Cheaper bodyshells (anyone interested?

[Oh How Original]

No, I had the vac former and heat source and everything in place, but to do "cheap" shells I'd need to be buying plastic in bulk at several thousand pound, which I simply can't afford to do.

[Tug]

No, I had the vac former and heat source and everything in place, but to do "cheap" shells I'd need to be buying plastic in bulk at several thousand pound, which I simply can't afford to do.

Shame, what was the lowest price you could've gotten to?

[Oh How Original]

Shame, what was the lowest price you could've gotten to?

 

I can't remember the exact figures, but I wasn't too far off my

[RCbutcher]

I was looking for suitible plastics cos a youtube friend is doing merv shells I think the best price I foubd was like

Edited May 3, 2013 by RCbutcher

[Oh How Original]

I was looking for suitible plastics cos a youtube friend is doing merv shells I think the best price I foubd was like

[suicideneil]

I had quotes cheaper than that, but it still wouldn't have been worth it.

Did you / have you considered changing your set up slightly to make carbon fibre shells? 

 

I've seen a few items made using CF matt, which is impregnated with epoxy resin & then vacuum formed/bagged to remove all the air bubbles. Takes more work and you have the cost of CF matting + epoxy, but it might work out cheaper ( and CF shells can sell for a pretty penny too ). 

 

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=210576&highlight=stealth&page=6 start on page 6 and have a good read....

[Oh How Original]

Did you / have you considered changing your set up slightly to make carbon fibre shells? 

 

I've seen a few items made using CF matt, which is impregnated with epoxy resin & then vacuum formed/bagged to remove all the air bubbles. Takes more work and you have the cost of CF matting + epoxy, but it might work out cheaper ( and CF shells can sell for a pretty penny too ). 

 

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=210576&highlight=stealth&page=6 start on page 6 and have a good read....

 

Funnily enough I did, but I don't think their would be enough of a market for it.

I mean a CF 5B shell is on eBay for around

[rctruckz]

hiya mate, great idea about time some 1/5 shells are available at a decent price!

as for this copyright thing...

providing its not an EXACT copy you sell, your fine. So if it means trimming anywhere to make it slightly different youve covered yourself. When a copyright is bought for a particular product it only covers you for that exact design, if its *copied* then altered in any little way then the copyright becomes void.

I know this from experiance as i made a design many years ago of a slipmat (i used to DJ) i spent alot on copyright only for someone to copy it but change 1 little thing & they were allowed to in effect *copy* my design without any consequences.

Look at the shells available today, especially buggys & SC trucks, some look exactly the same from different manufacturers but close up there will be a difference somewhere, be it the wheel arches are a few mm larger or the windows are slightly smaller etc.

An example is FG shells, one in particular was the FG Beetle shell. FG were in a legal battle for a while with Volswagon over the Beetle shell as FG used the VW badge on the beetle shell without Volkswagons permission, this went on for about 12 months during this time FG had to stop the sale of the beetle shells. FG then released the shells without the VW badge & its all good again.

So basically dude, dont worry about copyright. Theres many things you can do make the shell different from the one your *copying* & then your safe

& in all fairness alot of shells produced are not copyrighted simply because of the cost involved & manufacturers know that anyone can just do a simple change & then the copyright is out the window, so why spend

[Oh How Original]

hiya mate, great idea about time some 1/5 shells are available at a decent price!

as for this copyright thing...

providing its not an EXACT copy you sell, your fine. So if it means trimming anywhere to make it slightly different youve covered yourself. When a copyright is bought for a particular product it only covers you for that exact design, if its *copied* then altered in any little way then the copyright becomes void.

I know this from experiance as i made a design many years ago of a slipmat (i used to DJ) i spent alot on copyright only for someone to copy it but change 1 little thing & they were allowed to in effect *copy* my design without any consequences.

Look at the shells available today, especially buggys & SC trucks, some look exactly the same from different manufacturers but close up there will be a difference somewhere, be it the wheel arches are a few mm larger or the windows are slightly smaller etc.

An example is FG shells, one in particular was the FG Beetle shell. FG were in a legal battle for a while with Volswagon over the Beetle shell as FG used the VW badge on the beetle shell without Volkswagons permission, this went on for about 12 months during this time FG had to stop the sale of the beetle shells. FG then released the shells without the VW badge & its all good again.

So basically dude, dont worry about copyright. Theres many things you can do make the shell different from the one your *copying* & then your safe

& in all fairness alot of shells produced are not copyrighted simply because of the cost involved & manufacturers know that anyone can just do a simple change & then the copyright is out the window, so why spend

[suicideneil]

Read a few pages back mate, it's sadly not happening now.

Costs were too high as I'd have to buy thousands of pounds worth of plastic in huge bulk.

Not only can I not afford it, but can't store it either lol.

IF I'm ever in a financial position to do it though, I definitely will be doing, mainly because I think everyone deserves a nice shell, so if they can get 2 for the price of one, one for bashing, one for a nice spray job, then I'll feel satisfied with that, provided I cover all costs, I'd be happy.

 

Do a KickStarter, and advertise on all the UK r/c forums! Since you only need a few grand it should/would be easy to generate the funds needed to purchase the lexan sheet(s). They do require you to show a 'prototype' in your KS video though, so an explanation of your vacuum former and some details of your moulds you can do would be great- maybe see if you can find a scrap to do a  small shell as a demonstration, so that guys aren't worried about being ripped off & the quality is okay.

 

Food for thought- Indiegogo is another crowd-funding site you can try.

[Oh How Original]

Do a KickStarter, and advertise on all the UK r/c forums! Since you only need a few grand it should/would be easy to generate the funds needed to purchase the lexan sheet(s). They do require you to show a 'prototype' in your KS video though, so an explanation of your vacuum former and some details of your moulds you can do would be great- maybe see if you can find a scrap to do a  small shell as a demonstration, so that guys aren't worried about being ripped off & the quality is okay.

 

Food for thought- Indiegogo is another crowd-funding site you can try.

 

Never even heard of that site before lol.

It maybe worth trying again actually, although I did retire the vac former I had in mind so will need to rig something back together IF I did decide to go for it.

And I'm sure I could make and give away a few for testing.

I'd just have to raise a bit of money for a few lexan sheets to do so.

At the moment I'm skint though due to a new snake purchase and all the money I've had to put into my Baja.

[teshi]

Well if you want, I dont mind helping out on the photography side or make you a decent lightbox so you can get some high quality photos

[suicideneil]

Never heard of KickStarter?

 

That's like saying you've never heard of FaceBook or Youtube...

 

Good Lord...

[RCbutcher]

theres a dude on oople mate selling parma lexan sheets filmed wrapped he put on the post 8x9in sheet for

[Oh How Original]

Nope never heard of it lol.

Will look into some more stuff and try getting the idea off the ground