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Hello Folks, While most of my building/racing over the last 10+ years has been with "hardbody" cars, I still Love the "clear" body cars, as these were the ones I built the most during the 60's/70's. While the 1/24 commercial cars eventually morphed into "speed at all cost wedges", (most not at all realistic, nor well painted) the 1/32 club scene generally required some decently turned out scale (ish) bodies.
There were some really great manufacturers (most notably Lancer) turning out literally hundreds of different models, all well detailed and well proportioned. Lancer made bodies in HO, 1/32, and 1/24 scale, and when well painted/detailed they could be made to look gorgeous. More recently, Truescale did some repops of some of the nicer molds from days gone by, and these can also be made to look equally as wonderful. On the other side, there were some truly horrific efforts by a number of manufacturers and these no doubt did not help the "clear" body reputation.

Done well, they can look great, and they sure help the car to handle well... ;)

Below are a couple of "clear" 1/32 cars that I have done...

Cheers
Chris Walker

First up is a Watson roadster, (Jim Rathman livery) done by Ej's hobbies (I have posted this somewhere here before).....it was a complete kit including body/chassis/motor, etc. etc., but I did build a new chassis, and changed the wheels/inserts.



Next is a Lola T163 (Chuck Parson's Simoniz CanAm car) from Truescale....decals from Pattos'



And last a March 717, also from Truescale.......







And a chassis shot of the March, ( I didn't have the inserts in at this stage).....a similar chassis sits under the Lola

What an outstanding modeling effort here as usual.

Thanks for sharing these.

I've seen your pix back when PB was easy to access. I even emailed you one time about the Smokey Watson. I was sure it was a hardbody built by the Spanish guy (Ostero) that sells the $200 cars. I was amazed that it was a vac form body and that it was the EJ kit, as I had a few of those kits and couldn't imagine building a car that nice with that vac body. You do some incredible builds. I would still like to see some full pictures of your track!!1

I have got some 30 thou bodies from Scott Mcleoud and they are pretty easy to make look nice. Nice and stiff, like a hard body.

Beautiful cars, Chris, you have reminded me why I like forums such as this.

I look for conversation, information and inspiration. The latter being something you supply in huge amounts.

Thank you for every picture because they are worth a .....................words.

I have a few of these EJ kits, but the ones I have don't "curl under" in the back like yours. Did you put some extra work to make your look as it does?
Whatever you did, it certainly makes it look better. :auto-checkeredflag:

Yeah....WOW!! I'd love clear bodies too if I had those!!! Absolutely terrific work. Those are beautiful. Hmmm, I may have to give some of those bodies a try. That may motivate me to try and scratch build a brass chassis for the first time to fit under a clear body.

:text-thankyouyellow: for sharing!

Well, either artistry or slot poetry!

Chris, you are just an incredible craftsman. Chassis, bodies, anything: anybody that can make a vac formed body look this good borders on being a magician.

Well done: a treat to see.

Alwyn

I love these vintage clear body cars. I feel like this is the "real" slot car. Born of the commercial era, straight from the heyday of slot car racing but before the era of 'thingies' - this is just what I think of when I think 'slot car'.

Nice paint and decals, hogging out the air openings and scoops, and adding realistic drivers, stacks, and details have these inexpensive lightweights looking the part of scale racer.



This is no show winner but is a Lancer body I made up a long time ago:

FOUR WHEEL DRIVE INDY TURBINE CAR -


I built this 25 years ago, and I used that thin black tape which was so popularly used on clear bodies; used back in the 'golden era' to delineate door openings and panel fitment - it is a little horsey but it fits in with the style of the build.




A CLOCKWORK ORANGE -



The clear body approach pretty much dictates some scratch built chassis work - this one has a central shaft which drives both axles and then all four wheels. All metal gears make for an unusual turbine sound and there is a ton of traction in the corners. Scratch building allows for creations of whatever you can think up - which is especially satisfying when at the end you have a one-of-a-kind toy.




INDY TURBINE CAR TAKES TO THE TRACK -



Not a show car, and I held back on detailing as I wanted to run it and race it. I probably should revisit it with an eye to a more 'concours' type build. Maybe one of these days . . .

In any case, I really appreciate your posts - that is the kind of special content that makes HRW just a great place and resource to visit again and again. Thanks for taking the time and effort presenting great stuff for us to check out and enjoy.

Thanks again -

I'm going to order 4 of the Shadow DN4A 30 thousandths plasticard bodies - one to practice on, 2 to build as replicas. and one to hold onto. Pattos has decals for the #101 car I posted, and for the matching #102 car. I hope I can mount them on some existing RTR Can-Am chassis to keep the series competitive with each other.

I haven't worked with a lexan body in over 30 years when I raced at commercial track and we used 1/32 scale Parma bodies of dirt modifieds. That means I'll be using this thread again to ask for tips.

Slothead

Just a heads-up.....Bruce used to used PETG instead of lexan so make sure of the material.

One reason is the paints....if you are painting lexan, you want to use lexan paint to ensure it bites and doesn't flake off with use.

PETG is a different ball of.....errrrr.....polymer as it were.

I hadn't thought about paint yet. In recent times I've only painted a few plastic model bodies and RMS resin bodies. For those I've used Krylon Fusion for plastic or Rust-oleum for plastic in the big cans sold at Walmart or Home Depot. In central Maine it's 90 miles to the nearest hobby shop.

Will these work with PETG (plasticard) or what type of paint should I get? Thankfully for my (lack) of modeling skills, these Shadow cars are completely black with minimal decals.

FYI - Electric Dreams has a Proto Slot 1973 Shadow DN2 painted body kit for only $139.95.

Slothead.

I've not worked with the plasticard material, but I do have some experience with clear PETG bodies. I've always painted them using acrylic paints because most solvent-based paints make PETG brittle & easily broken, even in minor crash. I don't know the formulation of the Fusion or the Rustoleum you mention. It might work, but first I would try them on some body scraps (cutoffs).