TOPIC:

Since my last post I’ve:

Scrubbed the chassis, and got off lots of insulation tape & servo take residue with isopropanol;

Straightened the rear bumper;

Given up on the transmitter – for now anyway. After replacing one of the battery springs & soldering in quite a few new wire, and cleaning the contacts with both a dremel wire brush & fibreglass pencil, I’m still not getting a reliable 12v to the PCB , so I’ve reassembled it & put it back in its box for a bit of a think. I also seem to have lost the antenna flag

Bought a Bigwig;

Cleaned & lettered the tyres that were on the car (which I’m not going to use btw), stripped the silver paint off the front wheels, wet sanded the damaged edges, and ordered some more stainless fasteners to reassemble them. At least when I decide the wheels will come in handy for something, they’ll already be pretty

Tidied up my “found” wirewound MSC – cleaned up the contacts, fitted female bullet connectors to the motor wires, cut the fuseholder off (yes, a fuse can save a nasty short – but it can also mean you lose all control) & added fresh bits of black & red wire - using a slight improvement on the period the correct period “splice & tube” method – splice, solder & heatshrink. I’ve also ordered some more Tamiya battery connectors (both male & female), because although they’re rubbish, it just doesn’t seem right to use my normal favourite Anderson power poles on it;

Bought a Monster Beetle;

Removed the last traces of paint from the shell with a scalpel, and primed it – 4 coats from 2 different directions, in between rain showers;

Painted the steering column, wheel & driver, and started on the rear lights;


... none of which I’ve taken any photos of. Oh well


edit - also discovered the previous owner evidently had a full-on robo-chubby for threadlock - ok it makes sense on the UJs, but on the self tappers on the "gearbox"?

Very nice thread so far.

Would this isopropanol also get rid of glue residu? Especially if it's concerning CA...

Edou wrote:

Very nice thread so far.

Would this isopropanol also get rid of glue residu? Especially if it's concerning CA...

I've only used it on servo tape residue ... my guess would be no, especially on CA

Jonny wrote:

Since my last post I’ve:

Scrubbed the chassis, and got off lots of insulation tape & servo take residue with isopropanol;

Straightened the rear bumper;

Given up on the transmitter – for now anyway. After replacing one of the battery springs & soldering in quite a few new wire, and cleaning the contacts with both a dremel wire brush & fibreglass pencil, I’m still not getting a reliable 12v to the PCB , so I’ve reassembled it & put it back in its box for a bit of a think. I also seem to have lost the antenna flag

Bought a Bigwig;

Cleaned & lettered the tyres that were on the car (which I’m not going to use btw), stripped the silver paint off the front wheels, wet sanded the damaged edges, and ordered some more stainless fasteners to reassemble them. At least when I decide the wheels will come in handy for something, they’ll already be pretty

Tidied up my “found” wirewound MSC – cleaned up the contacts, fitted female bullet connectors to the motor wires, cut the fuseholder off (yes, a fuse can save a nasty short – but it can also mean you lose all control) & added fresh bits of black & red wire - using a slight improvement on the period the correct period “splice & tube” method – splice, solder & heatshrink. I’ve also ordered some more Tamiya battery connectors (both male & female), because although they’re rubbish, it just doesn’t seem right to use my normal favourite Anderson power poles on it;

Bought a Monster Beetle;

Removed the last traces of paint from the shell with a scalpel, and primed it – 4 coats from 2 different directions, in between rain showers;

Painted the steering column, wheel & driver, and started on the rear lights;


... none of which I’ve taken any photos of. Oh well


edit - also discovered the previous owner evidently had a full-on robo-chubby for threadlock - ok it makes sense on the UJs, but on the self tappers on the "gearbox"?

He he, I love it !
Someone is on a shopping spree!

-Lars

larbut wrote:

He he, I love it !
Someone is on a shopping spree!

-Lars

Well, I had to really - I didn't buy a _single thing_ off eBay during June!

I decided the original front lights were beyond repair – or beyond what I wanted to attempt at them moment anyway, so have used new ones from a Holiday Buggy 2010.

Work on the rear lights continues – I’m up to four coats of X-27 Clear Red (over two coats of X-11 Chrome Silver), the edges will need repainting & defining with a black superfine Sharpie.

I’ve also “made” a number plate back from 0.75mm styrene sheet, again painted with X-11 – I was quite happy to drill both this and the shell (sacrilege!) to bolt it on, but the letters are too close together for any sort of screw, so it’ll be fitted using servo tape. As to why – I just think the stick on plate looks naff. For the same reason I won’t be using any of the sponsor decals on the finished car.

“Spare” wheels & tyres are all assembled ... TBH the fronts are good enough – I could have saved a few quid there.

The shell has been rubbed down with 1200 grit paper, wet, which will help with the final finish ... when fine sanding like this, I always halve the sheet, rinse, rub the two half sheets together with a little detergent on a flat surface – this removes any oversize bits of grit & removes any “spikiness” that might otherwise badly scratch the paint.

If you look at the photos, you’ll see how the water beads off the primer to start with – but the “after” shot is evenly wet. It doesn’t take much effort to do this at all – don’t rub too hard or for two long – if you go through to the plastic underneath to any great degree you’ll have to re-prime.

I’ll be using Hycote Rover “Nightfire Red” Pearlescent for the colour coat, my previous experience with Hycote pearlescent paints is that there’s a lot of coloured lacquer, but not very much metal or any other sort of solids in there, so it takes a lot of coats to get the correct colour – which can mean losing details. I’ve used Hycote Ford “Machine Silver” as an “undercoat” because I thought the name sounded cool ... ironically that paint was really, really heavy with metal particles & shimmied quite badly on one small area of the underside when I was trying to put a “light” coat on.

I’ve also made a new windscreen, just to see if I could, really ... the original one has a slight fold, quite a few scratches & has obviously pulled out one side – it’s good enough, but I’ll put this new one on for now as I still plan to run the car.

looks shiny, love it!

Very nice work. I like the good work on the shell, the 1200 grit treatment will make a difference.
For those of you who have not tried, 1200 grit is close to plain paper

Those rear ligts look like glass. How did you do that?

Lars

Looking good mate.

larbut wrote:

Very nice work. I like the good work on the shell, the 1200 grit treatment will make a difference.
For those of you who have not tried, 1200 grit is close to plain paper
...

Even more so when you rub two bits together, wet ... more like 2000 grit on the cheap

larbut wrote:

...
Those rear ligts look like glass. How did you do that?

Lars

Tamiya acrylic brush paints - two coats of X-11 chrome silver, followed by four coats of X-27 clear red 24 hours apart - the final coat is on very heavy - I used quite a bit brush (#6 size), really loaded it up & let it flow on & barely let the bristles touch the surface.

One thing though - you really shouldn't handle it for a week after painting - it takes that long to harden properly, any less & it'll fingerprint badly.



I'm off to lay on the first coat of colour on the shell