The Hot Wheels Candy Striper Gasser… Extremely popular among collectors and it seems to be all the rage in the custom Hot Wheels world as well.
Like a lot of people, when the Hot Wheels Redliners ’55 Chevy Bel Air Gasser came out I picked up what I could find. For me that amounted to 3 or 4 although I can’t seem to find #4 at the moment. I didn’t care much for the release but I figured eventually (time permitting) they’d make some cool customs.
I opened one and took some shots a few months back. At that time, I had intentions of drilling it and getting started on a custom gasser. Well, that never happened until this weekend. Here’s a pic of the gasser before I started.
Earlier this week, I got an idea. I wanted to build a Custom Hot Wheels Candy Striper but with a little twist. There are already plenty of customs out there that look very close to the real deal.
Like just about any other custom, I drilled the rivets and took the Gasser apart. The body took a quick bath in paint stripper (I use Aircraft Remover and it was CLEAN in less than 5 minutes). After the paint was gone, I did a quick clean up of casting lines. Since I decided to go in a different direction with this one, the body was not polished to a mirror-like finish. I went with a finish similar as to what is found on the current zamac releases.
After polishing, I sprayed the body with multiple layers of transparent pink. Once the pink was dry, I taped the lines on the roof and sprayed a pearl white. Finally, I laid down a few coats of clear in preparation for the decals.
I found a few good Candy Striper reference images on Google and got started on the decal design. I could have sourced decals but I’ve got the abilities and equipment so I chose to make them myself. I draw all of my decals in Illustrator – not that it matters. After the designs were complete, the decals were printed and then applied to the body.
After the Microsol dried, I sprayed a few more coats of clear. This helps the edges of the decals ‘disappear’. It’s hard to tell they are decals if done correctly.
I didn’t take many pics of the build but here are two. The body after polish and paint and the finished decals.
Finally, the fun part. The Candy Striper gets whacked with the ugly stick. Weathering, rust, and dirt. I could write an entire article on my various processes. Maybe I will – stay tuned. 😉
Blah blah blah, blah blah blah. That’s probably what your hearing at this point. LOL. Here’s some pics of the finished Custom Hot Wheels Candy Striper. The trend is dead… 😉
