I hate hard bodys.

[dhes2809]

Well I got one. My first hard body. Juggernaut 2. £70 with everything brand new in the bags. I have been dredding painting it since I won the auction. It arrived yesterday and as I was off work I set about building it []. Spent 3 hours painting all the detail work on the grille and bumpers and they turned out great []. Then I start on the body itself and thats when it all went so so wrong [V]. The main reson why im not good at painting on the outside of things is because I have no patience [:I]. I apply the gun metal grey metalic and its looking great. Let it dry and its very dull, so I decide to go to the LHS to buy some laquer. I apply the laquer and leave it for an hour to go off. When I come back the body now is a kind of zebra mixture of flat and metalic grey. Im gutted. So stupid me thinks Ill paint over the top with real car paint. Got a tin from the garage spary the body and once again looks stunning []. Give it a few coats of real car laqure and the paint starts to run down the sides [V]. Even more gutted [][]. So I search for some brake fluid in the garage. Non. so I use turps and a tooth brush but it seems to have burnt a layer of plastic from the body leaving a rough surface and deap marks. I know this is entirely my own fault but is there anything I can do?

Please help.

Thanks

[WillyChang]

Nup, turps and most solvents will dissolve the white ABS plastics.

Your best route is to find another Jugg body sprue, they are cheaper

without the extra bits & stickers... but rarer these days though.

If the plastic isn't badly deformed & its only surface damage then

maybe it can be salvaged by sanding it down to solid base and then

rebuilding it with putty etc -- but this will be an EXTREMELY

time consuming job requiring LOTS of patience... [:I]

[Stefan(2)]

what worked for me:

remove paint, in whatever way you are like to do it..

Tape off , with a small body mask tape, the fine lines in the chassis you want to keep (like , door line's ect..)..

Then, buy a can of spray filler

spray thin layers over the body.. dry... spray ... dry ... ect..

do this about 2 or 3 times, depending how deep the minor damage is.

If all workes out, u now have only (or more) , deep damage left..

fill those with normal filler (and, don't overdo it )

sand...

sand again..

keep sanding until u thing.. "no more please"

Them , put a new layer of spray-filler over it.. sand a bit..

Then, do the next attempt to paint the body

Stefan

[Igottamiya]

Mate,

To be honest I'd get another body and start again[].

The Tamiya hard bodies are detailed - I would have imagined the painting process would take about a week considering the priming, rubbing down, spraying, rubbing down, spraying, rubbing down... and drying stages involved.

You are also based in the UK [?]- isn't it a bit cold for the paint to cure properly - or are you doing it in indoors [?].

[Jugger0]

I just finished a Jugg body last night. Its come out great, smooth and really shiny only using Tamiya TS paint. I started by giving the bare shell a good clean with panel wipe (very mild spirit car paint shops use) to remove any grease. Placed it on a clean surface and started spraying. Put a light base coat down first then cover the shell with a box (to stop dust settling on it), give it a few mins to dry then applied another light coat and covered with box again, repeated this 5 or 6 times until it was completely painted. Now at this point once it was dry the finish was very 'orange peely', I fixed this by cutting the surface back with some T-Cut (if the surface was particulary bad you could use 2000 grade wet and dry paper to flat it off and cut it back). Gave it another clean with panel wipe and gave it another couple of coats of paint and result. Just need to detail it up now.

I'm guessing if you'd cut back the original painted surface and refinished it with a few more coats it would of come out good. You just have to put it down to experience and start again.

[Tamiya01478]

I'll paint it for you if you want, let me know on CPrasher@aol.com

I also wrote an article on this subject some time ago....

Painting Hard-plastic bodies.

The first thing I do when re-painting hard plastic bodies is to see if I can find any cracks or splits. If you can then the best thing to do is to smear it with poly cement or super glue, wait until it is completely dry, and sand it flat. This will be invisible when you paint it.

The next thing to do is to soak it in boiling water with bath cleaner in it. I find this will take off any loose flakes and similar. After I have done that I rub nail polish remover into the body, this removes some of the paint.

Next I buy some fairly course sand-paper and rub he body down all over with it. After I have done this I buy some very fine sand-paper and rub the body down again. This gives a good surface for the paint to adhere to.

After you have done this give it a really good wash to get rid of any dust from the sanding.

At this stage it is ready to paint. Some people will spray it with undercoat and then paint but I find that there is no real need to do this and I just paint straight on and then laquer it.

To do this properly paint on thin layers from about a foot away, in between each coat sand very lightly. Do this for as many coats as you think neccessary and then paint one more coat. Do not sand this coat as this is the coat which you are going to stick the decals on.

I find the best way to stick the decals on is to first thouroughly wet the body with a strong soapy solution, do the same with decals and this will enable you to move them about a bit if you place it wonkily the first time. When you have applied the decal squeeze the water out from underneath it by pushing the water out with a cloth.

