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Preparation
in all its forms when painting bodyshells is
very important. It is a common misconception
that paint covers bad prep. It doesn’t.
If anything it accentuates mistakes, so by taking
time preparing a body the work will be easier
and the finished job better. Here are some tips
on the different aspects of preparation when
painting bodyshells. |
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There
are two methods of cutting the polycarbonate
plastic that bodyshells are made of,
either cutting with scissors or with
a knife. Scissors are easy and now
curved bladed pairs are available it
is quite a simple job to cut around
the whole body with a combination of
straight and curved blades. Cutting
with a modelling knife is not quite
as easy but does give a better finish,
and remember you don’t have to
cut all the way through the plastic,
just score it with the knife firmly
and bend the panel back on itself and
the plastic will snap apart. If you
can’t bend it back, like on wheel
arches, then gently tear the plastic
along the score line. (fig 1) |
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Always
mount the body on the chassis before painting
it. While it’s clear you can see what’s
going on with mounting posts and get an accurate
mark on where to make the mounting holes.
Start cutting out by trimming just the marked
base line all the way around the body. Wheel
arches vary from body to body, some manufacturers
mark them all, some just mark the front arch
and some don’t mark the arches at all.
If they’re all marked just move one step
on to marking the mounting holes. If you’ve
got one of the other two types it’s best
to take the body posts off the chassis, lay
the body over the chassis (you may want to
block it up to get the clearance right) so
you can either a) line up the front marked
arch with the front wheel and then mark out
the rear, or b) line up the body to best fit
front and rear aches if they’re not marked. |
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Non
marked arches are best cut out using a compass
that is fitted with a blade instead of a
lead (bigger stationers sell this type of
compass), so when it comes to marking out
just put a dot over the dead centre of the
wheel nut and just cut the arch slightly
larger than the diameter of the tyre. |
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Once
the arches are marked out put the body mounts
back on to the chassis but don’t remove
the waste material yet. If the body posts
have been used before they will be cut to
the right height but if they are new it’s
best, although a little fiddly, to trim them
down to a little bit longer than the finished
length. Now rest the body on the posts making
sure it is at the right attitude by ensuring
the bottom of the shell is parallel to the
work surface. If you haven’t got the
post lengths dead right the body may rest
just on the rear or front pair. Use the centre
lines you marked for cutting the wheel arches(that's
why you don’t pull them off yet!) to
be sure the body is correctly aligned to
the front and rear wheels. Make sure also
that the body is central side to side by
making sure the gap between the outside of
the wheel and the inside of the body is the
same on either side. Now looking through
the bodyshell mark the positions of the body
mount posts.
You can use ordinary twist drills to make the
holes in the body but they have a habit of
skidding across the body before they start
cutting and scratching it. There are many types
of tapered body reamers available now, and
if you compare the cost of one of them to the
cost of a body it makes good sense to have
one to save the risk of marking the shell whilst
trying to make the mounting holes.
Last jobs are to cut the wing out (if the body
has one) and drill the screw holes to mount
it. |
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