Polycarbonate body questions

[89Industries]

Being relatively new to the polycarbonate body world I have a couple of quick questions I know someone on here can easily answer.

I have only done either single piece polycarbonate bodies or ones from Axial SCX10iii Jeeps or Vanquish Phoenix where all the different pieces are designed to be bolted together.

So, the question is, the polycarbonate body I have to match my 1:1 the front grill panel, rear panel and bumpers are molded as separate pieces. So I will need to cut them out and assemble them. I assume the simplest method is to cut them out with some extra material to overlap inside the body and glue them together using E6000 or Shoe Goo. Not sure how the bumpers would then go over the outside and look correct though I have thought about making different steel bumpers for it anyway. Not sure how scale replica I want to be yet.

So is that the way to do it or am I completely missing something?

Second, I'm assuming that if I glue the pieces together then painting the body from the inside goes out the window (glue spots would show to the outside) and I would need to paint the outside. Correct??

So then could I paint the outside first with a Tamiya Polycarbonate paint, then paint over that paint with a normal paint not specifically for polycarbonate? The color I am trying to match is an unusual color available in automotive paint spray cans but certainly not in the Tamiya PS paint line up and I am not quite ready to admit I need to buy an airbrush and get super fancy mixing paint colors.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

 

[Col_Sanders]

Which body are you using?

Paint for polycarbonate bodies is flexible. Normal paint is not, so it will chip and fall off when the body flexes. It would probably be even worse on the outside of the body. Even polycarb specific paint will scratch off when rubbing against rocks. When I have spliced lexan body parts together, I used some small screws and nuts and then used E6000 in the gap between the screws. The separate pieces were painted on the inside first.

 

[89Industries]

I'm adapting a pandora rc drift body. We'll see how it goes and likely the tire size will be a limiting factor performance wise.

I hadn't thought of painting the pieces first and then gluing them together but that makes sense and could work well, especially for the paint job I am contemplating. Trying to avoid visible screws unless I can incorporate them in appropriate places like maybe a side marker light, etc.

I figured painting the outside would scratch, but real cars get scratched too. I don't plan on driving too hard as its more looker than performance and a few scratches would definitely match its 1:1 counterpart. The Tamiya PS flat clear is much more robust on the outside of the a couple bodies than I had imagined it would be though. Figured I'd quickly get shiny scratch spots but maybe the scratch makes the plastic flat as well.

I get what you say about the flexibility of the paint but many automotive paints are also designed to flex since bumpers and car panels also flex. But certainly something to maybe try out first. I was most curious about adhesion to the Tamiya PS paint.

Thanks for the info.

 

[JatoTheRipper]

It is tough to get Lexan paint to match hard plastic paint. You are looking at PS vs TS paints. Some people will put additives into TS paint so it is flexible for Lexan bodies, but that is over my painting skill level head.

As long as the paint is dry and you don't disturb it, you can stick parts to the Lexan paint with E6000. Backing the Lexan paint with black, white, silver or flat clear will help. Obviously, the backing color affects the shade of the Lexan paint.

I hope that helps.

 

[svt923]

Weld-on makes a bunch of solvent based plastic bonding agents including some that work on polycarbonate. My testing has been limited but it seems pretty effective in bonding lexan to itself. It was either Weld-on #3 or #4 that I used but I'm sure there is something that is even stronger (and more toxic) in the product catalog. Might be an alternative to look into further.

 

[89Industries]

As far as paint goes, anything other than getting the right paint or paint combos out of spray cans is beyond my capabilities or desires. I dislike painting but am also too proud (cheap) to pay someone else to do stuff for a hobby.

SVT923, thanks for the info. I will look into the weld-on stuff. The couple Lexan repairs I've done with E6000 seem to hold up but more toxicity can always make stuff better.