When you applied the decals I find there is one last stage which really makes it look good. Get some clear car laquer and spray this on using thin coats. I would advise this for all decals apart from the transfer type which are quite fragile.

When you have done this you will hopefully have a beautiful body to enjoy!

[Jozza(2)]

Sorry dhes2809, but you need patience to get a good finish. Light coats of Tamiya paint will give you a fantastic shine, but blowing it all on quickly won't, and as you've discovered it ends up taking longer to fix it.

I've successfully sorted out runs on Lexan by using fine wet and dry sandpaper (used wet) to flatten out the runs, and then overspraying gently with an airbrush. It's easier to do this on a hard body, but make sure all old paint is removed before priming and painting.

And next time, take your time, it will be worth it!

[snollan]

1st go to towerhobbies.com and grab a new body. With the way the dollar is right now--it should be dirt cheap.

Then grab yourself from got auto-primer in a spray can. Do the body in that.

After that find the color your want. I always use tamiya spray paints. Start doing the body in light coats. If you used a dark enough primer that will act as a pre-shade and give depth to the body. Allow plenty of time for the paint to dry. Some painters allow a week for the paint to fully setup.

Then hit it with the clear coat. Same deal here except that you want to paint the next coat while the previous one is still tacky. Then let the car sit.

I end up using Tamiya Acrylic Paints for my detail. Yes the are fragile paints but by the time they wear off --you'll be onto the next body. Do not put another clear coat after that.

Hope this helps.

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

dhes2809, just put the shell in brake fluid to get all the paint off,

to fix the deep marks use some car body filler - just skim it over the surface and rub it down to get it all flush again.

this will take time but some brake fluid and filler is cheaper and easier to get than a new juggy shell!

[snollan]

quote:Originally posted by mymonsterbeetleisbroken

dhes2809, just put the shell in brake fluid to get all the paint off,

to fix the deep marks use some car body filler - just skim it over the surface and rub it down to get it all flush again.

this will take time but some brake fluid and filler is cheaper and easier to get than a new juggy shell!

---

id="quote">id="quote">

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXNM04&P=0

Seems simple to me.

[dhes2809]

Well lads thanks for all the great advice []. What I have done so far is to put the front part of the body in brake fluid, and took all the paint off. Then I sanded it down till it was smooth. Then coat, by coat Ive put on primer, then sanded it with wet and dry. I folded the corner of the paper over to get into the detail work. So far it seems to be doing well. Fingers crossed [8)]. Im going to get some paint tomorrow so if anyone is interested Ill let you know how well it ends up. With any luck I may get it in my showroom yet. If all else fails Ill just have to put it down as a bad job and buy another body []. Think Ill get someone else to paint it though, and never buy another hard body as long as I live [!]. What a clart on...

[dhes2809]

Well now ive put the paint on the front and rear bodys. Looks great []. All i have to do now it paint the rear hatch and put the laquer on [8)]. Lets hope it doesnt go wrong now....

[WillyChang]

How come you don't paint them all together?

That way, you mist it on lightly on one part, then switch over to

another and do that, then the next. By which time your 1st item

will be ready for another misting and you don't have to stop.

[DJTheo]

Also when you paint them assembled together you wont get sudden surface or tone (with metallic colours) differences at the transition, as only robots or very experienced painted paint with the same angle, speed and distance all thee time.

Cheers

[dhes2809]

Cos its just as easy to mist the front part in put it down then do the rear put it down and the front is dry and so on. Then you put the whole thing together and laquer it so you get it uniform.

[dhes2809]

Laquer is on, just need to polish it now with some fine sand paper. I carnt beleave its the same body i was going to put in the bin a few days ago. Really happy with the end result even though its a bit of a dull colour.

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

glad you didnt bin it! gud luck with the painting and let us know how it turns out[8D]

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

i just noticed your gonna polish it with sand paper[:0]

use a shammy cloth or an extreamly fine sort of sandpaper (its got a special name, i cant remember what it was[:I]) , just buff it up and polish it - dont use sandpaper![]

[dhes2809]

OK. now the body is sanded and the detailing on the front cab is done. The results are amazing. As my mate who owns a car spraying garage would say "its like glass" []I carnt beleave i have done it. I just wish i had done it black. Ill start on the rear tomorrow.

[fury_dice(2)]

Did you take any pics during the process? It'd be great to see a few as well as the end result. Also, what brand of paints did you use? were they regular automotive ones?

[dhes2809]

I dont own a digy cam. I would have loved to take some pictures of it through all this. None of you will beleave what a state it was in. Now its got all the detailing done apart from door handles as i want to leave them colour coded. and all the decals which i want to put on are on. (Its going on a schumacher Menace so no point in putting Juggernaurt 2 decals on) Then im just waiting for my screw bag to come from the states so i can put it all together. Not sure if i should wait before i put a picture in my showroom till i get some decent wheels as the ones that are on the menace arnt the best looking.