Building Your Own Body Parts

[Go4fun]

I'm a member of several race car modeling groups on facebook and I've seen an interesting technique for building what is called a Late Model stock car body. Seeing as no one makes a kit for the newer cars I've seen guys going to the aftermarket for a lot of the suspension parts, building their own chassis from Plastruct formed strips and tubes and using a unique material.
You've all seen the plastic signs for "Garage Sale" "Beware of Dog" and other such things. I've seen these in the Dollar Stores and I got one and by using a rough layout I can see you could get at least two or three auto bodies out of one sign. But seeing as I hate the bodies most racers use, (Which look like no car from a dealer floor ever) I decided to do a layout for a Vintage Late Model body. Then these guys could race with real looking tin they could reproduce easily.

We have clubs or groups that buy old out dated racing chassis then hang vintage 50s, 60s and 70s sheet metal on them. Of course the last thing they want to do is hit each other and damage or destroy expensive body parts so the racing is all staged.
I don't know if this would apply to airplanes but it might be usefull for What If? ships, armor and other subjects.
Meanwhile the backlog for my bench gets longer.

[Weaver]

Y'know given the thread title, I was half expecting something that might fit into the old DIY Brain Surgery book.....

So I take it you fold this up, like a plastic form of card modelling? How thick is the plastic, and does it need scribing?

[zenrat]

I was expecting something related to the work of Cynthia Plaster Caster...

[Old Wombat]

My mind went straight to DIY Bio-Mod's - & could I ever do with some, Bro!

[NARSES2]

Y'know given the thread title, I was half expecting something that might fit into the old DIY Brain Surgery book.....

Me to 

Interesting idea

[Go4fun]

Y'know given the thread title, I was half expecting something that might fit into the old DIY Brain Surgery book.....

So I take it you fold this up, like a plastic form of card modelling? How thick is the plastic, and does it need scribing?

Well it's a thin garage sale sign and I don't have calipers so I would guess at 1/32 of an inch thick. It's like the Evergreen sheet styrene you buy only much less exspensive.
Yes you cut and fold it and with the compound shapes involved I printed the drawing to paper, tracedit onto card stock then cut it apart and saw where folding would do and where you need to make a second section to overlap other sections to get the shapes to work together.
This is not an exact copy of a 1970 Mustang but rather a "50 foot car" meant to fool the eye from 50 feet away.