can you reinforce lexan?
 

I was wondering if anyone knows if you can make lexan a little more durable like plastic?like maybe reinforce it with fiberglassor like substance ,but weight might be an issue....or does anyone know where to get a plastic mold made .?.I really want to get the body hard but yet flexible so it won't break .thank you for any input..:???:

Re: can you reinforce lexan?
 

You really can't have the best of both worlds. You either run a lexan body or a hard body. Having a mold made will cost you several thousand dollars for something detailed. You could try laying a resin type reinforcement on the inside of the body but you would need to make sure it was polycarbonate safe and would make a strong bond. After that though, if it does flex it's just going to break away from the body or break the body itself.

I use Automotive AMAZING goop, on my scale body and rally body. Specially in the corners and high impact area's.
Its safe on paint, its clear, its AMAZING! LOL....

Even on split lexan.
A thin coat on both side's, work it in with spit on fingers, and let it dry.. it dries thinner then you put it on.
Heck, I hold my rock crawler panels on with it.
My CF servo guard on with just. Small dab does it.

Re: can you reinforce lexan?
 

When I worked in acrylic fabrication we would occasionally use polycarbonate for fixtures.
We glued the poly to poly with Weldon #3.
To test the glue joints we bounced the fixtures off the concrete,
they always held for me.
It is a very thin solvent type cement that bonds the plastic to itself & evaporates away.
Solvent Based Adhesives for Bonding Acrylic, Polycarbonate, Styrene - Weld-On Adhesives Acrylic Cement 3, 4, 16,... Curbell Plastics

Re: can you reinforce lexan?
 

I know some of the Baja guys use drywall tape and Shoe Goo.

Re: can you reinforce lexan?
 

Yes these are ways to reinforce them but he is asking to try and have the hardbody type rigidity, yet still be flexible.

Re: can you reinforce lexan?
 

Shoogoo dude. Shoogoo. Don't mistake rigidity for strength. Alotta times it can also mean brittle. The goo makes lexan TOUGH, yet flexible.

Re: can you reinforce lexan?
 

SHOEGOO!!! Like stated above, its the best. I usually put an "inner cage" of it in every lexan body to strengthen it up and I havnt lost a body yet!!! Im still on the old cruddy Courier Body and its been through hell and back and a couple tubes of ShoeGoo to hold it all together!

Matt

Re: can you reinforce lexan?
 

I would like a loose woman that is clean too but we can't get everything we want.

Re: can you reinforce lexan?
 

Wow I wasn't expecting such a fast reply"thumbsup".
A mold would be superb but realistically way to expensive to do as a private party .as stated .

I will have to try a couple of these ideas out on some junk bodies and see which is better for the truck I am trying to build.

This is my first true Scale project I am diving into and I see so many options I am torn between them.

I see a lot of people like the New Bright bodies which are very detailed, hard and flexible butt they must have to run very heavy in the upper weight category .
Which seems opposite of what you would try to do.

I just happened to find the Suzuki body I was dying to run and it is lexan .I was hoping to stiffen it up a little but keep it flexible .All the ideas sound good.I will have to start with one and see what happens .

I have a couple of old slash bodies that could use some love .
Thank you again for the quick feed back from everyone .:shock:

I race on road and the nose of the car takes a beating. A thin layer of shoe goo with mesh drywall tape embedded in it is amazingly strong and cheap protection.

Re: can you reinforce lexan?
 

I use vinyl siding protecto wrap. It's a little heavy but it works.and flexes

Re: can you reinforce lexan?
 

Shoe Goo!!! I coat all my SC fenders after paint and they last so much longer.

Re: can you reinforce lexan?
 

I was thinking on this last night,
Why not just a thicker lexan body?
Maybe getting someone to use an existing mold with thicker lexan would produce what you want without the mold fab cost?

Re: can you reinforce lexan?
 

to the O.P.

Shoe Goo and Drywall tape are hard to beat. I use this in my 1/8th scale buggy bodies and 1/10th Short Course bodies.

After you paint the inside of the body, back it with a few coats of white. Cut the drywall tape into pieces and apply liberal amounts of shoe goo to the body in the areas you want to reinforce. Then apply the pieces of drywall tape. Try to overlap a few pieces and orient the mesh at different angles. Usually 3 pieces deep at different angles is plenty.

With regard to forming a thicker piece of lexan on the same mold, it should be possible. As the lexan gets thicker, it will become more and more difficult to get the details into the part. Lexan is tricky to vacuum form and requires a pretty high vacuum to get acceptable results. My point is that there are limits to what can be done, but I bet someone with a commercial grade vacuum forming setup could do say a 0.08" thick body. It would be pretty rough to cut it out!

I use drywall tape and shoe on all my bodies and it works fantastic


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