Halloween Hotrods with Tutorial

One of my very favourite projects from last year were the Mad Max hot rods built with my buddy Paula Mould. It's one of those projects that is just so much messy fun. I mean you COULD be neat and proper and make something stunning... or you can let loose and just glue crap to other crap and have a grand old time doing it.

There's Halloween junk all over the Dollarstore aisles and it made me nostalgic and inspired to revisit that project. This time with a video tute (see below) for you to make your own monster machines.

Since this is a dollarstore, stash busting project, it's not going to break the bank.

We're starting out with simple plastic toy cars and trucks.

Embellishing the heck out of them. Giving them a knock out paint job. And ending up with something like this...

They check off most of the boxes for a kid friendly project. They're cheap, fun, neatness isn't exactly a factor. You WILL need to supervise/modify the project depending on age appropriateness (i.e. glue guns are the devil) but it's do-able for and little hotrodders you know.

I've just used my trusty old hot glue gun for this project. If you want something that can be handled (crashed? raced?) and remain somewhat intact, you'll need to invest/experiment with a better method of adhesion. Or, you know, let them be the $3 works of art they are and just enjoy the destruction.

Here's your supply list:

Toy cars: trucks, busses, boats, planes... whatever strikes your fancy!

Halloween swag: skeletons, bugs, beads, bones, skulls, spiders, bats

Black spray paint: I used gloss in the tute... I MUCH prefer flat/matte

Acrylic paint: I mostly used a product from Colourarte called Silks Acrylic Glaze It has a nice pearlescent finish and it was in my stash. Metalics looks super cool.
Paint brush
Sponge brush (for blending)

GLUE: I used hot glue because it's fast and easy. Do what works for you!
Cutting tools: for chopping up spiders and plastic skeletons

Tape: for covering any bits you don't want spray painted

That's it weirdos! Go make something hotroddy!

Here's how to put them together.