Over the past year or so, there’s a fairly good chance you happened to pick up a new hobby or two. Well, whatever those pastimes may have been, we highly doubt you became as proficient in them as this guy is at restoring miniature diecast cars.
With an entire YouTube channel dedicated to the ultra-niche activity, the person behind Restore Machines takes this sort of thing seriously. They’ve documented themselves bringing toy cars and trucks that look as though they’ve been run over by their full-size counterparts, burned, and then rolled around in the mud back to near-toy store fresh condition. Just look at the “before” shot of this LaFerrari.
It looks like it was rear-ended by a semi-truck and left to rot in an apocalyptic wasteland for the last 100 years. Messed up beyond repair, right? Wrong.
Thanks to what is surely lots of experience and expertise (not to mention a deep bench full of handy tools), the mini LaFerrari lives again. The diecast body parts are cleaned, stripped, and repainted. The bent, plastic chassis and aero bits are heated up and straightened out again. The seatbacks weren’t as salvageable but this expert toy car surgeon was able to fabricate his own using a pack of pink putty. I could only wish I cared about anything in life as much as this dude cares about this toy LaFerrari’s seats.
The restoration process is bafflingly meticulous and, admittedly, a little frustrating to watch when you realize a new 1:18-scale LaFerrari from Bburago costs, like, 60 bucks. Although given the 1.6 million views this video has already racked up, this whole endeavor probably makes more financial sense than we think.
Got a tip or question for the author? You can reach them here: chris.tsui@thedrive.com