Got an idea

I have seen this on real cars...but you guys have any ideas on how to make a clear hood. Haven't seen this done yet and thought it would be unique. Please post any ideas, both pros and cons, thanks guys. I want to put a clear hood on my Revell Civic SI.

clear resin

I have never heard of clear resin, can I just lay it over the original hood to get the design right?

clear styrene rested on the original hood then heated so that it will go to the rite shape...should work

the easy way would be to make a mold of the original hood
then use some kinda clear resin

some fujimi models come with clear hoods. :smile:

if u want it clear hood u could always put no hood on:biggrin:

Were can I get clear styrene, I have never seen it before. And were can I get clear resin to put in the mold. I guess I could heat the styrene around the hood for the mold, then pour in the clear resin? How does that sound?

that might not work very well, you are better off using some sort of clay.

Originally posted by jeffsgotaciv98
Were can I get clear styrene, I have never seen it before. And were can I get clear resin to put in the mold. I guess I could heat the styrene around the hood for the mold, then pour in the clear resin? How does that sound?


Any way you look at it, it probably won't be easy.... making a mold and casting in clear resin isn't exactly the easiest thing to do.... and I'd be leery of heating up a piece of styrene to form the hood, because you can just as easily warp the original hood as shape the new one....

If the hood is relatively flat, just make a new hood out of clear styrene. It's available in sheets at your LHS (made by Evergreen plastics) in a number of sizes. I just bought a pack of 0.015" clear and 0.010" plain (this stuff rocks!!!!) last night. The 10 thou stuff is vital if you want to customize things (you can cut it with scissors, it's so thin...)

Ya, I have used Styrene before, but never seen clear before. You probably have to special order it from the hobby store or something. So you think heating the styrene will warp the hood, probably so. What about the Clay idea, how do you think I could go about doing it with clay?

Some of you guys are unlucky. :D

I just found clear styrene at an arts and crafts store, not even specifically for models. Sure they have models but very little and so ugly that I've never bought a model from them B4.

I've bought the clear styrene, it's thin.
The styrene was made by Plastistruct.
I think they're stryrene was meant for model trains.
A lot of they're sheats can be used as dioramas, because some of the sheets imitate roads, bricks ect.

I don't think that clear styrene will work though.

I think clear resin would be good but never heard of it or seen it nor never used it. :icon16:

But I don't think it would be easy or cheap.
:smile:

Thanks for the info everyone, keep it coming. I think I will try and find some of the clear styrene and mess around with it and see if I cant come up with anything. I myself have never heard of the clear resin either, and have no idea where to buy it. I dont even know were to start looking for clear styrene either, hahahhhaha

Come on guys, there has to be some more ideas or info...lets hear them. Thanks for your imput

There's no cheap and easy method, nor any simple method. Good quality clear casting resin costs a small fortune. The best stuff comes from the Netherlands. You'd have to order a lot, and then you'd have to make a good, clean mold of the original hood. You're talking in the hundreds of dollars when it's all said and done.

You could make a mold of the hood in such a way that you cast a solid resin hood with the same basic "topside" detail as the kit hood. This resin would hold up better under heat than the kit hood. They you'd want to cut some clear butyrate material, probably .040" thick, and vacuum form it over the solid hood. It would take on the shape of the hood, and be clear. Not the easiest method, but the only one that will truly look good w/o getting a kit that already has a clear hood. You might be able to get away w/using the kit hood as the mold base, but you'll have to set it up in such a way that it does not flex when the vacuum is pulled.

You can look for the sheets of clear canopy film in hobby shops, made for heating over a candle and then pulling over a small part to take on that shape. However, a hood will be nearly impossible to do that way, too much surface area.

Some of the Tamiya kits that have engines have clear hoods included, like the R32 Skyline and the Nissan 300ZX etc.

You can use clear plastic on the back of toy packaging.

Just go to your hobby shop and ask about it im sure they have some, i just bought 2 sheets yesterday from my hobby shop!

the Tamiyia 300ZX comes with a clear hood, maybe you can melt it down and bend it into the shape of the civic hood..:bloated:

OK, just had a crazy idea...

take your existing hood, and coat it with Vaseline. Then using a plaster of some sort, make a mold of the top side of the hood. Let that solidly dry and trim away excess around the edges.

then, do the same for the underside of the hood.

Finally, lay a piece of clear styrene over one side of the hood mold, and heat it right up with a hot air gun. once it is malleable, take the other half of the hood mold and press it. Leave it pressed while the whole thing cools.

There's a lot of things that could go wrong with this, but I'd give it a shot. You've got nothing to lose but a few bucks in styrene sheets.

You'll probably have to polish the hood this way, and it may discolour as well. Plus, the "weight" of styrene across the hood may vary.

Originally posted by rcmaxx
some fujimi models come with clear hoods. :smile:

my tamiya 300zx came with only a clear hood, i thought that was weird

opps, missed the post about it already.

mnnn. what im thikin is getting a clear peace of plastic.then trace and cut from the original hood.then heat it up a little bit,then bend the plastic like the original one:biggrin: will that work guys:bigthumb:

Spend $800 on a aftermarket clear hood, go buy $4500 shrink ray, set shrink ray to 1/24, zap aftermarket clear hood, all done. :bloated: