Someone Else Cutting Up A 3 window!

[Don Garrett]

Style and attitude...great work Geoff. ;';;';

[misster.ti]

That looks very nice, i like the chop and how you do it


Thorsten

[whodaky]

Thanks for the comments.
Style and attidue hey Don? Guess your talking about the coupe because I have neither.
Rick this will be nowhere near ready to be seen in the show and shine arena. Sitting here in the garage yesterday looking at the coupe from all angles in the flesh and on the computer screen. Told me there is a number of other changes I want to make to this body. I started looking at a lot more reference photos of 3 windows but from small shots in magazines I could not define the detail of the areas that are concern to me. So last night I remembered that an early isssue of Rodders Journal had a feature of a completed 3 window that was in bare metal and ready to be torn down to paint. So I thought that would be the perfect series of photos to see clearly what I needed to see. That car was in issue one and I also dug out issue 32 that has similar shots of a Brookville 3 window. From these articles I can see that I need to modify the skirt on the beaver panel on the rear of the body. Alter the body molding slight on the lower part of the body. Do a bit more sculpting on the 'A' pillars and I also want to thin down the main body mold on the side of the body.
Geoff aka whodaky

[slingshot]

Great model and a really wicked stance!

[hot ford coupe]

Sssssssssssaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwweeeeeeetttttt !!!! I really love the way this is coming out. It sits perfectly. Great work.

[Rick]

Geoff......you can still enter the car in the "Garage Tour" area.

[Thrillbilly Rich]

Looks wicked!!! Stick some fenders on it with that chop it would kind of look like the California Kid ! Wish we had a 33-34 so we could build the Kid. Pete and Jakes are about20 miles from my house and it sets in the show room on display. And once in awhile they bring it out to cruise night in Belton Mo. Love that movie!

[whodaky]

Did a little bit more on the 3 window body this week. Have stuck the window frame back on the right hand door.

It was apparent before I cut out the left door window frame that there was a dip in the door frame and roof gutter toward the front of the door. This was way more obvious to me after I cut off the door frame. So with the trusty heat gun I heated the affected area and straigthened the dip. This is hardly noticeable, but it was bugging me big time.
The first image shows the dipped area, between the 2 black lines. The second image is after I fixed this area!
Geoff aka whodaky

[Merlin]

Hey Geoff, when you use a heat gun to straighten out resin parts do you notice much spring back due to material memory? I'm wondering how permanent the massaging is. Hate to see the car return back to the original shape after correcting it.

[Don Garrett]

Good point Merlin.....I'm no expert on resin so take this for what it's worth. In my dealings with resin bodies and their inherent instability I've come across a few "issues". If a body is removed too soon from the mold, it can get pretty goofy as it cures. I've had "green" bodies delivered that left the caster fine and were distorted when they arrived due to pressures from packing and shipping. The mix, time in mold etc, etc, are all factors that can jump up and bite ya in the butt.
I try to let "fresh" resin bodies sit for months at times, to let them properly cure and then repair if needed.
To get back to the point (in Geoff's case) he should be fine simply because he has cut the body in multiple pieces so whatever "memory" was there has been stress relived to the point where it now has it's own set of rules. He's taken the time to pin his joints so they act as not only joint strengtheners but stabilizing anchors for the rest of the body as well.
This is only an issue on bodies, it's not a problem with cast parts.

[whodaky]

Interesting question Merlin and a very informed response from Don.
Having never cast any parts in resin I am not familiar with all the variables in the process. But from my industrial background I am aware of shrink rates, stress factors and all sorts of other stuff that come into play in the casting of parts, be it in resin , metal or whatever!
When I bought the 3 window body Dan's advertisment said the distortion in the body could be repaired with a heat gun. I have used a heat gun on plastic but never on resin . But I was amazed with how the resin responds to heat. With the CAREFUL application of heat in an area , that area becomes very pliable. In this state an area you want to manipulate can be easily managed. But you do have to overcompensate a touch and quite often experiment a bit to get the desired result. It is also hard to get an area spot on with the first heat and manipulation, is just a matter of patience!
The memory aspect does come into play a bit, the bigger the area you are working with and also depending on the thickness of the resin in the area you are working tends to have some degree of memory.
My heat gun has a high and low setting, for the most part the low setting is fine. But on really thick areas I have used the high setting.
I manipulate heated areas with my bare fingers , so you have to take care because the areas can be quite hot .
I really want to make some sort of adaptor for my heat gun that will allow me to heat a really small spot. Other than that I really find my heat gun more than adequate..
Merlin the application of heat gun for me, is now something of great benefit in my modeling and the heat gun is and essential tool in my modeling tool box, right beside my plastic welder!
Geoff aka whodaky
PS just posted and read all that again. Merlin, in essence with the heating, manipulating and overcompensating for 'original memory' you are actually introducing a new memeory into the piece and if all is done right the piece won't return to it's 'original memory' state.

[hot ford coupe]

This is a very important part of working with large pieces of resin . Thanks guys for the great info. The more we know about handling resin , the easier it becomes to handle. We can finally get to that point where we control the resin and not the other way around.