ORIGINAL: dr_wogz
Hi All,
I've searched but nothing came up. There might be something in Higley's ''There are no secrets'' book, but I have yet to buy that issue..
My query is how to assemble / attach the left & right vaccum formed parts that make up wheel pants. My particular pants have a big radius from where the mold & the table meet. Almost 1/8'' radius! Any preffered way to fill this? Obviously cutting away this radious can remove up to 1/4'' of material!
If any one has experience or an opinion, they're for the Skyshark R/C Stuka..
thanks!
What I have done with "less than perfect fitting wheel pants" is:
Line them up and then use a couple of small pieces of tape to hold them in position.
Next I use
A LITTLE thin CA to glue the parts that are touching together.
Once the ca dries, remove the tape and on the
inside of the wheel pants cut a piece of 2oz fiberglass cloth (Koverall will also work) to cover the open area and go over onto the solid part of the pants. Glue this in place using A GENEROUS AMOUNT of thin CA (if possible, do this outside so the fumes do not get to you). Let this dry completely (usually a few hours to be on the safe side)
Once everything has dried, I use spot putty (red stuff, comes in a tube - auto section of Walmart) to fill the indentation and let dry (usually 24 hours depending on how deep the indentation is).
I normally dry sand LIGHTLY with 100 grit to knock off any high spots (try not to scratch the plastic too badly), then I put a layer of the spot putty on the inside of the pants so that it covers the fiberglass and overlaps onto the plastic to stiffen the fiberglass up.
When that is dry, wet sand the outside with 200 grit, working your way up to 600 grit. Rinse everything off and let it dry.
Now check for pinholes and deep scratches and fill as needed with spot putty.
When you have everything the way you want it, put a coat (or 2) of
HIGH BUILD SANDABLE PRIMER on the pants to take care of any fine scratches.
I like the spot putty because it is reasonably hard when dry, yet easy to sand. If you have it on much over 1/16" - 3/32" thick I like to soak thin ca into the dried putty to minimize the chances of the putty cracking later on.
Normal procedure for assembling the wheel pant halves is to tape the 2 parts together and use a little thin ca to glue the halves together. Then a 1" wide strip of 2 oz fiberglass is put inside the pants and lined up over the seam. This strip is glued in with thin ca to strengthen the glue seam (I use a scrap piece of 1/8" music wire with a rounded end, to hold the fiberglass strip against the pants and to push the strip into the end of the pants while applying the ca).
Hope this is of some help.