, back and front. You want to remove as much of the paint in one smooth go.
Once you have removed the bulk of the paint, pick the car up and use a fresh piece of steel wool to attack the crevices and underside of the car. I recommend removing the paint from the interior as well, especially around the windows and wheel wells where your new paint WILL be visible
Once all of the paint is removed take a finer grade of steel wool and polish every surface. You will find that there are small imperfections in the casting that can be either removed or softened with some steel wool and little elbow grease.
If you want to get a spectraflame (really shiny effect) on your paint then once you have manually polished the car with steel wool you need to polish it with a dremel or bench grinder (and polishing mop). But more on that in another post... back to the General.

Adding Details and Decals.

The beauty of using a donor car that already has your desired real rider wheel choice on is that once you have repainted the vehicle in the colour you want, the only other thing to do is add the details and stick on the decals. Done. Sorted. Sweeeeeeet.

So yeah I went and did that...

Where Do You Get The Decals and How Do You Apply Them?!

I figured you might ask that, so I thought I would just quickly share where and how ;

At the time of this build I was purchasing my decals through eBay. I am now in the process of printing my own but since that information is neither relevant nor useful I will refer back to my eBay days...

Basically, search eBay (US) for 'water slide decals' and '1:64 scale decals' as both of these search terms cover the majority of decals available.
Decals are available in either a clear backing, white backing (or solid colour basically) and peel and stick format. The former are the better option as you get a few goes at putting it where you want. Just don't buy peel and stick that's all I'm saying.

How To Apply the Decals.

The decals are just like temporary tattoos, if you remember them - but with less stick. Cut out the decal that you want to apply and then drop it into some water for all of 20 seconds. the backing will come away from the front - hence the name 'Water Slide' and then you simply use tweezers to pick up the decal itself and gently place it onto the spot.
Once you apply it you then gingerly move it into position with your fingers (using disposable latex gloves preferably). Do not use the tweezers as you could cut the decal or worse, scratch the car!

Once that was done all I needed to do was reattach the base and get to work repeating the process on the General himself, the 69 Dodge Charger.