Hello and welcome along to a very special
edition of DieCastRestos. I'm Jason and today I'm customising this Hot Wheels
'91 Mazda MX-5 Miata to replicate one of YouTube's most iconic project cars.
I'll be turning this model into Phil, Autoalex's 1995 3 litre V6-powered build that
has been the star of his channel and precursor Car Throttle for almost nine years at the time
of recording. Let's take a closer look at Phil. The first things I sourced were these wheels to
match Phil's Rota TBTs.
These are actually based on SSR Type X wheels but they were the closest
I could find find pre-made at this scale. Once painted and fitted with tyres they should
look pretty similar I think. I won't talk through the full process of how to dismantle and
customise or restore a diecast in this video, but if you click the link here you'll find
a helpful guide I made restoring a Matchbox Ford Escort RS2000. I list all of the tools I
use on screen, but if you want any advice or tips drop me a mes
sage in the comments or DM me
on Instagram @diecastrestos. I read all of your comments so feel free to reach out. So, why did I
choose to do a custom Phil replica? Well I've been a longtime subscriber to Car Throttle initially
before subbing to Autoalex on day one after he made his brave move to go it alone. One of the
series that interested me most was Project MX-5 that first went out in April 2015. Nothing beats
that pure rollercoaster of sheer frustration and utter despair of things goin
g wrong, to the
highs of that first firing up of an engine post-swap. Certainly in UK car circles Phil has
become a bit of an icon. Being a project car, Phil will of course change in both mechanics and
appearance over time. Therefore my custom will be a snapshot of Phil as of late February 2024. When
I'm done, Lil' Phil as I'm dubbing him will be sent on his way to Alex. It's my token of thanks
for keeping me entertained week in, week out. Phil has a 3 litre Jaguar V6 mated to the
original
5-speed MX-5 gearbox and it has a valved exhaust system. Inside it has Tillett
bucket seats, harnesses, and rollover bars, while outside it has extended wheel arches, a
carbon fibre ducktail spoiler and rear panel, has the aforementioned Rota TBT wheels, and
it has 'expertly' fitted hood vents! To get to know more about Phil, I'll leave a link here to
Alex's video with Richard Hammond where he takes Richard for a spin in Phil. Phil is painted in
Mazda Soul Red which I've got to recreate al
ong with Phil's multitude of stickers and trinkets
pasted all over it. That's all covered in a 4 and a 1/2 minute decal application segment in
this video played at double-to-quadruple speed, so you might be able to appreciate how long this
decal design took in real time. Don't worry, I'll warn you when this section's coming up
if you'd rather skip over it! Right now though I'm applying the grey primer to Lil' Phil in
readiness for the red coats. Anyway onto the interior piece. Hot Wheels pr
ovided this casting
with a cylindrical plastic lump for a steering wheel. However it made for a decent steering
column for me to fit this 3D printed steering wheel to replicate Phil's Momo one, albeit on
the wrong side. I fully appreciate I'm not the best customiser out there and have never built
an interior from scratch as it's not my forte. I like to make use with what I already have, so
Phil stays left-hand drive for this custom I'm afraid! But let's gloss over that minor fact while
I m
odify the base. I'm losing that horrible lump of plastic for an exhaust in order to replicate
Phil's twin exit gated system. I'll fit that to the the base using aluminium tubing after washing
the plastic pieces and painting Lil' Phil red. So to match Mazda Soul Red I'm painting Lil'
Phil in a single base coat of Tamiya's TS-95 Pure Metallic Red. This will give it
a subtle metallic sparkle to produce a similar candy effect. I didn't want
the metallic flake to be as obvious on the final coat,
so over the TS-95
goes TS-74 Clear Red in two coats. This is after one coat and it's already looking
very similar to the Soul Red. If I wasn't already excited by this project, it was at this point that
I became positively giddy! Now back to the exhaust system. For the tailpipes I'm glueing down two cut
pieces of aluminium tubing with an outer diameter of 2mm and inner of 1.1mm. Then for the narrower
pipes I'm using 1mm outer diameter and 0.8mm inner diameter tubing with a crimped end to ke
ep it tidy
underneath. I'll limit my exhaust detailing to this section but I will fill the moulded plastic
design with some chrome paint from my paint pen. In hindsight I probably, definitely, should
have primed and painted the steering wheel before fitting it. But at least this way I
should end up with one solid coat of black over the entire piece. Next the windscreen
piece is polished first using Polywatch scratch remover for plastics. It's removed a
lot of those fine scuffs seeing as th
is was a pre-loved example I picked up on eBay.
