plexiglass
 

Anyone have any experience working with it? I'm curious if it can be used to make a template from which a mold can be made. The entire undertail/undertray/battery box assy on my RC is in serious need of help and I need a project before I go crazy. How hard is plexiglass to shape i.e. bend without breaking? Or can it even be shaped? If it can be shaped, then what tools will I need?

i think you are better off building it from fiberglass.

Every time that I've worked with fiberglass I've made a huge mess and I'm really hoping to avoid that. I can lay fiberglass if I've got a mold, but this time I'm gonna need to make a mold. Another problem that I've run into is that some body parts for RCs, especially undertrays, are extremely hard to find unmolested.

it will be easier to build from fiberglass... BUT if you use thin plexy you can bend it with a heat gun and patients... but try'n to do complex bends and corners is a waste of time and effort. at most you can do is roll it one direction ie roll it into a u... but can't make a box with out cutting and attaching ends.

in the end the plexy would be very heavy compared to fiberglass..


why were you thinking plexy?

Cutting and bending isn't problem, and when I'm working with my hands, I've got all the patience in the world. So pretty much a dremel and a hair drier?

I was thinking plexi because I need something to use as a template in order to build a mold. The final product(s) with be from either fiberglass or carbon fiber.

Depends on what you mean by plexiglass? Straight acrylic would be a pain in the ass as it likes to shatter... Lexan or some other polycarbonate would be much easier. Polycarb can be formed using a heat gun, but a torch works better... obviously the thickness used would determine the heat source. Now, I would recommend just making it out of the polycarb and forget fiberglass and CF.

I was thinking something along the lines of acrylic but I do admit that going that way would be a pain in the ass. So maybe Lexan, but how thick? Something like 1/16 inch?

A trick used in the kit car world is to use a foam the hardens to a solid (come on one of the body shop guys help with the name of the poduct) to form a negative impression , by covering the original with a release agent ( I used saran wrap the last time) then put relase agent in the mold and lay the glass glass into the mold. I did a couple of scoops this way and pulled molds for fender flairs off a buddies car as well

You mean like styrofoam? What I was thinking was to make the shape that I wanted from the acrylic/polycarbonate using modelers clay if needed to smooth things out and then make the negative. Then take the negative (mold) and make my final product from either fiberglass or carbon fiber.

1/16" would be ok for a mold... could be done with a heat gun... 1/8" would require a torch... I'd just make it out of 1/8" and be done with it. You can even get black Lexan... The whole making a mold thing just seems counter productive... You're talking about adding a part that weighs a few ounces and isn't really seen.

you wanna build a mold... use cardboard and styrophome... that spray expanding foam is awesome for this.


the thing is you can make a sphere with fiberglass... you can't with plexy. you can make it round as in in a cylinder but not sphere... as you'd have folds and shit.

save yourself the trouble...get cardboard and spray foam... it's what I used when doing fiberglass for car stereo installs before I came in the military.

as far as I know it's what they're still using now

Cardboard for the base and basic outline and then spray the shit out of it with great stuff (far away from the bike of course and on only one side) and then just shape it the way I want? That sounds pretty simple.

yup

Sweet, that sounds one hell of a lot easier than what I was thinking. Thanks a lot. Cool thing is that the Homac (a Japanese WalMart) opens in 30 min.

nice... yeah it'll be easy... and if you fuck up... quick to start over!

get some sand paper to help shape it

I've got cardboard and a box cutter, I need spray foam and sand paper for now. This'll be a lot easier than what I was thinking 'cause I'll probably screw this up at least once. Thanks

lol I used to make at least 4 molds before I got one right :lol:

just remember that spray foam expands with alot of pressure... so very little is needed


I was help'n a buddy put in a window in his adac and he got some spray foam for around the window... neither of us had ever used it so we sprayed alot to fill it up... it started spilling out but we cleaned it up... 2 mins later... the window went fly'n out, and down 3 stories down to the ground... crazy shit.

Nice, I'll keep that in mind

I have done some work with both as a one time parts making experiments. I found about 3/4 of a stock car windshield laying in the road where it had fallen out of a truck. It was lexan and still had the protective paper on the plastic. It will bend pretty easy with heat. I made a seat and tail for a 350 drag bike out of it. The paint looked great. I painted it inside out, like a clear slot car body for those on here old enough to remember such things. Decals, then top candy, then base, etc.. on the inside so it had a 1/4 inch of clear (lexan) on the outside.

The next year I made a one piece lift off body out of aluminum screen and fiberglass "boat repair kits" from the Ace hardware. It didn't look all that great but it worked.
Actually the bike looked better to me without any body work.

Fiberglass body

Looks pimp, all of 'em

I'm going for anything spectacular, just trying to keep the ass of my bike from falling apart. The undertail that I've got is simply full of holes

For sure fiberglass is easier to work with than plastic but messy. You could even glass over the under tail you have and and use aluminum for the load bearing parts. You can also get Carbon Fiber sheets for custom fab. From my limited experience, aluminum is as easy to work with as anything else.

Another vote for fiberglass here. You can made a mold out of closed cell foam and go from there. I just finished a little project using that method and it turned out great. I'll post pics tonight.

definitely dont waste your time with acrylic. i have built fishtanks and other straight-paneled structures from it, but leave the molding to the pros.

So the plexiglass idea got pitched and I've decided to use foam to make the mold and then lay the final in 'glass. Wile I'm doing this little project, I intend to upgrade the lights out back. I managed to pick up some bright ass LED turn signals and a plate light, but I'm looking into replacing the stock brake light assembly. I don't need to go the whole integrated route, but I need something. The stock stuff comes in a HUGE housing with 2 bulbs that are, as of right now, a pain in the ass the change (i.e. take a apart the entire tail just to get at 'em) and if you have ever owned an RC, you know how often that can be.

I need something LED and dual intensity. I was hoping to find a dual intensity LED strip light ~4" long so I could just stack a few of 'em one above the other and get a big enough light working. Any ideas?

try looking here http://www.superbrightleds.com/light_bars-rigid.html