clear coating clear view?

Hi folks,

I already mentioned that I am building a couple of what will be semi clear view F1 cars.

I was wondering what your thoughts or experiences are concerning clear coat. IE after painting half of the body and decalling the entire car, is it safe to use Tamiya clear coat? Will this be OK on the clear sections or will I have any problems?

This is a new area for me and any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Richie

I think it would work out great. I put future over my model's windows, cover them and let it dry, they're protected, and they're crystal clear! good luck!

In general, it shouldn't be a problem. Tamiya clear acrylic will give you no trouble, and even the laquer SHOULDN'T craze unprimed clear plastic- although I've never tried it.

However- I would avoid spraying clear over clear parts when possible. If the clear part in question will have no portion painted, clear coating it will yield no advantage, and only leave opportunity for imperfect finishes, dust contamination and the like. There are plenty of good polishing agents which will leave the clear pastic with a blazing shine, with no overcoat. Tamiya compound and wax, and Novus plastic polish come immediately to mind. Either would be very useful in the removal of scratches from sanding out push pin marks and mold seams.

Between the two, I would strongly recommend Tamiya clear acrylic over Future. I've used Future extensively, and it can be very good stuff for dipping clear parts in for protecting them, but I've had very mixed results spraying it on as a clear coat on car bodies and then polishing it out afterwards. If applied in depth, it frequently will dry unevenly, and sometimes craze itself. I've found the Tamiya stuff to work very well in this application- enough so to justify the much, MUCH higher cost per ounce.

OK, then again, if it were a just a matter of DIPPING the clear body parts into it (if you pour it into a dust free container suitable for dipping body parts into), then I might be tempted to try Future- but no longer try to spray it on for such an application.

To what I know, clear coat should never be sprayed on clear parts. Or else it will fogged.