Repairing resin bodies

[Burglar]

[dreinecke]

Post the pics and let me take a look. Depending on the age and type of resin, CA glue usually works best in my book. I've done several repairs to older cars that way. Let's see how bad it really is though.

I've got the same Ranchero body and planned on making it and a panel someday. The Shelby American Collection museum has the original Shelby shop panel that is all GT-350'd. Very cool.

[Burglar]

Thanks David, I took some photographs. More information in the captions below.



Showing section missing under door. This is the side that I think might be distorted too.



I cut out the front and rear windows 22+ years ago ( I think I used a dremel I had back then)



Showing where the piece snapped off.





The next two photos show the piece that snapped off. It butts up against the rest of the shell quite well.





The next photo shows the interior and RHD dashboard. They are different colours.



The documentation included with the kit:

[MoparGreg]

Cool kit. I think that is very fixable. Im sure David will give you some better advice. But this is what I would do. Get the body straight first. Run it under hot water, get it flexible. Bend in the direction it needs to go under cold water. If that doesnt work make a jig to hold it in place then repeat.

I have repaired broken pieces like you need to. I used super glue to glue it back on as super glue dries fast. Then when dry I would reinforce the backside of it with some styrene & some epoxy glue.

This is just what works for me but may not work for you. Hope that helps.

[cagee13]

Greg explained it how I would repair it also. By the way that is a very interesting body and looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

[Burglar]

Thanks guys. I think my next step is probably to acquire the AMT Ranchero kit (which was re-released between when I bought this model and now, so it's a much better donor than their recommendation of the Mustang kit) and use that as my reference point when making any adjustments to the resin shell. I can probably replace the resin grille with the one from the kit, and the glass should fit (the rear window on these is completely flat).

As stated below I will only build this as a static model as I think that this shell is too brittle for track action. It should build up nice though if I can manage it.

Been some years since we've seen those seven digit phone numbers, eh Greg? Also I doubt anyone would put $18 on this now!

[Ember]

Dave, if it was mine I'd be mighty tempted to hand it off to someone for a re-pop. We need more of these ol' work horses around. And that's going to be a beauty.

Crumbs, I didn't even recognize it as a Melbourne phone number until you mentioned the 7 digits.

[MoparGreg]

Yeah looks like an old kit. I dont see why you cant build it as a slotcar. You can reinforce the inside of the body with styrene or even brass if you wanted overkill. You wont know its there unless you unless you turn it over. Basically all my 1/25 cars have some sort of reinforcing under the body as a just incase. Ill take some pics of some of mine to give you some ideas. I was told by a few resin caster that the bodies Ive been using for my 50s street cars wont hold up but so far so good.

Good luck with it & have fun :)

[Burglar]

I think a panel van would look pretty funny as a circuit car.

The only way I'd race it would be as a straight line drag car, which would also reduce the crashing problem. I would probably build a brass chassis rather than use H&R or whatever in that case just to keep weight down and allow the widest possible tyres under the back.It would actually make a nice wheelstander if I ever get around to that. Or I could just fix it up as a static model.

Trumpeter have made some nice '65 Ranchero kits and '64 Falcon coupe kits recently. Those would also look good in drag or circuit form. http://public.fotki.com/SteveG26/trumpeter-65-ford-r/

[MoparGreg]

I was just thinking, is this 1/25 or 1/32? I was thinking it was 1/32 but after re-reading Im gathering 1/25, There are a few resin casters that make 61 ford wagons & delivery wagons.

[DHansen]

A word of caution on tring to flex that body into shape under hot water. It looks like it is made from an old polester resin witch is hard and brittle. It will not flex, hot water wont make it any more flexable. I would glue the broken parts back on and then make a repop using an epoxy resin. Epoxy resin is more forgiving and flexable. Or carfully cut the roof off using a dremal cut off wheel and glue it onto your new ranchero styrine body, then make a mold and as many as you want.

[dreinecke]

Oh boy. DHansen is right, I believe. That crap is NASTY. I've got a McLaren M6a in that stuff. Looks like a red jolly rancher was used...it is sticky too.

If it isn't too bad, send it my way. I'll glue it to a jig, get the warp out, clean up the windows and see what we can do...