Re-Earning My Stripes....

So what's a Radio Guy to do when propagation is crummy during the current Solar Minimum?

Work on his little model car, that's what. It's too cold to work on my "big" model car in the garage, a.k.k my "1-to-1 Scale" car.

The chassis is now basically complete, with the exception of the Timing and Scoring Transponder, which I have to buy from the track.

I've run it around in the basement a bit (it's FAST!), so now it's on to the body.

Since these little cars run bodies made of clear, vacuum-formed Lexan sheet, you have to paint them. And you paint them on the inside, with special paint. The plastic is only .040" thick, so it's quite flexible, and bends easily under impact, popping back to shape after you've hit something. To keep the paint looking good, and to preserve a high-gloss finish, you paint them on the inside, doing the darkest colors first, which is completely bass-ackwards from what I'm used to doing in both real cars, and other static display models I've built.

Took three hours and half a roll of masking tape before I got it "close enough" to paint. The last time I did this was 30some years ago, and it takes a while to get the skills back.

I went in the downstairs bathroom, turned the ventilator to "High", and sprayed the inside of the body with several light coats of paint, just enough to get uniform coverage in the stripe area.

And Holy Smokes, I'd forgotten how potent that type of paint is! It's very aromatic, and even the small amount I sprayed for the stripe was enough to really stink up the area. I wasn't planning on doing the white main color coat inside, and painting the stripe confirmed it! I'll have to wait until Friday when it's supposed to be 65* so I can finish the paint job out in the garage. The local "Marker's Space" is next door to the RC car track, but I don't think they have a spray booth or fume hood, so I'll have to come up with some way or place to do paint work during the winter months.

I made the mounting holes in the body before I did the masking and painting, and almost got them 100% correct. They're spot-on side-to-side, but I got them slightly off in the fore-to-aft direction, and had to oval them out a bit with my Dremel.

I'm not sure how much this will allow the body to shift fore-and-aft during use, or if it matters. I can block the back side of the hole with some adhesive-backed thin aluminum tape I have, or figure something else out if the body has too much movement. And I'm going to either have to get some different body mounting posts (the thing coming with holes in it coming through the body) or cut these down a LOT more!

So here it is loosely stuck on the car.

I'll clean any masking tape residue off the inside of the body tonight, and apply the window masks that came with the body, and wait until Friday when it should be warm enough to paint the body out in the garage. After that, I have to trim the excess plastic from the body, and then put my decals on.

Getting closer and closer to something like this.

And KRFC, one of two local stations, just played the "Peorgie Tirebiter" song.

I suspect the DJ is "Of A Certain Age".....

Gotta love Fort Collins!