Episode: 3136
Title: HPR3136: Matchbox Restoration Part 6
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3136/hpr3136.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-24 17:34:48

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3136 for Monday, 10 August 2020. Today's show is entitled,
Matchbox Restoration Part 6,
and is part of the series' model hacking. It is hosted by Tony Hughes, aka Tony H1212,
and is about five minutes long, and carries a clean flag. The summary is,
Matchbox Cars, Diecast Models, Restoration, Reassembly of the Model.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by archive.org. Support universal access to all knowledge
by heading over to archive.org forward slash donate.
Music
Good day to all in Hacker Public Radio Land. This is Tony Hughes,
coming to you from Blackpool in the UK then. To recap, this is the sixth in a series of shows
about my hobby of restoring Matchbox and other Diecast models.
In the last show, I went through the process I used to paint and prepare the casting for Reassembly.
In this episode, I will discuss how I put back the wheels onto the base
and reassemble the final model before revealing in the show notes pictures
of how the model came out. So before putting back the plastic wheels onto the axles,
I polished the axles in my drill bit using a little bit of fine wet and dry emery paper,
and that will be picture one in the show note. After selecting the best four of the plastic tyres
from the models we originally dismantled, I washed these in a little soapy water.
After drying, these were fit for putting back on the restored model.
The cleaned up axle is assembled on the base with the first tyre in place
with the large dome end of the axle sat on a nail punch holding a vice.
The second tyre is then placed on the axle and holding all this in place.
A small hammer is used to pin over the end of the axle by hitting it gently,
so the end is pinned over, but the axle does not bend.
This can take quite a long time, you know, you have to hit it gently for maybe 50 or 100 times
before there's enough pin over to stop the tyre coming off.
It is possible to do this stage in the drill press using another nail punch in the drill chuck,
but I do not have a drill press at the moment, so I have to do this the old school way
with a bit of brute force in ignorance, and that's picture two.
So we now have all the parts ready for reassembly.
The base has the axles and wheels back on.
The screen has been polished and the plastic is eaten given a cleaning soapy water and dried,
and the body is repainted and ready to go, and that's in picture three,
and you can see all the assembled parts.
So being careful not to damage the paintwork, the cast is placed with the base side up
and the windy unit is placed into it, and that's in picture four, followed by the plastic interior.
The eagle eye among you will notice the colour change in the bodywork,
as I forgot to take a picture of this stage on the gold model.
You have to ensure that the tab with the toe hitch, yes, max box, but a toe hitch on a Bosch car,
is fully over the retaining post or the base will not seat properly, and that's picture five.
The base is then placed back on the model base, sliding it over the tab at the front
and clicking it down over the rivet post, and that's picture six.
I then use some five-setting fix UV glue to glue around the post to hold it in place.
You can also drill out the post with a 1.5mm drill, and using an M2 tab,
then use a small M2 screw to hold the base in place.
But in this case, I was happy with the glitters, it was for display,
and will not be handled frequently enough to require the more secure retention of a screw.
With these small models, there is a risk of damaging the post while drilling and tapping them,
so it's personal preference as to the method used to hold it all together in.
And if you decide you don't or you don't have the five-setting fix,
you can use super gluing in place at that, and some people feel that that's a more secure hold,
and that's picture seven and eight.
The model is now complete and the final picture in the show notes is a small collection
of what it looks like now.
Now it's ready to display again.
And I think it looks quite good, and that's picture nine.
So that's the story of how to restore a die cast model back from the deck.
Well, almost.
So that's the story of how to restore a die cast model back from the deck.
Well, almost.
These small models are comparatively easy,
but with some of the larger scale models with many more parts,
it can take many days to restore and require a lot of patience to do so.
But from small beginnings, we all start maybe in the future,
I'll tackle, I will feel confident enough to tackle something a little more complicated.
I've recently done a few models with opening doors,
which have a retaining spring holding in place.
So I am getting a little bit more confident what I'm doing.
So this short story is finished.
So this is Tony Hughes for Hacker Public Radio and saying goodbye for now.
Keep safe, everyone, and I'll be back at some time with another show.
At the moment, I'm not sure about what, but I will be back.
So Ken, you can rest assured.
I still owe you a show.
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