Stage 1. Dis-assemble car
You will need :
Craft Knife
Small flat head & Phillips screw driver.
The car is taken apart. The body work and chassis are cleaned.
All parts are inspected. If found to be faulty they are
replaced.
Tyres & bulbs checked and replaced.
Motor checked and electrics.
Any parts that are obviously not meant to be on the car EG F1
wheels on a GT car are removed and replaced with the appropriate
part.
Any parts that are missing EG Mirrors are taken from stock and
put with the car. Most replacement parts are new, some
reconditioned and just a few taken from other cars, depending on
availability.
Take the car apart and put everything safe in a bag and seal it
up. Some parts can be ultra small and if you lose anything the
spares can be a nightmare to source.
Some cars are easy to take apart, they almost fall apart in your
hand like the Scalextric Jaguar XJ220 or Scalextric Ferrari F40.
However, the more modern cars have plastic parts welded to each
other or glued. If this is the case then I use a craft knife and
scrape away the welded plastic until it starts to free up the
joint and then ease the parts open with a small screw driver or
the blade of the knife.
Similarly if the parts are glued I scrape the glue away or cut
it away with a craft knife until the part works itself free.
Some modern cars have wire grilles and rubber ariels. Work on
the inside of the shell gently scraping away the glue and or
melted plastic until the part almost falls free.
On a modern car disassembly can take 45 minutes. The parts are
then put away unless they are required for painting.
Stage 2. Stripping & Priming
You will need:
Clean cloth
Plastic Primer
Mask
Scourer pad or fine wire wool.
Tooth brush
Acetone Free Nail Polish remover OR T-Cut OR Graffiti Remover.
Before you start masking and painting, have a clear idea in your
head of what the car is going to look like. If you do not have
an idea in your head the car will end up neither one thing nor
another. Your uncertainty will come out in the car. So decide on
a scheme and stick to it.
Most cars will need the paint stripping off first. Even the cars
that are just plain white - if you want to repaint it you will
still have to strip the paint and prime the body. The way I
strip the paint is to use one or more of these methods;
a. Put the whole body in ACETONE FREE Nail polish remover. Leave
it for 10 minutes and then take it out and wipe off the paint
with a cloth. Put it back in the nail polish remover for another
10 minutes. Then take it out and scrub it with a tooth brush to
get the paint out from all the cut lines and crevices. This may
take quite a bit of elbow grease and you may need the help of a
kitchen scourer pad.
b. Dip a cloth in ACETONE FREE Nail polish remover and rub the
paint off section by section. This is probably safer than the
first option and uses less Nail polish remover.
c. Put the car in a plastic tub. Spray the car with Graffiti
remover. Wipe over with a cloth. Then spray again almost
immediately. Then leave to 'cook' with the car covered as this
again creates quite a lot of fumes. Or do it outside but not in
direct sunlight. Wipe clean again. You may have to repeat the
process again but using a tooth brush to get in all the
crevices.
Note that the Nail polish remover will dry your hands and give
off fumes like you would not believe. So do it either outside or
by an open window with gloves on.
Other people use Graffiti remover, T-Cut & TurtleWax. Just try
to get as much paint off as you can. You may need a tooth brush
or a craft knife to get the paint out of the cut lines in the
body.
Once you are happy with the paint removal wash the car in warm
soapy water, dab dry with a towel and leave to dry in the air.
Two reasons for this, you want to get rid of the chemicals & you
want to get rid of grease marks from your fingers. Now try to
handle the car as little as is humanly possible.
You are now ready to prime the car. I use Halfords Plastic
Primer. It is £5 for a can. It comes in white, grey and red. Use
the closest matching primer to the colour you are using. If you
use a white primer with red paint it will lighten the red from
what you were expecting. So it can be usefull sometimes -
experiment and see what happens.
You will need to mount the car body and bits on a stand of some
sort. I use several small water bottles, filled with water with
the tops on. I put some blue tak on the top of the bottle and
mount the car on that so the blue tak sticks to the inside of
the roof or bonnet. So now I can hold the bottle and rotate the
car in my fingers. I also use more bottles to stick wing mirrors
and spoilers to.
I then go to the garage, I cover my arm with an old t-shirt,
with the garage door open I spray the car while rotating it in
my hand. I also wear a painters mask. An alternative method
could be to get a large cardboard box and suspend the car inside
it with a coat hanger and rotate the coat hanger from outside
the box. This is far less messy but not so easy to control.
The car will need 2 coats of Primer. Rub down the primer after
both coats. I use a fine nail file. The primer will need 30
minutes to dry between coats and you will need to leave the car
atleast 24 hours before you go to paint the car.
I use a low bake oven to dry my cars. It sounds flash but isn't.