Secondly it's dunked in wood floor polish which will give it some zing and really make
it pop. And now I paint the interior black again. It'll be beneficial in the long run as
there's plenty of detailing to be done here. The windscreen now polished needed its
surround drawn in. For that I lay down a base layer of Molotow chrome. The frame and
seals I also draw in using my 0.7mm pens by Artistro. The visors are completed too. Next
I attend to
the base chrome for all the cars lighting as well as the chrome door handles. I
had planned to fit a 3D printed roof to Phil, but the quality was just not there. I was pretty
skeptical about it anyway as it would take a lot of the detailing away if anything. Besides an MX-5
is meant to be a roadster, not a hardtop! The side light and turn signal lamps are replaced by turn
signal air intake units so are painted black. Just look at how similar the red Sharpie looks to the
body paint colour he
re. It's a great match. These running lights and reflectors are all now covered
with orange Sharpie. But I've missed some though, the side repeaters. I do come back to them
later on when I finally realised my mistake. Again here's that red Sharpie on
chrome looking identical to the body colour. I've always used Sharpie over
a chrome base for the taillights and turn signals as I find it gives a much more
realistic level of depth to the lamps. Onto the interior next which I attack with a
var
iety of Artistro paint pens. I've drawn in the red stitched upholstery that Phil has as
an interior, then the silver vent surrounds, yellow centre marker on the steering wheel, red
eject button, and now some more upholstery at the back of the cabin. The green of Phil's
Takata harnesses are drawn in along with the yellow pin stripes in the same pattern
as the exterior decals shortly afterwards. Here's the base for the missing side repeaters
and now the final touches to the window piece. I ma
naged to just about draw in the tear-shaped
speaker surrounds in the door cards before adding in the last of the exterior colour application.
I always coat the exterior lighting with Citadel Gloss Nuln Oil as it helps to differentiate
the lighting from the rest of the body, especially on red cars. It just gives it that
little extra touch of depth and realism I feel. Okay, 30 second warning, decal application
is coming up! I designed all of these after meticulously studying Alex's videos for
hours
on end. At this point he was totally unaware of this project. I wanted to get the stickers
and finer details just right. The smallest of these were just 1mm by 1mm and they all found
their way onto the model, eventually! First I apply the front registration plate to a piece
of thin white styrene. The casting handily has a registration bracket ready made, so this will
be glued to it later on. I had to make the yellow stripes a bit thicker than they are in reality
as I didn't want to
use clear waterslide paper. Lighter colours like yellow get washed out
by darker body colours when printed on clear, so all but the bonnet vents and faint
Mazda badge were printed on white-backed decal paper. Even though they were a bit
denser than I would have ideally liked, I'm still quite content with their look. But it's
early doors yet as now the bonnet vents are added in over the top of the stripes. There's no
lacquer peel here Alex, don't you worry! Next it's the turn of the fiddly M
azda emblem
which is barely visible. Then it's the carbon ducktail spoiler, Moss Miata and Tillett
Racing Seats stickers to the left-hand side, and Saunders Detailing and Taylor
Made Car stickers to the right. Now it's the biggie. I spent an age finding out
what stickers the rear panel had, scaling it, and finalising its design. So it has
the carbon backing, registration plate, and right-to-left classic Nürburgring
sticker, Save the Multipla, AutoAlex, Shitbox Appreciation Society, Tillett
,
Carbon Miata, Petrol Heart, Raw Cult, and Taylor Made Cars stickers crammed
into that tiny space. Speaking of tiny, here's the Phillest side quarter sticker. I'm
sure I've missed something but my eyes wouldn't forgive me for staring at any more freeze frames
of Phil. Now I'm locking in all of those decals with Mr Mark Softer Solution which helps to soften
and secure decals ahead of a clear coat later on. Like the waterslides, any excess moisture from
the Mr Mark is rolled out with a cott
on bud. Moving on to the interior, first to
go in is the 'Shut Up! I Fucking Got This' armrest sticker. I think that's turned
out pretty well. Now I begin the fun part; the collection of teeny tiny stickers. The
Tillett racing seats have Tillett Racing Seats decals fitted to the headrests. Then another
Tillett sticker is added to the left rollover bar upright. After this comes an ACT Advanced
Clutch Technology decal on the top horizontal bar. On the left diagonal bar which isn't
moulded in
, Alex has another Moss sticker and a Nürburgring BridgetoGantry.com sticker. On
the opposing bar we find an EBC Brakes sticker and another Moss sticker on the right upright.
