New ABS A-Team style van -cutting,painting and fitting to....?

[Jason1145 4689]

THank you gents, luckily the WD40 was at home and saved me a trip to the DIY store for that other product... worked pretty well.

Here's the updates from start to finish for my first Hard Body painting job.... it's alot more work and cumbersome than painting a lexan shell.... took 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of black and 3 coats of gold to get this look here...not to mentio a bit of sanding inbetween with 1500 grit paper... honestly.... that grit paper is awesome, it felt like glass afte treatment, silky smooth.

I don't recommend an empty coke bottle, it's too light and flimsy when grabbed... pus it was a bit windy outside where I painted so it fel over once too ruining some gold paint

Primer all finished and sanded down.

Some coats of black... that isn't a run in the paint, it's the shell mould imperfection.

Windows and back half masked off..... curse you Tamiya tape residue!

Fully masked off, now for the gold paint.... the Tamiya mask actually worked pretty well with no bleeds.... any odd lines are down to my poor masking.

Here you can see the tape residue

 

And after the WD40 removed it pretty well.

 

I might change the pattern of gold and black and possibly add a red A-Team stripe before clear coating it.

[Mad Ax 11492]

On 28/01/2017 at 5:53 PM, Jason1145 said:

Guys any advice for removing masking tape residue from a painted ABS Bodyshell?

I used a hairdryer in between coats to speed things up but the added heat has left residue all over the black painted windows.

Sounds like a good excuse to cut the windows out and replace them with clear sheet  

[Jason1145 4689]

5 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

Sounds like a good excuse to cut the windows out and replace them with clear sheet  

Ha that might be one step too far for me just now seeing as I'm still practicing the dark arts of ABS hard bodies... and getting to grips with the little dreamer type hand drill too

[Jason1145 4689]

Thanks Palterfonic for this suggestion, it really is super strong velcro and should be up to the job of mounting this bodyshell.... I jsut need to cut and bend and drill my 40mm alumnium bar to suit the chassis for a new rear body mount.

[Jason1145 4689]

More progress, using some aluminium to make a rear body post mount as it needs to be quite high, some crawler tyres fitted for now.

Below is a test fitting with no holes drilled to secure the bracket, it's only resting in place for now, I need to be careful the bar doesn't impeded on the rear drive shafts then the chassis bottoms out as it all goes saaaaarrrrfffffff real quick.

[Jason1145 4689]

Drilled some holes in the aluminium bar tonight, I will try utilising the exisitng holes on the chassis for this rear bracket, the front posts jsut line up before the bonnet meets the windscreen so should be ok there.

[Jason1145 4689]

Finally mounted....

[Biggie_G 11]

Are you running a brushless setup on there? Something a little bit pokey that no-one would expect a la Team Top Secret  or their notorious R34 Skyline that did 200mph in the dead of night on the UK motorway network

[TurnipJF 11003]

I must admit to having been a bit dubious about the colour scheme and layout initially, but the decals have really brought it to life. Nice job!

[Jason1145 4689]

On ‎01‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 8:48 PM, Biggie_G said:

Are you running a brushless setup on there? Something a little bit pokey that no-one would expect a la Team Top Secret  or their notorious R34 Skyline that did 200mph in the dead of night on the UK motorway network

Maybe a scale speed of 200mph..... all ready for the impending release of the new Fast n Furious 8 film, I should be too old to enjoy those movies but still get a kick from Japn decal styled cars.

 

16 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

I must admit to having been a bit dubious about the colour scheme and layout initially, but the decals have really brought it to life. Nice job!

I know what you mean, this was not a carefully planned outcome it just happened when I found these old decals, lucky ain't the word, thanks for the compliment, I just found some wing mirrors which might fit too.... who know where this will end ;p

[Jason1145 4689]

Some big wheels back on the WT01

Used some body post extensions but still need to brace them as they are quite wobbly, think stilt walker

Wobble to the right

Wobble to the left

 

[KEV THE REV 2440]

Get some alu plate thin enough to bend and wide enough to get max height on the posts to clear chassis and body when fitted ( guess - 40mm-ish ?  ) - form 2 bends to fit inbetween or outside the posts (sort of like the Monster Beetle / BF rear post stabilizer part ) and bolt it through the posts with 2mm nuts and bolts - sorted

[M 800STD 591]

My first suggestion would be to use Tamiya 53285 and/or metal body posts.

I think one method that might work would be to have the body post horizontal instead of vertical.  So they protrude from skirt/bumper area rather than roof.  Your shock towers looks like a good place to mount them horizontally.  This should shorten the body posts.

[Jason1145 4689]

8 hours ago, M 800STD said:

My first suggestion would be to use Tamiya 53285 and/or metal body posts.

I think one method that might work would be to have the body post horizontal instead of vertical.  So they protrude from skirt/bumper area rather than roof.  Your shock towers looks like a good place to mount them horizontally.  This should shorten the body posts.

The front bumper hangs out 8cm away from the front shock tower so that's too big a gap to hang solid I reckon, cool idea though .

