Anyone know how to master a new body?

Was just curious if anyone has ever created a car body from scratch.

A good friend of mine works for a Rolex Grand Am team, and I'd love to build an accurate car of his team. I have a resin body for a Riley Mk XI, but its not extremely accurate, as the body is scaled to fit a slot car chassis.

The team has also come out w/ a new body for 2008, and I thought about trying to do that car as well.

So I was thinking about trying to make a master so that I could make bodies, and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to go about doing this.

Im going to ask my friend if he has any cad files of the bodies that would have the appropriate dimensions so that I could make the body correctly.

You'll need to sign in and have some knowledge of French, however the picture explain it pretty well IMO.

Here's the link:
http://www.mautomobile.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=253&hl=aston+martin+dbr9

You can cut out templates, join them together, and make the rest of the surfaces with putty like these modelers did.
http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/%7Eam-kish/mp4-14/page-body1.html
http://www.h6.dion.ne.jp/%7Efzero/F2000-BODY.htm

Or, you can make a solid master part out of balsa wood or putty for vacuum forming.
http://www.technologystudent.com/equip1/vacform1.htm

You can also make a basic shape with polyester putty, and carve it, like you would do to make an ice statue.

If you can obtain cad data, you can go fully digital. Although it will cost a lot, you can contact one of those rapid prototyping service, and have them make a master for you. They'll do something similar to this.
http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/%7Eam-kish/mp4-20/page1.html
http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/%7Eam-kish/mp4-20/page2.html

There are so many ways to build a body from scratch, and I think it's just a matter of what kind of material you like to use, and the type of method you feel comfortable with.

...........There are so many ways to build a body from scratch, and I think it's just a matter of what kind of material you like to use, and the type of method you feel comfortable with.

Hiroaki, no bull$hit intended.

Every time you make a post, my modeling knowledge moves forward 3 light years. Thank you for taking the time to post and share :thumbsup:

The scratchbuilding on those McLaren's is just phenomenal. The wheels and tires on the MP4/14 just floored me (I wish I could see/read the text to each photo :( )

Klutz,
I used http://babel.altavista.com to translate the webpage from Japanese to English :)

Hiroaki, no bull$hit intended.

Every time you make a post, my modeling knowledge moves forward 3 light years. Thank you for taking the time to post and share :thumbsup:

The scratchbuilding on those McLaren's is just phenomenal. The wheels and tires on the MP4/14 just floored me (I wish I could see/read the text to each photo :( )

Well, my friend has told me that I cant have access to the CAD files, which really doesnt surprise me at all, as Im sure its something thats very tightly controlled. Not sure what Im gonna do from here.