Dingo to Defender - Styrene hard top

[Ross3065]

After getting the dingo a while ago, and not having the money for a proper defender hard body, I stumbled upon BubbaEinstein's styrene hard top he made, so I decided to have a go. Here's my results so far.




^Anyone know where I could get some lenses for the headlights? In the UK btw!



I'm now waiting for some filler to banish it's many imperfections, but i'm quite happy with it, considering it's my first proper styrene build!

Anyway, please be nice as this is, as I said, my first try at styrene and also my first post on RCC! If anyone wants to know anything more, i'll do my best to help


PS. I'm sorry for the awful quality of the pics - stupid Ipod!!

Ross

[DeweyCJ5]

nice build

[shwng1973]

Awesome start.
Keep us updated on the build.

[Ross3065]

As the first pics were nothing short of pathetic, here's some slightly better ones (ignore the dates lol)















Enjoy!

[BubbaEinstein]

I like it I think you hit the roofline perfect! (I think mine is a little bit too steep).

[19_mustang_96]

Thats Awesome

[Ross3065]

Thanks everyone! My filler should arrive either tomorrow or the next day, but i'm still not sure what to do where the roof isn't wide enough to meet the door frames? I'm hoping i can do something about it with the filler?

[Perkolator]

cut a small strip of styrene to fill the void a little more and glue it in, this way you won't use so much filler (which will likely crack and require multiple applications if you do big gaps)

did you do the radius on the corners with a piece of cut round stock?

[kakachille]

i like it

[Ross3065]

Originally Posted by Perkolator

did you do the radius on the corners with a piece of cut round stock?

It's slightly less than a quarter of 20mm PVC conduit. (credit to BubbaEinstein as that's how he made his!) Not sure what you mean by 'stock' though? The front curve is just styrene bent into shape.

cut a small strip of styrene to fill the void a little more and glue it in, this way you won't use so much filler (which will likely crack and require multiple applications if you do big gaps)

I'll try that then - thanks!

[The DC]

Nicely done!

[Ross3065]

I think all the filler is done now, but for a few places that need touching up. I think it came out quite good?






I also sorted out the door frames and relocated the spare wheel to the middle.
I also could do with some help regarding lenses for the headlights.

I do now though have a problem. I'm not sure how to make the paint match with the lexan body which is painted on the inside. The paint (Testarossa Red) works fine on the styrene but it finishes a matt colour. Can anyone help me?

Ross

[DeweyCJ5]

i would spray a test piece red and then clear coat over it to see how that turns out .

[Ross3065]

Originally Posted by DeweyCJ5

i would spray a test piece red and then clear coat over it to see how that turns out .

I've already got a test piece sprayed red, but it's the clear coat that's the problem. Out of the 2 or 3 different spray-on lacquers I've tried, they've all reacted with the styrene and paint and either removed the paint and not dried properly, or deformed the styrene.

So I need help finding an un-reactive spray-on lacquer. Sorry for not being clear!

[BubbaEinstein]

For headlight try clear lexan and scuff it with sandpaper..

[Ross3065]

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates, but I have now pretty much finished it!! I'll get some pics up a soon as I can, so please bear with me.

[808eng_rc]

did you form the styrene on the body and did it stick to the lexan...any info let me know