Roll Bar Padding

[Railfreak78]

Hey guys, I see many great drag race, Nascar, and other race car or truck builds on here with amazing details. I have some ideas for roll bar padding but I would like to know what you guys use. I also see you guys use "zipties" What do you guys use for those to ziptie the pads? I have a few up coming projects that will need this. Thanks a lot for looking and and any advise.

[highway]

I'm not sure about the roll bar padding, but I've heard of thread being used for zipties.

[Eric Stone]

I've used wire insulation stripped off the wire and slit down one side. Not sure what size wire it was, it's been a while since I've done it this way. I used thin strips of electrical tape for the tie wraps.

Edit: I should clarify, it's easier to slit the wire insulation first, then pull the wire strands out.

Edited April 30, 2010 by Eric Stone

[Railfreak78]

Thanks guys and actually being an electrician for over 10 years you'd think that I would have thought of that

[jbwelda]

you can find porous looking shrink tubing and wrap it with black tape striping. i dont have any photos handy but i used it like that on a jaguar sedan and it came out looking great. it basically looks like the large-cell celulose kinda stuff they use but scaled down. when done i shot the whole thing with dull-cote and that make it look even better.

you slit the shrink tube and wrap it around the bars as necessary. buy it to use unshrunk unless youre real brave with your plastic parts and a heat source.

[diymirage]

i have seen a few people on here who use medical tape or just the ends of bandaids to replicate the padding

[MikeMc]

a larger piece of tube slid over the bar and then painted. small guage wire will work for a tie wrap

[lizardlust]

As far as roll bar padding in 1/24th scale, I have had good results using 1/8th-inch shrink wrap tubing - I slit it lengthwise if needed, and a touch of super glue usually holds it in place well.

For the zip ties on the paddding and for underhood use, regular old sewing thread works quite well for me. I use a good set of tweezers to tie the knots, and a pair of small "decal" scissors to cut the excess closely off.

[toplessfury]

hello all im new here but a friend of mine uses paper tape and wraps it till he gets the thickness he wants and then paints it.

[brian sparks]

Great topic! You could use fishing line, but I think the best looking is the heat shrink one. The best I know is made by fluorotherm, and has excellent PFA properties so it should last through any organic acid exposure [people's hands] and from UV light.

[935k3]

I started using Tamiya's masking tape. I cut the tap to length then lay it on something and airbrush it flat black. Then wrap it around and tack the end with super glue.

Here is an example;

[Tradeshowjoe]

Hey Lizardlust! what kind of hinges are those in the first photo of your post?

[Railfreak78]

I actually forgot about this post Thank you ALL for the great advice!

[dencon]

I also use Heat Shrink tubing for padding. But I first pit it on a piece of aluminum tube that is the same size as the roll bar I am going to put it on. I heat it un so that it forms to teh bar size and gat a little more of a thicker and poofy look to it. Then just before it totally cools down, I use the back side of a #11 blade and lightly press and roll a grove into the padding. That gives you the look of the zip ties. Then I slice down one side and mount it to the bar.