Re-inventing the 1/8

[Dan B.]

So this thread sort of died but the build never did. In fact, it's been one thing after another. During a test drive to size up my wheel alignments, it actually got run over by a lady in a Dodge Calibre. Surprisingly very minor damage, flattened GRPs, cracked T2T brace, scuffed Scorched skid plate and broke battery mount. Two batteries were mishappened but I likely did more damage than the Dodge driving it back while dragging batteries. I'm will say I owe the low damage completely to the PPS mount, which kept the majority of the weight off the XLX2 and batteries. View attachment 345199View attachment 345200
Then after repairs and several test runs,
the XLX2s MOSFETS crapped the bed. Castle warrantied it but it was over 2 months to get another as they had none.

So right there is where and how I missed the speed run season.Also didn't help that I ended up having to do my body's paint myself after a local airbrusher sat on mine for 5 months. So I used the time waiting on Castles warranty to experiment. I only had two clear ideas for my Protoform SWB Corvette C7. I wanted an Ajag style silver ghost flames on black, sponsored race car look.

I borrowed a friend's Badger set up and began practicing free-hand flames. Probably would have been better if it were gravity fed instead of the siphon/cup style bit beggars shouldn't be choosers Sometimes the best thing we can learn about ourselves is our limitations. And I learned free-hand air brushing is mine. Still I had a body in need of painting. So I decided to use stencils.
In keeping up with my habit of overthinking to the point of doing stuff bum-backwards, I did my main body colour first, painting over the stencils. After it dried, I realized my mistake. If your seeking to create the effect of flames spouting up over the body, you MUST do the flames first and leave alot of voids for the body colour to fill in. I was also trying 3 different silvers to try to do a "heat" effect, dark silver, light silver, and a translucent silver. Now this part I should have practiced first because I would have known then that I needed a longer dry time between coats. So what I ended up with was 3 silvers becoming one. View attachment 345201
Granted, more practice, patience and preparation would have yielded better results but I'm not too disappointed on how it turned out. It still looks cool.
With the body done and dried, now I needed to mount the custom wing. Originally, I made mounts out of carbon fiber but I thought it was a bit too much and needed a contrast. So I made my own 7075 aluminum wing mounts, drilled and tapped and installed.
View attachment 345202
This body actually took alot of work and time to finish. Like my last one, I wanted lights but no light bleeding. So again, I made light buckets for front and rear. This was accomplished using epoxy sticks. What I did was tape and trace the body's light lens outline from the inside with epoxy putty rolled into a line about a quarter inch. When it hardened, the tape allowed it come off easily. Next I kneaded more putty and rolled flat strips about 1×3x1/4 and used them as walls for the light bucket and allowed it to half dry before molding it together and creating the curves. View attachment 345204View attachment 345205View attachment 345206 Now previous experince with me crawlers showed me the even with a light bucket, an LED shining behind plastic looks like....an LED shining behind plastic. I wanted to simulate a real headlight where when you look ar one at night your never able to tell exactly where the bulb is because the whole lens is shining evenly. For that I needed the light to reflect and to do that, I lined the inside of the bucket with silver aluminum duct tape. View attachment 345203
Next up was making my own wire harness string of lights, each bucket has 4 leds positioned fr effect. 1 on top and bottom of the bucket and 2 in the middle, it's widest point. For the rear, I wanted to keep it simple and didn't like the oversized light lens. So I made another light bucket , installed 3 red leds and turned what I assume is supposed to be the license plate into my rear light lens. I think they came out pretty good.View attachment 345207View attachment 345208

Glad to see the update! The epoxy putty for the headlight buckets was a good idea, and I’ll file that idea for sure. That’s going to be a project I do this coming week, I think. I was going to try my hand at forming some kydex, but those 3w LED’s I’m using have a heat sink on the back that gets really hot (I burned my fingers testing one, while just holding it and plugging it in) so that could definitely be problematic for kydex if the heat sink wasn’t properly isolated from it. Maybe a carbon fibre light base surrounded by a kydex housing? Or maybe your epoxy putty method!
Good to see your project resurrected, you put a ton of work into this thing. Looking great, man!

 

[Greengaunja]

Glad to see the update! The epoxy putty for the headlight buckets was a good idea, and I’ll file that idea for sure. That’s going to be a project I do this coming week, I think. I was going to try my hand at forming some kydex, but those 3w LED’s I’m using have a heat sink on the back that gets really hot (I burned my fingers testing one, while just holding it and plugging it in) so that could definitely be problematic for kydex if the heat sink wasn’t properly isolated from it. Maybe a carbon fibre light base surrounded by a kydex housing? Or maybe your epoxy putty method!
Good to see your project resurrected, you put a ton of work into this thing. Looking great, man!

For what it's worth, the epoxy putty is extreme heat resistant. I like Permatex's but it's just another form of JB Weld, which I once used to patch a large hole in a oil pan. Surprisingly that repair held up and kept the oil retained for a almost a week lol.
I used a large deep socket to roll mine flat. Between 1/8 and 1/4 thick is sufficient and mine looks smooth because I filed it down with a rasp when it hardened. Will have maybe 5 minutes working time up to 10 minutes until it's too hard to work it.. it forms better half hardened, easier to shape. Use GG crystal cleat epoxy to stick to body. Did the same with my first c7 and hasn't come off yet.

 

[Dan B.]

For what it's worth, the epoxy putty is extreme heat resistant. I like Permatex's but it's just another form of JB Weld, which I once used to patch a large hole in a oil pan. Surprisingly that repair held up and kept the oil retained for a almost a week lol.
I used a large deep socket to roll mine flat. Between 1/8 and 1/4 thick is sufficient and mine looks smooth because I filed it down with a rasp when it hardened. Will have maybe 5 minutes working time up to 10 minutes until it's too hard to work it.. it forms better half hardened, easier to shape. Use GG crystal cleat epoxy to stick to body. Did the same with my first c7 and hasn't come off yet.

Great tips, I appreciate that. This sounds like a great solution.