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Tips and tricks for painting professional looking lexan bodies by Jim Desmond
To produce a good looking body you need to decide how you want to paint it. If you are doing a CP Cup car painted as your favorite NASCAR driver you will need to get the correct decal sheet and a couple of pictures of the car. If you are doing your own design, make sure you draw it out to the best of your abilities. There is a great template on the CP web site.
After you have made your decision you should do the following:
1) Test fit the body.
To do this properly you will need to mark and drill out the mounting holes. Now you can place the body on the car and check to see the wheel clearances. At this point, if you desire, you can make the wheel opening larger than shown by the indent for the wheels. You can use a magic marker to draw on the bodies over spray layer. If you pulled off or do not have an over spray layer, you can use a grease pencil to make the marking.
Now is the time to trim off the excess lexan from the mold. Use an xacto knife to score the lexan. Follow along the indented line along the bottom of the fenders all the way around the car. Do not worry about the wheel openings yet. After you have scored all the way around you can bend the lexan back and forth to cause it to break on the scored line.
After removing the excess from the bottom of the car you now want to score a line along the wheel openings. Again, follow along the line for the opening or the opening you drew. Now take scissors and cut a triangle. Place the scissors about 5mm in from the wheel opening and cut to the top part of the wheel opening. Do the same at the rear of the opening. Now you should be able to bend the lexan on the score line. If necessary, make another cut with the scissors in the middle of the line you just cut. At this point the body should be all trimmed and ready for mounting less paint.
2) Select your decals and paint.
A good thing to do on multi-color paint schemes is to photo copy your decal sheet. This way you can cut the paper and tape the logos and numbers where you want them on the body. This way you can mask off the inside of the body easier if you if you are doing multi-colored paint schemes. Make sure you use a paint for lexan bodies. Other paints will chip off of lexan.
3) Prepping for the first color.
Wash out the inside of the body with soap and water. Dry the body completely.
Apply window masks and prepare to paint the darkest color. A really need trick to get a really clean edge from your first color is to use automotive pin stripes. You can pick them up at any local auto parts store. The reason for auto pin stripes is that they are thick and you can stretch them around corners inside the body and if your masking tape goes over the edge of the pin stripe you can cut it with an xacto knife without damaging the body. Place it so it is at the edge of where you want the lightest color to end. Now use masking tape to cover where you want you do not want your first color to appear on the body. When you have the body masked off go over it with the back of your thumbnail. You will see the difference from areas you have put the extra pressure on. Make sure you do this to the pin stripe. It will help prevent bleeding.
4) Spray your first color.
It is preferred to use an airbrush to a can of spray paint. The reason is that an airbrush will coat with a thinner layer of paint. If you use a can to paint the car you usually would need 2 or 3 coats of paint. If using an airbrush, 3 to 5 coats may be needed. If you painted a fluorescent or metallic color you will want to use white as a final coat to help the colors shine brighter.
5) Removing the masks
After the paint has dried, you will want to pull off the mask you applied except for the window masks. If you are doing a two tone paint scheme you can now paint your final color. If you doing a paint scheme that is three colors or more you would now want to go back to step 3. After the final color of the scheme has dried you can now pull off the windshield masks. If you find a spot where the paint bled past your mask if it is just regular over spray, slightly dampen a Q-tip with thinner and use it to gently wipe away the over spray. Dry the area with a paper towel. If the over spray is thick, chip it down gently with an xacto knife then use a Q-tip lightly dampened with thinner to remove the excess paint and dry with a paper towel.
6) Applying decals
When trimming out the decals, try to trim as close to the edge as possible. This will leave you with a cleaner look when the body is done.
If you have ever put window tint on a car you are familiar with this tip. Mix water and dish soap in a spray bottle. You only need a few drops of dish soap to mix with the water. This way you can spray down the body and the back of the decal. You can move the decal around if you placed it in the wrong spot or just need to move it a little bit to get it in the right place. This will help you with removing air bubbles also. When the decal is located where you want it, press the decal from the center out to the edges with a paper towel or washcloth to remove the water. If you do end up with an air bubble, use a very pointed xacto blade to poke a little hole in the bubble. Press out the air and most of the time you cannot see the little hole. Test this out on one of the medium sized decals first, an example would be the one for the deck lid. Some manufactures vinyl or mylar will not stay in place while trying to remove the water solution. If this happens, the decal will still be usable when the decal dries off a little bit. You will just need to then apply that decal set with the tip of an xacto knife instead. Just be very careful.
For the inspection stickers, windshield tear off tabs, adjustment jack circles and hood pins just use the tip of the xacto knife to hold the decal where I want it. Just be very careful.
A nice final touch is to apply wide black auto pin stripe to the inside of the top of the windshield. This will give the appearance of the sunshade on the window.
If you follow the steps and take your time you should be able to produce professional looking bodies easily.
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