Lastly and despite it technically being on the base of the hardtop window goes a Wrench Studios
sticker. And that was that. All of the decals are now affixed and we'll be ready to move on to
clear coating the lot to protect them all next. That was until I logged into
to Instagram and saw this... Phil had a new registra
tion plate! So I
posted my progress on Instagram and got a response from Alex. I had to ask the question... [Alex] 'old out yer 'and! It wasn't any trouble really. I
designed these plates to match Phil's new look and set to work on applying them. I opted to layer the new plate over the old one
on the rear rather than replace the entire back end big decal. I think it looks fine and if it
wasn't for this video evidence you'd be none the wiser. And then finally, finally, we can
clear coat the
interior and body. I wouldn't usually clear coat a plastic interior but I
made an exception considering all of the tiny sticker replicas and painted in details.
Each had two helpings of clear lacquer. Last thing before reassembly is
the front plate which I glue over that helpfully positioned flat area on the
Hot Wheels casting. And there we have it! Let's put Lil' Phil together for the first
time. I first slot in the plastic windscreen piece. After that comes the interior.
And then it's th
e turn of the base. That clicks over the two tapped rivet posts
and each receives a 3mm M2 screw to complete the build. So let's remind ourselves how
the casting started out. It's a pretty cool little model of a slightly modified MX-5
with its wider arches, splitter, roll bar, and ducktail spoiler. These features lent themselves
perfectly to a conversion to the king of MX-5s, AutoAlex's Phil! I spent a long time trying to
perfect my replica by matching the carbon, decals, colour, and interi
or. Was my effort worth it? Tell
me in the comments how I did. I wanted this to be my tribute to one of the most popular project
cars on YouTube, so I set my standards high for this custom. Matching the paint was my key first
step in recreating Phil. With that and the wheels, the decal design work came next which
was time well invested, especially on the tail end. The tailpipe addition is another
transformative feature of an interesting be-hind. From top-down we can appreciate the Shut Up!
decal between the seats. Like I said before, I'm far from the best at creating intricate
at custom interiors but I do try my best with the interiors I'm given by the manufacturer.
Another feature you can appreciate from above is the windscreen frame. To me it's incredible
that some chrome paint and red Sharpie match the body paint combo of Pure Metallic and Clear reds.
Let me know if there's anything you think I could improve on. All feedback is welcome as without it
this channel probably
wouldn't exist. I just want to thank Alex for both the inspiration and his
receptiveness to my little project. He's a top guy. I also want to thank you for watching. If
you'd like to see more projects like this and more YouTube car recreations, leave the video a
like. Make sure that you hit that subscribe button to stay up to date with all my releases and stay
tuned for some gratuitous photos with some extra Phil footage in the outro. So thanks for watching
and see you again for the next on
e. Bye for now!
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