Time to consult the resident experts for assistance:

I purchased a couple of custom police cars recently--a Gearbox CV and an Impala. The doors on the Impala were practically hanging off--I unscrewed the chassis and reset them on the mounts and rescrewed the base and they are a little better, but won't stay shut and even when they do are not flush with the rest of the frame like on the Crown Vic.....

Have any of you guys run into this? Any thoughts. Additionally the decals were falling off as well. For the short term I soaked them again and reapplied them as best I could and will ultimately clear coat them again.

I contacted the seller and he has yet to get back to me. I was hoping for a refund, but I have a feeling I'm stuck with the car with floppy doors

Any help you guys can offer would be appreciated.

You can buy your next customs from me, somebody who actually cares about the customs they sell. As far as the doors, you've done pretty much all that you can do. Try holding the door closed when you tighten the screws. That way it wont tighten as the door opens. The decals...sounds like you just got a cheap decal job. Not much you can really do to fix that. You can email me direct if you have any questions or requests. tgibson2@san.rr.com

Well, I'm going give this guy the benefit of the doubt--he's supposedly a police officer so maybe he's working overnights, whatever..... But regardless, he always responded when he knew I had interest in an order. He ****** me off. The cruisers he had pictured had an accurate cruiser #, no pushbar--the car I get--a number that doesn't exist in the fleet and a pushbar which you really can't remove b/c you'll be left w/2 holes in the bumper. The decals are crystal clear, but the paper must be cheap. Sloppy job applying clearcoat as well.

I'm willing to keep the innaccurate car, but the Impala not so much--not when he's charging 35 bucks a pop.

I know you have a good reputation, but I took a chance--that's 2X now I've gotten screwed on customs. I think that's it for me unless I deal with a guy like yourself or Carorama or Code 3 Customs--they put together high quality rigs as well.

Thanks for advice........

I wonder if he used a decal setting solution on the decals. I think that if he had, the decals wouldn't be coming off like you say. You might try something loke Microscale Micro Sol or Walthers Solvaset. The Walthers product is a little stronger and has been known to "eat" certain manufacturers decals.

The Gearbox Impala uses a ring washer to secure the doors. Try applying a drop of Microscale Krystal Klear to the door spindle shaft, then adding the ring washer.

If it is still loose, use a Vice Grip to apply pressure and crimp (gently) the door spindle shaft. This will reconfigure the shape of the shaft, and allow the door donut to grip tighter.

Your only other hope is to apply a thin layer of JB Weld to the inner dobut of the door hanger. When dry after two days, use a jewlers file to open hole to a diameter narrower than the origonal opening.

And these are display models. Especially aftermarket conversions. If you handle them to often, or move parts, they wear. The models use an alloy of Zinc-Aluminum. Its not steel, but a soft metal that wears.

As for the decals, oils from fingers will lossen the decals from the body. Don't handle the model decal points.

If the decals would have been A. commercially screen printed or B. Applied correctly, no decal setting solution would have been required, UNLESS you were going ever huge gaps or large items such as heavy body accent lines. We would have to know where the decal is falling off at. If its a flat surface, I suspect the decals were bad to begin with, or made at home. I am guessing I have made over 3,000 custom cars before I switched to fire decals as my primary interest. I have never had a decal fail, not once. And I do not clear coat. There are many possible reasons for the failure of the decals. If it were made at home or not commercially printed, it is basically designed to fail. When a commercial decal is produced, it is all printed on clear, not printed on the paper then clear coated. Many times custom decal makers will print off a decal on to the paper, then clear coat it. This is backwards, and one should expect it to fail. And depending on how you print and what type of printer you use, the ink or media may not even adhear to the paper. Then it would have to be clear coated, and that leaves the possibility of air getting trapped between the print and the paper, or the print and the clear when clear is applied over it. And finally, the clear coat itself can degrade the inks or print media, and actually eat in to the glue that is used to hold down the decals. The decals that are commercially screen printed, are printed to the highest standards the industry has. They are vector based art, line width and trappings are set at a minimum of .004 and .005 respectively, and each color is individually printed on to the clear carrier. They are not top coated, nor do they have to be. When they are printed, they are printed one color at a time, and are done in a room where the temperature and humidity are controlled. The paper is brought over here to the US from England. The two major decal printers in the United States both use this paper. If the decals were made at home, who knows where the paper comes from? If you ever have decal questions or need informaion on how they are produced, cost, quantities, art or anything else, visit my site or email me. And Troy knows what he is talking about and I can attest to his quality work. Rich

Location: Tucson AZ

Thanks guys....appreciate all the feedback. As Chuck noted these are display models so after my touch ups, it looks ok--You should know that I am a stickler for detail and accuracy so I may be more critical than others. BUT it was an overall sloppy job--decals cut sloppy where they meet the opening door, too much clearcoat, etc.

You consider I paid 35 bucks a car plus 7 bucks shipping ($77 Total), now even if I send the car back, I know he won't reimburse me for the shipping so it would end up that I would have one car that cost me $49 dollars..... He won't respond to my emails so I do have a good mind to contact PayPal, but not sure what good that will do in the end

Last custom I buy for a while--And I usually NEVER buy customs, but it was from my City and I hadn't seen one before. The pix on the website were awesome, but not once you get the car.

Like I said, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt as he claims to be a police officer that works overnights, but when I inquired about wanting to purchase the car, he emailed me back in 20 minutes!

I'm a firm believer of what goes around comes around.

John, send me an email and maybe I can help you. Rich
rich@roadblockers.net

Like John, I rarely buy customs because I spend so much just keeping up with regular US and international police releases, but 35 bucks for a custom car in 1:43rd seems pretty high. I wish Gearbox had never made their toy-like opening doors, hood, trunk, etc. Would have lowered the price of the models, been easier to customize and more realistic because no gaps, loose parts, etc. The steerable wheels, which resulted in low-hanging undercarriage, wouldn't be missed either. If I had doors on a car like those John described, I think I'd just super-glue them shut rather than try to get them to fit tighter - unless you're going to play with the car.

Well, I did get a response and he offered to refund my $$ for the price of the car........

Unfortunately, I'll still get caught with shipping fees. So in the end, paid way too much for the 1 car that I keep that is inaccurate.



Oh well....at least it's something......

John A, one more option for the door, and the simplist. Wrap door hanger shaft with clear tape, the packing type. This may be the easiest fix, and hold the door more securely.

And I can agree partially with Dick. Sometimes I wish these models had non opening doors, hoods, and trunks. But that feature also makes some paint schemes easier to do. Masking a FHP, and some of the local multi colored units is a pain, and a removable part is a God send. Not all coip cars are white.