Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Custom hot wheels escalade

We wanted to gift my son with a hot wheels Audi R8 for his 2nd birthday. Unfortunately, Toys R Us stopped selling these and were completely sold out.

Plan B was to get a white Hot Wheels Escalade to match mine. Only problem there is that they only sell Hot Wheels Escalades in black or pink. Solution to that: we found a black Escalade on Craigslist and painted it ourselves.

First we had to prep the car to be painted so we removed any easily removable parts (i.e. Tail lights, hood, front grill) and washed them with soap and water. We also washed the car itself (well the parts to be painted, so not the wheels/rims) with soap and water, careful to avoid getting water in the "interior" or any electrical components. After drying anything that hadn't already air dried, we taped off anything that shouldn't be painted with painters tape and plastic bags (I also used tape to cover the original decals)





Next was the painting. I bought white (for the body) and silver (for the grill) spray paint from Walmart. 
I bought Krylon Fusion (spraypaint for plastic)


As far as how much paint to buy: I went through about 4-5 cans of the white for the body and just one can for the grill. I also bought 2 cans of clear glossy to act as a top coat but, to be honest, I'm not sure if it made much of a difference. 
Also I don't even know how many layers I did. I would spray 3-4 thin, light layers at a time with 15-30 min in between to allow for drying. I did this over 3 days.


And our final product:

 

The paint was easily scratched up to a few days after it was finished. Now, a few months later, the paint has definetly bonded with the plastic and not so easy to come off.

Monday, February 9, 2015

DIY diaper pail deordorizer

As much as I like our Diaper Genie, and the convenience of not having to go downstairs and outside every time I need to toss a diaper, there is only so much this diaper pail can do about the "not-so-pleasant" smell that it blasts out when I use it. 

I went ahead and added a built in deodorizer/air freshener. Using "sneaker balls" - these can be found at any Sports Authority or shoe store and maybe even Walmart.



Open the Sneaker ball vents and simply glue gun it to the underside if the Diaper Genie lid. 


When scent/effectiveness of the sneaker ball runs out, you can pop it off the lid and glue on a new one.