I
wish I had taken a pic of this car when I first got it about a year ago.
It came to me painted totally red and no window glass. I stripped
the body in SPIC-N-SPAN for about 2 weeks until it looked like you see
above. There was still some residual red paint in spots, especially
underneath and some leftover factory paint on the grill and tail lights
but it is almost all gone.
You
may want to visit my FAQ page on PAINT
for more info & tips.
No
silver paint at all on the license plate or wheelie bar either. The
roof had some unsightly scratches as well.
I had to get the remainder of the red
paint off from underneath the body that the Spic-N-Span didn't take off.
I like to use Testors #1159 Laquer thinner brush cleaner for paint removal
on factory bodies as it has about a 10-15 second work time without damaging
the finish.
It will remove most thin leftover paints.
YOU CANNOT
DO THIS WITH REGULAR LAQUER THINNER!
I use a cotton swab and work the remaining
paint out from underneath the body and elsewhere.
Move from one-spot to another not working
in one area for too long. Use toothpicks to remove paint in door
seams.
The scratches on the roof were deep enough
that a polish couldn't remove them by itself. So, I used 2000 grit
wet sand paper and sanded in a front to rear motion. The factory
toolmakers typically did their final sanding and polishing in that direction
so always sand in the same directions the factory did. If you need
to, go ahead and sand in a circular motion but then do your final sanding
in the front to rear motion.
Once I finished sanding, I used Novus
2 plastic polish to bring back the shine. On some color plastics
like green and especially red, if you polish using a rotary tool the body
color will actually lighten and not match the rest of the car, losing it's
patina, so I simply use a paper towel and vigorously polish this
BY HAND. It took a few minutes but I did not change the plastic color
at all.
ELECTRIC POWERED
ROTARY TOOLS ARE NOT RECOMMENDED FOR USE ON ANY PLASTICS AS IT CAN CREATE
TOO MUCH HEAT AND MELT THE PLASTIC. 2-Speed
BATTERY powered dremels are recommended if you must use one on LOW SPEED.
Use a cloth sewn-together wheel not the felt wheel for your battery dremel.
The roof is now nice and shiney, so I
worked all around the body in any other areas that needed polishing.
After polishing I cleaned the body scrubbing it with a tooth-brush to remove
any dirt and residual polish, then some soap and water to clean the entire
body. The body was ready to paint.
Once it was ready to paint, I used
the new RRR Paint Mask template
for the Willys (RRR #1401-T). I laid in the top hood scoop template
first (above).
I used an airbrush to spray my silver
paint. The silver was Dupli-color Auto paint (small touch up aerosol
cans found at auto parts stores). I shot the paint STRAIGHT DOWN
or, perpendicular to the hood, to give it that factory fuzzy edge.
Remove template.
I was then ready to paint the front headlights
and grill so I readied that template.
Install the front template on front of
car.
Spray silver and remove template.
Do any cleanup now using some Testors
brush cleaner.
The rear wheelie bar/plate template is
ready to install.
It simply slips down between wheelie bar
struts and align
license plate.
Painting STRAIGHT DOWN, or topside,
to give the wheelie bars that "topcoat"
silver paint they always had.
With template removed, hopefully you can
see the factory look paint job. Sides of struts and underside of
bar are not painted, but have a little of that classic fuzzy edge overspray
Aurora gave them.
I placed the rear tail-light template
into position
and then covered the wheelie bars with
masking tape
to protect them from red overspray paint.
Using FLAT RED Tamiya acrylic paint, I
LIGHTYLY painted
the tail lights. The first time
I painted it, they were too bright
so I cleaned them and reshot it again
but with less coverage.
Here's the finished painted body.
Front view
This car didn't have glass, so I installed
some RRR #1401-G reproduction glass.
I had some crappy old AJ's alum. wheels,
so I cleaned and polished them up.
I think they were appropriate for this
now great looking car.
Materials & equipment used:
Paasche Model VL Airbrush
Novus Plastic Polish
Testors #1159 Laquer thinner & Brush
Cleaner
Willys
PAINT MASK Template - RRR #1401-T
Willys
Reproduction glass - RRR #1401-G
Dupli-color Silver Spray paint
Tamiya Flat Red paint
2000 grit wet sand paper
Spic-N-Span
Paper Towels
Cotton swabs
Masking tape
Soap & Water
Would
you like a Catalog List of ALL available PARTS?
Click
Here
Remember, all reproduction resin parts
are
Made
here in the USA
1770
NW LUTES Rd.
POULSBO,
WA 98370
360-930-0707
Monday
thru Friday 9am-5pm Pacific time!
(midwest
11-7pm; east
coast 12 NOON - 8pm)
(C) Copyright 2012, Road Race Replicas
Images and information are not to be copied or reproduced without written
permission from Road Race Replicas.
