# Gareth Garage



## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

Hi Guys,

Last weekend I picked up this box of 40 bodyshells which is a great mixture of treasure and trash. Treasure includes several AFX Ferrari 512s and a Porsche 917, some nice Tyco 908s, 917s and 512s which need new glass and some other bits.





Some of the trash include these four with bits missing and hideous paint. 



The middle ground of broken but repairable include the Testarossa and most of the BMWs with broken A pillars.


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

Last night I decided to start work on two of the cars. One is this abomination of a Porsche 962, definitely one out of the WTF pile!




I don't know what model of 1:1 car this green one is meant to be. Answers on a postcard please. The underneath shows it to have been an Aurora blue which makes me concerned about its long term strength. 



Here they are in their meths baths.



I poured the fluid over the 962 before thinking about it floating so I've used the straws to keep it under the surface. I used blu-tack with the green car to keep it on the bottom. 


I scratched at the paint with my thumb and a hint of blue is revealed. 



This morning I topped up the fluids and taped over the top to slow the evaporation rate. Really should have used a jar but I was too excited to think it through or eat all the jam to get an empty jar!

I love this photo although it is slightly blurry. I was in a hurry. Might do it again when I get home. 



I am planning to do this car in candy apple red with black windows and a large chromed engine lump in the bay. There is no bonnet so it should have a lump really. Needs chrome wheels to complete the look.

Cheers

Gareth


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

Gareth, really cool of you to start a "Garage" thread :thumbsup: Lookin forward to seeing how your projects turn out, and it's always nice seeing new posts- AGAIN !


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

Cheers Ralph, I'm excited to be doing some adventuring in body land. Most of my stuff revolves around tuning chassis for racing so this is a bit of a departure for me. 

Here is my previous attempts at painting custom bodies. Two Johnny Lightning Nascars. Sadly I used waterslide decals and no top coat so they got rather bashed up while racing. I also used graffiti remover on the bodies which caused some pitting which can be seen under the yellow paint. Painting done by rattle can which came out ok I think.


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

Btw Gareth, your mystery body is a 1972 American Motors Corp.- Javelin-AMX, that body style came after they merged the separate Javelin and AMX bodies.


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

Oh nice one Ralph! Thanks for coming through on that one. I did wonder if it might have a touch of the Javelin about it as a Tyco one came through in this lot as well and elements of the body are similar.

I'm going to research what people have done with those cars in the real world. Need to check it isn't a lynching offence to not paint it red, white and blue!


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

Gareth, I have FOUR of those Javelin AFX Aurora Bodies, and One IS Red/White/Blue, plus I have the older T-Jet AMX also in the Trans-Am Red/White/Blue Racing Paint Scheme.


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

sorry- disregard


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## bobhch (Apr 22, 2007)

LOTS of great slot bodies to work with...GO 4 IT!!

Bz


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## chappy2 (Jan 7, 2013)

Sweet Gareth, looking forward to watching the progress of your Garage, for sure. You can never have to many bodies laying around.

Chappy


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

Cheers guys. Very pleased with progress so far. As the black paint came off, the Porsche was revealed to be a Blaupunkt car....still with all of its decals on!

Good progress with the cotton buds and a toothpick so far. Here is how they look so far.









I am thinking of the Wynn sponsored Porsche to base my car on. It is a simple livery and is available from Patto's. Being a bit clumsy with my hands, I do want to do a fairly simple car.

Could anyone recommend a chrome paint for the AMX Javelin?


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## bobhch (Apr 22, 2007)

Gareth, 

Testors makes a Great Silver Chrome Trim paint for airbrushing in the little 
bit larger paint bottles that I use all the time.

Also Alclad makes a Chrome paint that is already mixed up and ready to spray 
through your airbrush over a black base coat. 

With Alclad it's important not to use to much of it as that will take away
from the Chrome effect.

Lots of people swear by Alclad for painting bumpers, engines and anything 
Chrome. It's good stuff and have some myself...pricey but, Great Stuff!!

Testers Chrome Trim Paint is my go to for undercoats for my Candy colors, headlights, 
hand painted door handles & chrome trim detail.

Practice on another body first if you think you need to or just spray
away as another soak can always get you back to square one again.

I mess paint jobs up all the time. My pickle jars full of paint remover 
are always at a hands reach away.

Bob...Phsssssssssssssssssssssssssssht...zilla


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## woodcote (Mar 24, 2009)

Good work sir 

That Porsche looked even worse in the flesh. Looking forward to seeing how they work out. You've got plenty to practice on.


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

Bob, thanks for the info on Testors and Alclad. Unfortunately I don't have an airbrush but as Woodcote does, I may have to tap him up to use it. 

The Porsche is now ready for paint. I used a toothpick to get as much as possible off before washing the car thoroughly in washing up liquid and water to get it nice and clean. I need to make the rear wing first although I will fit it after painting. I'm thinking of masking off the windows, doing the main body paint and then hand painting the windows. 

I'm also going to buy some Tizer or some other e-number crazy fizzy drink for the red plastic so I can make up some rear lights for this car. 

I currently have the baby blue Ferrari 512 seen earlier in the meths bath. I liked the colour but the blotchy silver paint applied on top made it not worth saving.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

You have a fresh canvas.. Time to play Rembrandt!  :thumbsup::thumbsup:

One trick I've read but haven't tried yet for brush painting stuff like glass is to put just a few drops of paint reducer in the paint. It is supposed to help it lay down smooth without brush marks. One of these days I'll swing by a body shop and see if they can spare a small bottle to keep on hand.


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

Top tip indeed! :thumbsup:

Definitely got to be worth looking into as it would be awful to get a good finish on the body and then have brush marks all over the windows!

I went through the box of bodies last night and everything that I had earmarked for painting was stripped of its bumpers and windows and added to a bigger pot. 

Hard to tell in the photo but there are four BMW Turbos, a lighted Castrol Jaguar (horribly yellowed), the L&M Porsche (again horribly yellowed so not worth preserving it in its current state), the two junker stockers, the Tyco Porsche 908 (which is cracked above and to the right of the hood #3) and I think I crammed the AFX 512 in there as well as some of the baby blue was still proving a bit stubborn to remove last night.



I thought I would strip the junker stockers so I could really tell what was going on with them. The two black AFX Firebirds seen earlier I will be using as black goop in future as they are pretty dead. 

So that just leaves some Tyco cars needing windows, a sad Tyco Benetton F1 missing rear wing and a Hot Wheels translucent body. and I will have worked through the whole box of 40 bodies. My brothers had 6 cars off of me straight away.


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## 60chevyjim (Feb 21, 2008)

when I have a car that needs windows painted .
I prep it with comet or ajax and a toothbrush after I strip it. .
then I try to paint the body with lacquer , if I can get it in the color I like.
then I mask the whole body with masking tape , pressing it down well around the windows. . 
then I use a toothpick to go around the edge of the window to press the tape into the grove .
then I trim out where the glass is .
then spray it with black spray can lacquer in very light coats keeping the can about a foot away from the body.

have you tried using 91% alcohol for stripping painted bodys ?
I use it on the auto world looney tunes cars , it is the best thing I found for stripping the paint on them.


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## Hilltop Raceway (Feb 12, 2006)

Always glad to see a new shop open up!!! Makes for good reading!!! RM


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