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Flare65

Is this lexan body repairable?

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Took a brand new body to the track and ended up creasing one of the fenders in.  Has anyone had any luck repairing damaged lexan?  Trying to get the creases out of it.  I was thinking of trying a heat gun and slowly add some heat to the area and use a clamp to see If I can smooth it out.  To keep this somewhat Tamiya related, the last picture shows my silver Tamiya M-07r that I have been racing in the M-Class all season.

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Suggest you use a hair dryer first before using the heat gun, if the plastic is too thin, the heat gun could be too much. 

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I've poured just boiled water over creased and misshapen Tamiya bodies and wings and that has helped straighten them out, not perfectly, but better than they were. Lexan seems to want to return to it's original shape when heated.

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Yep, another vote for boiling water. heat it up with that then try and get it back to shape. Once done drop into cold water to "set" it.

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I would use a heat gun for repairs like that..but I've been doing such repairs and real car metal and plastic paintless dent removal for many years so it helps how to manipulate dents.  I actually went to school for PDR so that I can fix my own cars after getting dinged by not only doors but apples falling onto hoods and roofs while driving, golf ball hits, hail, etc etc.  

I am currently working on a Beetle hard shell and it required a lot of heat to manipulate the roof line since I cut out about 70mm off the length to make a comical version.. 

Quenching in water sounds good, @acprc!

 

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17 hours ago, Big Jon said:

Although I don't have any other advice to add to the above, how's the Dart handle?

 

I like it.  Car seems stable.  Its an X-ray T4 2020.  Usually I got the 68 Mustang body on it.  The dodge body is a bit to fragile for smaller indoor tracks.  I feel more comfortable running outside.  I've reinforced the front end with drywall mesh tape and shoe glue, but this still happened.  The miata body on the M-07R is a little more durable but the car is prone to traction rolling at times so it takes more of a beating.

I'm going to try the boiling water technique and see how that works.  Thanks for the suggestions!

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