How to Make a Hot Wheels Keychain (or Bag Charm): With and Without Drilling

Pick the car first

Start with a car you don't mind changing for good: a duplicate, or a loose car that is already chipped. Keep carded cars, and any car you may want to keep original, for the no-drill methods. The hobby site Dad's Custom Creations, writing about drilling cars apart for customizing, calls it "trial and error" and suggests practicing "on a few donor or scrap cars" first. The same goes for a keychain hole.

Then turn the car over. A 2015 Instructables tutorial, "Hot Wheels Car Key", describes two rivets joining "the metal body to the plastic undercarriage" as "a consistent feature in almost all Hot Wheels", but its author also notes that models vary. So check whether your base is plastic or metal before you choose a spot: a plastic base gives a screw eye less to bite into, and a metal one needs bits suited to metal, as the tutorial recommends, and slow drilling.

Size matters for a holder or a case, not for drilling. Hot Wheels aren't all exactly 1:64 (our guide to what scale Hot Wheels are explains why), so check your car against the holder or case instead of assuming.

Five ways to hang a car from keys or a bag

Every DIY Hot Wheels keychain comes down to one of these. The two Yes/No columns are the ones to decide on.

The "car key" build sets a real key inside the car's body; it is a bigger project, and the Instructables tutorial covers it step by step.

How to drill a Hot Wheels car for a keychain, step by step

This is the drill method for a Hot Wheels keychain car: a screw eye in the base and a split ring through the eye. Drilling is permanent. Once there is a hole in the base, the car is no longer factory-original.

What you need: a drill with small bits suited to metal, a vise or clamp, a scrap of fabric, a small screw eye, a split ring, eye protection and close-fitting gloves. The Instructables tutorial lists the same basics (a power drill and bit set, a bench vise "or similar", safety gear). Choose the screw eye first, because it decides the hole.

Where to drill: a general guide

Castings differ, so this is general guidance, not a rule for your car. Keep away from the axles, so the bit doesn't hit them or crack the plastic around them. Stay clear of the rivet posts that hold body and base together: drilling them out is how hobbyists take a car apart, which is not the goal here. Avoid the open middle of the base, where thin material sits over the hollow body and a screw eye has little to grip. Look for a solid spot at the ends, in front of the front axle or behind the rear one. The Instructables build, which runs a key ring through the body instead of using a screw eye, put its hole "along the back bumper".

The steps

1. Clamp the car. Hold it in a vise or clamp so it cannot spin when the bit bites. The Instructables author put "small pieces of fabric" between the vise and the car to keep the paint from being scratched.
2. Put on eye protection. The same tutorial says to wear gloves and eye protection, "especially when drilling or grinding into metal". Keep gloves close-fitting, and keep loose sleeves, jewelry and long hair away from the spinning bit. Brush the metal shavings away afterwards; don't blow them.
3. Mark the spot. Pick a solid part of the base (see above) and make a small dent or pen mark so the bit doesn't wander.
4. Drill a small pilot hole, slowly. Dad's Custom Creations finds "a medium to slow speed works well" when drilling out a car's rivet. Hunker's guide to eye hooks, which is written for wood, says to use a bit "slightly smaller than the diameter of the screw threads" and to drill a hole "as deep as the shaft is long". On a car the solid part is often thin, with the hollow body behind it, so pick a screw eye with a short thread and drill no deeper than that thread.
5. Twist in the screw eye. Turn it clockwise by hand while pressing down. For the last turns, slide a thin screwdriver, or a nail if the eye is too small, through the eye and use it as a lever, as Hunker describes.
6. Add the split ring. Open the ring, feed it through the eye and thread on your keys or a clip.

Before you add keys, tug the ring firmly. If the screw eye turns freely or starts to pull out, the hole is too big or the material too thin: move to a more solid spot, or set the eye in an epoxy suitable for metal and plastic, the kind the Instructables build uses. Glue makes the change even more permanent.

No-drill options and what they cost you

If the car should stay as it came, it has to be held rather than pierced. Each of the three ways gives something up.

A mount on the base. Instead of drilling the car yourself, you fix a ready-made adapter under it. Triple Seven says its carbon-fiber Hot Wheels Keychain Mount "attaches to the base without damaging your car". Before you choose any mount, read how it attaches: one that needs glue is as permanent as a hole. A mount holds the car but doesn't cover it.

A 3D-printed holder with rubber bands. Print files for these are shared on sites such as MakerWorld. One listing there, the Pocket Garage, describes a two-part holder that grips the car with two small rubber bands between the wheels and the wheel arches, without glue, magnets or changes to the car. The trade-offs: bands stretch with age, so replace them once they look tired, and the plastic matters if your keys spend time in a hot car (see the FAQ on PLA below).

A closed case for a loose car. The car sits inside a clear box that hangs from the keys, so it is covered as well as untouched. Interiors vary, and our guide to choosing a Hot Wheels keychain case covers what to compare.

Keys or bag? Why a bag charm is a different job

On a keyring, a car spends its day in a pocket with metal keys: paint wear is the main cost. As a car bag charm on a backpack or tote, it swings with every step, knocks against the bag and pulls on its attachment the whole time.

So the connection is the part to watch. A screw eye in a plastic base, a rubber band or a printed loop carries all of the car's weight and swing. On a bag, check it more often, and clip the car to a strap ring or a loop sewn onto the bag rather than to a zip pull.

For the hardware, a TeachEngineering keychain worksheet lists the usual holders, among them circular rings, latch clips, carabiner clips and swivel snap hooks. A split ring keeps the car tight against the keys; a clip on a short strap lets it hang away from them, but it swings more.

No drilling: will your car fit our case?

If you want a car on your keys without a hole in it, a closed case is the no-drill option that leaves the casting exactly as it came. We make the Kicar Pocket Case, a 1:64 diecast keychain case with a 90 × 38 × 25 mm interior. Nothing is drilled or glued: the car is strapped to a base plate with a rubber band and a wire band, and the plate is screwed into the case. A lanyard runs through a lug moulded into the case body and ends in a carabiner clip, so it goes on a keyring or a bag strap.

Check the height first. The car, including any spoiler or roof rack, needs to be under 25 mm tall, ideally with about 1 mm to spare. Regular Hot Wheels cars are usually about 65–75 mm long, well inside 90 mm, so most should fit; tall pickups and vans are the ones to measure. Our 1:64 scale size guide has true-scale sizes, and the keychain case guide covers cases in general.