Reproducing BIG plastic pieces?

MasterFygar

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Okay... I'm pretty sure this is impossible, but it's worth a shot. Here's the deal. The big side pieces on my Virtual On cab were already in horrid shape and were cracked all over, but when I removed one side the change in pressure from removing the bolt split it at the top of the piece (not horribly noticeable, but it irks me) and the steel puddy I had used to repair spots before didn't harden the way it was supposed too and looks HORRID but is strong enough that I can't remove it without messing up the plastic worse. I have new sideart and stickers ready to apply to each side, but naturally I'm thinking that this may be beyond what I can make look decent regardless.

Here's my question--is there any method, or place, or person that can reproduce LARGE plastic pieces like this? (or anyone who happens to have these lying around, miraculously) I've wanted transparent (or at least translucent) plastic for these pieces for another cool thing I'm adding to my custom restore, but I've no clue how to go about doing something like this and all googling has got me is how/where to reproduce tiny car parts. For what it's worth, this is what I'm looking at reproducing (NOT MY PICTURE):

vo_cab_7.jpg

(this is the British cab so the bolt placement is a bit different but it's basically that)

ANY input would be appreciated. At this point I'm close to just smacking duct tape over the corners that are messed up and saying it's "industrial style".
 
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You might look at information on vacu-forming plastic, as that is what a lot of these parts were made.

It's not to difficult, but it can be done. I have made a vacu-former out of scrap lumber and an old vacuum, and some wire I pulled out of several old toasters. It's large enough to do something 24 x 36, and I could have made it larger easily, but didn't need it any larger at the time.

Plastics like styrene are the easiest to form, and can be made fairly thick.

You might also look into making fiberglass repro parts, you can make the molds directly from the parts now, and make first cut plaster parts from them. do the repairs on these parts for appearance, and then make new molds from them, and fiberglass into these molds.

These are just a few ways of repairing what you have.
 
You might look at information on vacu-forming plastic, as that is what a lot of these parts were made.

It's not to difficult, but it can be done. I have made a vacu-former out of scrap lumber and an old vacuum, and some wire I pulled out of several old toasters. It's large enough to do something 24 x 36, and I could have made it larger easily, but didn't need it any larger at the time.

Plastics like styrene are the easiest to form, and can be made fairly thick.

You might also look into making fiberglass repro parts, you can make the molds directly from the parts now, and make first cut plaster parts from them. do the repairs on these parts for appearance, and then make new molds from them, and fiberglass into these molds.

These are just a few ways of repairing what you have.

I've never done it but, I would think a fibergalss mold would work too wouldn't it? I've used the same method to duplicate panels in cars so I'm kind of curious to see if it would work.
Apply some green automotive painters tape over the entire piece you want to duplicate. Then rub a coat of vaseline over all of the tape (give it a nice shiny coat but no lumps of vaseline). Next layout your fiberglass matte over the piece you are trying to duplicate. Mix up a batch of fiberglass resin and apply to the matte until it soaks through making sure to push the matte down into grooves and curves. Allow to dry then remove. If done correctly you should have a 1-1 face side duplicate.

I guess you would have to do both sides and use something like mdf as a center filler but, it might work. I don't know...just trying to help LOL! good luck!
 
Well, I think your only DIY reproduction choices are fiber-glass or vac forming.

The piece certainly looks thick enough that you could probably make it out of fiber-glass, but the few times I've done stuff with it, I've found it's kinda messy to work with. On the plus side, glass mat and resin is easy to get locally most places. On the down side, you'll need to make molds to lay the glass on (or probably better - in), and after it's done you'll need to paint or coat it somehow to get the right look.

On the other hand, vac-forming means you need to build (or get access to) a pretty big vac-forming machine, AND you've got to find a good-size piece of styrene or whatever to form, plus you'll need a mold to form onto.

Either one would be cool to get experience doing, but fiber-glass is going to leave you with just some skills gained from doing it, while the vac-forming will also leave you with a working, large-scale vac-forming machine. Once you have the gear, vac-forming could easily be a VERY cool thing to have available for your own projects, as you can use the vac-formed pieces within minutes, whereas fiber-glass takes hours to days to fully cure.
 
I've looked into this too for my F355 with really bad plastics. Its very involving and looks like a mess, not to mention it probably takes some skill and practice to get it right, not sure if its worth the investment in time and money. The Virtual On plastics seem to be shared with other games in this era like Sky Target and Sega Super GT, Sega Rally etc. You might be lucky/easier to find another set and paint them white and reproduce the decal. Ask around going to operators and stuff, you would be surprised they usually toss this stuff in the trash when they part out a game. I scored a near mint set of Virtual On panels and Sky Target panels that I'm going to re-paint for my F355.
 
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