Help with Hard Plastic Body Mods Please

[todd1803]

So I've done some searching, and found a lot of info here and on Scale4x4 on how to paint a hard plastic body, but not much on how to make changes.

First question is what type of filler do I use? I'm going to be working on a Clod body, and want to fill in the tilt hood lines, the body post holes, and possible the hole for the blower.

Next - If I fill in the blower hole, can it be done just with filler, or would it be too thick?

Finally - what I really want is to build a cowl induction setup, similar to the one on 1BadJeepBruiser's tow rig ( Cheby Tow Rig ) Is there something I could rob a cowl from to graft on, or do I need to fab it myself? If I gotta build it, what do I use? Styrene, Lexan, fiberglass?

BTW - rig will be TLT axles with leaf springs and a "C" channel frame.

Thanks!

[Jim511]

Im currently doing alot of body mods to a Jugg shell, and the best supplies to use are actual bondo (can get it from walmart) and sheet styrene. To fill the blower hole, take a sheet of paper and trace the shape of the hole. Transfer that to the sheet styrene and cut it out. Now Its probably going to be a little bigger than the hole, but keep trimming it down in small amounts until it slides into the blower hole. Once it slides into the blower hole glue it in there with CA glue or any other type of plastic cement. If you have to make another to slide ontop of that do so, youre doing this with the styrene so that you dont have to have a hug glob of bondo in the hole. Than once you have that all done, apply bondo where needed and smooth out the spot. As for a cowl, that you will have to build on your own, but its not as hard as you think it will be, measure the width of the hood. Than determine how wide you want the cowl to be, and make strips of styrene that width and however long you want for the hood. Than basically glue them together achieving the height of the cowl you want. Once the glue has set, glue it to the body where you want to place it. Once that has set, thats where the bondo comes in. bondo the sides of the cowl, around the seam of the cowl, etc. I dont know how to achieve the small hoodline that was achieved, but not every aftermarket cowl has a small hoodline so thats completely up to you. Good luck, and definitely post pics!

[axelnut1]

X2 on using Bondo. Any auto parts store has it. You cna use it on the seams to. If you want you could also get some spot putty to use on the seams. The spot putty is for very minor inperfections.(pinholes in the bondo, sanding scratches,etc). As for the blower openning, I actually cut out the bottom of the openning(where the blower screws in) and then epoxied that pc in the opening on the underside of the body and used Bondo on the top side. Good Luck!

[1BadJeepBruiser]

I use the Tamiya body filler stuff, you can get it on tower. I like it cause its easy to sand, easy to work with and the fumes dont kill you that badly. I use plastruct glue and tire ca/crazy glue for glueing the styrene. I also use activator for some of the hard area where I need it to dry quickly. I have done 2 different Bruisers with cowl hood and I am currently working on a juggy body cowl hood for my step fathers pulling truck.. I took pictures of how I did everything so Ill post them up here soon...

here is the glue



Here is the start of a cowl hood I did on a mountaineer (sold it)




Here is my WRX Blue Bruiser with cowl hood I did

[Eviltwin_52s]

I would 86 the ideal of filling in the hole in the hood if you are just going to make a cowl anyway. Myself I would cut out the area where the cowl is going to go.
The to glue the Styrene together stay away from CA... 1BadJeepBruiser has a pic of the Plastruc ProWeld this is the best stuff to glue styrene because it actually welds the two pieces together and will form a very nice bond by melting the plastic.I only use Auto Bondo and a small Quart will last a very long time.
Here is a cowl that I did as well as made the F350 into a Quad Cab.

[todd1803]

Sweet advice guys, thanks for the help. When i build a cowl, should I stack stack the styrene and make a solid part, or build a shell?

I've used Bondo and spot putty on cars before, so that will be no problem.

Once I get going I will be posting a build thread, but this will likely be a long, slow build. Financing will be tight, and I have to fit it in between work, life, and keeping up two comp rigs, one of which will be getting a complete makeover in the near future

[foodstamp]

id do it like 1badjeepbruser or eviltwin.....i did it a different way, and im not happy with it, im waiting for it to break so i can do it his way

[Eviltwin_52s]

Originally Posted by todd1803

When i build a cowl, should I stack stack the styrene and make a solid part, or build a shell?

Well I would say it depends on the type of Cowl you are building. It you want something more along the lines of 1badjeepbruiser then I would say use the styrene and make a shell of the basic shape.
Or you can use my technique which is building up the sides with stack styrene then the basic shell shape for the rest. This way when you have tapered sides you can file down and build up the sides with less BONDO. You have to remember, if you are making a basher or nice runner the more bondo the more likely it will pop loose.

Good Luck and make sure to post pics.

[microgoat]

A cowl hood is a pretty easy shape, if you think about it. You've got a long flat section, and two identical side panels. Once you've made one side panel that you like, copy it.

I'd use .060 styrene for the cowl. Use square styrene to reinforce the corners, and a liquid cement like Tenax or Weldene to make the joints. Do as much sanding as possible before you add filler. If you do it right, you'll end up sanding off 99% of the filler anyway.

