Breaking Baja

I have a kind of love-hate thing with the Hot Wheels Baja Breaker.  I love the off-road van schtick and the little details like the round portholes and window louvers.  The thing I don't like, nah, even hate is that the axles always seem to be way too long.  When the wheels stick almost completely outside of the wheel-well it is not a pretty thing.

So after drilling and tapping (an all that) I opened up the Baja Breaker and I face another problem.  In most modern die-cast that I have worked on there are posts that hold down the axles in addition to the small clips folded over the axles.  The Baja Breaker is an exception, the only thing retaining the axles are the plastic clips folded over the axles.  This required a bit of ginger manipulation but I was able to flex the chassis enough to squeeze the axles past the clips.  Truth be told I would be reluctant to perform a swap on one of these in the future unless I could find a more sure-fire way to secure the axles.

So here you have it, the Baja Breaker with some nice Matchbox wheels.  A thing of beauty.