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How Do I Protect My RC Car Body? 5 Aspects To Consider

How Do I Protect My RC Car Body? 5 Aspects To Consider

Even the RC cars owned by the most experienced drivers will suffer from body wear. Driving the vehicle on rough terrain, full of moisture and mud, jumping in every corner is the perfect formula for the deterioration of the bodywork. At this point, the question arises: how can I protect the bodywork of the RC car?

  • Add a second internal bodywork to reinforce the resistance against shocks and scratches.
  • Repair scratches as soon as they occur.
  • Reinforce weak or cracked areas.
  • Keep the car body clean at all times.
  • Place foam pads between the body and the clips that support it.

No matter how smoothly the operator drives, there will always be a bump where the bodywork crashes against the pavement. This situation will be more evident as we do more pirouettes or acrobatics. This article intends to review what we can do to reinforce the body of the RC, its maintenance, and many other tips of interest.

5 Aspects To Consider To Protect The Body Of Your RC Car

The only way to protect the body of the RC car is through continuous maintenance. Suppose we are disciplined and do the maintenance regularly. In that case, we will not have any surprises, and we will not have bad times with complex repairs to the body that we did not see coming.

1. Cleaning The RC Body

Before doing any maintenance, repair, or painting work, the starting point will constantly be cleaning the bodywork.

red covertible rc car next to wrench

We must use a bristle brush in all bodywork cleaning, but an air compressor is even better. The air compressor will remove dirt, debris or particles, carpet fibers, or the same dust released by the tires.

You can give the RC car a quick wash with soap and water; dishwashing soap works very well, especially if the RC car is 4×4 covered in mud. We have to make sure to dry the bodywork very well after this.

The result of deep cleaning of the RC is shiny bodywork. This outcome does not mean that the soap and water will remove the marks caused by the friction of the vehicle rubbing against other cars, walls, stones, or the ground.

The tears in the bodywork will need much more than water and soap. In these cases, we will need a cloth dampened in denatured alcohol or a motor spray to rub the tears with force until they disappear. Most motor sprays are safe for polycarbonate bodies. However, try first with some old material that you don't use before spraying it on the RC car body.

Do not risk using other solvents or chemicals. These types of cleaners can damage the polycarbonate and turn regular maintenance into a significant repair.

2. Touching Up The Paint

Generally, you will not be able to touch up the paint until you remove the window film and overspray residue. However, you can clean the missing paint areas from the inside using a bristle brush. The bodywork has many areas that are prone to paint wear. If you have been doing this type of maintenance for some time, it will be effortless to identify these areas quickly.

The body area above the wheels is usually one of the areas that almost always needs a paint touch-up. This part always has a lot of friction with the tires, making it an area that will always need a coat of paint.

Experts recommend not to paint until first cleaning the area with an engine spray. You should do this starting from the inside of the body, where there is no more paint; this will ensure no traces of old paint alter the new color.

Then, with a fine bristle brush, apply the chosen paint color in the unpainted area. Remember that the layer of paint must be thin so that it has the flexibility required by the bodywork and, at the same time, it does not run the risk of peeling off.

3. Breaks And Cracks In The RC Body

Another fundamental aspect that we must always be aware of is the breaks and cracks. After cleaning the bodywork and giving a touch-up of paint to the areas that needed it, everything is ready to make some simple repairs.

Tears and cracks in RC bodies are common and easy to fix. To do this repair, we must take a rag with motor spray and clean the cracks' surface. After this, we cut a piece of gypsum fiber tape to the size of the crack. We apply it along the damaged area, leaving a half-inch overhang around the patch.

Then we have to spread glue over the entire area of fiber tape until it dries completely. The body should remain stationary while the glue is drying. Do not use too much glue, as this may impede the flexibility of the grade.

4. The Finishing Of The RC Body Maintenance

The maintenance finish is one of the parts that can cost more because it seems very difficult to improve. But in this work, to achieve a good finish, our best friends are the stickers. We only need to have some attractive stickers that we can place strategically to cover up the ugliest repairs.

Very important, do not take this finish with stickers to the extreme; it is not the idea to do something grotesque. It can be an excellent opportunity to check the existing stickers; maybe they need to be replaced. Usually, the headlight and grille stickers are the first to fall off or get damaged because they are involved in all the crashes. Many bodies come with several decals, so removing the old ones and putting on new ones would be worthwhile.

rc car repaired by toy little man

5. Reinforcement of the RC body

One of the advantages of maintaining the bodywork is that we already know which are its weakest areas. This information will allow us to take some preventive measures to reinforce these areas that are more prone to damage.

Some of these delicate areas that require special attention are around the body posts and the front nose. Placing fiber tape and glue around the body post holes will add a lot of strength and resistance. This procedure will not be possible if the holes in the body posts have holes through a transparent window area.

Fiber tape and glue on the front of the body will also significantly increase the area's strength.

How Can I Make My RC Body Last Longer?

To extend the body's life, we must get used to providing preventive maintenance to the RC car after each use, if it was an intense journey through wet and uneven terrain. Here are some tips to extend the life of the bodywork.

  • Reinforce the front part of the bodywork. Suppose you have an old body from another vehicle. In that case, you can take the hood, adapt it to the correct size, and then glue it to the inside of your RC to give it more strength and durability.
  • Increase the wheel wells. Many people prefer wheel wells tight to the wheel because aesthetically, they look better. However, this closeness to the wheels leads to rapid tire and bodywear. For this reason, experts recommend trimming the wheel wells so that they are looser and the bodywork does not suffer so much.
  • Padding the body posts. This action is another way to eliminate unnecessary bodywork rubbing with other parts that inevitably lead to premature wear. To cushion this area, we can use rubber or craft foam.
  • To reinforce the weak zones of the bodywork. As we saw previously, the reinforcement of the fragile zones is straightforward. We only have to identify them and use plaster tape and glue to give more resistance to the areas of the hood that are more sensitive to damage.

A Final Thought On The Protection Of The Rc Car Body

All RC cars need to have regular maintenance between each race or outing to ensure optimum performance. The body is a critical point that we should not overlook. This importance is because it is the component that receives more impacts when we use the RC.

The good news is that its maintenance is relatively simple, and you can do it yourself with the recommendations we have just given you.