Decal bubbles & friction shocks

[Happy Meal]

Decals

How do you get the Tamiya stikers to follow a curvy shape without creasing, bubbling & lifting at the edges [V]??

Did anybody else find the Castrol Celica GT4 a pain to sticker up [}]?

Friction shocks

The standard Tamiya friction shocks supplied with most of the cheaper kits don't absorb shocks, their useless[)]. Anybody know of an easy way to fix em (without buying oil filled ones).

Cheers.

[minijosh]

What do you mean fix them? You mean make them really work like shocks should? Well my friend, I would like a happy meal too but you are gonna have to upgrade your cars shocks. Look for someone who has upgraded their cars with the expensive shocks and offer them a few bucks for their kit shocks.

[jacolouw]

In some cases some silicon oil in the/on the inside of the friction shock help a bit to smooth things out. But to get the real shock feel/handling - oil shocks.

Jakes

[DJTheo]

You can also try some grease in the friction shocks.

For the decals, heating them up a bit with a hair dryer while applying might help.

Cheers

[mud4fun]

When applying decals I use a clean dry cloth and place one edge of the decal in place then rub gently from the centre outwards or side to side as you gradually drop the rest of the decal into place. This should force the air out from under the decal as it goes into place. I did a Peugeout 306 Maxi shell a few months ago and that has some truly awful stickers to apply but managed to get no bubbles using the above technique. Have a look at the pics in the showroom.

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For really rounded contours it may be better to touch the centre of the sticker in place and then rub the air out from the middle outwards.

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Friction shocks shoud be binned. If it is a buggy you can get CVA shocks quite cheap on ebay, sometimes I see wrecked old chassis fitted with CVA's so I buy the whole thing just for the shocks. For touring cars your LHS should stock inexpensive oil filled units. I can get aluminium bodied adjustable shocks for £17/pair and non adjustable plastic ones for £10/pair. They make a big difference to handling.

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WARNING - if you fit oil filled units to a car designed for friction shocks make sure you use soft springs and damper oil. If you set the dampers too hard they may cause premature failure of your upper/lower shock mounts. This is especially true of the current crop of cheap tamiya buggies. Mad Bull etc - I talk from personal experience []

[zakspeed]

ref the air bubbles - on some of the larger decals I use a basic garden type water spray / Or a damp cloth. Wet the body and then place decal on one end, hold in place and slide into situe. You think putting water in isn't going to work and they won't stick but they do. Just squeeze the decal with a cloth and let the water squeeze out.

An obvious one but make sure you haven't just waxed the car body up first. Give it a really good clean with a degreaser before applying the decals.

The thing with the Tamiya decals is they are so thin, and crease dead easy. I used the above method on my mudblaster and it worked really well.

[dave.t1]

For really tricky detail I use a hair dryer. The decals go soft and will then bend and stretch round. Typical applications would be front and rear headlights, etc. Too much heat and the decal will stretch and will become useless...