Hot Wheels released their version of the British-made Lotus Esprit in 1979 and called it "Royal Flash." The first version was in white, and apparently it was only released one more time, in orange. I started with an old first version model and decided it needed to be "brought back to life" by restoring it. Rather than recreating the original paint scheme, I decided to go with a finish in blue that would look deep. This would be achieved by using a certain kind of candy apple-type paint over a base coat of chrome silver. The car itself was in decent shape, as you can see by the above photo, but the wheels were pretty worn. I opted to update the wheels as well. 
Here's a view of the base, showing some age, but not pitted anywhere. The way it was designed employed only one rivet instead of the usual two. This would be drilled out and the body pieces would be cleaned and the paint stripped. 
Here's another view showing how the original paint was heavily chipped at most edges and the tampo in red, white and blue was all but gone from the roof. Despite this, I thought it had a lot of potential.
Here it is after the paint had been stripped and I was trying out some Hot Wheels real rider tires to see what they would look like. They ended up being a little too thick for the look I was going for, so I decided against using them.
This image shows all the different pieces laid out, newly cleaned and the body sporting it's base coat of chrome silver. The plastic window glass piece wasn't cracked anywhere and shined up nicely.
Here it is again with a test fit of the newly-painted body and with some different wheels and tires. It was starting to look like it would turn out nice and with a good "stance."
And here is the finished car, with it's new deep blue paint and the modern wheels fitted. It certainly brings the car into the modern era and gives it a distinctive look all it's own. I had a lot of fun working on this project and I can't wait for the next one!
Suntoys Toyota Tacoma 