It is a metal cabinet with a lamp in it. The lamp warms the
cabinet and it keeps the dust off the car as it dries. However
this is not essential an alternative would be to cover the car
with an old scalextric box lid and leave it in a warm room out
of the sun.
Stripping and priming the car can take 1-2 hours (not counting
drying time)
Stage 3. Masking and painting.
You will need:
Paint Mask
Tamiya Masking Tape
Craft Knife
Automotive Paint or Tamiya Paint.
Ensure you have waited at least 24 hours for the primer to dry.
Also check the weather forecast. If you paint in the rain or fog
or snow it can cause the paint to get an orange peel effect or a
dull finish. If you get an orange peel effect you will have to
rub down and start again. I spray in the garage and have
experienced this even after a shower.
Both Tamiya and automotive paint go on better if they are at
room temperature or just above. I usually put the can of paint
upright in some hot water for a minute or two before shaking and
using.
Use the same techniques for spraying the paint as you did for
the primer. Make sure you spray past the car. By that I mean
don't stop the spray stroke with the can pointing at the car,
stop spraying once you are spraying into thin air. Yes this
wastes paint BUT if you don't you will get a doppled effect
where you stopped spraying.
A lot of people use air brushes. This uses a lot less paint and
is much cheaper. But you do have to buy the air brush and
thinners and cleaning bits. I cannot comment on how to use air
brushes because I do not use them. That's a whole new subject.
The paint I use is either Halfords Automotive Paint or Tamiya TS
Paint. The Halfords paint is £5 a can and will do 3 cars. The
Tamiya is £4 a can and will do 2 cars. Both have good finishes
but the Tamiya is less toxic and I find it is easier to use.
Always paint in a well ventilated area and always use a mask.
I spray 3 coats on the cars. After the first two coats I rub the
car down with a fine finishing pad. I leave each coat to dry for
at least 30 minutes in my low bake oven. Try and keep dust and
hairs off the car.
Obviously it is far far easier to paint a single colour than it
is for multiple colours. If you are using more than 1 colour you
will need to mask off areas of the car. Which colour you paint
first depends on the car and your own nerve. I try and paint
dark colours first. The reason for this is if you get any bleed
you can touch up dark colours easier than lighter colours. Now I
know there are people in this forum that do the exact opposite.
I don't know their reason for it but they do. Again you have to
experiment on what works best for you. Having said all that it
may not be a choice of which colour you paint first. The shape
of the car and where you decide to mask may determine which
colour you do first. If you are masking a curve or in a crevice
try to work out if there is a safe way to mask. Because of the
curve of the body it may be easier to mask one side than another
so it is best to mask the difficult side first, spray that
initial colour. This may give you some paint bleed, but that
doesn't matter because now you mask the easier side and you
should get a good crisp line between the two.
So masking takes time - not just to do but to plan.
Tamiya masking tape is very good. It comes in a few different
widths and is about £3 for a roll. It gives good adhesion but
not too tacky so that it marks or pulls paint off. It also gives
a good seal and crisp lines.
Mask off the area that you do not want painted. Remember to mask
the inside too and also holes where windows and grilles and air
intakes are. Because the paint goes every where and you could
find the paint going inside the car body and back out through an
air vent and onto a part of the car that you do not want it to
be.
Once you think you have the area masked off check it over, look
at the cut lines and crevices. Can you see any gaps, the tiniest
gap will let in paint!!!!
Then spray the colour you want. Wait for the 3rd coat to dry,
maybe an hour or so and then remove the masking tape. You will
then have to wait 24 hours for this colour to dry. I recommend
that you rub down the edges of where the masking tape was
because this can cause a 'lip' of paint. If you rub this area
down it will remove the lip and this will make the masking tape
seal much much more effectively the second time around.
Then mask up again. Whatever you do, do not mask the painted car
and then leave it for a day before you want to paint it. The
longer the tape is on the car the more possibility there is of
the tape damaging the paint surface. So make sure you have
enough time to mask up, paint 3 coats and more time to remove
the tape once the paint is just dry.
Paint the car as before.
What if you unmask the car and you find you didn't get a good
seal and you have paint bleed. This can happen on cut lines or
where the body takes a sharp turn, like in air vents or around
wheels. It's not a disaster. It's a pain. I make sure all the
paint is absolutely dry. At least 24 hours after the last coat
was applied. You can then try and rub the paint off with a nail
file or cloth dipped in nail polish remover. Alternatively,
spray some of the paint I need to use to cover the area into the
spray can top. I then use a clean dry brush and cover the area
by hand. You need to use minute amounts of paint. Less is more!
Use gentle strokes. Use a few thin coats rather than 1 thick one
rubbing down with a nail file after each thin coat.
