makeing you own shells?

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aaean

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anyone here tried to make their own bodyshell for their car?

i know its random but from working on my cars ( real ones not these) i can use fiberglass pretty well and bend/weld thin steel.

was thinking of making a baja like shell for the harm out of cardboard (nothing mega complex) then using cloth stretched over it and "painting" the cloth with glass resin and let it set hard (it should go reasonably smooth) then pop it out and use glass fiber matt/webbing strands on the underside to strengthen it.

its the same process i have used to make subwoofer and speaker enclosures in some of my past cars

seems to be a limited choice on aftermarket shells and they are also pretty expensive
 
anyone here tried to make their own bodyshell for their car?
Click to expand...

I want to do a shell as well. It seems that the table for vacuum forming would be really large particularity for a one-off project.

That seems to leave fiberglass or metal as a medium to work in.

What has been successfully done and how?

tnx
 
No doubt that vacuum forming would be cool but it seems to me that the table size would need to be at least 28" x 48" and probably require a bit more than a shop vac. and kitchen oven.

It just seems like a long way to go for a one time project.
 
Hi Golddustpeak
that will be nice for all the lads and lasses i would like to see what you had in mind if they are strong enough and what thickness where you planing on making
 
Have you seen this on Fleabay?
Item no. 320468919386
Somewhere in Manchester, UK
 
making your own shell to any design is easy.
step 1/ get an old damaged sheet of celotex foam board from your local builders merchant,cheap,about a £5.
cut it up into bits approx the length and width of your car.
glue these together with wood glue to the height of your car usually approx 40cm.
once dry you should have a big square block of foam slightly bigger than your proposed new shell.
This foam sands super easy,but before shaping this foam do the following.
mark centres of wheels by pushing old pencils into the foam,then mark your high points also with pencils IE: shock mounts wing mounts ect,by again pushing pencils in the foam.
What this does, is it gives you guides to sand to so you don't sand too far
next google the net for pictures of buggies there's thousands of them.
heres one i'm doing for an mcd.
once you have chosen your design start sanding the foam as close to the design as you can get.
you should end up with a foam block in the shape of your chosen design.
rub over foam in release wax available from suppliers as below
paint or spray over this with pva glue approx 15 to 20 coats.
mix up white fiberglass gelcoat (available from auto,marine shops or as i got from my local fibreglass factory) i took some glass jars and he gave me gelcoat,fiberglass resin,hardener,and fiberglass cloth,all for £12.
coat your pva foam mould with the mixed up gelcoat with a brush or best sprayed.
once dry mix up normal fiberglass resin and lay fiberglass cloth and smooth over.
repeat this to give a thickness of about 3mm.
once dry release the mould from the foam and hey presto you now have a master mould of your special one of a kind shell.
now that you have your master mould repeat the process explained
previously but you will be coating the inside of the master.
so coat in release wax, pva, gelcoat, resin, and cloth to you required thickness.
Then once it has dried release and you now have your master still intact and a new fiberglass shell ready for painting.
you can as an extra process beef up any areas you think will suffer in racing/bashing with metal micro-mesh reinforcing available from auto parts centers for about £3 a sheet.
do this when your laying down the fiberglass cloth layers.
You now have a shell that is many times stronger than crap lexan bodies,is reinforced,is a one of a kind shell that you shaped and sanded and cost you about a third of what a new lexan shell cost,and if you damage it, you just mix up fresh resin and 10 minutes of sanding and its as good as new,but then again hey! you've still got your master to make a new one if you so wish.
this process can be used for all scales of bodies not just 5th scale.
costs:
pva
gelcoat
resin
hardener
cloth £15
foam from builders merchants £10

total £ 25
lexan body approx £90
saving overall £65
about 4 hours work evenings or weekends
you can find many videos on youtube on this subject and is fairly easy to accomplish.
i hope this is helpful and why not post your finished bodies
regards to all
john
 

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You make it sound easy but i reckon a lot would find this difficult & would spend more time trashing the shells than bashin em.
£25 wasted x 3 attempts = 1 brand new shell :blush:
 
I would tend to disagree.:) The fun part of this hobby for me is making new exciting stuff I can use or upgrade for my models by myself. The other fun thing is documenting it for others that may not feel like they could or can and show them they should!;)
I bet my 1st body would look like crap but the next would be better and so on. I couldn't imagine how I would run knowing I could just make another if it broke. I would love it!:clap:

Thanks for the post. I think I will try that out this spring when I can get out of the house in decent weather. Sounds like a fun project that I could handle.;)
 
dwarfy

dwarfy
you don't happen to be a 5th scale model shop do you, as i recognise your location (rossendale) as being 5th scale central.
 
Hey all,

Lets try to keep this thread alive..........

I've just read the "Molding and Casting Handbook" and its given me some ideas.

I've just ordered 10 Lbs of modeling clay that I'll use to cover a space taker of some sort, probably foam or wood.

Then I'll sculpt my body that fits the wheelbase of my extended 5T....
I've looked at many classic sports cars but the wheelbase is almost square with my 5T so my first attempt will probably be on the order of a "hot rod" roadster or coup. The length of the 5T wheelbase fits a lot of stuff but with wheel extenders it's WAY too wide to scale.

I'll start with what will be a male mold, I will then make a female with plaster or latex, depending on reverse curves. Lastly I'll do a fiber glass layup.

I've not studied enough to say how many layers of cloth to use over the gellcoat (probably 2 or 3), but I'll keep posting as I progress......
 
howdedoodee said:
dwarfy
you don't happen to be a 5th scale model shop do you, as i recognise your location (rossendale) as being 5th scale central.
Click to expand...

I wish mate :clown::clown: I am about 5 miles from 5th scale central :clown::clown:
Ive owned a used FG for almost 12mths now & love it :cool2::cool2: I am mechanically minded and can turn my hand to almost anything (my mate reckons I am a perfectionist :blush:) but I reckon it would take too many attempts to get a good shell. Anything less than good would be binned & that is why I would rather buy eg a sickboy shell, than make my own. It would work out cheaper for me :clown::clown: This may also apply to others but just my opinion of course & I fully respect anyone who gives it a go :cool2::cool2:
 
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