Once again we are graced with the experience and skills of one Mr Douglas Cheung aka @Carllector – and this time he’s back with another potential game changer. Douglas also offers up some worldly advice on cutting the panels out in the first place – advise so awesome I have put it into effect immediately and the results have been outstanding. Go you good thing!

How To Make an Opening and Closing Bootlid, Hatch or Trunk

First of all let’s just clarify the fact that there are 65.7 different terms for the rear door in a car, and this all changes if the car is red…or if it’s Tuesday (apparently) This all makes for a very confusing story and so for the sake of a good one I am going to refer to the tailgate (see there’s another one!) as the Rear Hatch.

So really what I should have called this post is HOW TO HINGE A HATCH 🙂

Cutting Diecast Panels Off Your Hot Wheels

Before we can think about creating an opening rear hatch we had probably remove it from the car in the first place no?

To do this you will need a Jewellers Saw. I’ve touched on these before because they are a necessity for any customiser worth his salt and so if you have not already purchased one then hurry up already, (this time I won’t wait sorry)

The following tip is the one I have since started employing and although it now seems like an obvious step to take, I never thought to actually do it…probably cause I was always too keen to just get in there and hack the damn thing LOL

How To Cut Your Diecast Car Cleanly

For example you want to cut out the hatch door of this 260z, you can see the lines/ edge of the door on the body. But while you’re cutting, it might be abit hard to focus your eyes of the edge of the hatch while moving the saw constantly.

So you can put some masking tapes over the area you’re cutting out…

And use a fine tip permanent marker to trace out the lines/ boarder of section you want to cut out…

Now it’s much clearer for your eyes to see where to cut, since it’s black on yellow instead of dark lines on dark blue.
And lastly, if at the end the sections you’ve cut out is really uneven or rough edges, you can always use sand paper to flatten the edges.
Always practice on bigger pieces first like bonnets or roofs. If you’re not concise then avoid cutting sections on the car that has thin pillars, like doors, hatch doors because 1 mistake and you cut into the pillars the entire car is pretty much ruined.
But really, the more you practice, the easier and quicker it’ll be. I can now do it free hand without the masking tapes.

Simple tip but one that I personally never thought to do! – hope this awesome little tip helps keep you on the straight and narrow and out of cutting trouble moving forward 😉  Now let’s get back to How to Hinge a Hatch – oh I do like a bit of alliteration in the morning :p

How to Hinge a Hatch – What You’ll Need

Pictured above – apart from the obvious things, are Axle Tubing (metal tubing one would normally use to create axle tubes) Axle rods (again, metal rods about around 0.8mm that one would use to make axles) and glue. Douglas uses Humbrol brand Poly Cement and I personally choose to use Superglue. Each to their own and really if you have nothing better to do then here’s an article listing the differences of each!!  Learn All About Glue
*I know right?! Stay tuned for next week when they cover the benefits of watching paint dry, :p

How to Hinge a Hatch – Step 1:

Assuming you have now removed the bonnet, door or rear hatch in preparation, the first thing you need to do is measure the distance where you intend on placing your hinge:

How to Hinge a Hatch – Step 2: 

Measure and cut your axle tubing piece as required:

How to Hinge a Hatch – Step 3: 

Now take a piece of your metal rod (the axle rods) and insert it into the tubing. Make sure there is at least an inch sticking out each end – we will be trimming this as required later so best to have more to work with than less.

 

How to Hinge a Hatch – Step 4: 

We will now be bending the metal rod so that it can serve as the guide or framework that will stick to the inside of the hatch itself. The tubing piece is obviously attached to the main body of the car….
Just giving you a clear picture so you aren’t bending rods willy nilly wondering WTF origami has to do with anything and more importantly why your creation isn’t looking even slightly like a swan?!?!

Starting to take shape – now refer to your car (in this case the Fairlady 260Z) to get all the measurements and finetuning of your hinge right. Refer to following images as well as the hinge attached to the vehicle to get a better idea of how it works and how you can translate this to your own custom hot wheels build:

How to Hinge a Hatch – Step 5: 

Once the fit of your newly created hinge is flush and allows your bootlid, door, bonnet or hatchback to close and open freely it is time to attach it permanently. Douglas chooses to use Poly Cement, I choose to use Superglue (which I apply with a toothpick to make sure I only get tiny drops at a time) – how you decide you want to attach your hinge it entirely up to you.

How to Win at Customising

Thinking outside of the box and coming up with ingenious ways of getting things done is how you win at customising.

Here’s some hinging body panels that Douglas @Carllector Cheung has prepared earlier – and further proof that he is indeed winning at customising 😀

 

 

 

 

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