custom made bodies

[SCHMACH]

anybody know of a company/person that would make custom bodies ? i need a yokomo 1/12 scale touring car body widened to 190mm

[FESTER2004]

i dont know anybody but i ahte to say it its probaly expensive!years ago RCCA did a article or soemthing on vaccum machine to pull your own lexan bodies,thing was major money

[awnelson]

Here's what I would do: Go locate a plastic vacuum form shop and tell them what you want done. Take the body that you are wanting widened with you. What they will most likely recommend is that you take the body and fill it on the inside with pourable resin. After it cures, peel off the lexan body. Take the molded resin to a band saw and cut it in strips about 2 inches wide or less from the front to the back of the body. If there are details anywhere, you will need to "steer clear" of them, meaning leave them intact. Then, take the strips you have just created and bond them with a piece of plywood using glue and screws from the bottom side, leaving open sections evenly spaced so that the body is now the desired 190mm wide. Then, fill in the empty spaces with resin and shape it until it cures, forming to to match the contour of the strips that are from the original pour. Sand the lines smooth so that the body will not have blemishes. Fill any voids at this point using bondo or putty and sand smooth again. This final shape will be what the mold maker will use to form your bodies. He will make this mold for you for $500 to $1,000 and each pull of the mold will cost another $20 to $40. The mold will be good for about 10 tries. You would be lucky to get 20 off of it. The other option is to create a CAD model of the body, make an aluminum mold and then pull infinite number of bodies off of that. That mold will set you back about $3000 to $5000 depending on cooling and vacuum lines, whether it needs a draw box and how good a buddy you can make this guy into. Still want to make that body? I can almost guarantee it won't be worth your time or money, but anything is doable with the right amount of drive and desire.

[hijacker]

Here's what I would do: Go locate a plastic vacuum form shop and tell them what you want done. Take the body that you are wanting widened with you. What they will most likely recommend is that you take the body and fill it on the inside with pourable resin. After it cures, peel off the lexan body. Take the molded resin to a band saw and cut it in strips about 2 inches wide or less from the front to the back of the body. If there are details anywhere, you will need to "steer clear" of them, meaning leave them intact. Then, take the strips you have just created and bond them with a piece of plywood using glue and screws from the bottom side, leaving open sections evenly spaced so that the body is now the desired 190mm wide. Then, fill in the empty spaces with resin and shape it until it cures, forming to to match the contour of the strips that are from the original pour. Sand the lines smooth so that the body will not have blemishes. Fill any voids at this point using bondo or putty and sand smooth again. This final shape will be what the mold maker will use to form your bodies. He will make this mold for you for $500 to $1,000 and each pull of the mold will cost another $20 to $40. The mold will be good for about 10 tries. You would be lucky to get 20 off of it. The other option is to create a CAD model of the body, make an aluminum mold and then pull infinite number of bodies off of that. That mold will set you back about $3000 to $5000 depending on cooling and vacuum lines, whether it needs a draw box and how good a buddy you can make this guy into. Still want to make that body? I can almost guarantee it won't be worth your time or money, but anything is doable with the right amount of drive and desire.
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Yep, thats what I did!

[dam3d]

These guys have a vaccum machine and make custom bodies, http://gizmoshobby.com/

I don't live there (burbank), but my inlaws do, and I got my sons RTRs there and got to know the owner a bit, he is into making bodies in a big way.

Cheers!
if you live in oregon, check out my in the works Offroad RC site, http://www.dam3d.com/RC