This is a Hot Wheels Redline Ferrari 312p released exclusively in 1970. I found it at a local antique store for a mere $10. Given the good condition of the wheels and minimal oxidation on the body, it seemed like a good candidate for restoration.
I started by taking the car apart and stripping the paint. Fairly simple stuff. Upon inspecting the body I found very minimal oxidation with almost no pits or dings.
Next step was to bring out some shine in the metal by giving it a quick scrub with a fine steel wool.
Next step was polishing...
And then painting. I used a urethane based copper color from redlineshop.com.
Last step was to paint the rear black and taillights red, then put the car back together using some tiny screws.
Here it is next to a near mint original that I have. Hope you like it!
(This is my first time writing anything substantial on here. Please forgive any mistakes)
Rather surprisingly, considering their rarity, Key Motors has it's fair share of Ford Edsels. Including this one with bullet holes in the windows.
A row of old trucks.
One of my favorites in the yard. An old Chevy El Camino gasser called "High Bucks".
A GMC Sprint sits with what appears to be fairly minimal rust. I'd never heard of these before seeing this one.
Some cars sit in the woods next to the yard like this Ford Rambler Wagon.
Yes, I purchased expired toothpaste. Specifically, the Aquafresh Hot Wheels promotional. These were released in 1993 with 5 different castings and 7 variations. The casting shown here is a more common Thunderstreak race car. Other castings included the Ferrari 348, Surf Patrol, Turbo Streak and Toyota MR2. The Ferrari 348 and Surf Patrol are the more rare castings, but can still be had at the $10-$15 mark as can the rest of them.
In 1973 Mattel was on the verge of bankruptcy and they were thinking about dropping the Hot Wheels line all together. Thankfully, they were convinced otherwise but, to keep production costs to a minimum they switched from the pricey spectraflame paints to dull enamel. In an attempt to garner some excitement, Mattel partnered with Shell to give out free Hot Wheels for customers at their gas stations. These cars came in small plastic baggies with cardboard headers. On the back side, there was a list of all of the available cars.
Here are some of those including Short Order, Swingin' Wing, and Ferrari 512s. While the promotion wasn't exactly successful, Hot Wheels did manage to get back up the following year and introduced tampo printing to give their cars cool paint schemes.
The Herfy's promotion was introduced in 1974 and carried into 1975. There were 5 models listed on the back of the package. Warpath, Volkswagen, Cheif's Special, P-911, and Gremlin Grinder. There were also two unlisted, extremely rare, models. "King Radio" Super Van, and "KGW Radio" Super Van. 
With the exception of the Super Vans, all of the cars were basic tampo designs pulled from the Flying Colors line with the simple addition of the Herfy's logo tampo printed onto the side of the vehicle. Above is a comparison between the Flying Colors P-911 (left) and Herfy's P-911 (right).
The "Spawn Mobile" was a promotional venture by Mattel and Marvel Comics in 1993. It was originally packaged with a copy of a Spawn Comic book. Other than this I don't really know much more about it.
This race car was part of a 4 car promotional set for Gulf Oil. The available models were a Thunderbird, Oil Tanker Truck, Blimp and the above race car. They were a mail-in promotion but I don't know much about them.
Hot Wheels and Van De Kamp's have made a few different promotional cars including a Mustang, VW Drag Bus, and the Deora pictured above. Each car was a limited edition, only 50,000 made of each and only available through the mail-in offer.
The Great American Truck Race was a Hot Wheels track set that was released in 1980. It featured two lanes with a launcher, a loop and finish gate for each. The set also famously included two exclusive trucks, a white Kenworth called "Movin' On" and a red Peterbilt called "Hammer Down". The trucks themselves aren't very special, but the set included stickers that could be applied to distinguish them from the mainline versions. I've always wanted these trucks, but they've always been unjustifiably expensive. So I decided to have a go at replicating them.
Here they are. For Hammer Down I started with a Peterbilt Cement Mixer from the Workhorses series. For Movin' On I started with a white cab that I assume came off a Hiway Hauler, but I'm not really sure. Since the unique factor of these trucks is the stickers, a set was obviously in order. Now, I'm not sure if anyone makes reproduction stickers for these, and honestly I didn't look, but I wasn't going to spend any money on these anyways. So, I designed a set in Google Drawings (because I don't know how to use photoshop) and printed them on some sticker paper. Then it was simply a case of cutting them out and sticking them to the trucks.
Here's the final results. They're perfectly ok, but not without faults. The most noticeable of which I the red color. It's slightly off, maybe a bit too light. Overall, I'm happy with them and they fit right in with the rest of my blackwall collection.
