Taking Apart Hotwheels And Franklin Mint Cars

To diassemble Hot Wheels I drill out the rivets holding the body to the base using a 1/8th" bit, until the collar can be pried off. I use the 1/8th" bit so that all I'm drilling is the rivet, not the base. The body should then separate from the chassis easily. Take note that sometimes grills, diffusers and such can "slide into" the body of certain cars. A good example of this is the roof-on F-50, where the rear grill, lights and lic plate slide through the body.

Once I have the body off, I used to use a small dremel grinding tip to remove the "talons" that hold the axles into their slots. These days, for plastic bases, I have a set of Fiskars spring action "micro-tip" scissors (picture below, available at Walmart) with overlapping tips that I use to just snip the "talons" off. I don't know why Mattel bother with this, because on most cars the "interior" captures the axle and holds it into the slot anyway. Perhaps the "talons" are for ease of assembly at the factory.

Once I have the wheels out I clean up the axle slots using the edge of one of those cardboard nail files. Then, I install the new wheels, reassemble the car and place a drop or two of Loctite's Crazy Glue onto the spot where the rivet head once was. Don't use too much, just enough so that the glue catches both the base and the remains of the rivet. Set aside to dry.

The bond is strong enough for handling and most play, but I wouldn't send custom HW's through any of the HW track sets.

Another way of reassembling that I've seen is to take a 1/16th" drill bit and drill down into the center of the rivet, reassemble the car and then screw a small machine screw into the 1/16th" hole you drilled into the rivet. Cars reassembled this way should be super strong, not that I've had any problems with the crazy Glue method.


As for Franklin Mint stuff, I haven't a clue...
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I tried drilling into the rivet and all it did was break drill bits. Do you have some special tecnique or something?

 

Are you using aluminum drill bits on steel? Try using titanium or tungsten carbide drill bits instead.

 

Set the tip of the bit into the dimple in the center of the rivet and go to town. I'm using the 1/8th" bit out of a $6 Black & Decker "Drill/Driver" set I bought at Walmart. Chews through the rivets like they're cheese.
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