wyd

iTrader: (51)

Comes down to how you like your car to look!!!!!!!!! It is a personal thing for me. It just plain looks better and then filing and gluing the batter slots lets the cell sit donw a tad lower but CA the batter slots helps prevent the cells shorting on the graphite.

It still comes down to personal preference though.

burbs

iTrader: (1)

main reason i sand and seal are.. you dont want a sharp edge to contact the race surface, It also keeps the seem tight. grafite over time flexes and loses it rigidity.. it does wear out and wil eventually tweak. after a few months i always break down the whole car.. lay the parts on a flat peice of glass.. i have seen parts tweak..

also it loses how stiff it is.. it will get a rubbery feel and can cause an ill handling car.. the seam is the weakest point of the grafite.. if sealed right it can help stay tight longer..

mxracer23

Emery Cloth is just like it sounds. Basically it is sandpaper but uses a cloth material as a backing instead of paper. It is mostly used for laping metal, where oil is used to keep the cloth from becoming clogged with filings. It will withstand oil, water etc. and because of the cloth backing it will conform to angle that you want it to. The other nice thing is that you can tear it like duct tape into straight even stips with out using a knife to cut it. The Depot should have it and you should be able to find 600 grit that should be fine enough for a good finish.

hierog

iTrader: (6)

thanks for the input!! i just bought some emory cloth - i was actually thinking it was "cloth", but as somebody said, it is like sandpaper but the backing is a tearable cloth-like material with the rough side on the opposite side. the 80 grit is working really well. should be done by tonight so I can get the MSX built!

Brian Anthony

iTrader: (9)

As a few people have stated remembe the Carbon Dust is harsh stuff and does not clear out of your lungs like fiberglass can. Water sand or breaht aporatus highly recommended.

The easist and cheapest thing I have found is using emory boards that you can find at most drug stores next to the nail polish. The ones I am talking about have emory material on either side with soft foam sandwiched in the middle. The conform to what you are sanding and come in a few different types (fine, med, coarse). And they are washable and are around 2 bucks. Because of the foam even if you press in to hard they don't dig in like a hard file would.

Solara

iTrader: (17)

Me too.....thanks for the info about Emory Cloth....however, 1 more, the girt that I should get is...? Someone said 80 girt, and some said 600 girt....it looks a big kinda range different....

And from the sand paper standard...80 means finer or 600 mean finer?

Alex C

iTrader: (50)

Hey guys one more thing you might consider just for the bling factor is, once you are done with the ca on your chassis. Consider polishing the edges with mothers alum polish by hand while using a shop cloth. The results are awesome.

Best Regards

Alex

scoobydo

iTrader: (1)

I burr the edges with my xacto. Really light just one pass to take off the bite.
I use CA ala the CRC method to apply it. Chassis at an angle and pour the CA down it applying more as the bead stops moving.
I let it dry and then wet sand it under the sink with 1000 grit automotive sand paper.
Done.
Its not as hardcore as the CRC method but gets great reasults and doesn't require a vice like CRC suggests.
Its a lot better than the Q-tip method, not as hardcore as the CRC method, just a happy medium.
Looks great too! Nice and polished!

pops

iTrader: (1)

The higher the grit, the finer the grit is.

hierog

iTrader: (6)

i started with 80 grit all the way around, cleaned under water, and then went "with the grain" (see, i read the Calandra article ) with 600 grit. i'll CA tomorrow, and wet sand again with 1500

i've never taken this much time to take care of the chassis as i have this time around, and luckily i haven't had any problems before

i figure it'll look nice and should shed about a second or two off my lap times!!

Solara

iTrader: (17)

Thanks for all the answers..............now, who will do the chassis sanding/CA job for $20...? If I have to go thru all those steps, I think I will have my 12th scale chassis done by year 2006.....

wyd

iTrader: (51)

Actually it takes me less than an hour to do anice job preparing my chassis. Not near as bad as it seems to me from the posts. I mainly do the outter edges of the chassis, battery slots and the slots the strapping take goes thru to hold the packs in if you are going to tape them in.

hierog

iTrader: (6)

i haven't done the battery slots or the tape strapping slots yet. i figure that would be the most difficult, so i bought a cone sanding piece for my dremel. definitely need to do the tape strapping slots though. i can't count how many times in the past that the tape has either ripped in that spot or we finished racing just in time

the rest of the chassis looks great! thanks again for the tips guys

Blisster

iTrader: (5)

glad I found this thread, some good info in here. I'm building my TC5 (my first CF build) this week so i just wanted to mark this thread so I can find it later.

Jonny Aird

I vote for Carter's method. Saw some of his CF bits at a race meeting and I could see myself in them, could have brushed my teeth and shaved.

Will be doing his method next time I get some CF now I know his trick.

Looked quality