Don't fill the blower hole with Bondo. Not only is it heavy, but it can shrink over time and leave cracks. This is usually not a problem with Bondo-brand Bondo, but store-brand Bondo can cause problems. Squadron putty is another one that likes to shrink.

I try to do as much as possible with plastic, and use the filler for surface imperfections. Even something like the flip-nose seams would be better off filled with .020 styrene half-round, sanded and filled at the last minute.

[kaetwo]

You guys are amazing!

[1BadJeepBruiser]

Ok here is how I do it...unfortunately I missed a step or 2, but I thinkt his will help some...

1st my stepfather Jeff (crawlingfireguy) wetsanded the body down as castrol did not want to remove the paint



I then decided what style hood we were going to do, and how much of the hood it would cover and blah blah blah... I then lay the body on its side and traced the hood contour onto paper



Then I tape the paper on to styrene... I usually use .060



I then cut out the bottom where it will sit the hood, then I cut out a very rough idea of how much lift I want it to have



after I decide how much lift I mock it up to the body and make small adjustments to get it to sit as flush as possible, after that Ill usually make that my "template" piece. I then cut to new pieces for each of the sides



then sit it on the body, eye it up and put a drop of ca at each end and his it with activator... now that its held in place, I then use the plasic weld glue to fill all in and get a really good bond

[1BadJeepBruiser]

After that I get the 2 sides glued I then make the top, this was a PIA on this body since the scoop contoured outward, Jeff actually held the body upside down and I traced it onto the styrene then began cutting...it took a while to get right but it then started to come together



In the process of making the hood, we decided a visor would be cool, so we started on making one of those as well



Now I know I missed a few inbetween steps, but after ALOT of filling, sanding, filling sanding, we finally got a coat of primer on it to see what is left to do...its coming along nicely





Now this is just a basic cowl hood, we went with a large cowl because this truck is a pulling truck and we wanted it to have the feeling of it having a HUGE engine under the hood, its also going to have huge straight stacks coming out of the bed

The possibilities are endless, it just take time and a little imagination.

Hope this helps a few

Mike

[Gula]

Or you can cut the place where th escoop goes from the inside sand it till its flat and glue it back on that way you wont have to use that much filler. For your cowl hood use the chrome piece as a reference glue that onto the hood then use styrene to do the rest. I can post pictures later

[tommyboy]

http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/ure5500ht.html
I have seen some amazing work done with one of these.

[todd1803]

That's awesome, thanks for the pics! I'm really starting to get excited to get going on a project.

I'm guessing that the .060 styrene is similar in thickness to the body, and shoud be able to hanle it if I roll the truck.

[Eviltwin_52s]

Originally Posted by todd1803

That's awesome, thanks for the pics! I'm really starting to get excited to get going on a project.

I'm guessing that the .060 styrene is similar in thickness to the body, and shoud be able to hanle it if I roll the truck.

I would say if you are doing something mild it should be fine. However if you are wanting to make a taller Cowl like 1badjeepbruiser I would suggest doubling up on the styrene. This will provide more stability and using the Proweld will give it a better bite and weld itself together better. If you go for something much taller I would suggest bracing it up under the cowl with a styrene block or styrene hollow tube in a few different places. This way if you do roll it or want to bash around with it. It will hold up and not cave in or split the styrene.

I say go for it... the only way to learn it so make mistakes along the way. It is only Styrene and bondo you can always cut it back off and sand it smooth again and start over if you don't like it.

[Eviltwin_52s]

Originally Posted by 1BadJeepBruiser

After that I get the 2 sides glued I then make the top, this was a PIA on this body since the scoop contoured outward, Jeff actually held the body upside down and I traced it onto the styrene then began cutting...it took a while to get right but it then started to come together












Mike

Hey Mike a suggestion, since you are putting all that body work into the cab you should remove the front mouting holes.

The way I do this is take a 10mm Button Head Hex screw and CA it into place on both sides. Then JB weld the void, this will also hold the screw incase the CA doesn't hold it when you tighten it down. Then grind down the JB and the head to match the contour of the body and finish it off with Auto Bondo (light skim) and the hole will not even be noticeable. This is how I did my Excursion and the F350 quad cab that I posted.

Any way to remove as many of the screw heads from the exterior the more scale it will look.

[1BadJeepBruiser]

Originally Posted by Eviltwin_52s

Hey Mike a suggestion, since you are putting all that body work into the cab you should remove the front mouting holes.

The way I do this is take a 10mm Button Head Hex screw and CA it into place on both sides. Then JB weld the void, this will also hold the screw incase the CA doesn't hold it when you tighten it down. Then grind down the JB and the head to match the contour of the body and finish it off with Auto Bondo (light skim) and the hole will not even be noticeable. This is how I did my Excursion and the F350 quad cab that I posted.

Any way to remove as many of the screw heads from the exterior the more scale it will look.

Thanks dude, I think ill give that a try

Also I would 2nd what Evil twin said about bracing it, if you are going to run it hard, I would definitely do that... this current body is for a puller, and they typically dont flip over so thats why I didnt worry about PLUS its a HUGE ISSUE with weight because we need it as far foward and they wiegh the trucks right to the 100th of a pound (IE 14.00 lbs) so I didnt want to go to crazy