New body sculpted from epoxy/bondo

AJFoot · #1 01-01-2003, 11:39 PM

I've been working on making my real-life car into a Bit body.
I modeled a Buick Regal in a 3d modeling program, flattened it out, printed it on thin card board, cut out/assembled the cardboard model, used 2 part epoxy by "painting" it on the cardboard model with a brush (several layers) then sanded and filed it down.
I would say I'm at least 75% done. Then I'm going to make my other car (Ford Explorer), then I'll move on to some "cooler" bodies.

AJFoot · #2 01-01-2003, 11:45 PM

Oh, and here some pics of the begining stages.

Mazdamp3er · #3 01-02-2003, 12:23 AM

whoa, thats cool!

MTL · #4 01-02-2003, 01:37 AM

doode thats interesting
i like the staight lines..cant wait till its all sanded and neat
btw, how sturdy is it?
even though putty is hard, a weak/thin area will total your car...
like real life hahaha

but hope thats just a show body

AJFoot · #5 01-02-2003, 05:12 AM

MTL,
It's very sturdy stuff and I've filed most of it down to about the same thickness as a factory shell. It's very light-weight and race worthy, so yeah, I'm gonna race it and show it off.

DriveWRX · #6 01-02-2003, 10:05 AM

AJFoot,
Excellent job! Looks really good!
To be able to make your own bodies, that's so cool!

Seems to me it's a really time consuming process. It's worth it though just to get that "special body".

Can't wait to see it finished!

Could you give a how-to & materials list sometime?
Keep up the excellent work.

AJFoot · #7 01-02-2003, 12:17 PM

Drive WRX,
Yes, it's a very time consuming process. At this stage I probably have between 20 and 30 hours invested in this, not including modeling in a 3d program. However I just got a dremel tool and it's shaved off alot of time spent sanding by hand.
I'll try to put together a how-to tutorial of sorts when I'm finished with this car.

AJFoot · #8 01-03-2003, 01:34 AM

I've made a little more progress and I got ahead of myself and shot some color on my custom body just to see how its going to look. I still need to do some fine sanding and put in the windows and headlight lenses.., so it should only be about 3 or 4 more months! LOL!
BTW all I have to take pics is a crappy webcam, so please excuse the PhotoShop-ed images. It seemed to help though.

DriveWRX · #9 01-03-2003, 09:59 AM

Dang, that's niiiiice!

rs2000 · #10 01-03-2003, 10:08 AM

Yeah that is pretty cool but check out this

Whatcha think? I made it out of epoxy and i just finished painting it!

rs2000 · #11 01-03-2003, 10:25 AM

Should I lift it or drop it? It aint a bit char-g. I am puttin led headlamps on but I cant find any L.E.Ds could i just use christmas tree lights??? oh yeah I got an Rx-7 body that had decals on it and I took them off and they left glue all over the car is it ruined or how can I get it off?

t-squared · #12 01-03-2003, 04:16 PM

rs2000, you should use WD-40 to get rid of the glue from the stickers, but you have to clean off the WD-40 after....

tinyrc · #13 01-03-2003, 11:40 PM

Great work AJFoot! Please keep us updated on this project!

AJFoot · #14 01-04-2003, 12:44 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tinyrc
Great work AJFoot! Please keep us updated on this project!

I sure will.

And heres a tip for anybody doing a project like this:
Have patience and don't rush things by painting your car too early because it will set you back a few hours if you still need to sand body lines. You see, hobby/model paint doesn't sand too nice when it's still tacky. What a mess! but I'm back on track and should be done sometime this weekend.

#15 01-04-2003, 09:32 AM

Awesome work man! (But you should've done a '87 Regal Grand National

)
My son got a Hot Wheels "car factory" for xmas.
I wonder if homemade molds can be made to make custom Bit bodies........