However, it is far far easier to make sure your masking is 100%
good before you paint, it will save lots of time and frustration
in the end.
It can take 2-3 hours to mask a car - depending on how intricate
the design is or how many colours you are using.
Painting takes around 5 minutes per colour per coat. Plus drying
time.
Stage 4. Decalling.
You will need:
Scissors
Curved Nail scissors
Decal paper
Clear Lacquer
Inkjet printer
Internet connection
OR
Commercially produced decals
While you are waiting for paint to dry etc you can be preparing
decals. I usually use my own decals. However, using commercial
decals is ok.
Look Pendle Slot Racing Decals.
Look Pattos Place Decals.
For excellent decals.
One thing to note about commercial decals they are ULTRA Thin.
As a consequence they can be hard to use and you can get quite
frustrated at creased or torn or stretched decals.
I try and use my own as it is cheaper and they are easier to
use.
Planning your decals
I print all my decals on a sheet of a4 plain white paper. I cut
them out and then put them on the body with a small piece of
blu-tac to make sure they are the right size and look ok. I do
this as many times as it takes to get them looking right. It is
far easier to waste a piece of plain paper rather than use up
all your more expensive decal paper with continuous mistakes.
This also ensures you have the right number of decals for the
car
Producing Decals
I buy my decal paper from Crafty Computer Paper.. £1.55 for an
A4 sheet. 1 A4 sheet will do up to 6 cars. Depending on size and
number of decals.
Go on the internet and search in Google for logos.
Save the logo files to the PC.
Open a blank word document. Click Insert -> Click Picture ->
Click From File.
You then select the logo you want and it will put the logo into
a word document.
If you then single click the logo in the word document it will
allow you to resize the logo to fit the car. I suggest you get
all the logos onto the file you need. Then save the file and
print it on a piece of normal white paper. Then cut each logo
out and offer it up to the car making sure that all the logo's
fit and look ok. Once you are happy with the size of the logo's
arrange the logo's on the file in word so you use the space
efficiently EG Same size decals on the same line. It's amazing
how much paper you can save by doing this.
Take the piece of decal paper and wipe it over with a soft dry
cloth. There tends to be something on the surface of the paper
that can sometimes stop the ink from sticking. Once the surface
of the paper feels smooth and clean print off the decals. You
will have to experiment on the best setting for your inkjet
printer to get the best results. Each printer will be different.
Leave the decals to dry for 24 hours.
The decals can then be lacquered. I use Halfords Clear Lacquer.
It is £5 in an aerosol can. One can will do about 10 cars or
more. Each sheet of decals will need 4 or 5 THIN coats. Leave at
least 30 minutes between each coat.. If you spray too thick the
lacquer will crack and the decals will get ruined. Leave the
lacquer to dry for 24 hours before you need to use them.
How do you get white decals?
Well this can be tricky. First of all you need to use white
decal paper. Ink jet printers don't print white. Have a look at
these two decals. The Esso decal is easy to produce on white
paper - the Renault is very tricky. The reason is that you can
cut round the edge of the Esso decal and the only white bit will
be the Esso, however the Renault logo will need to be filled
with a colour to match the colour of the car surface. This can
be very hard to achieve. You will need to play around with the
decal in paintshop or some other software like that. I will
usually use commercially produced white decals for intricate
decals. Alternatively you can cut the Renault decal into two V
shapes and apply them individually.
Applying your decals:
Cut each decal as close to the decal as you can. Curved nail
scissors are good because they are sharp and allow you to cut
round corners surprisingly easily.
Pop the decal into a saucer of luke warm water for 5 seconds.
Take out decal and put it on the work top and leave for 30
seconds.
With damp fingers slide the decal paper away a little so it
creates a lip of decal free of the backing paper.
Lay the decal on the car and slide the decal paper away.
Reposition the decal with a damp finger.
Dab the decal dry once you are happy it is in the right place.
Get rid of bubbles and excess water by gently wiping over the
top of the decal.
If the decal is going over a cut line or a curve in the body I
would recommend using one of the decal set fluids available from
model shops. These will soften the decal and give it sufficient
suppleness to attach itself to the lines of the car without
cracking or lifting.
The process for applying commercial decals is exactly the same.
The time decaling takes can vary. I have done a Martini Jaguar
and the decals are VERY difficult to get right and can take 5-6
hours, plus the time it takes to find the decals online and size
them and print them. You could find the whole decal process
takes a whole day to do. The thing to do is keep the decals you
produced on your PC so that you can modify them for other cars.
That way you don't need to keep recreating them.
Also you can use sticky backed paper to make some base decals
for the cars. That way the base matches the car. The base
stickers are made in just the same was as normal decals but they
are not water slide. The back peels off to stick on the base.
Note these will still need lacquering to protect the sticker.
