Clear body kits

[Greg Myers]

I've been hording clear body kits. I don't have the GTO funny car or the bigger 1/16th scale Charger But I do have all the "Ghost" funny cars from Polar Lights and a bunch of ESCI sports car kits along with a few others through the years, i.e. The IMC Ford J car, a Honda F-1 car and a #3 NASCAR. I was just wondering if I've missed any. Also what type of builds do any of you do with these? I ran across an article of the web talking about various builds,but along the way I've lost it.

Edited October 3, 2010 by Greg Myers

[Greg Myers]

"Also what type of builds do any of you do with these?" Obviously build them with the clear body showing your detail work, but maybe doing half clear and half painted, or maybe all painted with just a few sections left clear?

[charlzrocks]

I am currently doing the Ghost Charger (have the Ghost Cuda too) and am building it as out of the box stock. The only thing that I MIGHT do is to give the body a Tri Tone Tint (more on that later). I have already dunked the body in a tank of Future to protect it and cover any minor scratches. As far as painting the body at all, it kinda negates the reason for a clear body, 'eh? But I can see the reason to making it partially painted, as in a cutaway diagram of the car would be on paper. Other than that..who knows??

[The Creative Explorer]

Tamiya had a line with 'full-view' models. Like the Ferrari F50, a F1 racer and a Toyota le-mans type car.

[FASTBACK340]

.....I do have all the "Ghost" funny cars from Polar Lights ....... I was just wondering if I've missed any.

Do you have the red tinted Polar Lights Ghost kits?

From what I heard, these are very rare. They also did the Charger in tinted red, but I only have the `Cuda.

[charlzrocks]

They also had them tinted in Blue as well. Both were a very limited run and are pretty rare as you said.

Also in 2008 iHobby Expo had an exclusive run of 500 AMT DIGGER CUDA's in "Ghost Blue" as well. There is one of these on the bay for $45.

Edited October 3, 2010 by charlzrocks

[Mark]

I don't remember any GTO funny car, but there was a David Pearson NASCAR '71 GTO. The body in that kit was molded in clear to show how incorrect the chassis was (rear axle had leaf springs, needed to be coils on a GM intermediate). MPC also made George Montgomery's '69 Mustang gasser (the Mr. Gasket car). I've got a Gunze Sangyo High-Tech Isetta kit with a clear body. Gunze didn't mold it that way to show the detail, though. The builder is supposed to paint the body leaving the molded-in glass areas clear. One other clear-body kit, probably the easiest to find one out there, is the AMT Don Garlits Wynn's Jammer. The Stevens International generic reissue does not have the body molded in clear, but all of the Garlits issues (of which there were several) do have a clear body and oil pan.

[Junkman]

Revell released its range of 1962 Mopar kits in clear with glitter mixed into the plastic. The idea whas to paint the inside of the body and thus achieve a glitter paint job.

[FASTBACK340]

They also had them tinted in Blue as well. Both were a very limited run and are pretty rare as you said.

Also in 2008 iHobby Expo had an exclusive run of 500 AMT DIGGER CUDA's in "Ghost Blue" as well. There is one of these on the bay for $45.

I have the Hobby Expo Digger `Cuda in blue tinted plastic, but PL did a Ghost `Cuda in Blue too?!?!?!?! I never see the Red ones listed ANYWHERE.... now I have to search for a BLUE one TOO!?!?!?!

<Grrrr!> Thanks for giving me a new part-time job if this is true!

[highway]

....and a #3 NASCAR.

Wow, Greg, I was surprised to see you mentioned the Dale Earnhardt clear kit! I'm a diehard Earnhardt fan and I never even knew of it until just a couple of years ago when I found a factory sealed (and still is!) kit at a model show and brought it home. I'm not sure if this is completely true or not, but I think based on the earlier pic of the "Ghost" Cuda, the Earnhardt kit is unique among these clear kits as well. The box art for the Earhardt kit shows that the entire kit is made of clear plastic except for the tires.

Just as an F.Y.I., the car is Earnhardt's 1998 Daytona 500 winning car.

[Greg Myers]

From a seller on e-bay:

"How are you doing? Thanks for asking about my listing. The kit you referenced from my store is the clear plastic Cuda body. I actually have both this later clear body version and the earlier original white plastic kit body version of the Mazmanian Cuda in my store (Items: 190437280053, and 190437281128). You mentioned ?tinted? body in your note. I am not sure what you meant so I will tell you a little story about Polar Lights. When they produced kits of the Richard Petty and Buddy Baker NASCAR Dodge Chargers, as a marketing tactic they molded a limited number of these kits in Petty Blue Plastic and red plastic for the Baker kit. They then put one of these colored plastic kits into a case of 12 kits I guess to induce dealers to order these kits by the whole case to get a colored plastic parts kit. The bottom of the kit boxes had a little window in them so you could quickly see the color of the plastic parts inside the box. Those colored plastic kits are now very hard to find. I do not think that they did this for the original Funny Car kit Series. I could be wrong about this but I believe that all the kits in that series were molded in white plastic. The clear body Mazmanian Cuda was released a year or so later along with one of the Dodge Charger funny cars, again as a marketing tactic. I have never seen these kits with colored plastic parts, only white plastic. Thanks for asking! Mike (modelcarkits)"

