how to make a body kit?
 

I'm a newbie, infact i just got my first BCG last week. But anyway, I saw pics here with really kewl body kit.

How did you guy do it? what kinna materials? any tutorials online at all? please help.

btw TinyRC, this forum rox0r... I found a lot of useful info here :-)

Good question... iwould likt to know this too....but I think most people use Tamiya putty..

or epoxy potty. but yeah, tamaya putty would probably work best for makin your own body. epoxy putty is good for making body kits (body part add-ons). but anyway, it is very very difficult from my experience to make your own entire body. even making different add-ons are difficult to me:p

custom bodies
 

Actually, this is insanely easy with the right equipment.

Build a vaccum former, and vaccum form bit bodies, for lighter stock bodies that you can paint from the inside, basically, an exact copy on any given bit is all that is possible using vacuum forming at this time.

ZZ's, totally different story. You just have to find ANY die cast body or plastic if thick, that wheel wells match, and proper length.
Remove the body from the hot wheel or the like, use 2 or 3 liter soda bottle plastic(washed in warm soapy water first) then vacuum form it!

Then paint to your liking. Very light , yet sturdy body with tons of options. Working on a Jeep Liberty and a hummer and an old mustang fastback right now.

I just did a search on home made vacuum forming and found this site. Pretty good info...

Vacuum former

AWESOME find Supra!!!

Haha, the wolfkeeper, wouldn't expect to see his site even mentioned here. Gotta love his models and I think his tutorial for the Max Technique is the best out there (among english language ones).

Hell yeah, I agree... I would love to apply his tutorials someday. I just hate cleaning my airbrush, time consuming :p

Just so you know, dont use epoxy paste. I goofed and used that. Now my bit body lives in the trash.

Epoxy paste? is it the same as epxoy putty?

just buy a body set with the painted and the clear body and cut the lower front bumper and sides off of the clear body attach them to the painted body with super glue and paint. It worked for me

i used some model putty called squadron green putty takes hella long to harden (says 30 min to dry but it took me almost a day for it to harden all the way)

vacuum forming
 

Supra's link for vac forming is pretty good but the materials tehy used to make the vac bed out of looks like some kind of grater I've only seen overseas. An easy way to make a vaccum bed, similar to the one in the article is to get a perforated project board and small project box from Radio Shack.

They make small project boxes that will accept the perforated boards exactly, and this gives you a bed with nice small evenly spaced holes.

Plastic for vacforming can be found at just about any hobby shop that carries r/c airplane supplies. Ask for K&S butyrate sheets.

Re: custom bodies
 

Let me know when you finish the liberty body, My wife has a liberty and she would love a micro one.

who needs a body kit??? just lower it. . . thats all that it needs, also, when you make it lower, you could easily make parts for it out of that puddy. not only would it be almost touching the ground already, but it would be even lower all the way around.

speaking from experience, vaccum forming is not just that easy. i do a lot of vac forming with a expensive vac machine. the drawback to vac formers is doing molds that have undercuts. such as side mirrors. when the plastic is sucked around the car, it will also go around the side mirror, thus locking the mold in place. sometimes you can get them out, but sometimes you break the plastic. also if you are going to vac form the current bit bodys, you will have to shorten them about 2 mm so you can mount them directly to the tabs. and you will also want to putty in the wheelwells, to avoid undercuts and locking in the current bit body...

for homemade vac kits the thinner the plastic/lexan your using the easier things will be. your best bet would be on .010" thickness or possibly .020" anything much thicker and your home made vac may not have enough power to suck down the thicker plastic.

koo...this vaccuum thing sounds waaay to complicated for me...

microthunder: i prefer to do both... just i havent made a body kit yet =P

i was wondering... i've seen those massive shovel body kits on several cars on this board, but im looking to make a lip... just a lip with 2 small vents on the sides... and advice as to how this is done?

i can get putty... but i have nNOOO idea where to start..