Mattel Vac-u-Form for car bodies?

[aurfalien]

Hi,

Hss any one adopted one of these units to duplicate 1/24 car bodies?

Seems like the plate is perhaps 1/2 the size?

 

 

[Jon Haigwood]

I made my own vacuum former that has about a 8"x 14" area. I made this to duplicate a Cobra Daytona body for slot car racing. My problem was that it would not curve in around the lower part of the body. It would just go straight down and not go in to the lower sides. Never tried using it for any thing since.

[Snake45]

Vacuform platform is 3x3.5" exactly (I know, because I've cut a LOT of plastic to that size). I've made 1/25 hood and scoops on it, but that's about it. To do an entire 1/25 body with it, you'd have to do one fender/door/roof/deck panel at a time, and then assemble them all together like a model airplane or an old Palmer kit.

And the vacced plastic will be VERY thin--paper-thin in spots.

They do whole airplane kits in a vac process, but on vac machines that are much bigger than a Vacuform (and can handle much heavier plastic).

That said, it SHOULD be possible to engineer mulitpiece kit bodies of some kinds of cars using female molds and suitable equipment and materials. They won't be able to have much detail (chrome trim, nameplates, etc.), but it should be possible to get the basic body shape this way.

[aurfalien]

Thansk Snake45, much appreciated.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

The Mattel unit is small and low-suction. As Snake says you CAN make parts on it, but not a whole body. I have a hot-rodded one here, but I can get better results using fiberglass.

For the real poop on home-units, get these two books from Amazon. I also have them here.

                                      

You CAN get reverse-curved bodies made on a vacuum-former platen, but you have to be very careful about placement of the air-bleed holes to do it. (RE: Jon Haigwood's post above)

The problem arises when you try to take the body OFF OF THE MOLD. 

Think about it. The lower part of the body will be smaller than the part of the mold above it. The part may simply will not come off without cutting. This is known as not having sufficient mold "draft" to allow a part to release, and mold-designers using many materials and processes have to be aware of it.

 

Edited September 12, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[Art Anderson]

In times past, I've made Indy car windscreens, small air scoops, that sort of thing on the Mattel VacUForm, but that those are about as big a part that can be made well on one of those.  For a full body shell, in 1/25 scale, you'd need a very large, commercial sized vacuum forming table, and the surface detailing will not truly be there, not to the level which we like.   That said, smaller street rod, race car body panels can be made on a machine no larger than 9" X 12".

Art

[BigTallDad]

Here's a vacu-form you can make at home. It measures a tad under 6" x 7"

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/101743-poor-mans-vacu-form/ 

 

[aurfalien]

Toatlly makes sense.

Even if the car fit, the plastic drapes over the car but no way to tuck in underneath.

Oh well, back to resin casting.  Those all inclusive units from Alumilite, while having plenty of resin, have little silicone.