Decals will need 24 hours to dry. Remember to only apply the
decals once the paint has had 24 hours to dry.
Note: Some people apply one coat of lacquer to a car before
decaling. This gives a good smooth surface for the decals to
attach to. Painted surfaces, even though they may look shiny and
smooth are actually far from it. They will have microscopic pits
in them and this will trap water and air, this can cause
friction on the paint surface which makes decals hard to move,
it can also make decals appear shiny. So this may be worth
doing. But remember to let the lacquer dry before applying the
decals.
If you are doing a Matt finish to a car you may need to lacquer
the car before you apply the decals. Matt paint is not smooth,
so when a decal is applied it traps tiny air bubbles behind the
decal giving it a shiny appearance. However, this will not be
apparent if you are using white decal paper as you can not see
through the decal.
Stage 5. Detailing.
Once painted it is a nice touch to get the detailing done. This
can be anything that suits the car. Painting driver figures,
putting chrome on bonnet clips, black rubber sills, a pit babe
to match the car, making indicators orange, giving the dashboard
dials.
This is usually done by hand with either acrylic or enamel
paints, usually on very small areas
As long as it is able to be seen in 1:32 scale give it a go
Stage 6. Lacquering.
You will need:
Lacquer
I quality wide brush
After allowing 24 hours for the paint and decals to dry you are
ready to lacquer. I use Johnson's Klear Floor Polish which is
about £2 for a bottle. A bottle will do 100's of cars, unless
you spill it on the dining room table like I did!
This is my method, I will then outline other methods others use.
Method 1. I bought a Sable three quarter inch brush. I brush on
a thin coat of Johnson's Klear. I let it dry for at least 30
minutes. I then brush on 4 more coats. You then have to allow at
least 24 hours before it will be ready to be handled and put
together. Whilst drying you have to protect it from dust with a
cover. However, if you do find something has dropped onto the
car you can apply more Klear and rub it very lightly with the
brush or a finger nail and the bit of fluff will come off. You
must stroke the brush slowly, if you stroke too fast air bubbles
will form on the car. Again if this happens you just need to
apply more Klear and they will dissolve.
Advantages: Cheap
Disadvantages: Have to have a good brush and a steady patient
hand.
Method 2. Take an ice cream tub and dip the car in it using your
trusty coat hanger. Remove the car and let the excess drip off.
Hold the car at an angle and allow the excess to run off or form
a pool at a corner of the body. Lightly touch a piece of
absorbent paper against the pool of Klear and it will go. Leave
to dry for 30 minutes and reapply another 4 coats.
Advantages; Quick
Disadvantages: uses more laquer and can form pools of liquid
which could go cloudy
Method 3. Use Halfords Aerosol lacquer. Put the car on its water
bottle base and spray the car just like you did with the paint.
Apply another 3 or 4 coats.
Advantages: Quick & easy
Disadvantages: Most expensive. Lacquer can go on thick. Can
react with some decals and ruin them.
If the lacquer does go cloudy it may dry clear. If you are
worried apply more lacquer and wait a few seconds and then wipe
excess off.
Lacquering takes 5 minutes per coat.
Stage 7. Assembly.
You will need :
Various glues
Phillips screw driver.
Some cars are easy to take assemble, they almost just clip
together like the Scalextric Jaguar XJ220 or Scalextric Ferrari
F40.
However, the more modern cars have plastic parts that need to be
glued. If this is the case then I use superglue if there are no
clear parts close to the area. Also use it very sparingly. I
also use plastic cement, hot glue and PVA Glue, depending on the
part and the location of the part.
Sometimes you have to do the gluing over two days as parts have
to dry and fix in place before you put more bits on top of them.
It's handy to remember how you took the car apart because on
some models like the GT40 you can only put them back together in
a certain order.
I tend not to use glue on wing mirrors because I am of the
opinion that it is better they just fall off in a crash rather
than breaking off.
Note Superglue can cause fogging of clear plastic and can cause
a white mist on painted surfaces. So use sparingly. Also if you
feel you have to use superglue near a clear plastic part then
use just a drop and leave the parts open to the air after
gluing. This allows the fumes from the superglue to dissipate
away and up from the glued area. For example if I were gluing a
cockpit to a body I would leave the body upside down after
gluing to allow the fumes to rise and waft away from the clear
plastic of the windscreen. Having said all that if you use
superglue near clear parts you are taking a risk.
The finished body is then put on the cleaned chassis. The engine
is lubricated and all moving parts either greased or oiled.
All parts are re-checked to ensure they are 100% ok.
The finished car is given a quick test with a 9v battery to
check the motor and lights work and the motor turns the wheels.
Assembly can take a couple of hours but maybe spread over two
days.