[Greg Myers]

Wow, Greg, I was surprised to see you mentioned the Dale Earnhardt clear kit! I'm a diehard Earnhardt fan and I never even knew of it until just a couple of years ago when I found a factory sealed (and still is!) kit at a model show and brought it home. I'm not sure if this is completely true or not, but I think based on the earlier pic of the "Ghost" Cuda, the Earnhardt kit is unique among these clear kits as well. The box art for the Earhardt kit shows that the entire kit is made of clear plastic except for the tires.

Just as an F.Y.I., the car is Earnhardt's 1998 Daytona 500 winning car.

There are a few on E-Bay as we speak at reasonable prices.

[Greg Myers]

"The box art for the Earhardt kit shows that the entire kit is made of clear plastic except for the tires."

That is true,and the tires are really nice tampo yellow Goodyears with a raised number,?, not being familiar with these NASCAR things.

[highway]

"The box art for the Earhardt kit shows that the entire kit is made of clear plastic except for the tires."

That is true,and the tires are really nice tampo yellow Goodyears with a raised number,?, not being familiar with these NASCAR things.

I didn't know they actually tampo printed those tires, it would be nice if they did that with all the NASCAR kits!

The raised number is supposed to be the tires code, since Goodyear has a different tire for each track. Now, as for what track the code actually stands for, I have no idea.

Edited October 3, 2010 by highway

[Greg Myers]

MR> Gasket Gasser on E-Bay

[Greg Myers]

Hasegawa also did a release of their Honda RA272 F1 model in a clear version.

Got that one after it sat on the LHS shelf for more than three years, marked half price.Then had to argue with cashier and she called the owner at home. Still, $49.00. Funny thing, they had two new ones on the shelf at the full $100 price.

Edited October 4, 2010 by Greg Myers

[charlzrocks]

MR> Gasket Gasser on E-Bay

Nice kit but $349.99 obo is kinda nuts considering that the clear plastic may have gotten yellowed or milky by now, ya never know. But then if you are never gonna build it, why worry much less why bother at all?

[Greg Myers]

I have the Hobby Expo Digger `Cuda in blue tinted plastic, but PL did a Ghost `Cuda in Blue too?!?!?!?! I never see the Red ones listed ANYWHERE.... now I have to search for a BLUE one TOO!?!?!?!

<Grrrr!> Thanks for giving me a new part-time job if this is true!

Hold on, I believe the blue one they are referring to isn't a Charger funny car but a Richard Petty NASCAR and the trick was there were a few in Petty Blue insted of the normal white.I have some of these, they are not clear or transparent.

[Modelmartin]

MPC also did the 67-8 Cougar "Cougar Country" funny car in clear. I just got a painted one! Hopefully it will strip and polish well. Not quite what you asked for but MPC in the 60s did a lot of clear hoods on their annual kits.

[Greg Myers]

Aaaah clear hoods and the ubiquitous AMT '37 Chevy. Then there was the AMT '53 Stude with the double blower sticking out of the clear hood.

[charlzrocks]

Aaaah clear hoods and the ubiquitous AMT '37 Chevy. Then there was the AMT '53 Stude with the double blower sticking out of the clear hood.

I built my "Studebaker stock and still have the clear hood (for the double blower engine) if ya want it

[Greg Myers]

Does anyone have a date on the reissue of the MPC 1/16th clear body Charger? How many kits can you think of that have had clear bodies? Count Chuckula and I were wondering.Also, any other kits besides this DE kit that is all clear?

Edited February 16, 2011 by Greg Myers

[Draggon]

The recent "ghost" version of the digger 'Cuda is the first that comes to mind. I think there is an all clear red funny car, maybe Polar Lights. Or do you mean clear-clear, not colored-clear? That sounds stupid, but I think you get the idea.

[mikethepoormodeler]

I remember from the late '60's/early '70's there was a Ford "J" car with a clear body and I believe there was a Mustang sportroof drag car with a clear body. I remember spraying the body with a translucent blue paint that tinted the body but didn't hide any of the detail. It looked pretty cool. HTH.

[slantasaurus]

A few more clear body kits: AMT Don Garlits F/E dragster, Polar Lights Charger and Barracuda Funny Cars, (they might have done the Mustang too....not sure), MPC 72 Nascar Pontiac GTO.

I wouldn't expect the 1/16 Petty Charger reissue until at least this time next year. The 1/16 Dukes kit is listed on their website as a Feb 2011 release and it's not out yet.