<p>A couple years ago I picked up this Lesney Speed King in a bag lot of stuff at a thrift store in my hometown. The price was right and since I already had a Sand Cat in my collection, a code 3 modification was definitely in order for this vehicle.</p>

This vehicle with the big Cat on the hood rates up there with the Corgi Lazy Bones in terms of my least favorite die cast vehicles (see Code 3 I did on a Lazy Bones last year). The broken canopy,missing windshield and broken engine exhausts made this a great candidate for a modern dune buggy rethink with a realistic looking ROPS.

<p>A bit of research on custom dune buggies, along with some scale AutoCAD drawings is first on the agenda.</p>
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<p>The ROPS will be reasonable scaled to a proper size if it is fabricated from 1/16 copper or brass wire. I will have to make sure that the tube or rod diameter I use on the ROPS looks proportional for the scale of this model.</p>
<p>I would like to dump the Speedking wheels by adding oversized standard axel mags, taken from Maisto die casts that I have found in surplus or at yard sales, but that decision will be made later.</p>

The Sand Cat was disassembled so that modifications could be more readily determined. The hole in the front hood for the “cat” was filed with Bondo and sanded smooth.

The orange chassis on the Sand Cat was also stripped, but instead of painting, the Zamak was polished to a nice high shine with a Dremel Tool, polishing wheels and lots of rubbing compound.

The body was primed with white primer since it will be painted a light colour. 1/16 brass wire appeared to chunky so I decide to make the ROPS from 20 Ga copper wire based on the research photos in order to get a similar appearance.

This ROPS and wire diameter should look good after a bit of filing and clean-up on the soldered joints.
.050 diameter holes were drilled into the interior to accommodate the base of the wire for a dry fit before painting. The rear ROPS struts were mounted into holes cut into the original Sand Cat’s broken roof mount.

The body was painted with a metallic acrylic touch-up paint in a Mopar Chrysler colour called Styker Orange. I picked up this can at a surplus store for $1.99. The ROPS was originally painted black, like the first research photo, but I found there was not enough contrast with the black interior so it was repainted in Stryker Orange.

The original wheels on this model were different diameters on the front and back. Because of this I never found any good replacement wheels that I liked. The fronts were pretty chewed up on the original so they were replaced with new wheels from my parts box. The original rears went back on the chassis.

Both sets got a touch-up with silver paint. The original exhaust ports were broken on this model when I got it, so they where were replaced with 3/32 acrylic tube that was heated and formed with a nice bend to bear some resemblance to the research photos. The engine components were primed and repainted.

A new windshield was cut from clear acrylic sheet, was formed and mounted to the raised posts on the underside of the body like the original. The body posts were drilled and tapped to receive stainless steel 2-56 UNC screws in place of the original rivets to mount the chassis.

The new Sand Cat poised with its predecessor ready for a boot on the dunes. The Stryker orange body looks like it could use some flashy decals or details to add some character to the new ROPS design

<p>Amazing work and time well spent on this conversion. Nice walk through too. Love the color and only other Roll Cage would be chrome or black chrome or anodizing. This should have been in the Speed Kings line up. </p>

wat a transformation. I really like it. You have excellent skills!!