Yeah, I’m addicted. I’m not too big to admit it. I love these little cars. I hunt a few times a week. I have a huge collection. I give them out with nearly every order.
I love Hot Wheels.
I also love Miatas.
This is going somewhere…
In 2016, Hot Wheels did an ND Miata. It’s a really pretty one. Rollbar, nice proportions, front intercooler. They did a few different colors on the car. This red one was the first livery. Simple, but really cool. A big roundel on the door, some swooshy side graphics. It works well with the car.
And for the past 41 years, I’ve basically been a little kid who’s always wanted to drive a Hot Wheels of his own.
And so…
… I made my ND into a Hot Wheels.
See, after putting some numbers on Mona’s doors, I got bit by the livery bug. I started trying to figure out what I could do. I have huge vinyl printers and this nice blank canvas. Seemed like a livery would be fun. My eyes turned to my Hot Wheels collection.
I thought the first version red ND would be a good place to start.
The graphics are simple. I just used simple cut white vinyl. No ink required. I grabbed a quick google photo of an ND profile, laid out the graphics on it in Illustrator, and sent the shapes to the printer to get cut. A couple of hours later, Ramona had a Hot Wheels livery!
Driving THIS in traffic is way too much fun. Kids smile and wave. Grown ups smile and wave. People wanna chat. It’s… pure fun.
Just like a Hot Wheels.
And while the vinyl isn’t meant to stay on there permanently or anything, it’s fun for now. A fun first step. I learned enough with this first dip into full-size car livery that I’m ready for the next round. I might put more than 15 minutes into the livery design and actually measure the car before printing and cutting…
oh yeah, I did this also.
An hour or so of playing in Photoshop and I have my own car under a blister.
Needless to say, my inner child is extremely happy about this.
Great story. Having nothing for scale in the first ND photo is very clever. Thanks for sharing.