Gluing tiny details to painted lexan?

[chilly]

I’m putting some exterior PS 55 flat Tamaya clear paint over my Pre-painted Lexan ready to run body. it came with stickers for door handles and they are the worst looking part of the whole body, so I just found a couple pieces of plastic that look better as doorhandles and I was thinking of just gluing them to the side. Am I being too optimistic especially with the layer of paint on there? If so what would be a good glue? Shoe goo? CA glue? Do you think I would do better if I put them on before painted and masks around them I probably could do. They are just Black plastic, made from the AR 15 rifle barrel from my arrma fire team sawed in half. Not show quality, but definitely better than the stickers that were on there.

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[TooOldForThis]

I would try Shoe Goo. Worst-case they might fall off if the paint pulls off but that's not very likely if you're gluing them on top of Tamiya PS paint. They're small light pieces, should be fine. Just use it sparingly ;-)

 

[tigris99]

Flexible CA. Shoe goo is useless on small parts. Need something thay chemically "melts" the plastic together.

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[high plains drifter]

I use a lot of different adhesives for a lot of different applications. I think that the flexible CA is a good recommendation. E6000 and ShoeGoo work very well on certain materials but I've found that the thicker the adhesive, the less securely it's able to bond small pieces/ parts. BSI Maxi-cure extra-thick CA would work well here as it's thicker than thin CA but not thick like E6000 or ShoeGoo.

Elmer's actually makes a great adhesive that is flexible and waterproof and specifies for lexan on the packaging ( as well as plastics, etc) but I think that it may also be a little too thick ( although I have used it on small [no load] parts with great success. It's cheap anyway if you'd want to try it- Elmer's Craft Bond Ultra Stix-All clear adhesive.

I also have used the spray/ aerosol Gorilla Spray Adhesive HD clear with great results on small parts ( plastic and aluminum). Good stuff... great bonding properties on tiny parts without much worry about pressing the piece into place and having it ooze out along the edges.

One thing that I'd like to add here is that on small pieces it's often advantageous to roughen the bonding surface or even use a small rotary-tool attachment to create some "divots" or "slices" on the back side of the piece. This allows the adhesive to have a better/ deeper area to bond itself to. Not sure if I explained that well but it does help to create a "pocket" or to roughen the surface since there's not much surface area for the adhesive to adhere to.

One more thing... You could use tiny screws from the inside out but that's a real pain. These would be the itty-bitty coarse screws ( not machine screws) that come with some light and accessory kits. RC4WD uses them quite a bit. It would take a very small drill-bit to drill the pilot holes but if you've got the patience and the bits and screws, you could do it that way. You need a super tiny screwdriver obviously as well. Probably not a very desirable option lol.

 

[TooOldForThis]

Did you guys catch that he's talking about gluing over the top of PS paint? Does that change your answer?

YMMV, but I've had success attaching even loaded parts using Shoe Goo over PS paint so it certainly isn't useless. There's also no risk of getting that white residue on or around the part like can happen with CA.

 

[B-MOW71]

I've had good luck with using E-6000 on scale parts and accessories that I have attached to lexan and also on PS type paint on the outside of the body. I've never had anything fall off...yet!

Drifter's idea with using tiny screws would work too! Most of the Club5 Racing 3D printed body accessories that I have purchased from them use the tiny screw method. For an added layer of insurance, I have put a tiny dab of E-6000 on the piece and then used the tiny screws to attach them to the body.

 

[chilly]

Thanks for the suggestions. I would love to do the screws but it might not come across how thin those pieces are in the picture. Here’s a pic I posted in my windows question thread, that shows them on the body with, including a thick gummy style piece of double-sided tape under it - Just temporarily to see how it would look.

I saw a lot of reports of the jeep version of the SCX6 Cracking and It seemed to me it was around the accessories screwed into that huge flat expanse of Lexan. The honcho is not as bad in that respect, but I didn’t want these to be sticking out and big. Just a small improvement over the ugly sticker that came on it.

So I think I’ll try the Goo method first if that doesn’t work I’ll scrape it down and try CA. I have two more rifle barrels from my fireteam I can cut in half length wise again if I lose these two. Even if it damages the paint, it’s really only damaging the clear matte because obviously the tan is underneath The lexan. Plus it’s already scratched up and rough in plenty of places anyway.

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