53285 is pretty rare, not sure how it'd work either

 

[Jason1145 4689]

On 07/04/2017 at 10:16 PM, KEV THE REV said:

Get some alu plate thin enough to bend and wide enough to get max height on the posts to clear chassis and body when fitted ( guess - 40mm-ish ?  ) - form 2 bends to fit inbetween or outside the posts (sort of like the Monster Beetle / BF rear post stabilizer part ) and bolt it through the posts with 2mm nuts and bolts - sorted

Kev I've no ideas what you mean, there, said it lol

I'll just ship it your way and you can show me later when you return it.

I might have to make a similar front bracket as I did for the rear.

The shell sits so high it really is a sight, about 10cm from the chassis to the bonnet just hanging there, but on a run today it held ok. Rear tyres scrubbed Bodyshell on expansion ( forgot 6900kv motor still fitted this needs taking out next run) and front tyres hit Bodyshell on turning due to Bodyshell leaning in... so it actually needs lifting a bit more.

 

The front posts need securing to the chassis somehow, just securing an extra bracket/post between the two front body posts will only hold them paralel with each other but not stop them both swinging left and right together. 

[M 800STD 591]

As for the T part, I'm not sure how you would fit it.  I suppose the point I was trying to make is that it's a body post brace, so something like that.

If the gap is too large, front tower to body, how about side to side?

[KEV THE REV 2440]

12 hours ago, Jason1145 said:

Kev I've no ideas what you mean, there, said it lol

I'll just ship it your way and you can show me later when you return it.

I might have to make a similar front bracket as I did for the rear.

The shell sits so high it really is a sight, about 10cm from the chassis to the bonnet just hanging there, but on a run today it held ok. Rear tyres scrubbed Bodyshell on expansion ( forgot 6900kv motor still fitted this needs taking out next run) and front tyres hit Bodyshell on turning due to Bodyshell leaning in... so it actually needs lifting a bit more.

 

The front posts need securing to the chassis somehow, just securing an extra bracket/post between the two front body posts will only hold them paralel with each other but not stop them both swinging left and right together. 

Something like this :-

http://jpegbay.com/gallery/006136067-.html#1

The height is determined by the posts and how much you need to clear the body and where the posts bend at the chassis , make it as high as you can for max stability and probably wrap it around the outside of the posts for ease of fixing .

 

 

 

[Jason1145 4689]

11 hours ago, M 800STD said:

As for the T part, I'm not sure how you would fit it.  I suppose the point I was trying to make is that it's a body post brace, so something like that.

If the gap is too large, front tower to body, how about side to side?

It's such an unusual shell to mate to an even more unusual chassis... picture the WT01 Chassis as a narrow rectangle and this shell is no where near any part of the chassis for conventional body mounting, even on the side there is no where close enough.

Plus the fact I need extra height to clear the big tyres ( inc ballooning) and even height becomes more of an issue but don't worry I'll get there

[Jason1145 4689]

2 hours ago, KEV THE REV said:

Something like this :-

http://jpegbay.com/gallery/006136067-.html#1

The height is determined by the posts and how much you need to clear the body and where the posts bend at the chassis , make it as high as you can for max stability and probably wrap it around the outside of the posts for ease of fixing .

 

 

 

Do I look like McGuyver!?

I see now said the blind man, I'll have a look at the next DIY shop I go to for some Alu plate about 10cm width as that's as tall as I'd want it to cover the whole length top to bottom of the body posts to just under where the shell sits.

So with that design I'd still try to secure it to the chassis somehow as well, just for extra bracing.

Thanks for an idea

[KEV THE REV 2440]

You can brace it using 3mm threaded rod and turnbuckle ends (see my Lunchie in showroom):-

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=123529&sid=5280

You could bolt the threaded rod with ends on straight on to the alu plate you are going to make ( you could extend the lsize of the alu plate side wrap so that you can bolt straight onto the alu instead of going through the body posts with a 3mm nut and bolt ) and bolt them onto the rear alu plate you already have on it , then you will stop front to back movement of front posts with the rods fitted and side to side movement with the new plate fitted on the front

[Jason1145 4689]

Ahhahhh! Found some left over Aluminium angle plate and holding it in place just sizing things up I noticed the front shock tower is kinda in line with the front posts.. so I'm going to try and bolt some plate flush to the tower and stretching up to meet the body posts and secure the to the plate... that might work.

[KEV THE REV 2440]

Was going to suggest that before but couldn't see if it lined up .You could probably use threaded rod and bolt through tower using a nut either side to lock it in then use rod ends to bolt to the plate , or even bolt straight through the front of the brace plate with a nut either side again. You might need to shape the rod to line up 

[Jason1145 4689]

Your idea still sounds tempting, but for now...

 

It ain't pretty buty I need functionality, I plan to jsut drill some extra holes in the top of the aluminium and feed a zip tie through to hold the body post to the aluminium just shy of where the bodyshell will sit.

 

[KEV THE REV 2440]

Or you could do that - if works - then it rocks !!

[Jason1145 4689]

It lives.... good enough ;p